Krach Teaches Cadets About Building Global Alliances Rooted in Trust

WEST POINT, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–At the United States Military Academy at West Point, tech CEO and former unanimously-confirmed Under Secretary of State Keith Krach instructed America’s future military leaders about the ‘Trust Principle’ doctrine of collaboration engineered to advance freedom through trust-based alliances and for which he was recently nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.


“Given the growing global challenges, it is important for our cadets to appreciate how sound economic and business principles can enhance our national security strategy. Understanding how Under Secretary of State Krach deployed his ‘Trust Principle’ doctrine to defend against technological authoritarianism, safeguard global economic security, preserve democracy, and protect human rights is an important example of what we teach at West Point,” said West Point Academy Professor Col. Carl Wojtaszek. “We appreciate him sharing the transformational diplomacy he employed to bring about the Clean Network, and the many insights he shared behind integrating Silicon Valley Strategies and foreign policy tools of the Tech Statecraft model.”

Krach was equally appreciative. When asked about his Nobel nomination by Fox Business host Liz Claman, he commented, “It’s really made me think about the heartbreaking violence in Ukraine and the tremendous courage of its people. Democracy is under threat with the totalitarian twins (Putin and Xi); we need the Trust Principle’s Alliance of Democracies more than ever. But I must tell you, Liz, I was up at West Point yesterday and after interacting with those young men and women cadets, those transformational leaders of tomorrow, I am more optimistic than ever.”

The West Point class, like several other graduate-level classes across the United States, utilized the recent Harvard Business School case study titled The Clean Network and the Future of Global Technology Competition. The case demonstrates how Krach’s transformational diplomacy based on the “Trust Principle” integrated Silicon Valley strategies with foreign policy tools to create a new category called Tech Statecraft.

“The Clean Network’s defeat of the Chinese Communist Party’s masterplan to control 5G communications was the first time a U.S. government-lead initiative proved that China’s economic warfare is beatable because it exposed their biggest weakness: nobody trusts them,” said former West Point Grad and U.S. National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster. “I don’t think anybody has done more to integrate economic security and national security than Keith Krach.”

“Communication networks represent the fifth sphere of a country’s national security—after land, sea, air, and space. A country that does not control its telecommunications network builds an economy on foreign soil,” said Air Force General Dave Stilwell, who served alongside Krach as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Krach understood “the events making China the dominant provider of network infrastructure does not fall into the category of market competition; rather, this is a feat of political engineering and economic warcraft by Beijing.”

A recent American Military News article, Keith Krach gets Nobel Peace Prize nomination for campaign against Chinese authoritarianism, explained, “Krach’s role of running U.S. economic diplomacy allowed him to showcase his economic prowess on a global scale when he developed a campaign to challenge China’s authoritarian grasp of 5G technology and computer semiconductors globally. His Trust Principle helped expose China’s widespread human rights abuses and genocide of its minority Uyghur population, as well as its aggressive posture towards Taiwan.”

Krach coached the students on how he utilized the “Trust Principle” as the fulcrum of his relentless efforts to shield Taiwan from the Chinese government’s aggression by strengthening its economic ties to the U.S. and its allies. Krach also briefed the cadets on China greeting his arrival with 40 fighters and bombers into Taiwan’s airspace when he became the highest-ranking State Department official to visit the island in 41 years.

As the former CEO of DocuSign and Ariba, and Chairman of Purdue University’s Board of Trustees, Krach also imparted to the cadets the lessons he learned from four decades of transformational leadership across multiple sectors. “Keith Krach is one of the few leaders I’ve ever known in business that could put on a uniform tomorrow and would be effective as a general in the United States Army,” said West Point graduate and retired four-Star General Stanley McChrystal. “He is one of the most impressive transformational leaders I’ve ever met. He’d already done it in business, education, and philanthropy, but with the Clean Network, he did it again, this time in government.”

During class, Krach explained that “Trust” is the most important word in any language. The “Trust Principle” doctrine, based on democratic values, turns the tables on the authoritarian ‘Power Principle,’ rooted in the exertion of brute force by retaining the moral high ground and dealing from a position of strength and solidarity. The recent Forbes article, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Keith Krach’s “Trust Principle” Is Antidote To Authoritarianism, said, “The ‘Trust Principle’ is the new basis for 21st century international relations. It stands as a peaceful alternative and antidote to Russia’s and China’s ‘Power Principle,’ a geopolitical framework rooted in brute power, coercion, and intimidation.”

Keith Krach’s dedication to the mission of advancing freedom continues in his role as the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. On joining the Institute’s Advisory Board, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta observed the urgency of adopting Krach’s “Trust Principle” model to counter authoritarianism: “China’s techno-economic aggression presents a serious threat to the free world, especially when it comes to advanced technologies. The Clean Network pioneered a trust-based model for countering authoritarian aggression across all areas of techno-economic competition. I support the adoption of that successful model.”

About the Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue:

The nonpartisan Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University is the world’s preeminent institution focused on Tech Statecraft, a new model of diplomacy that bridges the high-tech sector with the foreign policy and national security sectors to ensure trusted technology is used to advance freedom. The Institute for Tech Diplomacy leverages Purdue’s strength in innovation, deep expertise in technology, and global prowess in educating transformational leaders. It focuses on rallying our allies, leveraging the innovation of the private sector, and amplifying democratic values based on trust.

For more information, go to techdiplomacy.org. Follow the Center for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Contacts

Kennedy Lee, techdiplomacy@prf.org