Unpacking Recent U.S.-Korea Deals | The Capital Cable #125

The U.S. and Korea recently released the Joint Fact Sheet on President Donald J. Trump’s Meeting with President Lee Jae Myung and the Joint Communique of the 57th Security Consultative Meeting, two important documents outlining priorities and steps to modernize the 72-year-old alliance. 

Joining Mark Lippert and Victor Cha to discuss this and more are Anthony Ruggiero of American Global Strategies and Cara Abercrombie of The Cohen Group.

Anthony Ruggiero is an expert in sanctions, illicit finance, export controls, counterproliferation, financial services, and nonproliferation and served in the United States Government for more than 19 years in both Democratic and Republican administrations. Prior to joining American Global Strategies, Anthony was senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program and a senior fellow at FDD. Anthony was Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and National Security Council (NSC) Senior Director for Counterproliferation and Biodefense (2019-2021). Anthony served as the NSC Director for North Korea. Prior to joining FDD, Anthony served as a Foreign Policy Fellow in the Office of Senator Marco Rubio, as Deputy Director and then Director (now a Deputy Assistant Secretary position) of the Office of Global Affairs in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the Department of the Treasury, and more than 13 years in various positions at the Department of State, including as an intelligence analyst and Chief of the Defensive Measures and WMD Finance Team.

Cara Abercrombie is Senior Advisor at The Cohen Group. A member of the Senior Executive Service, she held numerous senior positions in the Pentagon and the White House. Most recently, she served as the Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the second highest ranking policy role in the Department, advising the Secretary of Defense on a broad swath of national security policies as well as leading the development and coordination of defense policy and strategy across the Defense Department. In 2023, she was nominated by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, responsible for overseeing Pentagon procurement policy for an acquisition workforce of 150,000 personnel. From 2021–2023, Ms. Abercrombie served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for Defense Policy and Arms Control at the White House National Security Council, driving the development and implementation of numerous policy initiatives across the interagency, including nuclear and military space policy as well as conventional arms transfer and security assistance policies. 

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