James Mattis
Supreme Allied Commander of Transformation (2007-09) & Commander of the United States Joint Forces Command (2007-10). Commander of United States Central Command (2010-13). Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution (2014-16). United States Secretary of Defense (since 2017).

Dear Mr President:
I have been privileged to serve as our country’s 26th Secretary of Defense which has allowed me to serve alongside our men and women of the Department in defense of our citizens and our ideals.
I am proud of the progress that has been made over the past two years on some of the key goals articulated in our National Defense Strategy: putting the Department on a more sound budgetary footing, improving readiness and lethality in our forces, and reforming the Department’s (...)

STEPHEN HADLEY: Good evening, everyone. Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for being with us.
What we thought we would do is that the secretary and I will have a conversation on some of the issues of the day. We’ll probably go about 35 minutes or so, and then probably the last 20 minutes or so, we’ll have questions from the audience. The way we’d like to do that is there are three-by-five cards in the audience; please write your questions on those cards — we’ll also take some from the media — (...)
Remarks by James Mattis at International Institute for Strategic Studies Manama Dialogue
by
James Mattis

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JAMES N. MATTIS: Thank you, Dr. Chipman, and Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen. It’s truly a pleasure to be back here at the Manama Dialogue. A special thank you for the foreign minister of Bahrain for its traditional and well-known warm hospitality to borrow the words of a former U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William Crowe, Bahrain has and I quote here, “pound-for-pound.” So, thank you very much to Bahrain (...)

It’s good to be back and I’m grateful to serve alongside you as Secretary of Defense.
Together with the Intelligence Community we are the sentinels and guardians of our nation. We need only look to you, the uniformed and civilian members of the Department and your families, to see the fundamental unity of our country. You represent an America committed to the common good; an America that is never complacent about defending its freedoms; and an America that remains a steady beacon of hope for (...)