Publication

This paper is a transcript of a speech by former Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), General Michael V Hayden, in which he sets out three factors that explain why the world is affected by instability today. These are 1) the threat posed by non-state actors; 2) the impermanence of aspects of the international system which are widely believed to be permanent, particularly the decline of the Westphalian system and the disintegration of countries established by the Treaty of Versailles; and 3) the perilous trajectory of US-China relations.