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Aspen gala offers cadets access to political pantheon

  • Published
  • By David Edwards
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo. --  Political science students generally can only fantasize about spending face time with a collection of all-time greats in the field. But for three cadets and an Academy professor, all it took to realize that dream was a weekend trip to Aspen.

A special event at the Aspen Institute on Saturday honored retired Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, co-chairman of the Aspen Strategy Group and national security adviser to former presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush.

The star-studded cast assembled there might have made the mountain berg feel like Foggy Bottom and the Oval Office. Dr. Schuyler Foerster, the Academy's Brent Scowcroft professor for national security studies, and Cadets 1st Class Nathan Betcher, Zachary Crippen and Peter Lind were there to soak it all in.

The Aspen Institute event featured Scowcroft in conversation with Dr. Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser to former President George W. Bush, Harvard University professor Joseph Nye and former State Department official Nicholas Burns.

"They met people whom they had only read about," Foerster said. "They heard really prominent people talking about the importance of General Scowcroft's legacy. They can see that all this stuff about integrity and excellence and critical thinking really matters to our nation. And they can go meet people who did it, and they can know they can do it, too."

Brig. Gen. Dana Born, the Academy's dean of the faculty, invited Foerster to take three cadet representatives to the gathering, which included a special dinner to pay tribute to Scowcroft. All three cadets are top students in political science and participants in the Academy Scholars Program. Crippen is also the Cadet Wing vice commander; Betcher serves on the Cadet Wing staff, and Lind serves on Cadet Group 2 staff.

Lind said the experience helped him focus on the bigger picture for future education and career choices and that the event increased his appreciation for the Academy, its professors and graduates as well as the effect past and present officers can have on international security and trade. He added that meeting Scowcroft was the crowning moment of his time in Aspen.

Scowcroft's military career included service in the mid-1960s as head of the Academy's Department of Political Science. Foerster is the Academy's first Brent Scowcroft Professor for National Security Studies, a post established in 2009 to commemorate the general's extensive legacy of military and government service.

The 90-minute conversation with Scowcroft covered a wide range of national security issues, from the end of the Cold War and Operation Desert Storm to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Participants also delved into current challenges in Asia and the Middle East and the global economic crisis.

"On stage were four (people) who have been at the forefront of foreign affairs for the last three decades," Crippen said. "The emphasis of the evening was not on what they had to say, but on who they were. I saw in front of me not four scholars, but four statesmen, people who have dedicated their professional lives to bettering this great country."

In honoring Scowcroft, panelists and audience members uniformly applauded the legacy of integrity, nonpartisanship, and strategic acumen that were critical in shaping effective policy during his time in government.

Scowcroft reflected on his own career of public service, emphasizing how uplifting it was to be part of something much bigger than oneself.

"Government is only as good as the people who run it," he said.

Following the event, cadets got to speak with Scowcroft, who encouraged them to learn "how to think," not "what to think."