Evening Lecture | Deputy Secretary of Defense Christine H. Fox: Leadership and Innovation

WASHINGTON -- The Navy and Marine Corps need to think about how to be more innovative, including leveraging experiences learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the face of budget challenges that could become more acute, acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine H. Fox said today.

"Whether sequestration returns or not, the reality is we're counting more than ever on your leadership and innovation to solve problems and meet new and often unfamiliar challenges to our nation's security," Fox told students at the U.S Naval War College in Newport, R.I., in one of a series of addresses she has delivered in recent days at war colleges around the nation.

In each, Fox's theme has reflected warnings senior defense officials have been making since last year's budget sequester and the likelihood of further spending cuts to come: that the Pentagon is going to have to re-examine priorities, reduce overhead and shrink the force while finding ways to continue vigilance in what officials describe as an increasingly unpredictable global environment.