A Fireside Chat with Sec. Robert Gates

Former United States Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates (2006-2011) will be in conversation with Dole Institute Visiting Fellow Jerry Seib for the opening of the 2025 KU Security Conference, which is aimed at understanding China’s long-term geopolitical objectives and how they affect U.S. national security.

More information about the KU Security Conference can be found on the ICCAE website.

This program is presented in partnership with the University of Kansas National Defense Initiatives, the Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence, and the Command and General Staff College Foundation, Inc.

Jerry Seib has been a journalist with The Wall Street Journal for almost 45 years. He served as the Journal’s Executive Washington Editor and wrote the weekly “Capital Journal” column for 29 years. He also reported from the Middle East for the Journal in the mid-1980s, covered the White House, has moderated three presidential debates, and interviewed every president since Ronald Reagan.

Robert M. Gates served as the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Defense (2006-2011). Dr. Gates served eight U.S. presidents across both parties and has the distinction of being the only secretary of defense in U.S. history to be asked to remain in office by a newly elected president. On Gates’s last day in office President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor.

Prior to becoming Secretary of Defense in 2006, Gates served as president of Texas A&M University, one of the nation’s largest universities.

Gates served in the CIA for nearly 27 years, culminating his service as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 to 1993. He is the only career officer in CIA’s history to rise from entry-level employee to director. He spent nearly nine years on the National Security Council at the White House, serving four administrations across both parties.

Gates has been awarded the National Security Medal, the Presidential Citizens Medal, has three times received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and has three times received CIA’s highest award, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.

Gates is a principal at the consulting firm Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel, LLC, alongside former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and Executive Director of the Aspen Strategy Group Anja Manuel. Additionally, he is Chancellor of William & Mary, his alma mater. He has served on various public boards to include Starbucks, Fidelity Funds, the NCAA, the American Council on Education, and the Boy Scouts of America. Gates has authored four books, covering his experiences at CIA and at the Pentagon, leadership, and U.S. nonmilitary instruments of power.