Treasury’s War: An Interview with Juan Zarate

Professional Military Education

In this interview, I spoke with The Honorable Juan Zarate. The topic: Money!

Juan was the first-ever assistant secretary of the treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes. We speak about his work at the Treasury Department in the post-9/11 period. During this time, Juan played a critical role in using the Treasury’s resources to go after terrorist financing. Additionally, the Treasury assisted in tracking down money that Saddam Hussein and his cronies had moved and hid outside of Iraq. Additionally, Treasury’s role became much more expansive beyond the Global War on Terror. In fact, we discuss how the Treasury became a much more formidable influencer of foreign policy against countries like Iran and North Korea. The legacy of these policy shifts continues to this day.

Key Topics include:

• Juan’s background and his work at the Treasury Department
• Historical examples of financial leverage being used tactically
• Treasury’s evolving role after 9/11
• Pursuing terrorist financing and making it harder and costlier for terrorist groups to move money around the world
• How the Treasury Department used its resources to isolate North Korea
• How the Treasury Department used a similar tactic against Iran
• Implications for today and how other countries might employ the same tactics against the United States

The impetus for the interview was the book, Treasury’s War, which was published in 2013. The book remains relevant to this day. Juan is currently the global co-managing partner and chief strategy officer of K2 Integrity.

Follow Juan on Twitter: @JCZarate1

Check out the Book: Treasury's War: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare

Current work: K2 Integrity

Co-Founder and Chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP). Check out the FDD

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