In this week’s episode of Building the Base, Hondo and Lauren join Secretary Leon Panetta, founder of the Panetta Institute and former CIA director and Secretary of Defense, to discuss the future of the defense industrial network.

Secretary Panetta emphasizes the necessity of a strong defense industrial base to ensure we are the strongest global military power. He argues that the US must recognize the threat that cyberspace, as the battlefield of the present and future, constitutes. To that end, the US must balance the economy using fiscal policy and federal reserve actions to ensure it has the funds to support the future industrial base.

Hondo, Lauren, and Secretary Panetta go on to discuss a variety of topics, including:

• Cyberthreats
• Modern times & dangerous flashpoints
• Balanced economic approach to DIB
• The Panetta Institute
• Global democratic alliance