On Wednesday, Jan. 29, Ashland University’s Ashbrook scholar program, held their first “Major Issue Lecture Series Luncheon” of the new spring semester. The guest speaker for this event was Dr. Rebeccah Heinrichs.
Heinrichs is a national security analyst and an advisor to U.S. policymakers across the government. She is also a part of the Hudson Institute and a Fox News commentator as well as an alumni of the Ashbrook program.
The main issue that Heinrichs talked about was about the foreign policy challenges facing the second Trump administration. She discussed how other countries are threatening to take down the United States and how we are in a new cold war.
“The United States cannot possibly win this new cold war led by the communist Chinese party, in collaboration with the Russian federation, the North Korean regime, and the Iranian regime without allies,” said Heinrichs. “They cannot be a burden to the United States, they must do their part to collaborate with the United States to persevere our peace and security and to deter our shared adversaries.”
Not only discussing a new cold war involving the United States, but she also talked about how two countries are a nuclear threat to our country.
“As Donald Trump steps in the white house, in the next couple of years we will face two nuclear peers,” said Heinrichs. “They have shared interests in undermining and harming the United States.”
These two countries she explained that are a major threat to the United States, are China and Russia.
After explaining the threats that the United States that she believes are facing, she then went on how the U.S. can defend themselves from these potential attacks.
“We must update our missile defenses, Ronald Reagan was right,” Heinrichs said. “[He was right] about the need for the United States to invest in advance in technology not just for offensive weapons…. but having a defensive architecture to keep Americans safe.”
She explained a way the Trump administration is working through this, is by using an “iron dome system,” Which is a way for a country to track incoming missiles, then by launching missiles of their own with calculating where the attack is most likely to go and eliminating them before they hit the populated area.
Later in her speech, she talked about the major threat the country of China is to the United States of America.
“[Wang Huning] is the fourth most powerful man in China… he is the mentor and ideological influencer to Xi Jinping,” explained Heinrichs. “Helping him understand how to take over his own country and how to defeat the United States of America.”
She then went on saying that China is studying us and that everything China is doing, has a reason behind it.
She ended her lecture to the Ashbrook students and faculty by calling for action. She wants students to read the “great books of the west,” for this reason:
“It is necessary condition to winning the cold war with adversaries that do seek to undo us, they want a world in which China is the leading global power, economically [and with] military.” Heinrichs said. “And that the world reflects its interest and systems of government can do so to the Chinese communist party.”
The next major issue lecture for the Ashbrook program will be held Thursday, Feb. 27 at noon titled, “Unleashing American Enterprise.” With guest speakers Angela Philips, Frank Sullivan, and Robert Sprague.
