REMEMBERING BRENT SCOWCROFT

BY ABRAHAM LOWENTHAL

Brent Scowcroft, who recently passed away at age 95, was a consummate public servant: as an Air Force officer, an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy, a Pentagon official, Deputy National Security Advisor, and National Security Advisor to President George H.W. Bush. He was a thoughtful, careful, even-keeled, and highly professional individual. His particular skill, as he put it, was not so much to come up with new ideas as to pick good ideas over bad ones with almost unerring consistency.

General Scowcroft became a founding member of the Pacific Council on International Policy from the very start in 1995. He was one of the first members to contribute financially at that time, and he continued to do so annually for many years. He participated in Pacific Council meetings from time to time when he was on the West Coast as a Qualcomm board member. At one such meeting, during the administration of George W. Bush, General Scowcroft made an incisive comment that I have thought of often ever since.

“We have all along had liberals and conservatives in the United States, and there have also always been ‘hawks’ and ‘doves,’ differing about when to use military force. What happened in the early 21st century was unusual because the liberals had become hawks and the conservatives had become doves.” Liberal hawks, he said, “are more dangerous than conservative ones.” How true.

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Abraham Lowenthal is president emeritus of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.