Transcripts For CSPAN Countering Violent Extremism 20180108

Good afternoon, welcome to the first monday, the first working monday in january. This is a partnership of three organizations. My name is adam powell, i am the director of washington operations of the university of Southern California Annenberg Center for communication leadership and policy. Im also president of the Public Diplomacy council. Those are two of the partners in these events. He third partner is the Public Diplomacy alumni association. Im pleased to have the president of that organization ere to also welcome you. Its my pleasure to welcome all of you. If i could take a moment to just highlight three events that many of you will be interested in. The office of the historian of the department of state is putting out the volume of the Foreign Relations of the United States, the documents for Public Diplomacy from 1961 to 963. Which is the kennedy period when many of us date back to. They are going to be releasing it, 20 at the door. You do have to sign up in advance. I think it will be a very interesting exploration of the history of Public Diplomacy. Secondly, one of the things pdaa does is provides awards for the current great Public Diplomacy work that department of state, Public Diplomacy fficers are doing. We give the awards in may and were beginning to request nominations through the state department over the next month or so. I would ask any of you with contacts right now in the field to encourage them to ominate. There are people doing good work for that award. If any of you who are members r would like to consider being members of p. D. A. Would like to contribute to the award fund, you are more than welcome. Thirdly, on february 12 at noon we will have our Lunch Program over at decor house. Called democracy in human ights and diplomacy. We look forward to many of you coming. You will get information in our newsletter if you are members which will arrive on january 22, also digitally. Hanks very much. Thanks, cynthia. Reef a Fourth Organization which has been essential these six years of these rograms. That is the American Foreign ervice association which has graciously hosted these events as i said for six years. But to todays program. Cities and combating violent extremism. Our speaker is mike duffin, his full bio is in your package. Hes held a number of positions in the state department. Hes been a school teacher. He has contributed to articles to the chicago tribune, chicago suntimes, and other ublications. And he is someone who holds three advanced degrees. He has one from Johns Hopkins in international relations. E has one from northwestern in journalism. And one from the university of Southern California in Public Diplomacy. Mike duffin, the floor is yours. [applause] [inaudible] michael there is a price to pay with that education. I want to thank adam and the Public Diplomacy council for inviting me to speak here today and thank you for showing up. I know the weather has warmed p. Can you hear me now . O. It helps if the mike is turned on. Michael can you hear me now . Yes. Michael thank you so much for coming. I know the weather warmed up a little bit, but obviously its still pretty cold. I would like to thank adam and the Public Diplomacy council for inviting me here today to speak. Thank you for being here. We have a Diverse Group of people in the audience. ll try to keep the jargon and acronyms to a minimum. If there is anything that needs clarification, please let me know. Obviously well have a q a session at the end. If for some reason you dont have a chance to ask me a question, look me up on twitter, im happy to respond there as well. Let me first begin by talking about the last couple of years in terms of countering violent extremism. We have seen a disturbing uptick in the number of mass casualty incidents in cities. Any have been perpetrated by isis and its supporters. Prior to november, 2015, isis was urging supporters to come to the socalled caliphate in syria and iraq. Tens of thousands of men, women, and children answered that call. But with paris and other attacks, they were now telling their supporters to commit acts of violence in their own communities using whatever means necessary. The attacks listed here are meant to show the geographic diversity of isis influence. Some attackers were directly instructed by isis. While others were merely nspired by them. Some used explosives. Some used firearms. Some used knives. And others used vehicles to ill and injure dozens of eople. At the state department were both proactive and reactive in our approach to defeating isis. We train Law Enforcement in how to detect and interdict terrorist plots. This is what we refer to as c. T. We often say we cannot arrest our way out of the problem. Which is why countering violent extremism is so important. C. B. E. Is an umbrella term for a range of activities prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation. Youll hear some people use building resilience against violent extremism. Some people say Building Social ohesion. The focus here is the actual activities that are directed owards countering isis and other groups. There are four basic principles of c. V. E. Efforts internationally. First, we need to identify the source of the problem and make sure our programs are appropriately designed to achieve our goals. Second, we need to encourage the various branches of government to work together. The ministries of health and education, for example, are importing critical partners in this effort. We also need to encourage governments to partner with Civil Society, which requires a considerable amount of trust. Third, we need the stakeholders to share practices, good practices with each other. We say good not best practices because certainly no one has found a way to absolutely counter, prevent violent extremism. While every community is unique, there is a lot someone in lebanon can learn from someone in montreal and vice versa. We need these good practices institutionalized. When the educator or Community Leader takes a different position when they move on, we need someone who can take their place and pick up where they left off. Lastly, we need to bring more stakeholders into the fold. At the most granular level, c. V. E. Is about engaging atrisk individuals and ensuring that they build up enough resilience to reject violent extremism. Beyond Law Enforcement we need parents, educators, coaches, counselors, and Business Owners to get involved. We may not consider an internship a c. V. E. Program, but if its engaging, if its training an atrisk individual, later on they will be more likely to resist the recruitment pitch of a violent xtremist organization. One of the ways we have tried to promote a whole of government and whole of Society Approach is through the strong ities network. Created in september, 2015, the network started with 25 members and now has 125. Its a first Global Network for cities focused on countering violent extremism. Not all members face a threat from isis. Some face threats from the far right. And some face threats from the far left. There are currently 10 u. S. Members of the Strong Cities network. Members connect online and in person through workshops, annual global meeting, and exchanges. He United States and several other governments support s. C. N. And is run through the london based institute for Strategic Dialogue. The networks policies are determined by the 26member steering committee. In addition to our direct support of s. C. N. , my office works closely with the state Departments International Business Leadership program to develop exchanges that support participation in the network. In march, 2016, the inaugural s. C. N. Brought one city official and one Civil Society representative from 10 s. C. N. Members to the United States for a three weeks. Such exchanges help expose Exchange Visitors to good practices in the u. S. , and they also help spread awareness about s. C. N. Among u. S. Cities. Because s. C. N. Has multiple events around the world each year, there are numerous opportunities for members of the multicountry exchanges to interact. Its essentially built in lumni network. In fact, at least five members of the original s. C. N. Have been to both annual meetings. They keep in touch on facebook and collaborated with each other on their work. In may, 2016, turkey hosted the inaugural s. C. N. Noble noble meeting. About 200 people from 40 countries attended this event. Which highlighted the diversity. We had chattanooga mayor speaking there. Talk about a july, 2015 attack in chattanooga that killed five ilitary members at a recruiting station in chattanooga. We had a mayor from nigeria talk about his experience being bducted by boko haram. We had a former white supremacist talk about his exit from the skinhead movement. We also had a survivor of the ttack in norway talk about that ordeal. A year later, denmark hosted the Second Annual global meeting. This time about 500 people from 50 countries attended. We had anaheim mayor, Los Angeles Deputy mayor, and delegations from las vegas, louisville, and san diego in attendance. To the right, right over here, we have the mayor hans. Its a city north of brussels n belgium. Partnership between the state department and the department of Homeland Security office of civil rights and civil liberties. This twoway Exchange Program has connected about 20 cities around the world with u. S. Counterparts. Our embassys identified the International Cities first. Then we work with d. H. S. To identify excuse me, we work with d. H. S. To identify the appropriate u. S. Partner city. We try to identify cities with complementary skill sets and those that express an interest in maintaining connections beyond the exchange. These cities arent necessarily part of the Strong Cities network, although some of them are. We certainly those who are not, we encourage them to join. One point i want to mention is when people think of cities to partner with International Cities, the first one may be like los angeles or minneapolis. The problem is when you have repeated delegations going to the same city, thats taxing on their schedules and we want connections that people who have the time, capacity to engage their international counterparts. Today we Exchange Business cards, we want connections where when we introduce them to their u. S. Counterparts, they have the ability and interest in following up and forming partnerships. As you know require a lot of time and effort. Each delegation has five to nine people. And typically include someone from the mayors office, a Law Enforcement official, religious leader, and representatives from Civil Society. One delegation will spend about a week in the others city, meeting with a range of stakeholders. A few months later the two cities will trade roles. Its hard to quantify the success of the c. V. E. Program, but in one instance we can. N 2014, we partner lavorta with columbus, ohio. It had the highest number of people departing from their city to syria and iraq. After updating their community ngagement strategy following the exchange, the departures stopped. We recognize that there are multiple factors involved, but we have heard from several cities how these exchanges have elped. Vilvoorde eventually joined s. C. N. And the mayor speaks around the world about the effort. This is a small municipality, we were able to bring the mayor and police chief, they were able to participate in this xchange. Obviously if earlier this year we did an exchange between london last year, we did an exchange between london and los angeles, it was not feasible to ask the mayors to participate. We were able to get the deputy mayor of los angeles, the Deputy Police chief to participate. Its to say there is a value in engaging smaller cities. These exchanges may have more of an impact. Thats not to say they dont have an impact with larger cities. In december, 2016, we partnered in marsailles with orlando and tampa. E actually had this exchange planned well before the pulse nightclub attack. There was nothing that we knew about a threat there. It just so happened they were very good at community engagement. That was something we wanted to highlight with the delegation from marseille. We arranged meetings with the mayors from orlando and tampa which complemented meetings with stakeholders on the ground. Such engagements allow us to put c. V. E. On the radar of u. S. Ayors. Who can champion the issue better than i can. One thing about mayor dyer, hes been very generous with his time. We had an ivlp come through from canada and we had a meeting scheduled with the mayors office. Not necessarily with the mayor. He decided when he saw that this group was in, he decided to meet with them. He spoke to them for about an hour or so. For a mayor of a u. S. Major city thats extraordinary that ommitment to this issue. This past december we brought a delegation from manchester to boston. Both cities have experienced major terrorist attacks. Manchester wanted to learn about bostons efforts to promote resilience following the Boston Marathon bombing. Some of the delegates never worked together. So spending a week in boston helped them build critical relationships. They also developed some ideas for new programming based on bostons efforts to engage atrisk youth. I was there. E visited a gymnasium that trains young people who have recently been incarcerated, trained them to become personal trainers. There is a mentoring component to that. That was one example where the delegation from manchester, they were really excited about the program. Not to say they are going to necessarily develop a program like that, but they were inspired. As we speak, a delegation from boston is traveling to manchester for the second half of that exchange. In april we brought representatives from 10 s. C. N. Embers in kosovo and macedonia to the u. S. These two countries have had some of the highest per capita number of people depart for syria and iraq. The western balkans also accounts for about 1 3 of s. C. N. Membership. This exchange exposed them to good practices in the u. S. And helped them connect to each other. We chose to send them to tennessee and georgia to learn about interchange in the civil rights movement. Met with the mayors of nashville and chattanooga and visited atlanta. The one thing i would like to point out, cities in kosovo and macedonia are not necessarily comparable to the their large cities are not comparable to ours. For me it didnt make sense to send a group from there to new york or los angeles. Thats not to say atlanta is a small city, but in the case of chattanooga, 130,000 people, he population, they did have the opportunity to sit down, meet with the mayor, police chief, everybody who is involved in the attack from two years ago. That was extraordinary for this group and quite inspiring for them. Some of the members of the delegation, one has become a member of parliament. One is the national c. V. E. Coordinator for kosovo now. One is the minister of culture, youth, and sports. So we have already had some nice returns in terms of deliverables from that exchange. Id like to talk about the next ups. A few things were planning in the future. U. S. Conference of mayors, on january, 24 the state epartment is hosting a workshop for domestic and International Mayors from canada, germany, ireland, and the u. K. We expect about 40 to 50 mayors. This has been part of an ongoing relationship we have had with u. S. Conference of mayors. I have attended they meet twice a year. Its the one form for all u. S. Mayors to get together, talk about policy issues and network. When i have attended, im looking for cities that would be interested in hosting ivlp delegations. The ones we work with, the bureau of educational and Cultural Affairs on. Identity cities that would be good for the program. And hopefully, we started doing this a little bit. Sending u. S. Mayors overseas. A lot of u. S. Cities, they are focused on international trade, foreign and direct investments, but listening to mayors talk about their policy priorities it helps to identify opportunities for them to if hey have a program that they are trying to champion. They are very open to sharing that internationally. Ill give you one example. Anaheim mayor i have been speaking to him for the last two years at the u. S. Conference of mayors meeting in indianapolis in june, 2016. I learned about his city of kindness initiative. I didnt realize when i started talking to him hes really good friends with the dalai lama. This is an initiative that has received support from lady gaga and the dalai lama. Thats just to say when i asked him to travel to denmark for the Strong Cities global meeting, part of my pitch to him was, hey, this initiative, a lot of other cities in other countries would really be interested in it. The mayor of nashville, when we brought that delegation there, the mayor has this initiative called the she started called the office of new americans. Here they help integrate newly arrived immigrants into society. So that was something that that was the hook that was what helped us set up that meeting. So its just to say that listening to mayors and their priorities is critical for hese partnerships. Next, next month were having the mayors of louisville and anaheim and possibly one other mayor travel to india to engage with indian counterparts on o the Strong Cities network. Right now we only have one member in india, so we hope to increase membership and to get cities there more active on i would say more of the broader c. V. E. , what we would call c. V. E. Relevant. They are going to visit mumbai new delhi. The mayor was so impressed with what he saw at the Strong Cities global meeting in may hat he wants to launch a yearlong campaign, the Strong Cities network messaging ampaign on kindness. One thing ill note about this, not all cities violent extremism isnt an immediate major concern for all cities. Granted, there are attacks in laces where its surprising, like that town that really small town in texas a couple months ago. But that being said, mayors are not going to allocate huge amounts of resources just because its the topic of the day or whatever. Its just to say that by investing or getting mayors to invest in social cohesion, kind f a know your neighbor initiative, thats something some cities can buy into. Ts not going to upset advocacy groups. Thats just to say that this delegation, its really important for us because its sending these high level mayors to priority country for us. Please follow twitter and ill update you guys on the progress of that. Next id like to talk to you about the south by southwest festival. This is also partnership that developed from us engaging the u. S. Conference of mayors. We have two panels, one is local leadership in the wake of terror. That will feature the mayors of chattanooga, manchester, and orlando. And well feature some of our domestic and Civil Society artners. This is just to say that i have mentioned chattanooga a couple times. Hes also traveled to the netherlands to engage in the Speaker Program for us. We certainly when, we find mayors or cities willing to engage, we engage them as much as we can. We dont want to overuse those connections. And i think sometimes mayors, they get hammered in the press by their opponents. Oh, they are traveling on an international junket. I could just tell you with the global meeting in denmark, the mayors of anaheim and chattanooga stayed in a hotel that wasnt up to par with i would say anyone in this room, let alone the mayors of major u. S. Cities. It took them over 24 hours travel time to get there. So its just to say that if we ask them once, we have to really think about asking them twice. And we have to make sure that that experience is good for them so that theyll recommend these programs to other mayors. Because we really do want to end u. S. Mayors out there to develop connections between cities. Our role, the state department role, is to facilitate that connection. Once that connection is established, we can back away and certainly we dont want to play a large role in this. We want to coordinate. This concludes the formal component of my presentation. Again, id like to thank the Public Diplomacy council for the opportunity to speak with you. Im happy to answer any and all of your questions. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you, mike. You have the first question. Thank you for your resentation. The Trump Administration has been almost virulently antimuslim and also antiimmigration. Im wondering what the impact of that attitude is on getting cooperation from muslim communities and cities around the country. Michael its hard for me to talk necessarily about does it come up in your iscussion . Michael its something that i would just say that the mayors that we talk with, domestically and internationally, they are looking i think that they recognize our role, the state epartments and its just to say that its just an issue that i think we talk on a more minute level about more of a working level about the issues. For some people its not a concern. When people have concerns, we note them. And its just to say that for us, our programs, they are focused on the tactic, ideology, and not connecting it necessarily to the muslims or islam. So i would just say that for us i think that any conversation we have, regardless of what one person or another says, there are challenges. We try and work through them. Thank you very much. Very interesting presentation. I have to say i never knew anything about the Strong Cities network before. m just wondering how you your bureau and also this particular program, how it insects, if it does, with the Global Engagement center, which is focused on countering terrorism, specifically countering violent extremism. Michael thank you. We work closely with the Global Engagement center. They have actually helped us with funding some of our activities. Its just something that were ll one happy family. The resources that we get dont necessarily cover they dont necessarily meet the demand for programming. Try to speak plainly as i can. We dont have all the money in the counterterrorism bureau. Believe it or not. So for certain activities well go to the under secretary for Public Diplomacy. O fund, for example, the mayoral delegation to india, that is something that they are funding. Hey are funding the bringing the mayors from canada, ermany, ireland, and the u. K. So i think that, you know, we definitely do work with them. We definitely do work with them. Wanted to ask you, what is the extent your work with the Strong Cities network relates to the Sister Cities International network, other mayoral networks such as the one that focuses on hiroshima and the antinuclear set of mayors that are very concerned. I think there are 250 of them. How do you interact with these already existing programs . Michael the Strong Cities etwork is not meant to compete with any existing network. So in many cases we look for ways to complement each other. Obviously as i mentioned before the institute for Strategic Dialogue, they are the implementers, they run the Strong Cities network. They are concerned about keeping the lights on in their organization. In terms of connectivity we definitely look for those opportunities. When were trying to partner an International City with a u. S. City in terms of the City Pair Program, if there are already sister cities, thats a bonus. Its just to say that the network, i think it succeeds because its not trying to take the place of any other network. And we encourage the institute for Strategic Dialogue to be friendly with any and all other etworks out there. My anderson. Retired Foreign Service officer. Is your model applicable to other global problems, and if so, is state using your model to attack other global issues . Im thinking particularly of the Climate Change issue. I have read a lot of Many American cities and governors and mayors seem interested in that issue. Wonder if they are partnering at all with counterpart cities through state . If so, is there a possibility of fatigue in terms of foreign cities, especially, being asked to partner with state on problem x, y, or z, do you see that a problem . Michael i think that we didnt invent the twoway exchange, he twinning program. I honestly dont know who started such partnerships. Its just to say that the model can be used for multiple policy priorities. Certainly the connections ill just say this. When were sending a mayor from the United States overseas, in most of the places where were sending these mayors, they dont have direct connections ith the u. S. Its a long travel time. What we try to sell them on is, you certainly are going to travel, if were paying for it, youre going to discuss our priorities, but if it leads to further connections or discussion of other topics, by ll means when were bringing the International Mayors to the United States for the u. S. Conference of mayors winter meeting, they have an entire day on their schedule of networking with other mayors. I would just say thats a bonus. Thats a good way thats a incentive for us to engage mayors. ll give you one example, with denmark, if you havent worked on countering violent extremism, you probably have not heard of that city, which s a lovely city. I have been there twice. Its just to say that because of their great work engaging atrisk their atrisk population, they have created an international reputation. I think that opens the door for further conversation on other ssues. Im just wondering, when youre trying to identify people to talk to in foreign cities, foreign countries, or when youre going through the embassy, what office within the embassy do you work with . Do you work with Public Affairs . Do you work with the political section . Who are the people that are your liaisons with the people on the ground . Michael mostly because its Public Diplomacy program i will note that me, i dont have im a Foreign Affairs officer, so initiatives like the Strong Cities network, like the City Pair Program as you are listening to me talk about them, its obvious there is a nexus with Public Diplomacy. Thats just to say our conversations are with both the Public Affairs office, Public Affairs section, and the political section. Thats just to say when we talk about a whole of government and whole of Society Approach, we need a whole of washington and a whole of embassy pproach. When its a small embassy, thats easier to do because the people are typically, as you know, close to each other. In other cases, like you probably know like in bangladesh, the Public Affairs section and political section are in completely different buildings over a mile apart. Its just to say that we try and coordinate with everybody. The one thing that i would like to do with future exchanges, secure some funding so that when the participants return home, every time there is an Exchange People come back with ideas. To have a little bit of funding to provide them to seed funding for some of these initiatives. Thats not to say that this is theres definitely room for improvement on these programs. My question dovetails on what you just said there. In terms of followup and what i call the drop in the bucket effect of exchanges where you have one or two participants from a country or city, how much effect they have on the rest of the population. You mentioned in some cases like through facebook they have kept in touch. They have continued to collaborate on projects. Do you have any sense as to what those projects or policies might be . How are they taking the information they have learned from these exchanges . How are they implementing that at home to have a wider effect . Michael in one case, in the case of france and belgium, with exchanges, when we have had people from both countries, when there is the distance isnt too great, they are actually traveling to the other persons city and helping them assess their issues what they could do. I could tell you this, of the groups i mentioned that we engage, whether its an ducator or religious leader, or lets say a Mental Health professional, counselor, religious leaders arent necessarily experts on counseling, and counselors arent necessarily experts in religious doctrine. When we can put people who havent been in a room together on a one week to three week trip, not to say they necessarily become best friends, they definitely know each other better. Its just to say that we have had people who have really c. V. E. Is an issue where if a city has one c. V. E. Coordinator, they are lucky. Los angeles has a c. V. E. Coordinator. Hat doesnt mean anaheim has a c. V. E. Coordinator. Or lets say seattle. So these individuals when they connect with people from other cities, then they are able to console each other, provide mentorship, or partnership. So i think that thats one of the values of the Strong Cities network. Yeah, its great when we can connect mayors, but its the working level people who are working on these issues. There is no one else in the building who knows what they are dealing with. Knows how to we like to talk about metrics. Ow do we know what that was your question, how do we know what were funding is actually working . Think its important for them o connect. I would also say that i definite dont want to take the credit for everything that i presented on. We work closely with d. H. S. We work with the Global Engagement center. We work with our embassies. Its critical that our embassies identify the right people. Not to say that i have seen a bad exchange, but i have seen some really good exchanges. Its because they were able to recruit dynamic people. Just because someone is the highest ranking doesnt mean they are the best fit for that exchange. Think the embassy, having those connections, whether its through the Public Affairs or the political sections, its critical that they recruit these people. The biggest one of the Biggest Challenges we have with these exchanges, were offering a free trip to the United States. But they all cannot necessarily accept them because its really difficult to take one to three weeks off. They are scared to death while they are away there is a terrorist attack. Or just the optics of it all. Its just to say it requires a lot of groundwork. So when we have done manchester, boston, l. A. , ondon, birmingham, and the u. K. With denver and aurora in colorado, there is a lot of Relationship Building that takes place. I think the twoway exchanges are really good for those cities that have really put in a lot of effort. Then like the ivlp is a conversation starter where you want them to build political will. The City Pair Program, they already have the will and they want to take their efforts to the next level. I feel like an anomaly here because i have not worked for state department. I actually work for cloud flair, an Internet Security irm. We protect about seven million ebsites from cyberattacks. I was curious how much time you and the mayors are spending talking about the web, particularly three different aspects. Some countries there is talk of trying to sensor the internet and block jihadist content. Other countries taking a smarter approach looking at those websites and try to understand whats going on and counter their messages. And then probably the most positive response, cities and countries that are trying to build online communities and provide some of the community that is often lacking in immigrant communities and elsewhere. Im curious are there cities you have worked with that are doing particularly interesting things in any of those areas . Can you point us to them . Michael messaging at this point on the city level im not going to say im not aware of it, but its just to say its ot as developed as the National Level messaging or private sector counter messaging. For us getting the mayor of anaheim and city of kindness initiative, getting the messaging campaign out, thats something that is acceptable. When you talk about, lets spread kindness. Lets have one group from one ethnicity, what one talk to another group, thats palatable for a lot of people. Hen you all of a sudden Start Talking about directly countering terrorist narratives, thats quite challenging. Our policy is not to if you take down content, then that can reinforce some of the grievances that led people to these groups. I think that thats important that we recognize the we have to promote free speech. But then also a lot of the social media companies, they have been updating their user greements. We all have been on the various sites and you can access some nasty information by extremist groups. I think that there is a smart way to do it while protecting civil rights and to protect free speech. I would say that i think that kind of the next step for the Strong Cities network, when we as we develop strong relationships with cities, they also have really good relationships with the private ector. I, mike duffin, representative f the u. S. Government going to twitter or facebook, they may not be as receptive as a mayor or someone from the community approaching them. Its just to say that its a challenge, but its something that were trying to find the ight approach. Are any of the mayors you talk to discussing the idea of isis fighters returning from the battlefield . Maybe the ones in belgium or rance or places like that . Or does not really bubble up to your level . Michael it absolutely bubbles up to my level. Ill just say that the one thing thats a very challenging issue when you have entire families who went to iraq and yria and granted the government can arrest the male and possibly the female and send them to prison for a certain amount of time, the child hasnt necessarily committed a crime, but that child is exposed to trauma which should not be left unattended. I think that its something that there are a lot of cities that have their hands full with this issue. Its something that will take a long time for them to figure out what to do. I think thats why its critical that we engage mental ealth professionals, educators, and others post9 11 we have had if you see something, say something. Its important to teach, educate people about what they are seeing and what to do about it when they see that. What we have been doing is working with other governments on the local and National Level to develop programs in the precrime space so that if a young lets say an 8yearold boy in which ever country the teacher catches him or her watching isis videos, that thats not necessarily a crime, what do you do about that . Also the challenge is in several countries they dont have a lot of people who are trained to be Mental Health professionals and what not. Ill give you one example, bangladesh, a country of about 160 million people, they have less than 200 people who are fully certified Mental Health professionals. How do we partner with them on this issue . Thats not to say were going to ramp up the number of people certified to 5,000 or 10,000, its more how do we train parents and coaches and all the people i mentioned to deal with these issues. The one area that we have really found a lot of Fertile Ground with is working with parents. Because ultimately you look at the case studies of people who have committed violent acts. What did people around them know . In some cases people they knew something was off but they werent able to connect the ots. So by having by engaging parents, teaching them what to do, thats been very helpful. The number of returning foreign fighters is quite significant. And some cases it impacts some communities disproportionately. Its definitely an issue thats on the minds of many mayors. But its just to say that its going to be a challenge harnessing the number of resources that are necessary. Quick followup. It sounds like this is one of the areas where you are developing best practices or good practices. How do you disseminate them once you identified positive approaches to the mayors involved and to others . Michael one example is the Strong Cities has an online hub. We dont necessarily expect the mayor to access the website, but its important that there is one place to go where people can go to look for this information. A working level person from the city. I will also mention the global the gctf, global counterterrorism forum. The United States and other countries have invested in, its called the lifecycle, radicalization to Violence Initiative if you google it, i know its a mouthful, if you google it there is a website that keeps it constantly is updated with all of the good or est practices. The one thing ill point out, adam, is that to join or support a terrorist organization like isis, there is all this information on the internet. So you just google isis or some key terms. You find a website or a chatroom. Someone will engage you. There are tool kits, how to commit violent acts. The magazine, inspire , or even like a larger document like the management of savagery which teaches you how to do all this stuff, then you have mentorship. You can connect with people online. But to Counter Terrorist groups, we do have the information out there, but people dont necessarily know how to access it. They dont have the mentorship. People holding their hands. If you want to start a heres a question, if you want to start a c. V. E. Program in your city, how do you do that . So i would just say that the cities that i would have in mind to have such programs may not be interested in them or there are some not on my radar that would be very interested. Its just to say that we have to explain what were doing. The Strong Cities network is designed to counter all forms of violent extremism in the bylaws it outlines were not targeting one religion, one ethnic group. I think that thats a major concern. If a mayor of whatever cities says i want to joint the Strong Cities network, they have a press release, and there are Community Groups they have a right to be concerned, but its just to say it is important that whenever we have conversations about what we want to do, we walk people through it and explain that ere not trying to discriminate, were not trying to target. The first amendment, the establishment clause does not allow us to promote one form of religion over another. I think thats all reflected in ur approach. You touched the importance of health care providers, educators, religious leaders play in c. V. E. Efforts. How can they be more involved in the future . Michael if i could talk about the practical aspect of when we have our events, melbourne, australia, is hosting the next global meeting in may. And then los angeles will ikely host it in 2019. It costs a lot of money to travel to australia or even to los angeles. And so if the state department or another organization has ome funding, were lucky if we could bring one or two people from the city. Certainly i mentioned the people who we brought to denmark in may. If we had unlimited funding, we could have brought 10, 15 mayors because there is a lot of interest in it. Its just to say that we need a way we need to bring in the private sector to sponsor some of this. Some of these activities. We the state department dont necessarily have to be involved. It doesnt have to necessarily if two cities want to connect on this topic, and they dont want to be part of the Strong Cities network, thats fine. If there is a way for us to facilitate those connections, great. Its just to say that logistically its difficult to bring everybody on an exchange. With that being said i think that theres a way obviously whether its skype or google hangout or something, we do need to have forums where a larger contingency from a city can connect with international counterparts. I mentioned the western balkans vlp we did in april. We met with a Community Called clarkston. A suburb of atlanta. They have accepted somewhere around if you google them youll see a lot of articles around the world about this tiny little community, one square mile. 10,000 people. They have accepted 40,000 refugees over the last four decades. Apparently once people they spend a year or two and move somewhere nearby. We met with everybody in the community. Not all 10,000 people. But we on a sunday afternoon we had about 200 people packed in this Community Center who wanted to meet with our Exchange Visitors. I do think that religious leaders there are challenges engaging them. And we have to find ways to work through that. E cant do without them. I have been working in east africa on the c. V. E. Programs, what is the process to engage in the Strong Cities network . For instance some of the countries in east africa have had a lot of extreme terrorist attack and threats. What is the engagement to what is the engagement to engage with some of the cities . Through Civil Society . From the government . Ould that be done from the bureau itself or i. S. D. Or the embassy . It would be good to know more information about the selection process. Michael thank you for the work you do. Albany and associates. I have heard a lot of good things about your organization. If you do have an organization in mind that you think should work with the network, i would just say the email just go to the website, Strong Cities network dotorg. Introduce yourself. Theyll set up a Conference Call and figure out what youre doing, what you want to do. Whats realistic. And for us we have done workshops. We do exchanges. Besides what i talked about with bringing International Delegations to the United States, what we want to do, the next iteration of the Strong Cities network, to do dont want to call them microexchanges, but there are best practices or good practices in lets say tanzania, and we want to connect those people ith counterparts in kenya. And believe it or not, when i was in Southern California in march, there are people who, when i was talking to one municipality, they didnt know what the municipality next door was doing. Thats not something that we or d. H. S. Need to fund because they are literally right next to each other, its just to say that finding opportunities for communities to connect and talk about these issues. And i would just say that the network wants to engage and to connect and find areas of ynergy for some your initiatives. As i said before, its not trying to be the only network. The only way that were going to truly defeat isis, its by developing beyond just the defeat Isis Coalition national governments. You need to find ways for Civil Society and others to work with each other. And one of the challenges, though, when we bring people to the United States, the relationship between the mayor and religious leaders i could tell you, mayor burke, for example, he meets, i would say nce every three or four months with religious leaders. If he doesnt, they are going to let him know the next time he runs for when he tries to get reelected. In atlanta, every program that they do that manages youth or more targeted atrisk youth, its funded by cocacola or some organization. In other countries, Corporate Social Responsibility is not necessarily the same as it is here in the United States. I would just say that we definitely need to connect people. We need to find ways to work with if youre being funded by the United States or another government, how your efforts can complement each other. I would just say the major challenge is coordination takes a lot of time. And certainly we could fill our entire schedules, diaries, up with coordination meetings and ultimately well coordinate, but there wont be a lot to coordinate because were not getting anything done. Its a catch22. [inaudible] jack from Albany Associates also. You were talking about preventive preventing violent extremism and mentoring. Whats been your luck with groups like life after hate and others like that for building up a partnership and mentoring between domestic radicalization programs like that that do mentor people away from radicalizing and being part of a hate group and partnering that with other, you know, International Groups that do the same thing to build a consensus and a mentoring platform . Michael ive worked quite closely with christian, the founder of life after hate. Others who i dont think either of those individuals are currently associated with life after hate but just in general what youre asking about. There are a lot of good practices. We dont have to reinvent the wheel, and so work countering far right white supremacist groups, work to counter gang recruitment, even like suicide prevention, alcoholics anonymous, the boys and girls club, there is a wealth of knowledge we have. You know, with life after hate its this organization. Its comprised of former skinheads, white supremacists, whatever you want to call them, but, you know, one of the challenges working with formers, as you, you know, as you know, is a former isnt necessarily the best case manager or the best spokesperson for your cause. If theyre speaking out against violence, you know, is there a way we can amplify their message . And the same is true of religious leaders where theyll say violence is bad and, you know, these terrorists have nothing to do with our religion. Hey, dewpoint to partner with the u. S. Government . They may not want to. It may hurt their cause by being seen as, you know, being cozy with us. So is there a way that we can provide training or at least point them in the right direction . I think thats why private sector, charitable organizations, its important its easy for me to stand here and say oh, companies should donate for c. B. E. Causes but i think at the end of the day it would be critical and with life after hate its important we find ways to engage with those organizations. Weve sent christian and, you know, our people, we spent them to speak all around the world. I think theres something about formers when they speak, im amazed all of you showed up to hear me speak. Its more like the free lunch. But its to say, you know, you can have a subject Matter Expert and you send them overseas and have them speak somewhere and they are not necessarily going to fill the room. But when you have someone with a compelling message, that definitely will bring a lot of people. When hes spoken, every time christian talks and by the way, hes on the panel that we have at the south by southwest festival. People who have stories to share, whether its them personally or a friend or relative, he always gets requests for people to help conduct an intervention. But the challenge with people who have been recruited by isis, it takes a long, long time for them to fully get out of the movement and they may condemn violence but their message isnt necessarily the message that we want to promote. I would also say in terms of the were going to leave this and take you live to nashville where President Trump will be speaking at the American Farm bureaus annual foundation. Hearing new from one of its cabinet members. Its an indication of what this president thinks about this organization and you as people and what you do for the United States economy. A year ago, you remember what it was like a year ago . Washington was accustomed to writing regulations that strangled growth and freedom. One year ago, washington was accustomed to Political Correctness that smothered the truth. One year ago, washington was accustomed to moving at a bureaucratic pace that was all talk and no action. One year ago, washington was accustomed to apologizing for america being a great nation. Let me tell you, our president , president donald j. Trump is moving at lightning speed and accomplished more in his first year than most president s do throughout their term. [cheers and applause] thereon this. Hes liberated the American Economy by eliminating 860 rules and regulation, cutting 22 regulations for every new one and a 5. 5 trillion tax cut. Creating two million jobs and 85 record highs in the dow jones. Three two straight quarters of g. D. P. Growth, 3 or over, and the american optimism is booming. Hes restored confidence and respect for our world leadershipen and rebuilding our military. America has stopped apologizing for being the greatest nation on earth and we are being respected again around the world. Isis has crush is crushed by allowing its generals to do what they knew how to do in the field. Here in america, ladies and gentlemen, its also ok to say, once again, merry christmas. Chaustchaus and you know what, as the old song go, weve only just begun. I want to tell you what an incredible honor it is to serve in the cabinet of a president who is bold derek sicive, focused and passionate americas prosperity. Day we present a report that you honor ed honored me by allowing me to chair that t