The Wilson Center — Past Speakers

Jane Harman is an internationally recognized authority on U.S. and global security issues, foreign relations, and lawmaking. Among her many achievements, Harman is a Distinguished Fellow and President Emerita of the Wilson Center, one of the world’s most highly regarded think tanks.

Harman recently completed a decade as its first female President & CEO. Congresswoman Harman has long been a national expert at the nexus of security and public policy issues, and has received numerous awards for her distinguished service, including the Defense Department Medal for Distinguished Service, the CIA Agency Seal Medal, the CIA Director’s Award, and the Director of National Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Medal.

She began her political career as the staff director for Senator John Tunney, before joining the Carter White House as special counsel to the Department of Defense.

In 1992, she was elected to represent the 36th district of California, one of the record-breaking 37 women to be elected to Congress that year - subsequently labeled the “Year of the Woman”.

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She went on to become a nine-term member of Congress who served decades on all the major security committees in the House of Representatives: six years on Armed Services, eight years on Intelligence, and eight on Homeland Security.

During her time in Congress, Harman also earned a reputation as a supporter of a diverse set of causes, from promoting information sharing across the federal government in the interest of national security, the creation of a Cabinet-level homeland security department, to a partial ban on semi-automatic weapons.

[Harman watches President Obama sign the Reducing Over-Classification Act, 2010]

Drawing upon a career that included service as President Carter’s Secretary of the Cabinet and hundreds of diplomatic missions abroad, Harman holds posts on nearly a dozen governmental and non-governmental advisory boards and commissions.

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Harman co-chairs the Homeland Security Experts Group with former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. She serves on the board of Iridium Communication Inc, a NASDAQ traded satellite communications company, and is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, the Advisory Board of the Munich Security Conference, the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission, the Presidential Debates Commission and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She is a member of the Defense Policy Board, the State Department Foreign Policy Board, and the Homeland Security Advisory Committee. Harman is a Trustee of the Aspen Institute and an Honorary Trustee at the University of Southern California.

Her upcoming book, Insanity Defense: Why Our Failure to Confront Hard National Security Problems Makes Us Less Safe, offers an insider's account of America's ineffectual approach to some of the hardest defense and intelligence issues in the three decades since the Cold War ended.

Originally from Los Angeles, she is a product of California public school, as well as a graduate of Smith College and Harvard Law School.

[Jane Harman speaking at Smith College’s Commencement ceremony in 2006]

Harman has participated in several events at The Common Good, including Combating Misinformation with Clint Watts and Cong. Jane Harman, and the “World View: Security Challenges & Opportunities” panel alongside Ambassadors Bill Burns and Nicholas Burns, moderated by Financial Times’ Edward Luce, at The Common Good Forum & American Spirit Awards, 2019 and in the National Security Threats event alongside Michael Chertoff.

[L-R, Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Ambassador Bill Burns (now CIA Director), Cong. Jane Harman, FT’s Ed Luce at The Common Good Forum]]

Congresswoman Harman currently serves as a member of The Common Good Honorary Advisory Board.