Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at B.U.

Questrum School of Business that asks the thorny questions necessary for this moment.

Follow Is Business Broken and stay tuned for new episodes this fall.

WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

This is on point. I'm Magna Chakrabardi.

From 2021 to 2025, Jake Sullivan served as President Joe Biden's U.S. National Security Advisor.

He'd previously served in the Obama administration, both in the White House and as Deputy

Chief of Staff to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

As Biden's national security advisor, Sullivan influenced U.S. response to some of the most

globally significant conflicts in recent memory, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.

Sullivan recently joined me on stage at WBOR's City Space Events venue before a live audience.

We talked about a range of national security issues, including failings in the Biden administration.

And here's how that conversation began. I actually wanted to start tonight setting the table a little bit, because I found that

recently at On Point, we spent a lot of time just defining terms because they mean so many

different things to people these days. So what would you say are the most critical pillars that hold up

what we consider U.S. national security?

I think when most people think of national security, they think of hard security issues,

nuclear weapons, terrorism, great power conflict.

But really at the end of the day, national security is what it takes to make people in the United States of America

to make their lives better, safer, and easier. Can they go to sleep at night secure? Do they have the opportunity

to participate in an economy that supplies jobs and allows them to access the opportunity

they want? Can they live on a planet that isn't burning? And in this regard, I think the

...