WEBVTT 00:00.317 --> 00:02.567 (clapping) 00:07.320 --> 00:08.660 - Good evening. 00:08.660 --> 00:11.270 My name is Nancy Lindborg and I'm the President here 00:11.270 --> 00:13.470 at the United States Institute of Peace. 00:13.470 --> 00:17.330 And it is my honor to welcome everybody here this evening 00:17.330 --> 00:20.320 as well as everybody who's joining us online 00:20.320 --> 00:23.090 and following the conversation on Twitter. 00:23.090 --> 00:25.800 And it is hashtag MattisUSIP. 00:28.200 --> 00:31.330 I wanna extend a particularly warm welcome to members 00:31.330 --> 00:35.230 of our board, of our International Advisory Council, 00:35.230 --> 00:39.100 and to our Senior Military Advisory Group 00:39.100 --> 00:42.000 who met with us earlier this afternoon. 00:42.000 --> 00:45.520 And of course a special welcome to our Guest of Honor, 00:45.520 --> 00:48.910 Secretary of Defense James Mattis. 00:48.910 --> 00:51.890 Thank you for being here with here tonight. 00:51.890 --> 00:55.490 The US Institute of Peace was founded in 1984 00:55.490 --> 01:00.360 as an independent, nonpartisan national institute 01:00.360 --> 01:03.200 that is dedicated to reducing the kind of violent 01:03.200 --> 01:05.960 international conflicts that pose a threat 01:05.960 --> 01:08.730 to US national security, the kind of conflicts 01:08.730 --> 01:12.887 that Secretary Mattis has spent a career addressing. 01:12.887 --> 01:17.160 And in fact, our most passionate congressional founders 01:17.160 --> 01:21.580 were themselves veterans of World War II and Korean wars. 01:21.580 --> 01:26.580 And their searing experiences on the battlefield, in fact 01:28.260 --> 01:32.780 created their determination to found and support 01:32.780 --> 01:37.020 an institute that was developed to, that was dedicated to 01:37.020 --> 01:40.650 how to prevent, how to resolve violent conflict. 01:40.650 --> 01:44.870 And so we pursue this mission by linking training 01:44.870 --> 01:49.270 and analysis with action on the ground in conflict zones, 01:49.270 --> 01:54.270 here with policymakers in Washington, DC, and with partners 01:54.360 --> 01:58.130 in people, organizations, and governments around the world. 01:58.130 --> 02:01.780 And over the course of our 34-year history, 02:01.780 --> 02:05.730 USIP has worked closely with the State Department with USAID 02:06.670 --> 02:08.980 and with the Department of Defense. 02:08.980 --> 02:13.130 And in fact, by legislation, Secretary Mattis is a member 02:13.130 --> 02:16.720 of our bipartisan Board of Directors. 02:16.720 --> 02:18.840 He's ably represented on our board 02:18.840 --> 02:22.050 by Under Secretary of Policy John Rood. 02:22.050 --> 02:25.370 And our work with DoD through the years has included 02:25.370 --> 02:28.830 facilitating the National Defense Review Commission 02:28.830 --> 02:32.150 which is a body convened by Congress to examine and make 02:32.150 --> 02:35.250 recommendations regarding national security, 02:35.250 --> 02:37.810 and it includes working together on conflict zones. 02:37.810 --> 02:42.760 In 2007, at the request of the 10th Mountain Division, 02:42.760 --> 02:47.050 USIP worked with local leaders in Mahmoudiyah which was then 02:47.050 --> 02:51.490 the most violent part of Iraq to foster a local peace accord 02:51.490 --> 02:55.550 and local tribal leaders credit that accord with enabling 02:55.550 --> 03:00.180 their community to withstand the invasion of ISIS. 03:00.180 --> 03:01.710 So, 03:01.710 --> 03:05.970 we are also proud every year to host Military Fellows. 03:05.970 --> 03:08.300 We have three of them here with us 03:08.300 --> 03:10.180 in the audience somewhere today. 03:10.180 --> 03:11.013 Yes, here they are. 03:11.013 --> 03:11.973 Welcome, gentlemen. 03:13.320 --> 03:16.110 So, we know these are the kind of partnerships 03:16.110 --> 03:19.150 that enable everybody to do their best work 03:19.150 --> 03:21.780 and they remind us what research tells us; 03:21.780 --> 03:24.490 that the more inclusive the peace process, 03:24.490 --> 03:27.350 the longer lasting is the peace. 03:27.350 --> 03:30.440 And there are few who understand this more than tonight's 03:30.440 --> 03:33.500 Guest of Honor, Secretary Mattis. 03:33.500 --> 03:37.740 In 2003, when then Secretary Mattis was commanding 03:37.740 --> 03:42.740 the 1st Marine Division in Iraq, he prepared his soldiers 03:42.860 --> 03:45.820 not only to be an effective fighting force, 03:45.820 --> 03:49.120 but also to build ties with the local community. 03:49.120 --> 03:52.320 And he knew that fostering that kind of trust, that kind 03:52.320 --> 03:56.120 of respect, would lead to the kind of strong relationships 03:56.120 --> 03:58.970 that would help their mission succeed. 03:58.970 --> 04:03.390 In the 2018 National Defense Strategy, Secretary Mattis 04:03.390 --> 04:07.200 has renewed this call for building partnerships based 04:07.200 --> 04:10.150 on trust, respect, and accountability. 04:10.150 --> 04:13.910 And the strategy asserts that the United States will 04:13.910 --> 04:18.280 strengthen and evolve our alliances and partnerships 04:18.280 --> 04:23.040 in an extended network capable of deterring or decisively 04:23.040 --> 04:26.850 acting to meet the shared challenges of our time. 04:26.850 --> 04:30.730 So we are here certainly in a time of great change. 04:30.730 --> 04:33.900 We're seeing changes in the national security landscape, 04:33.900 --> 04:38.520 challenges to the free and open international liberal order, 04:38.520 --> 04:42.280 the continued challenges that emanate from fragile states, 04:42.280 --> 04:46.780 and the resurgent competition with great powers. 04:46.780 --> 04:48.900 Certainly these kinds of sustained partnership 04:48.900 --> 04:51.660 and alliances cannot be overstated. 04:51.660 --> 04:54.670 So I thank Secretary Mattis for joining us tonight 04:54.670 --> 04:56.750 for a very important conversation 04:56.750 --> 04:59.100 about the National Defense Strategy. 04:59.100 --> 05:03.330 At this critical time, he brings the experience of a long 05:03.330 --> 05:07.130 and decorated career in the Marine Corps as well as his 05:07.130 --> 05:10.450 deep knowledge of history and an unwavering commitment 05:10.450 --> 05:12.330 to public service. 05:12.330 --> 05:15.510 So joining him in this conversation 05:15.510 --> 05:20.510 is another distinguished, dedicated public servant, 05:20.910 --> 05:23.950 former National Security Advisor and current 05:23.950 --> 05:27.880 Chair of the USIP Board, Stephen Hadley. 05:27.880 --> 05:31.610 So please join me in welcoming both of them up to the stage, 05:31.610 --> 05:35.413 and enjoy the conversation. (clapping) 05:53.040 --> 05:53.873 - Good evening, everyone, 05:53.873 --> 05:57.030 Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for being with us. 05:57.030 --> 06:00.500 What we thought we would do is, the Secretary and I 06:00.500 --> 06:04.110 will have a conversation on some of the issues of the day. 06:04.110 --> 06:07.100 We'll probably go about 35 minutes or so. 06:07.100 --> 06:09.810 And then probably the last 20 minutes or so, 06:09.810 --> 06:12.257 we'll have questions from the audience. 06:12.257 --> 06:13.920 The way we like to do that is, 06:13.920 --> 06:17.270 there are three-by-five cards in the audience. 06:17.270 --> 06:19.300 Please write your questions on those cards. 06:19.300 --> 06:21.200 We'll also take some from the media. 06:21.200 --> 06:24.570 They'll be passed up here and we'll offer them up to you. 06:24.570 --> 06:28.530 So we'll try to start on time and end on time. 06:28.530 --> 06:31.640 So, let me begin with the National Defense Strategy which 06:31.640 --> 06:33.990 if people have not read, they ought to. 06:33.990 --> 06:36.530 It is an extraordinary document. 06:36.530 --> 06:39.920 It describes the present time as one of global disorder. 06:39.920 --> 06:42.320 It talks about the decline of the rules faced 06:42.320 --> 06:43.830 in our national order 06:43.830 --> 06:46.840 established at the end of the World War II. 06:46.840 --> 06:50.310 And we see that disorder today in the headlines 06:50.310 --> 06:53.590 whether it's about Russia, North Korea, Iran, 06:53.590 --> 06:55.910 and in a different way, China. 06:55.910 --> 06:58.130 All of which is contributed to what 06:58.130 --> 07:00.490 the National Defense Strategy characterizes 07:00.490 --> 07:04.620 as the most complex and volatile security environment 07:04.620 --> 07:07.360 we have experienced in recent memory. 07:07.360 --> 07:10.380 Mr. Secretary, as you survey this landscape, how do you 07:10.380 --> 07:15.380 prioritize the challenges to American and global security? 07:16.010 --> 07:18.810 And you've talked about alliances as our partner 07:18.810 --> 07:20.310 in dealing with those challenges. 07:20.310 --> 07:23.860 How do you assess the health of our alliance relations today 07:23.860 --> 07:25.283 in order to serve that role? 07:28.540 --> 07:30.820 - First of all, thanks for doing this, Steve, 07:30.820 --> 07:32.970 and President Nancy, it's good to be here (clears throat). 07:32.970 --> 07:36.460 You know the regard that the Department of Defense has 07:36.460 --> 07:37.883 for this organization. 07:38.740 --> 07:40.480 You have time to reflect and think 07:40.480 --> 07:42.430 which is unusual in this town. 07:42.430 --> 07:45.600 So, (clears throat) we really appreciate that. 07:45.600 --> 07:48.770 How did we look at the threats in the world? 07:48.770 --> 07:51.860 We looked at them really from three different angles. 07:51.860 --> 07:56.720 One was power, one was urgency, and one was will. 07:56.720 --> 07:59.960 Because we're in a competition of sorts to maintain 07:59.960 --> 08:01.880 this world and turn it over, hopefully, 08:01.880 --> 08:04.950 in slightly better condition than we received it. 08:04.950 --> 08:09.840 In terms of raw power, right now, I look at Russia 08:09.840 --> 08:12.970 and the nuclear arsenal they have. 08:12.970 --> 08:17.840 I look at their activities over the last ten years 08:17.840 --> 08:22.840 from Georgia and Crimea, to the Donets Basin, to Syria. 08:23.780 --> 08:25.733 I can go on and on and on. 08:26.580 --> 08:28.520 Their violations of INF, for example. 08:28.520 --> 08:31.840 But in terms of just power, I think it's clearly Russia 08:31.840 --> 08:35.160 that we have to look at and address. 08:35.160 --> 08:38.150 In terms of urgency, there's two. 08:38.150 --> 08:42.010 One is the current fight against the violent extremists. 08:42.010 --> 08:46.190 For example, to defeat ISIS, coalition is 70 nations 08:46.190 --> 08:51.120 plus four international organizations working on that fight 08:51.120 --> 08:54.360 that is ongoing, we must continue that, 08:54.360 --> 08:58.000 that character of warfare that is very unusual, 08:58.000 --> 08:59.620 we call it irregular. 08:59.620 --> 09:03.300 But at the same time, in terms of urgency, is the DPRK, 09:03.300 --> 09:06.400 the North Korea nuclear and missile programs 09:06.400 --> 09:10.750 that are clearly violation of international sanctions, 09:10.750 --> 09:13.833 are clearly a threat to peace and stability. 09:14.830 --> 09:18.360 In terms of will, clearly it's China. 09:18.360 --> 09:23.360 Now in China's case, we look at it as different than Russia. 09:23.990 --> 09:27.830 Russia wants security around its periphery 09:27.830 --> 09:31.370 by having insecurity with other nations. 09:31.370 --> 09:34.340 They want a veto authority over the economic, 09:34.340 --> 09:37.280 the diplomatic, and the security decisions 09:37.280 --> 09:38.973 of the nations around them. 09:40.010 --> 09:43.470 China, on the other hand, seems to want some sort 09:43.470 --> 09:46.993 of tribute states around them. 09:47.990 --> 09:50.820 We are looking for how do we work with China. 09:50.820 --> 09:54.500 I think that 15 years from now, we will be remembered most 09:54.500 --> 09:57.290 for how did we set the conditions 09:57.290 --> 10:01.120 for a positive relationship with China. 10:01.120 --> 10:04.890 And in that regard, we look for where we can cooperate 10:04.890 --> 10:06.530 and we will cooperate where we can. 10:06.530 --> 10:10.220 You see that in unanimous Security Council resolutions 10:10.220 --> 10:14.160 on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, 10:14.160 --> 10:16.070 that we will confront them where we must. 10:16.070 --> 10:20.150 For example, freedom of navigation in international waters 10:20.150 --> 10:21.623 and that sort of thing. 10:22.530 --> 10:27.530 I've met with my counterpart both in Beijing 10:27.940 --> 10:32.450 and in Singapore ten days ago, and he will be here 10:32.450 --> 10:36.390 a week from now to continue that dialogue as we sort it out. 10:36.390 --> 10:39.080 So how do we look at our real strengths here? 10:39.080 --> 10:41.860 Our real strengths are the network of alliances 10:41.860 --> 10:44.230 and partnerships around the world. 10:44.230 --> 10:48.210 And in that regard, quietly, below the radar, 10:48.210 --> 10:52.210 below the radar of what is often in the public domain, 10:52.210 --> 10:55.510 I'll just run through what I've done in the last 30 days. 10:55.510 --> 10:58.030 In the first week of October, I was at NATO, 10:58.030 --> 10:59.763 our most important alliance. 11:00.670 --> 11:03.770 29 nations that work together. 11:03.770 --> 11:07.330 Every one of them has its own interest, its own perspective, 11:07.330 --> 11:10.110 but at the end of the day, NATO is stronger than ever 11:10.110 --> 11:14.760 in terms of 27 nations clearly raising their 11:14.760 --> 11:19.020 defense expenditures, nations that were aligned with us 11:19.020 --> 11:22.530 when I rolled out the Nuclear Posture Review, I can go on. 11:22.530 --> 11:25.543 It's a strong alliance and it's getting stronger. 11:26.400 --> 11:29.990 My next trip was down to Cancun where I met 11:29.990 --> 11:31.840 with the Latin American, South America, 11:31.840 --> 11:35.880 Central America, Mexico ministers of defence. 11:35.880 --> 11:39.580 I look back on 2017, I said that a pretty crummy year 11:39.580 --> 11:41.670 for democracy around the world. 11:41.670 --> 11:44.350 Not so in South America. 11:44.350 --> 11:46.700 Not so in Central America. 11:46.700 --> 11:48.170 Not so in Mexico. 11:48.170 --> 11:49.600 Imperfect, maybe. 11:49.600 --> 11:51.680 Full of economic headwinds. 11:51.680 --> 11:55.520 Clearly the American appetite for drugs and European is 11:55.520 --> 11:58.900 dumping a lot of money in the corrodes, their institutions. 11:58.900 --> 12:02.380 But democracy is alive and well, they're holding elections, 12:02.380 --> 12:03.900 they don't know who's gonna win. 12:03.900 --> 12:06.250 That's the way it should be in a democracy. 12:06.250 --> 12:08.660 And it's going well down there. 12:08.660 --> 12:12.600 First time I heard my position described as being minister. 12:12.600 --> 12:14.230 You'll love this, President Nancy. 12:14.230 --> 12:16.994 Minister of Peace, not Minister of Defence. 12:16.994 --> 12:19.071 (laughter) 12:19.071 --> 12:21.763 And then (clears throat) I just got back, 12:23.821 --> 12:28.210 went up to Singapore, met with ASEAN, two weeks ago, 12:28.210 --> 12:31.620 where we are welcome, where many nations in private 12:31.620 --> 12:34.970 will tell us why they need us engaged out there 12:34.970 --> 12:38.590 because they're concerned about what China is doing 12:38.590 --> 12:42.660 and the piling of massive debt to quote Prime Minister Modi 12:42.660 --> 12:47.280 on nations that they know China knows cannot repay it. 12:47.280 --> 12:49.740 And then you see what happened in Sri Lanka where they lost 12:49.740 --> 12:52.003 sovereignty over their own harbor. 12:52.980 --> 12:55.560 And one of those issues I'll be talking obviously 12:55.560 --> 12:58.330 with my counterpart about here in Washington, shortly. 12:58.330 --> 13:02.200 And then two days ago, I got back from the Manama Dialogue 13:02.200 --> 13:05.570 in the Middle East where we were talking about how we move 13:05.570 --> 13:10.020 forward on a security architecture that maintains peace 13:10.020 --> 13:12.870 or what passes for peace right now in the Middle East, 13:12.870 --> 13:16.040 and restores peace in several key areas, 13:16.040 --> 13:17.920 Yemen being foremost. 13:17.920 --> 13:22.090 Obviously Syria moving towards the Geneva process 13:22.090 --> 13:26.120 against Russia's example, frankly. 13:26.120 --> 13:29.410 But we're at least all on the same sheet of music about it. 13:29.410 --> 13:32.690 So there's a quick rundown on how I see the threats 13:32.690 --> 13:36.100 and what we're doing with the alliances and partnerships. 13:36.100 --> 13:37.080 - Thank you, Secretary. 13:37.080 --> 13:40.500 Let me shift to another problem which is 13:40.500 --> 13:43.260 I know on your agenda. 13:43.260 --> 13:46.870 Congress charged the USIP to convene a task force 13:46.870 --> 13:51.610 on extremism in fragile states to try to address the root 13:51.610 --> 13:56.610 causes of violent extremism, a big task, needless to say. 13:57.040 --> 14:00.570 In its recently republished interim report, 14:00.570 --> 14:04.200 the task force noted that the time is right to adopt 14:04.200 --> 14:09.200 what the 2004 9/11 Commission called "a preventive strategy 14:09.400 --> 14:14.330 that is as much or more political as it is military." 14:14.330 --> 14:17.800 How do you see the military's role in a strategy for dealing 14:17.800 --> 14:22.020 with violent extremism where non-kinetic measures focused 14:22.020 --> 14:25.780 on strengthening fragile states and building resilience 14:25.780 --> 14:26.763 are the priority? 14:29.420 --> 14:32.430 - As we look back over these difficult years, 14:32.430 --> 14:36.710 we just recognized the anniversary, the 35th anniversary 14:36.710 --> 14:39.410 of the attack on the French paratrooper barracks 14:39.410 --> 14:43.750 and the US Marine peacekeeper barracks there in Beirut, 14:43.750 --> 14:46.160 35 years ago last week, 14:46.160 --> 14:50.260 and you look at what is happened since that time, you 14:50.260 --> 14:54.890 recognize that in most cases the breeding ground for this 14:54.890 --> 14:57.883 is not something that can be addressed by the military. 14:59.170 --> 15:03.620 Our general view is it's State Department has to lead 15:03.620 --> 15:08.620 with AID, and we lead with the example of our own country. 15:09.460 --> 15:13.150 And we work with like-minded nations in this regard. 15:13.150 --> 15:16.420 My personal view, when I join the three years I was out 15:16.420 --> 15:20.260 of the Marines and I was on a university campus, had time 15:20.260 --> 15:22.570 to think about what had happened. 15:22.570 --> 15:26.530 I believed that the US foreign policy had become militarized 15:26.530 --> 15:31.530 and so I come back into this job and my view was that we had 15:31.720 --> 15:35.300 to have State Department in the lead and the military had 15:35.300 --> 15:40.300 to be an enabling, supporting element to this, because you 15:40.550 --> 15:43.943 simply couldn't shoot your way out of this problem. 15:44.920 --> 15:49.160 At one point, I was frustrated enough with some aspects 15:49.160 --> 15:52.703 of State Department's budget that in my testimony I said 15:52.703 --> 15:54.690 that if you don't fully fund, 15:54.690 --> 15:56.890 up on Capitol Hill my testimony, 15:56.890 --> 16:00.270 if you don't fully fund the State Department, please buy 16:00.270 --> 16:03.880 more ammunition for me because I'm going to need it, 16:03.880 --> 16:07.810 as a rather blunt way of saying why we need it to keep 16:07.810 --> 16:12.270 America's foreign policy and our diplomats foremost 16:12.270 --> 16:14.220 in this effort. 16:14.220 --> 16:18.480 But at the same time, I have also dealt with this adversary 16:18.480 --> 16:21.040 that we're up against in the Middle East since 1979 16:22.330 --> 16:23.690 in one form or another. 16:23.690 --> 16:27.730 And I've watched it morph since that rather eventful year 16:27.730 --> 16:29.240 in the Middle East. 16:29.240 --> 16:32.300 And it is very clear we are going to have to get better 16:32.300 --> 16:36.610 with our allies on the military side feeding information 16:36.610 --> 16:41.150 to police off the battlefields, and collaborating together 16:41.150 --> 16:45.390 so that we buy the time for diplomats to amass the larger 16:45.390 --> 16:47.830 effort, and it's going to take a big effort 16:48.740 --> 16:51.900 to blunt this hate-filled enemy. 16:51.900 --> 16:55.080 Because I'm under no allusions about what they're like. 16:55.080 --> 16:57.780 They did not arrive where they're at through a rational 16:57.780 --> 17:02.320 process, and in some cases, too many cases, perhaps, 17:02.320 --> 17:06.200 we're going to have to deal with that 17:06.200 --> 17:08.720 in a military and police manner. 17:08.720 --> 17:11.780 But the next generation, we're not going to address 17:11.780 --> 17:14.300 in a military manner, we have to address that one 17:14.300 --> 17:16.970 with education and economic opportunity. 17:16.970 --> 17:18.810 We have to give people hope, 17:18.810 --> 17:22.900 and hope cannot be unilateral anywhere in the world. 17:22.900 --> 17:27.030 If it is unilateral, you're simply breeding the antibodies 17:27.030 --> 17:28.235 to what you're trying to do. 17:28.235 --> 17:29.760 It's gonna have to be multilateral, 17:29.760 --> 17:31.770 it's gonna have to be inclusive. 17:31.770 --> 17:35.700 And the military's got to remain steadfast while supporting 17:35.700 --> 17:40.530 in every sense of the word, not just with its military alone 17:40.530 --> 17:44.570 activity but with its enabling military activities, 17:44.570 --> 17:47.070 it's gonna have to be supporting State Department. 17:48.410 --> 17:52.210 - Let's followup if we can with a specific example, 17:52.210 --> 17:53.790 in Afghanistan. 17:53.790 --> 17:57.710 The US South Asia Strategy called for a political settlement 17:57.710 --> 18:00.760 to the War in Afghanistan that protects the US, its friends 18:00.760 --> 18:04.710 and allies from transnational terrorist threats. 18:04.710 --> 18:07.030 Key to this strategy was increase support 18:07.030 --> 18:10.250 for the Afghan National Security Forces, 18:10.250 --> 18:14.330 including more robust US counter-terrorism operations. 18:14.330 --> 18:17.640 More recently, Ambassador Khalilzad was appointed to lead 18:17.640 --> 18:22.640 a diplomatic effort to initiate talks between the Taliban, 18:22.650 --> 18:25.340 the Afghans, and the United States. 18:25.340 --> 18:28.730 So how can our military strategy and operations 18:28.730 --> 18:33.730 in Afghanistan support and not undermine the peace effort? 18:34.500 --> 18:37.420 And do US and NATO military forces have a role 18:37.420 --> 18:41.163 in Afghanistan after a peace agreement is reached? 18:42.310 --> 18:46.340 - Well, any US military coalition role after the peace 18:46.340 --> 18:49.340 is reached would be conditions-based worked out 18:49.340 --> 18:52.550 with the Afghan government depending on the threat. 18:52.550 --> 18:55.610 But when we put the strategy together, ladies and gentlemen, 18:55.610 --> 18:58.170 what we did was we put something together we called 18:58.170 --> 19:02.220 the four R's plus S, S being sustain it. 19:02.220 --> 19:05.030 First R was to regionalize the approach. 19:05.030 --> 19:09.040 You did not start with Afghanistan, come up with a strategy, 19:09.040 --> 19:11.100 say, well, I guess now we better look at the countries 19:11.100 --> 19:14.690 around it and see what do we do as far as their inclusion. 19:14.690 --> 19:18.830 We started outside and worked our way inside. 19:18.830 --> 19:22.513 Next, we recognized we had to put more troops in. 19:23.660 --> 19:26.640 But the reason we had to put more troo--reinforce it, 19:26.640 --> 19:29.450 the second R, was for the third reason. 19:29.450 --> 19:33.330 Realign those troops to supporting the Afghan Security 19:33.330 --> 19:37.563 Forces directly by training, advising, and assisting. 19:38.700 --> 19:42.950 What we had done is created an army and then we pulled 19:42.950 --> 19:45.233 the training wheels off too early. 19:46.550 --> 19:50.780 And in that, I mean that only the Afghan Special Forces 19:50.780 --> 19:54.170 had mentors from NATO members with them. 19:54.170 --> 19:58.030 And every time they went against the enemy, the Taliban, 19:58.030 --> 20:00.740 they won against the enemy. 20:00.740 --> 20:04.430 But spread out in penny packets around the country 20:04.430 --> 20:07.390 were Afghan Security Forces that we had pulled 20:07.390 --> 20:09.830 all mentoring away from. 20:09.830 --> 20:13.510 So, we were going to look at this as a regional problem, 20:13.510 --> 20:17.470 reinforce the troops and realign them so that more Afghan 20:17.470 --> 20:22.310 forces had our mentors with them with NATO air support. 20:22.310 --> 20:24.370 As you know, for those of you who have been there, 20:24.370 --> 20:27.500 when you fight in mountainous country, the high ground 20:27.500 --> 20:31.300 is very tough ground to take if the enemy's got it. 20:31.300 --> 20:35.250 With NATO air forces overhead no longer prohibited 20:35.250 --> 20:39.250 from supporting the Afghan army, and I did say prohibited 20:39.250 --> 20:42.790 from supporting them, we would be able to always own the 20:42.790 --> 20:46.650 high ground and that changes the tactical situation. 20:46.650 --> 20:49.760 It is protection of the people as what we were trying to do 20:49.760 --> 20:52.960 there, so in some cases, we surrendered ground where 20:52.960 --> 20:55.880 few, if any, people lived, then it's not a matter 20:55.880 --> 20:58.060 of military's holding ground, 20:58.060 --> 21:00.900 the Afghan lads are doing the fighting, 21:00.900 --> 21:02.700 just look at the casualties. 21:02.700 --> 21:05.650 Over 1,000 dead in August and September, 21:05.650 --> 21:08.670 1,000 dead and wounded in August and September. 21:08.670 --> 21:11.000 And they stayed in the field fighting, 21:11.000 --> 21:14.290 and the Taliban has been prevented from doing what they said 21:14.290 --> 21:15.360 they were going to do which was 21:15.360 --> 21:18.260 to take and hold district and provincial centers. 21:18.260 --> 21:22.090 Also, disrupt an election that they were unable to disrupt. 21:22.090 --> 21:24.920 But the most important R was the fourth R. 21:24.920 --> 21:27.010 Reconciliation. 21:27.010 --> 21:31.200 And on that, you saw Ambassador Khalilzad has been presented 21:31.200 --> 21:33.280 with the portfolio, he's working it, 21:33.280 --> 21:36.840 For those of you who know him, know him as a force of nature 21:37.690 --> 21:41.180 and he is hard at work on this, on an Afghan-led, 21:41.180 --> 21:44.920 Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation effort. 21:44.920 --> 21:48.110 So this is the approach we're trying to sustain right now. 21:48.110 --> 21:50.417 It is working from our perspective, 21:50.417 --> 21:53.943 but as heartbreakingly difficult to accept is 21:53.943 --> 21:58.490 that progress and violence can be going on at the same time. 21:58.490 --> 22:01.920 And I understand those who are disheartened by this 22:01.920 --> 22:05.160 but we never thought in the military this was going 22:05.160 --> 22:06.720 to be an easy job. 22:06.720 --> 22:09.690 But we are there because if we want to protect ourselves 22:09.690 --> 22:13.230 from happened on 9/11 and so many other countries, 22:13.230 --> 22:14.730 this is why. 22:14.730 --> 22:16.180 So that's where we're at right now. 22:16.180 --> 22:20.980 The President, when he put this forward, I can guarantee you 22:20.980 --> 22:23.240 that he challenged every assumption, 22:23.240 --> 22:27.840 he challenged every sentence, he challenged every aspect 22:27.840 --> 22:30.580 of what we were going to commit to, and it was 22:30.580 --> 22:34.363 a very robust discussion in every sense of the word. 22:35.330 --> 22:38.810 As allies realized we were going to stay when it dropped 22:38.810 --> 22:43.810 from 50 nations in the fight to 39, has now reversed, 22:43.840 --> 22:45.300 we're back to 41. 22:45.300 --> 22:49.310 By the way, the two nations that rejoined are both Muslim, 22:49.310 --> 22:51.000 Arab Muslim nations. 22:51.000 --> 22:54.640 And we also have over 1,000 more troops coming 22:54.640 --> 22:58.630 from our partner nations and NATO allied nations that 22:58.630 --> 23:02.560 have been added, in addition to the 3,000 that we added 23:03.643 --> 23:05.993 when we reinforced the force there. 23:07.190 --> 23:09.410 Right now, that's the way we're going forward. 23:09.410 --> 23:12.290 But the goal is reconciliation. 23:12.290 --> 23:16.560 And Ambassador Khalilzad has been a very welcome addition 23:16.560 --> 23:17.683 to the campaign. 23:19.150 --> 23:21.703 - I wanna switch to Syria if we can. 23:22.634 --> 23:26.270 The USIP had been advising the 10th Mountain Division 23:26.270 --> 23:30.340 during its missions in Iraq and Syria over the past year 23:30.340 --> 23:33.140 as the United States and its coalition partners seek 23:33.140 --> 23:38.140 to decisively defeat ISIS and prevent its reemergence. 23:38.250 --> 23:43.250 We also see in Syria a despotic regime, sectarian strife, 23:43.700 --> 23:47.650 humanitarian disaster, and great power competition 23:47.650 --> 23:50.620 in terms of Russia, and of course Iran as well. 23:50.620 --> 23:53.320 In February of this year, US forces found themselves 23:53.320 --> 23:56.920 in a firefight with Russian contractors that left as many 23:56.920 --> 23:59.323 as 300 Russians killed and wounded. 24:00.160 --> 24:03.530 How do we sort out and how do we think about complexity 24:03.530 --> 24:06.490 of this sort, and what are the lessons learned 24:06.490 --> 24:10.730 from how to confront challenges in non-state actors 24:10.730 --> 24:14.460 like ISIS in fragile states while meeting the threat 24:14.460 --> 24:19.460 from great power competition at the same time? 24:19.540 --> 24:23.260 And how do we operationalize deeper cooperation, 24:23.260 --> 24:26.467 as you talked about, among our diplomatic defense 24:26.467 --> 24:29.380 and development establishments to respond 24:29.380 --> 24:32.223 to these complex conflict situations? 24:35.250 --> 24:37.175 - Well, no one said this was gonna be an easy evening, 24:37.175 --> 24:38.008 huh. (laughing) 24:38.008 --> 24:43.008 (clears throat) This is the tragedy that has grown 24:43.050 --> 24:47.817 beyond my ability to articulate it, I've seen the refugees 24:47.817 --> 24:52.020 and the refugee camps, and I've seen refugees in Bosnia, 24:52.020 --> 24:55.210 I've seen 'em in Southeast Asia, I've seem them in Africa. 24:55.210 --> 24:58.770 I have never seen refugees as traumatized 24:58.770 --> 25:01.763 as coming out of Syria, not even close. 25:03.330 --> 25:06.230 If it were not for Russia's regrettable vetoes 25:06.230 --> 25:09.580 and the United Nations that marginalized the UN, 25:09.580 --> 25:12.230 I think we would never have gotten to this point, 25:12.230 --> 25:15.660 and certainly if it wasn't for the Iranian regime, 25:15.660 --> 25:19.060 not the Iranian people, the Iranian regime 25:19.060 --> 25:24.060 giving full support to Assad, he would have been long gone. 25:24.580 --> 25:28.150 And when that support was not even sufficient, and Mr. Putin 25:28.150 --> 25:32.170 came in, we see the reason that I think eventually Assad 25:32.170 --> 25:34.770 will have to be managed out of power. 25:34.770 --> 25:39.340 I don't think any election run under the offices 25:39.340 --> 25:44.340 of the Syrian regime is going to have any credibility 25:44.750 --> 25:49.750 with the Syrian people or with the international community. 25:50.420 --> 25:53.002 But what have we learned along the way? 25:53.002 --> 25:55.960 (clears throat) One point I would make is, it has been a 25:55.960 --> 26:00.889 partner, a non-state partner, the Syrian Democratic Forces, 26:00.889 --> 26:05.330 about 50/50 now between Kurd and Arab, 26:05.330 --> 26:09.820 that has done the bulk of the fighting in Syria. 26:09.820 --> 26:13.650 Remember that at the same time the Iraqi Security Forces 26:13.650 --> 26:18.570 and Popular Militias were fighting in Iraq. 26:18.570 --> 26:21.250 When we came into office with the administration 26:21.250 --> 26:25.930 we reviewed the situation and determined that we would have 26:25.930 --> 26:28.260 to change what was going on. 26:28.260 --> 26:33.260 I had gone early to NATO and sat down there in Brussels 26:33.420 --> 26:36.760 with my counterparts talking about a host of issues 26:36.760 --> 26:41.020 in Syria, Iraq, and ISIS loomed large. 26:41.020 --> 26:43.870 And it was clear the foreign fighters returning home 26:43.870 --> 26:47.440 with the veneer of civilization long rubbed off them 26:47.440 --> 26:51.500 were going to be a strategic assault, basically, 26:51.500 --> 26:54.510 on our European partners and other parts of the world, 26:54.510 --> 26:58.150 Africa, Southeast Asia, that sort of thing. 26:58.150 --> 27:02.160 So we changed tactics from what I would call a Christian 27:02.160 --> 27:05.330 warfare, where you pushed them out of one place and they 27:05.330 --> 27:07.250 fall back, then you push them out of that place. 27:07.250 --> 27:10.443 We took the time to surround west Mosul, Tabqa, 27:13.750 --> 27:16.750 Tal Afar, Raqqa, surround it first and then move against it. 27:20.040 --> 27:22.790 And trying to get the civilians out of the way, 27:22.790 --> 27:25.610 the noncombatants, the innocent out of the way, 27:25.610 --> 27:27.940 because every battlefield we're in over there 27:27.940 --> 27:30.093 is also a humanitarian field. 27:31.460 --> 27:33.610 We were not always successful at that. 27:33.610 --> 27:36.630 Remember, we're up against an enemy that is merciless 27:36.630 --> 27:41.630 and used in many cases the locals, the innocents as shields. 27:43.250 --> 27:46.930 And we did our best to avoid those deaths but some of them, 27:46.930 --> 27:51.930 as consequence of war, were more than we ever 27:52.270 --> 27:55.503 wanted to see happen, but it was part of the fight. 27:56.820 --> 27:59.750 As we moved against them and they're now down to less than 27:59.750 --> 28:04.270 2% of the ground they own, we can see that the most 28:04.270 --> 28:07.550 important effort is the sustaining. 28:07.550 --> 28:10.330 In other words, after we go through and we push them out 28:10.330 --> 28:13.970 of the area, you must immediately create local security 28:13.970 --> 28:18.970 forces in order to hold the ground and then get locals back 28:19.090 --> 28:23.060 into positions, community councils, so that locals feel 28:23.060 --> 28:25.600 like they're now in control. 28:25.600 --> 28:28.170 The international community has actually been very helpful, 28:28.170 --> 28:30.810 we do have the money to help the people 28:30.810 --> 28:32.970 who are trying to recover. 28:32.970 --> 28:36.190 But it's just emergency services inside Syria. 28:36.190 --> 28:38.660 Inside Iraq, where we have a government, 28:38.660 --> 28:41.050 and they did go through an election as you're aware 28:41.050 --> 28:42.440 they're putting a government together. 28:42.440 --> 28:45.170 There, we have a government that we can support. 28:45.170 --> 28:47.840 In Syria, we have to support the locals. 28:47.840 --> 28:49.170 And then we're going to have to work 28:49.170 --> 28:53.450 through the Geneva process to make a way forward for Syria. 28:53.450 --> 28:55.090 We are committed to it. 28:55.090 --> 28:58.760 Russia's best efforts to divert it into Astana process 28:58.760 --> 29:02.800 or Sochi have not produced anything worthwhile 29:02.800 --> 29:06.560 and so we're calling on Russia to support the UN Geneva 29:06.560 --> 29:10.740 process and Staffan de Mistura's efforts there. 29:10.740 --> 29:11.680 Will they do it? 29:11.680 --> 29:14.540 I think eventually it's in Russia's best interest 29:14.540 --> 29:19.470 that Syria not be the cauldron of violence that it is now, 29:19.470 --> 29:21.320 so we're going to keep pressing on it 29:21.320 --> 29:23.313 supporting the UN and their effort. 29:24.720 --> 29:26.672 - Let me ask you a related question. 29:26.672 --> 29:28.950 (clears throat) As there had been lot of discussion about 29:28.950 --> 29:32.810 Iran wanting to create an arc of influence, if you will, 29:32.810 --> 29:34.853 from Tehran all the way to Beirut. 29:35.740 --> 29:39.300 And possibilities that that could be disrupted in Iraq 29:39.300 --> 29:41.200 and particularly Syria. 29:41.200 --> 29:43.440 Could you say a little bit about what we're doing 29:43.440 --> 29:48.440 to counter Iranian influence in Syria, and to frustrate 29:48.750 --> 29:51.793 their ability to establish this kind of strategic arc? 29:52.740 --> 29:55.508 - Well, our authority to be in Syria right now 29:55.508 --> 29:59.790 (clears throat) is clearly on the defeat ISIS campaign. 29:59.790 --> 30:02.690 That is the authority I have from the President, 30:02.690 --> 30:05.880 that's the authority of the Congress under the Authorization 30:05.880 --> 30:10.720 for the Use of Military Force, and that is the only specific 30:10.720 --> 30:13.810 military purpose that we're undertaking there. 30:13.810 --> 30:16.580 Now, at the same time, Secretary of State Pompeo 30:18.070 --> 30:20.890 taking the lead as he should in something like this, 30:20.890 --> 30:22.710 has doubled the number of diplomats 30:22.710 --> 30:26.260 in the liberated parts of Syria. 30:26.260 --> 30:29.240 Brett McGurk has been magnificent 30:29.240 --> 30:31.740 at orchestrating the international coalition 30:31.740 --> 30:35.340 including the funding for the emergency services. 30:35.340 --> 30:38.090 And that continues to go on. 30:38.090 --> 30:42.920 Now, will that in itself, by getting the locals empowered 30:42.920 --> 30:46.240 to represent their own communities, to defend their own 30:46.240 --> 30:50.660 communities against the return of ISIS in itself 30:50.660 --> 30:52.550 stop the Iranian influence? 30:52.550 --> 30:54.140 No, it will not. 30:54.140 --> 30:57.800 But that is where the Geneva process comes in to say, 30:57.800 --> 30:59.670 Iran, you have no business in Syria. 30:59.670 --> 31:02.110 You have not been helpful there. 31:02.110 --> 31:06.260 Your militia that is destabilizing in Lebanon against 31:06.260 --> 31:10.460 the government, the Lebanese Hezbollah, and their fighters 31:10.460 --> 31:14.420 inside Syria and ones like that need to get out of Syria 31:14.420 --> 31:16.050 if we're going to have peace. 31:16.050 --> 31:21.050 Inside Iraq, I think it's a matter of United States 31:21.070 --> 31:25.560 and NATO training mission Iraq a NATO element that's going 31:25.560 --> 31:29.670 to make Iraqi military something that stands up for Iraq 31:29.670 --> 31:33.980 and is not reliant on the goodwill 31:35.260 --> 31:37.000 of the Tehran regime. 31:37.000 --> 31:41.540 Again, this is not a contest with the Iranian people. 31:41.540 --> 31:45.360 This is a senseless war for the Iranian people 31:45.360 --> 31:50.360 to be in Syria or to be trying to make Iraq into a rum state 31:50.410 --> 31:53.810 of Tehran, it's not going to work, and it's just wasting 31:53.810 --> 31:58.050 a lot of the resources that would help the people in Iran 31:58.050 --> 32:01.410 if that was not a revolutionary regime, if it was really 32:01.410 --> 32:04.060 a government that cared about its people. 32:04.060 --> 32:07.640 So it's more about the long-term view than anything we're 32:07.640 --> 32:12.640 going to do with the US military to rebuff the Iranian 32:13.220 --> 32:17.420 influence in those places that is best led by diplomats 32:17.420 --> 32:20.520 and political leaders who represent their own people 32:20.520 --> 32:22.350 and are diplomats in the international 32:22.350 --> 32:23.773 communities supporting them. 32:25.630 --> 32:28.060 - Let me ask you one other regional issue 32:28.060 --> 32:30.470 and then we'll move to a couple other questions 32:30.470 --> 32:31.820 that come from the audience. 32:31.820 --> 32:34.280 One area where we see increased challenges 32:34.280 --> 32:37.920 in managing partnerships is in the Red Sea. 32:37.920 --> 32:41.410 For example, in Djibouti and along the coast of Somalia, 32:41.410 --> 32:44.730 Eritrea, and Sudan, there's a proliferation of military 32:44.730 --> 32:48.260 bases and deployments sponsored by the Gulf States, 32:48.260 --> 32:52.110 Turkey, China, and other external actors. 32:52.110 --> 32:54.550 How do you see this region? 32:54.550 --> 32:56.710 What priority does it have for you, 32:56.710 --> 32:58.923 and what is the administration's approach? 33:02.290 --> 33:07.290 - Yemen has had more problems than any people deserve 33:07.890 --> 33:12.690 to carry and we're calling on all the parties, specifically 33:12.690 --> 33:16.820 the Houthis and the Arab coalition to meet in Sweden 33:16.820 --> 33:21.010 in November, and come to a solution, 33:21.010 --> 33:23.560 not talk about subordinate issues, 33:23.560 --> 33:25.450 about what town they're going to meet in 33:25.450 --> 33:28.930 or what size the table is they meet around, but talk about 33:28.930 --> 33:32.570 demilitarizing the border so that the Saudis 33:32.570 --> 33:35.300 and the Emirates do not have to worry about missiles coming 33:35.300 --> 33:39.130 into their homes and cities and airports, 33:39.130 --> 33:43.610 and ensure that all the missiles that Iran has provided 33:43.610 --> 33:46.780 to the Houthis are put under international watch 33:48.300 --> 33:52.180 and parked somewhere where they can be kept accounted for, 33:52.180 --> 33:53.440 that sort of thing, 33:53.440 --> 33:57.270 as we set the conditions for return to traditional areas 33:57.270 --> 34:02.270 inside Yemen, and a government that allows for this amount 34:02.310 --> 34:06.913 of local autonomy that Houthis or that southerners want. 34:08.080 --> 34:11.040 This has got to end, we've got to replace combat 34:11.040 --> 34:15.990 with compromise, and we are working as we speak 34:15.990 --> 34:20.960 with Mr. Martin Griffiths, the UN Special Envoy. 34:20.960 --> 34:24.210 I've met with him myself, Secretary Pompeo is talking to him 34:24.210 --> 34:27.750 frequently as we try to amass the international support. 34:27.750 --> 34:32.150 We just met in Manama and the Manama dialogues. 34:32.150 --> 34:35.370 And this was brought up forcefully, not just by myself 34:35.370 --> 34:39.230 but by others as well, that it's time to stop this. 34:39.230 --> 34:42.990 And right now, what the Iranians have done by bringing in 34:42.990 --> 34:45.580 any shipped missiles and this sort of thing, 34:45.580 --> 34:48.550 it's interrupted freedom of navigation. 34:48.550 --> 34:51.510 They are the ones who keep fueling this conflict 34:51.510 --> 34:53.740 and they need to knock it off. 34:53.740 --> 34:57.370 They may do it through proxies as they do so often 34:57.370 --> 35:00.640 in the Middle East, but they do not escape accountability 35:00.640 --> 35:04.220 for what they're doing through proxies and surrogate forces. 35:04.220 --> 35:06.133 We still will hold them accountable. 35:08.320 --> 35:09.350 - Thank you. 35:09.350 --> 35:13.423 The President has said the US is leaving the INF Treaty. 35:14.530 --> 35:17.880 How does this decision affect the military's readiness 35:17.880 --> 35:21.540 plans, how does it affect the world of nuclear weapons 35:21.540 --> 35:25.430 in our strategy, and how will it affect US posture 35:25.430 --> 35:27.679 in Europe and the Pacific rim? 35:27.679 --> 35:29.720 (clears throat) 35:29.720 --> 35:31.910 - You know, I was going back through some papers 35:31.910 --> 35:33.623 when I came into office. 35:34.520 --> 35:37.840 And I noticed that Rose Gottemoeller, who was then the 35:37.840 --> 35:42.840 Under Secretary of State for Arms Control in 2008, 35:43.800 --> 35:48.130 2008, 10 years ago, called out the Russians 35:48.130 --> 35:51.780 for violations of the INF. 35:51.780 --> 35:55.450 I can go through, matter of fact, I can take ten minutes 35:55.450 --> 35:59.380 going through year by year the efforts of our diplomats 35:59.380 --> 36:03.620 to try to get Russia to come back into compliance. 36:03.620 --> 36:07.550 Through denial and deceit, Russia has continued, not just 36:07.550 --> 36:10.990 to do research and development and fielding, but now 36:10.990 --> 36:14.600 standing up multiple units that are armed with a weapon 36:14.600 --> 36:18.640 that is clearly a violation, and eventually, Russia, 36:18.640 --> 36:23.410 I believe through a slip revealed that the missile they said 36:23.410 --> 36:26.000 did not exist did exist. 36:26.000 --> 36:29.810 And once they realized that it was revealed, they then said, 36:29.810 --> 36:32.720 but it doesn't violate the Treaty, and by the way, 36:32.720 --> 36:36.750 you're violating the Treaty over some things that we cannot 36:36.750 --> 36:37.913 make sense out of. 36:39.380 --> 36:44.140 We have done everything we can, I think diplomatically. 36:44.140 --> 36:49.140 The diplomats are still trying, by the way, as we speak. 36:49.640 --> 36:52.520 We have made it very clear that when two nations sign 36:52.520 --> 36:57.520 a treaty and one violates it, and even denies the violation 36:58.290 --> 37:01.610 and then continues violating it as they field the weapon, 37:01.610 --> 37:03.870 that is an untenable situation. 37:03.870 --> 37:08.870 It also jeopardizes the trust you need for any other treaty. 37:08.910 --> 37:11.750 So, right now, where are we? 37:11.750 --> 37:14.880 We came out with our Nuclear Posture Review, we went around 37:14.880 --> 37:18.660 talked to all the nations in the NATO alliance plus other 37:18.660 --> 37:22.040 partner nations about what was in it, took their ideas 37:22.040 --> 37:24.140 onboard and when we rolled it out, 37:24.140 --> 37:28.050 it was received generally across the board 37:28.050 --> 37:30.353 and in the US Congress with support. 37:32.030 --> 37:37.030 As far as the INF as a follow-on issue, we have briefed 37:37.410 --> 37:42.410 the NATO Council and the Nuclear Council in NATO 37:43.090 --> 37:44.540 more than once. 37:44.540 --> 37:47.570 We have had detailed briefs by our technical experts 37:47.570 --> 37:51.970 and my last time there, here, a few weeks ago, I said if 37:51.970 --> 37:56.050 any of you have any advice, please send it to me. 37:56.050 --> 37:59.710 I want to know what options you can find 37:59.710 --> 38:03.530 because the only ones I see are highly unpalatable. 38:03.530 --> 38:05.193 So where are we right now? 38:06.070 --> 38:08.960 The National Security Advisory carried the concern 38:08.960 --> 38:11.220 directly into Moscow. 38:11.220 --> 38:13.500 Secretary Pompeo is engaged 38:13.500 --> 38:16.540 with his foreign minister counterparts. 38:16.540 --> 38:20.850 And NATO, the foreign minister meeting goes, I think 38:20.850 --> 38:24.010 it's December 4th, and this will be, I'm sure, 38:24.010 --> 38:25.890 a front and center topic. 38:25.890 --> 38:30.890 I was just in Prague day before yesterday, and I met with 38:31.530 --> 38:34.960 two of our NATO nation's ministers there. 38:34.960 --> 38:37.830 I met with two other NATO nations 38:37.830 --> 38:41.560 when I was in Manama last Saturday. 38:41.560 --> 38:45.800 And we are doing everything we can to try to find any option 38:45.800 --> 38:48.400 and if any of you have any good ideas, 38:48.400 --> 38:49.680 please send me an email. 38:49.680 --> 38:52.840 It seems like every nut in America has my email address, 38:52.840 --> 38:55.693 I'm sure you can find it. (laughter) 38:55.693 --> 38:57.570 And send it to me. 38:57.570 --> 39:02.570 I don't think this is the military, this is the US military, 39:02.580 --> 39:04.440 we belong to you. 39:04.440 --> 39:05.560 We're accountable to you. 39:05.560 --> 39:08.080 If you have any ideas, please send them. 39:08.080 --> 39:11.640 And that goes for our allied officers in this room as well. 39:11.640 --> 39:13.820 I don't think all the great ideas come from the country 39:13.820 --> 39:17.680 with the most aircraft carriers, if you have ideas, 39:17.680 --> 39:19.440 please tell me what you recommend. 39:19.440 --> 39:23.140 But we will continue to collaborate very, very closely 39:23.140 --> 39:26.710 with our allies and consult with them, and that's both 39:26.710 --> 39:28.490 through the ministers of defence 39:28.490 --> 39:31.070 and the ministers of foreign affairs. 39:31.070 --> 39:34.283 What is it due to us in terms of military terms? 39:36.160 --> 39:40.080 I don't want to go into too much detail, but there are 39:40.080 --> 39:44.160 options, both symmetric and asymmetric, that are available. 39:44.160 --> 39:46.840 So I am not committing to anything right now. 39:46.840 --> 39:51.400 That's a grave decision that the President will take council 39:51.400 --> 39:54.420 from all of us and it will be up to President Trump. 39:54.420 --> 39:57.540 His views on nuclear weapons I think are pretty well known 39:57.540 --> 40:02.093 that he hates 'em, and we'll be working this issue with him. 40:03.930 --> 40:07.640 - Thank you, this is a question from our audience: 40:07.640 --> 40:11.720 Currently, I see competitors and adversaries relying 40:11.720 --> 40:16.090 on illicit trade, influence, and messaging 40:16.090 --> 40:20.233 to win their national goals without military conflict. 40:21.100 --> 40:24.520 How do you see DoD and the US government competing 40:24.520 --> 40:27.542 and winning in this very different age? 40:27.542 --> 40:31.880 - Illicit-- - Illicit trade, influence, 40:31.880 --> 40:33.660 and messaging. 40:33.660 --> 40:36.580 - Yeah. (clears throat) 40:36.580 --> 40:41.580 First of all, I have an organization that's probably got 95% 40:42.350 --> 40:45.760 of our cyber capability in the US government 40:45.760 --> 40:48.300 called US Cyber Command, obviously. 40:48.300 --> 40:51.820 And the number one mission that US Cyber Command has 40:51.820 --> 40:56.820 right now, is the protection of our election infrastructure 40:57.840 --> 41:01.810 and blocking or aiding the blocking 41:01.810 --> 41:05.760 and identification blocking of the influence campaign. 41:05.760 --> 41:09.800 So we reveal, obviously, a lot of this information. 41:09.800 --> 41:10.890 We keep track of it, 41:10.890 --> 41:14.303 we work with private internet providers, 41:15.290 --> 41:17.100 content providers. 41:17.100 --> 41:18.820 You know their names. 41:18.820 --> 41:22.400 And we alert them via the FBI, the police, 41:22.400 --> 41:24.260 the law enforcement effort. 41:24.260 --> 41:29.260 But right now, it is a, all hands on deck at Cyber Command 41:30.390 --> 41:34.480 effort to keep our democratic processes 41:34.480 --> 41:36.380 free and unencumbered. 41:36.380 --> 41:39.340 It's very difficult because we have freedom of speech 41:39.340 --> 41:43.340 in this country, and how do you fare it out what's going on 41:43.340 --> 41:48.340 from foreign countries that are actually using 41:48.710 --> 41:52.350 basically, biased information or false information 41:52.350 --> 41:56.100 to incite cleavages inside our own society. 41:56.100 --> 41:59.000 It's going to take an informed electorate 41:59.000 --> 42:01.060 in order to maintain this. 42:01.060 --> 42:03.820 This is not something that military does alone, 42:03.820 --> 42:07.600 that certainly the military has an obligation to protect 42:07.600 --> 42:11.790 the country from that sort of thing, and to alert the FBI 42:11.790 --> 42:14.470 and the Department of Homeland Security 42:14.470 --> 42:17.750 when we see it coming, so we're working hard at it. 42:17.750 --> 42:21.000 But it's an area that we have got to balance 42:21.000 --> 42:24.880 our Constitutional freedoms and not inhibit those 42:24.880 --> 42:29.880 even as we try to maintain the integrity of the election 42:30.350 --> 42:35.140 and of the campaigner's messages, so they're not having 42:35.140 --> 42:38.860 their message misconstrued by others. 42:38.860 --> 42:43.080 Tough issue, but we're up for it, and we're looking forward 42:43.080 --> 42:46.650 to it because when it comes to protecting the country, 42:46.650 --> 42:50.660 in this day and age, it's not just about you know, 42:50.660 --> 42:53.300 guns and ships and that sort of thing. 42:53.300 --> 42:56.123 This is a very powerful weapon in the hands of people 42:56.123 --> 42:58.743 that know what they're doing and our adversaries do. 43:00.686 --> 43:03.653 - Mr. Secretary, I wanna move to space for a moment. 43:04.865 --> 43:06.823 And this is a question from the audience: 43:06.823 --> 43:10.623 With space now being considered a war-fighting domain, 43:11.750 --> 43:15.020 what do you think our objectives should be? 43:15.020 --> 43:18.580 And from a planning perspective, what are some new factors 43:18.580 --> 43:19.900 planners should think about 43:19.900 --> 43:23.690 when considering space, time, and force? 43:23.690 --> 43:27.070 - Yeah, space has definitely become competitive. 43:27.070 --> 43:32.070 We watched when the Chinese shot their obsolete satellite 43:32.470 --> 43:36.610 out of the air, blew it to pieces, and we've watched other 43:36.610 --> 43:41.450 nations putting capabilities into space, and I would just 43:41.450 --> 43:45.030 tell you that it's basically two-pronged. 43:45.030 --> 43:46.610 One, it's defend. 43:46.610 --> 43:50.220 We have to defend what we have in outer space that is used 43:50.220 --> 43:55.000 for navigation, communication, peaceful purposes, commerce, 43:55.000 --> 43:57.093 banking, all these kind of things. 43:58.270 --> 44:03.270 And military intelligence, surveillance satellites. 44:03.290 --> 44:06.570 We're going to have to put satellites out that can be 44:06.570 --> 44:11.570 defended or can be resilient against attack, resistant 44:11.570 --> 44:15.260 to attack, or can be replaced swiftly, that sort of thing. 44:15.260 --> 44:17.730 So we're going to have to defend what we have. 44:17.730 --> 44:20.900 But also, we're going to have to be prepared to use 44:20.900 --> 44:25.120 offensive weapons in space, should someone decide 44:25.120 --> 44:28.020 to militarize it and go on the offensive. 44:28.020 --> 44:31.066 You cannot simply play defense. 44:31.066 --> 44:34.510 No sport in the world, competitive sport in the world 44:34.510 --> 44:36.620 can just play defense and win. 44:36.620 --> 44:40.880 And this is not an area that we want to be second place in. 44:40.880 --> 44:45.610 So the points I would make are that first, that we're going 44:45.610 --> 44:49.550 to need some sort of, I would call it 44:50.420 --> 44:53.410 concept of how we're going to conduct ourselves 44:53.410 --> 44:55.570 in space, that's all of us, internationally, 44:55.570 --> 44:57.290 what are we going to do. 44:57.290 --> 45:00.040 Then we're going to have to recognize if nations are not 45:00.040 --> 45:03.270 willing to live by those rules, such as we've seen 45:03.270 --> 45:06.860 on this planet down here below, we're going to have to have 45:06.860 --> 45:11.740 the ability to defend and the ability to do offense. 45:11.740 --> 45:14.640 In that regard, the President has been very clear 45:14.640 --> 45:18.410 that he wants to organize accordingly so what we will do 45:18.410 --> 45:23.090 is put together a command that can compete in space 45:23.090 --> 45:26.210 on whatever level an adversary wants to compete, 45:26.210 --> 45:29.650 chooses to compete, and then we're going to ensure 45:29.650 --> 45:33.590 that we go to Congress with how we believe we can best 45:33.590 --> 45:37.550 organize, not for a bureaucracy, but for the capabilities 45:37.550 --> 45:40.630 the President, the Vice President have rightly directed 45:40.630 --> 45:45.630 that we have so that we don't surrender what we do in space 45:45.710 --> 45:50.170 using space for commerce or navigation or anything else. 45:50.170 --> 45:53.030 It's critical to our economy, it's critical to our way 45:53.030 --> 45:55.690 of life now, we've grown reliant on it. 45:55.690 --> 45:58.920 So we're organizing appropriately, and we'll go forward 46:00.250 --> 46:03.720 obviously, with Congress right alongside us if they have 46:03.720 --> 46:06.210 to enable it with legislation, 46:06.210 --> 46:08.243 and carry out the President's direction. 46:10.060 --> 46:13.260 - If you did not see it, the Secretary had some very 46:13.260 --> 46:16.820 interesting remarks at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain 46:16.820 --> 46:21.583 about Yemen, about the killing of Khashoggi. 46:22.910 --> 46:26.450 And I wanna pick up on that thread and one of the questions 46:26.450 --> 46:28.650 has come from the media: 46:28.650 --> 46:32.300 In the wake of the death of Jamal Khashoggi, and a continued 46:32.300 --> 46:36.210 uptick in civilian casualties in Yemen, do you believe 46:36.210 --> 46:38.630 that Saudi Arabia has made a good faith effort 46:38.630 --> 46:41.740 to reduce harm in this conflict? 46:41.740 --> 46:46.740 And what do you hope to see Saudi and the UAE do to improve 46:46.980 --> 46:50.680 as the State Department looks toward another certification 46:50.680 --> 46:53.850 of US refueling support to those two allies? 46:53.850 --> 46:57.280 - Yeah, well, what was referred to the killing of Khashoggi, 46:57.280 --> 47:00.730 I'd say the murder of Khashoggi (clears throat) is I would 47:00.730 --> 47:05.730 separate it out from the Yemen situation that stands 47:06.716 --> 47:10.810 unique by itself, the President said we want to get 47:10.810 --> 47:13.500 to the bottom, we will get to the bottom of it. 47:13.500 --> 47:16.370 And as you know, Turkey has 47:17.422 --> 47:20.750 so far provided evidence for every allegation 47:20.750 --> 47:23.260 that they have made about what happened. 47:23.260 --> 47:28.260 And so, no one nation controls all the information. 47:28.620 --> 47:33.060 And I spoke to the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia 47:33.060 --> 47:35.580 two days ago in Manama, 47:35.580 --> 47:39.403 and he said there would be a full investigation. 47:41.310 --> 47:44.585 Let me swing over to Yemen, separate issue. 47:44.585 --> 47:46.890 (clears throat) What we have been providing 47:46.890 --> 47:50.750 since the last administration or in the last administration 47:50.750 --> 47:54.610 we reviewed it when we came in very carefully. 47:54.610 --> 47:58.250 In regards to this war that's going on there 47:58.250 --> 48:00.250 between the Arab coalition 48:02.316 --> 48:04.440 and the Houthis, 48:04.440 --> 48:07.980 the last administration agreed to provide certain 48:07.980 --> 48:10.760 information, refueling supports 48:10.760 --> 48:15.110 so that pilots didn't feel they had to make a hasty decision 48:15.110 --> 48:18.560 about to drop or not to drop, that sort of thing. 48:18.560 --> 48:22.960 We refuel probably less than 20, I think less than 20% 48:22.960 --> 48:25.010 of their aircraft, they have their own refuelers, 48:25.010 --> 48:26.174 by the way. 48:26.174 --> 48:27.610 (clears throat) But what is it 48:27.610 --> 48:30.060 that we are pushing for at this point? 48:30.060 --> 48:32.890 For months, we have been holding classes on 48:32.890 --> 48:36.660 how do you actually establish no-fire areas, 48:36.660 --> 48:39.220 what do you do for restricted fire areas, 48:39.220 --> 48:42.013 how do you calculate the effects of bombs, 48:44.970 --> 48:47.960 how do you then investigate what happened. 48:47.960 --> 48:52.930 Some people have a very high expectation demonstrated 48:52.930 --> 48:56.430 by the US or the NATO air forces of what can be 48:56.430 --> 49:00.700 accomplished and we have achieved through enormous effort, 49:00.700 --> 49:04.810 training, technology, and putting it all together. 49:04.810 --> 49:07.990 Even then, we've had mistakes, but in our forces, 49:07.990 --> 49:11.030 we have set a standard that is very high. 49:11.030 --> 49:13.890 The commander of the Royal Saudi Air Force had been going 49:13.890 --> 49:17.200 from base to base as we continue the training 49:17.200 --> 49:20.940 and the conferences for them, and he's looking his pilots 49:20.940 --> 49:24.670 in the eye explaining that there is never a reason to drop 49:24.670 --> 49:27.410 if they don't think they can hit the right target. 49:27.410 --> 49:30.520 Now, war, I will just tell you, I've got a little experience 49:30.520 --> 49:35.090 in it, is basically one tragedy piled upon another tragedy. 49:35.090 --> 49:37.020 You know, welcome to war. 49:37.020 --> 49:41.990 But our goal right now is to achieve a level 49:43.246 --> 49:48.246 of capability by those forces fighting against the Houthis 49:48.493 --> 49:52.260 that they are not killing innocent people. 49:52.260 --> 49:56.040 The longer-term solution, and by longer-term I mean 30 days 49:56.040 --> 49:59.500 from now, we wanna see everybody around a peace table 49:59.500 --> 50:03.320 based on a ceasefire, based on a pullback from the border, 50:03.320 --> 50:06.420 and then based on ceasing dropping of bombs 50:06.420 --> 50:09.300 that will permit the Special Envoy, Martin Griffiths, 50:09.300 --> 50:12.210 he's very good, he knows what he's doing, 50:12.210 --> 50:15.180 to get them together in Sweden and end this war. 50:15.180 --> 50:18.543 That is the only way we're going to really solve this. 50:19.637 --> 50:23.860 And improved accuracy of bombs is still a war. 50:23.860 --> 50:26.780 So we've got to move toward a peace effort here, 50:26.780 --> 50:29.810 and we can't say we're going to do it sometime 50:29.810 --> 50:33.520 in the future, we need to be doing this in the next 30 days. 50:33.520 --> 50:36.710 We've admired this problem for long enough down there. 50:36.710 --> 50:40.620 And I believe that the Saudis and the Emirates are ready, 50:40.620 --> 50:42.527 and in fact, that the Houthis have not walked out 50:42.527 --> 50:46.300 on the last effort that Martin Griffiths had going, 50:46.300 --> 50:48.723 we would probably be on our way there right now. 50:51.396 --> 50:53.650 - Mr. Secretary, this is a question from Peter Nielsen 50:53.650 --> 50:55.660 of the Embassy of Denmark: 50:55.660 --> 50:59.020 You spend a lot of time and energy in strengthening 50:59.020 --> 51:01.423 cooperation with allies and partners. 51:02.830 --> 51:07.360 What do you see as the major accomplishments in this area? 51:07.360 --> 51:08.760 And what are the challenges 51:08.760 --> 51:10.873 and opportunities looking forward? 51:12.300 --> 51:16.270 - You know, it's been eye-opening as I came into this job 51:16.270 --> 51:20.060 that I never aspired to, I've never met President Trump 51:20.060 --> 51:24.233 before he called me back to Bedminster as President-elect. 51:26.242 --> 51:27.423 And met with him. 51:28.890 --> 51:32.040 I had my views, I was out at Stanford University 51:32.040 --> 51:35.540 and I had time to study. 51:35.540 --> 51:40.540 I did not realize just how much other nations, I mean, 51:40.590 --> 51:43.980 I'd read about it, I did not realize how many other nations 51:43.980 --> 51:47.360 looked to us as a calming 51:47.360 --> 51:49.770 or a confidence-building 51:51.350 --> 51:52.650 partner for them. 51:52.650 --> 51:56.010 And wherever I go, I find from South America 51:56.010 --> 52:00.030 to the Middle East, certainly to the Pacific, 52:00.030 --> 52:03.130 certainly in Brussels at the NATO meetings, 52:03.130 --> 52:06.080 that they all want us to stay. 52:06.080 --> 52:07.943 They all want us to keep at it. 52:08.840 --> 52:10.360 So, where are we right now? 52:10.360 --> 52:15.150 I went to NATO, my first meeting there, I had been a 52:15.150 --> 52:18.560 Supreme Allied Commander before in uniform, I knew many 52:18.560 --> 52:21.350 of the people that are on the staffs, knew many of the 52:21.350 --> 52:26.010 principals sitting around the table from my previous days. 52:26.010 --> 52:29.823 And I assumed when I went there, I was going to lose some, 52:30.670 --> 52:35.480 some rapport with nations' representatives, who represented 52:35.480 --> 52:38.560 their own nations, their own nations' interests. 52:38.560 --> 52:43.420 So when I said, there was no way I could go back 52:43.420 --> 52:48.420 to America and ask about American parents to care more 52:48.820 --> 52:52.610 about the freedoms that European children enjoy 52:52.610 --> 52:55.870 than European parents did that they were going to have 52:55.870 --> 53:00.870 to pay a modicum for the best defense in the world, 53:01.120 --> 53:03.420 and what is that modicum? 53:03.420 --> 53:04.690 2%. 53:04.690 --> 53:08.800 I recognize that only leaves 98% for everything else. 53:08.800 --> 53:12.670 But I think we can afford 2% for what grew out 53:12.670 --> 53:14.740 of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment 53:14.740 --> 53:17.080 to survive in this world. 53:17.080 --> 53:21.950 And I think we have to recognize after 2014 especially, 53:21.950 --> 53:26.080 that things began changing, that it was no longer the same 53:26.080 --> 53:30.110 Europe that it was before Putin began his adventures 53:30.110 --> 53:33.640 and terrorists began shooting up the streets at Paris, 53:33.640 --> 53:35.700 Brussels, and elsewhere. 53:35.700 --> 53:39.040 I expected to lose rapport, I did not. 53:39.040 --> 53:41.760 Now, ladies and gentlemen, I had heard this first when I sat 53:41.760 --> 53:46.760 behind Secretary Perry when I was Executive Secretary 53:46.880 --> 53:51.120 in 199--Rudy, what was it, back in the last millennium, 53:51.120 --> 53:55.470 1997 I think, I had first heard him say, 53:55.470 --> 53:59.310 that you have got to be paying more, we cannot continue 53:59.310 --> 54:03.190 to carry this, well I heard it also from Secretary Cohen, 54:03.190 --> 54:06.060 I heard it from Secretary Rumsfeld. 54:06.060 --> 54:06.893 I heard it 54:08.210 --> 54:10.090 from Secretary Gates, 54:10.090 --> 54:13.720 as a four-star when I was a NATO Supreme Commander. 54:13.720 --> 54:17.490 This was not a new message, the difference was the 54:17.490 --> 54:21.630 extremely strong statement of the President 54:21.630 --> 54:23.833 that it had gone on long enough. 54:24.770 --> 54:27.500 And I was trying to think of how to put it to our allies 54:27.500 --> 54:29.080 where it was not adversarial, 54:29.080 --> 54:32.770 it's not about being adversarial or antagonistic. 54:32.770 --> 54:37.350 And I was coming out of Denver on my way east to go through 54:37.350 --> 54:41.180 Senate confirmation, and you've all heard it 100 times, 54:41.180 --> 54:43.560 you know what I'm going to say, the stewardess got up 54:43.560 --> 54:47.540 and she said, in the event we lose cabin pressure, 54:47.540 --> 54:49.650 the mask will drop. 54:49.650 --> 54:54.650 Put your own mask on first and then help those around you. 54:55.050 --> 54:59.700 But I would call this is we are when we talk about America 54:59.700 --> 55:01.780 first, it's not America alone. 55:01.780 --> 55:04.880 We are trying to get our own economic house in order, 55:04.880 --> 55:07.170 our own fiscal house in order. 55:07.170 --> 55:09.240 We're putting our own mask on first 55:09.240 --> 55:11.130 so we can help those around us. 55:11.130 --> 55:14.650 We are not a worthy ally, we are not a worthy partner 55:14.650 --> 55:17.670 for you allies in the audience, if we are not 55:17.670 --> 55:22.230 on a fiscally sustainable, economically vibrant path, 55:22.230 --> 55:26.850 because no nation has maintained its military wherewithal 55:26.850 --> 55:30.580 that didn't keep its economic and fiscal house in order. 55:30.580 --> 55:32.960 So that's the approach we're taking. 55:32.960 --> 55:37.520 It has not cost me the rapport I anticipated, in fact, 55:37.520 --> 55:42.520 in the alliance today like I said early on, 27 of 29 nations 55:43.080 --> 55:46.950 are raising their funding. 55:46.950 --> 55:47.810 And in fact, 55:47.810 --> 55:52.790 all 29 if you look at the overall what they account for 55:52.790 --> 55:57.790 in terms of defense spending, all 29 today are raising 55:57.830 --> 56:01.300 the amount of money they spend, they commit to defense. 56:01.300 --> 56:04.920 So I'm relatively optimistic about where we're at right now 56:04.920 --> 56:09.290 with allies, with NATO being, I think, a very representative 56:09.290 --> 56:11.420 example of where we're at. 56:11.420 --> 56:14.360 Hasn't been easy in a lot of strong words, 56:14.360 --> 56:16.770 but that's what democracies do with each other. 56:16.770 --> 56:19.540 They stand up and say where they stand. 56:19.540 --> 56:22.920 At the end of the day though, we are together 100% 56:22.920 --> 56:25.200 when it comes to putting German battalion 56:25.200 --> 56:30.150 into the Lithuanian forest and a dozen other NATO nations 56:30.150 --> 56:33.690 are there under the German Lieutenant Colonel's command who 56:33.690 --> 56:37.330 is serving under the Lithuanian Brigade Commander's command. 56:37.330 --> 56:41.650 You can see NATO working from the front edge of the Baltics 56:41.650 --> 56:45.020 all the way back to Brussels and then the nations' capitals. 56:45.020 --> 56:46.610 I went on a little bit at length, 56:46.610 --> 56:49.800 but you can see why I only have three lines of effort: 56:49.800 --> 56:51.923 Make the US military more lethal, 56:52.800 --> 56:56.040 build stronger partnerships with our partners and allies, 56:56.040 --> 56:58.950 and reform how the Defense Department does business 56:58.950 --> 57:01.640 so I can look you all in the eye and say we're spending your 57:01.640 --> 57:05.970 money properly, and we're getting more lethal out of it. 57:05.970 --> 57:08.180 And I would just tell you in that regard 57:08.180 --> 57:11.730 for the first time in 70 years, we're having an audit done 57:11.730 --> 57:15.580 of the US Department of Defense so I can look you in the eye 57:15.580 --> 57:18.680 and say in the midst of all this, we're not taking your 57:18.680 --> 57:21.690 money and flushing it down the drain, we're gonna find a lot 57:21.690 --> 57:23.570 of problem in that audit, we're gonna fix it, 57:23.570 --> 57:26.663 we're gonna tell you about 'em, we're gonna fix every one. 57:27.690 --> 57:30.357 - Mr. Secretary, I wanna ask a last question and-- 57:30.357 --> 57:32.020 - Oh, thank god. - Heh-heh. 57:32.020 --> 57:33.680 (laughter) 57:33.680 --> 57:37.040 It's been quite a tour of the world, 57:37.040 --> 57:40.140 and we thank you for the time. 57:40.140 --> 57:43.090 And I wanna suggest maybe a fourth line of effort, 57:43.090 --> 57:46.700 because when you've talked about Syria, and Iraq, 57:46.700 --> 57:50.310 and Afghanistan, Yemen, and the issue of fragile states 57:50.310 --> 57:51.930 we talked about earlier. 57:51.930 --> 57:54.070 There are a lot of people who say that if you're gonna deal 57:54.070 --> 57:57.430 with those kinds of problems, you need yes, defense, 57:57.430 --> 58:00.900 but you need development, you need diplomacy, 58:00.900 --> 58:03.290 some would say you need democracy, 58:03.290 --> 58:06.460 but in any event you need some kind of good governance. 58:06.460 --> 58:11.460 So are we adequately resourcing all elements of that 58:13.200 --> 58:15.380 Pentateuch, if you will, 58:15.380 --> 58:17.710 and how are we doing within the government 58:17.710 --> 58:21.010 about coordinating all of these so that we can imply them 58:21.010 --> 58:24.030 against the challenges that we see in fragile states 58:24.030 --> 58:26.420 that are so often source of conflict? 58:26.420 --> 58:29.100 - Well, we can always coordinate inside the government 58:29.100 --> 58:30.160 better (clears throat). 58:30.160 --> 58:33.170 As we look back in history, from that nasty argument 58:33.170 --> 58:37.260 with King George III, we decided to set up a government that 58:37.260 --> 58:41.070 could never be a king over us, it would not be efficient. 58:41.070 --> 58:44.770 And we set it up intentionally that three different branches 58:44.770 --> 58:48.570 of government would be coequal and compete, and one of 'em 58:48.570 --> 58:50.550 had a bicameral legislature just 58:50.550 --> 58:52.750 to add a little more fuel to the fire. 58:52.750 --> 58:56.180 So for those of you who are allies, partners in the room, 58:56.180 --> 58:59.290 who we frustrate often, I would just tell you we are 58:59.290 --> 59:02.080 accomplishing the very purpose of our Founding Fathers 59:02.080 --> 59:04.433 because we frustrate ourselves even more. 59:05.420 --> 59:07.830 So we can always collaborate better. 59:07.830 --> 59:11.730 One thing that Bob Gates, when he was Secretary of Defense, 59:11.730 --> 59:15.400 Dr. Gates used to say to us, the only thing that allows 59:15.400 --> 59:17.400 government to work at the top levels 59:19.700 --> 59:24.120 is the trusted, personal relations between those at the top. 59:24.120 --> 59:27.070 And for all you young people in the audience who wonder 59:27.070 --> 59:30.000 sometimes about going to work in the government, 59:30.000 --> 59:33.530 if you put others first, if you decide to go into government 59:33.530 --> 59:38.350 don't forget what Dr. Gates said, a long time civil servant, 59:38.350 --> 59:42.870 because we can make this experiment in democracy work 59:42.870 --> 59:45.500 but we're gonna have to work together on it. 59:45.500 --> 59:48.660 And we need young people to come in to do it, we can always 59:48.660 --> 59:52.580 collaborate better and a spirative collaboration has always 59:52.580 --> 59:55.793 gotta be there if we're going to make it work. 59:58.980 --> 01:00:02.770 I don't know, when you said are we providing enough 01:00:02.770 --> 01:00:04.810 in development funds. 01:00:04.810 --> 01:00:08.310 You know, in Germany they have to provide for every dollar 01:00:08.310 --> 01:00:11.470 that goes into national defense, they have to provide 01:00:11.470 --> 01:00:14.270 a dollar to development funds. 01:00:14.270 --> 01:00:19.270 In Norway, they have very robust efforts to teach 01:00:19.730 --> 01:00:23.953 good governance and reward it with development money. 01:00:24.790 --> 01:00:27.320 It's a very disciplined process. 01:00:27.320 --> 01:00:31.730 My point is one of the reasons we need allies in this world, 01:00:31.730 --> 01:00:35.610 it's very simple, in history, nations with allies thrive, 01:00:35.610 --> 01:00:37.500 nations without 'em die. 01:00:37.500 --> 01:00:41.300 Our allies have many of these issues worked out 01:00:41.300 --> 01:00:46.300 in a much more coherent manner because their programs 01:00:46.730 --> 01:00:51.730 are developed from the ground up in a much more, 01:00:52.540 --> 01:00:55.490 I would call, less complex government than we have 01:00:55.490 --> 01:00:57.210 and smaller government. 01:00:57.210 --> 01:01:01.670 So it's easier for them to apply their resources in areas 01:01:01.670 --> 01:01:05.030 that we can come in and reinforce what they're doing. 01:01:05.030 --> 01:01:08.880 We can work together with them and get a much better return 01:01:08.880 --> 01:01:12.960 on the effort, but we're going to have to work with allies. 01:01:12.960 --> 01:01:16.080 No one nation on its own can defend itself, 01:01:16.080 --> 01:01:19.640 no one nation on its own can deal with bad governance 01:01:19.640 --> 01:01:24.640 or transnational criminals or something like that. 01:01:24.730 --> 01:01:27.510 We're going to have to work together. 01:01:27.510 --> 01:01:29.310 So, are we doing enough? 01:01:29.310 --> 01:01:32.110 I think together we probably are, but we could be a lot more 01:01:32.110 --> 01:01:35.979 coherent on the national and international level. 01:01:35.979 --> 01:01:37.590 And we're gonna have to stay committed to it. 01:01:37.590 --> 01:01:39.530 But thanks very much, Steve. 01:01:39.530 --> 01:01:42.300 - It was a tour de force, please join me in thanking 01:01:42.300 --> 01:01:44.147 Secretary Mattis for his time tonight. 01:01:44.147 --> 01:01:45.371 Thank you, sir. 01:01:45.371 --> 01:01:47.621 (clapping) 01:01:55.950 --> 01:01:57.800 - [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated 01:01:57.800 --> 01:01:59.473 until official party departs. 01:02:03.135 --> 01:02:05.385 (laughter)