Ok. Hello, everybody. I hold the chair here at csis. I am happy to have sean cairncross, who is the ceo and president of the millennium challenge corporation. We have a fully installed mcc president. I think that is something that is worthy of applause. We have a fully installed mcc president. I think that is something that is worthy of applause. Can we give our friend sean a round of applause . [applause] congratulations. You get the prize for saintly patience and diplomacy. I am really glad you are in this job. I think it is important Government Agencies have Senate Confirmed leaders. It is important you have have been entrusted with his role. I wanted to give you a chance to share some of your views with our friends here about how you see the future of the mcc. Before that, maybe you ought to give this group i think everyone in this audience if they are here probably knows about the mcc, but maybe just so we are all on the same page. If you would just do the 101 from your perspective, what is the mcc . And, how does it work . I have a couple of softball questions for you. Sean i am prosoftball questions. Before that, thank you, dan, and thank you csis for hosting the event. We appreciate it. And to be able to get out and talk about it. I also just want to say, it is an honor to be nominated to do a job like this. I cannot be more proud to represent an agency with such a tremendous staff. Ive only been in a couple weeks. I can tell you already, it is the best job i have ever had. I am looking forward to moving forward. I see a lot of faces around the room. People who have been very supportive and helpful to me during this whole process. Thank you all. Mcc is an independent u. S. Development agency. We do development by design differently. We work on a need and based need and barrett based and meritbased model. We identify countries on a scorecard basis. We look to consolidate gains in Good Governance, economic reform, an investment in people. Once our Eligibility Criteria are met, we work with those governments if the board determines we should proceed to identify constraints on their economic growth. This is a process we undertake in conjunction with the host country. It is country led. The idea is, they come to us. They say, this is what we need. We want a partnership with you. We go through a rigorous open process to determine what the causes of economic constraints are and identify sustainable, measurable, achievable projects that will address those constraints and have the highest impact on the lives of our partner countries people. During the process, we demand accountability. We have conditions precedent we meet. That we demand are met over the course of the project. If they are not, we have the ability to withdraw funds or to narrow the scope of a project or even to cancel a project. We regard the agency has an excellent track record of being great stewards of the american taxpayer dollars. These are grant that we are engaged in. This is not a loan we are giving. This is not summing that settles the country with that. This is a project we enter into and say, this is our grant working with you to achieve a concrete result. It is going to be accountable, measured, it is going to be analyzed for years. This is all available online. It is very transparent. Analyzed for years. This is all available online. It is very transparent. Every contract we are in. All of the rates of return. Our staff has recently come up with evaluation brief. It makes it even more accessible for the American Public to get a grip on what we are doing and put eyes on it. I do not mean to be too glib about this, but i have always thought the mcc was the publishers clearinghouse sweepstakes of Global Development. As ed mcmahon knocks on the door. Ed mcmahon would come and say, we have done serious, rigorous analysis using open source data. There is a variety i dont know if it is 16 indicators 20 indicators. You have met the requirements. Now, we have a significant amount of money we are prepared to provide to you if you are willing to work with us. Then, there is a conversation and negotiation about what that looks like. But i also think is great the transparency, the flexibility you all have. The analysis you do both in terms of leveraging you are using global different data sources. The world bank, the global index of Economic Freedom and other sources. The constraints to growth analysis is a very important innovation for Global Development as well. There is an mcc model. You have talked about it a little. There is also the mcc effect. Can you talk about the effect . That is interesting. Sean the model and effect are related. The model is what has made mcc such a success. We are in our 15th year. This came out of the bush administration. It was started in 2004. What has kept our track record so good and what leads to the mcc effect is this objective view of who is eligible. Then, the data driven approach to developing these projects. The eligibility side of it, how we select partner countries to work with, it is based on these independent scorecards that are drawn from the heritage foundation, the world bank. Objective criteria that break down into Good Governance indicators, Economic Freedom indicators, the governments investment in their people indicators. If they pass the scorecards relative to the rest of the countries in the world we can work with either low Income Countries are middle Income Countries that is the needbased component. The meritbased is the scorecard. We engage in a conversation with her with our board of directors. The private sector and treasury board members. That is a process that we are not making a policy decision based on some other strategic concern. I woke up in the morning and said, i really like malawi today. Sean right. It is designed to keep the process objective. It is designed to help the agency stay focused on the mission of reducing poverty through economic growth. It has led to an enormous amount of bipartisan support on the hill. It has great cachet in the countries where we work and a respect for the Development Model is very strong. As ceo coming in, that model is important to me. I am sure we will talk about the concurrent compact coming up. To preserve and protect that model is a big goal of mine. Then we get to the mcc effect. That is aligning incentives. Countries want us to engage with them. Ofs opens the door to a lot private sector capital coming in. It is creating an enabling environment that is very positive. It is the u. S. Governments stamp of approval. On the front end of that, countries try to put themselves in good position to work with us. A great example is cote divoire. Following a civil war, their country met four of 20 indicators. Within five years, they have met 14. 14 of 20 indicators. We engaged in a compact. The president came in and said, i am establishing a unit within my new administration to meet mccs criteria. We went to work with the americans. We want them here. We went the cachet. Host we want ticket sean what the cachet that comes with it. The ivory coast. We are five years. On budget. That is the time we have. By design. That started just last week. It was online. The president had brought in a countdown clock. It is this big digital clock. A big elephant was welded on top. They started in the room. It now sits in the mca, which is the in country entity. That is another important piece of what we do. The infrastructure and project piece is what we do. The Knowledge Transfer of how we do it, i regarded as equally important because it is such a contrast to other Development Models. It is open procurement. It is transparency. It is that analysis. Understanding how to bid projects out correctly. All of that creates an environment that is very positive for these countries. One other example, just a week or so ago, we have the Human Resource managers from the in country mcas, which are staffed by individuals from our partner countries for a workshop. A collaborative workshop on how we run Human Resources management at mcc. We are talking about things like gender equality in the workforce. Nonharassment. Meritbased hiring decisions. All of this Knowledge Transfer is being shared. It is growing within our partner countries because of what mcc is doing. I think that is a huge component of what we do. Hopefully, a legacy we are leaving behind. This word cachet is very important. There are incentives for countries. It has been proven. There have been a series of studies done that there is an mcc effect. Countries want to be labeled as an mcc partner country. It is changing behaviors and changing policy. I think that has been a very important contribution to Global Development. You have now been in business for 15 years. Historically, it has been the model has been five years. You have worked in a specific country. There has been adjustments recently. Talk about that. There have been some changes in the last the most recent past that gives you new authority. Sean sure. The whole design of the agency is to learn. Every contact with enter into, every new agreement, we are constantly self evaluating and trying to do a better. The new authority dan is talking about was last year in the african growth and millennium challenge modernization act. We were given the authority to work on a concurrent compact. Previously, we could only enter into a project that week that we collect compact with a cycle country. Now, we have the ability to do a concurrent compact with an existing partner so long as it is promoting regional investment or regional trade. For ease of conversation, i refer to them as regional compacts. That is not technically right. The idea is to help grow a regional sustainable economy and link dan cross countries. Sean cross country, crossborder. As i was saying before, with any new authority, it is new ground. We are working through how to do this. In december of last year, hoverboard selected five west african countries as eligible for a regional compact. We are in the process of working through what those projects would look like. Exact sectors they would be in. Who would participate. What is important to me and the staff at mcc is that as we engage in this, the same rigor, the same accountability, the same transparency and evaluation, the same model applies to this regional authority. We are looking to make sure our first fights out of the great out of the gate are successful. Dan lets say you had agricultural corridor that crosses a political border. Two countries in west africa. It would make sense to have a regional compact. There are good reasons to have Something Like this. Sean there are great reasons. They are transportation corridors. Dan agriculture. Sean agriculture. It makes a great deal of sense. Some of what we are doing right now has a great deal of regional impact. In malawi, we did a power sector compact. Allowing now has the ability to hook in to the south african powerful. They are engaged inn engaged in an agreement with mozambique. In cote divoire, the Port Infrastructure i cannot know of anyone here has been, but the traffic it is not really traffic. It is just concrete. Dan there is no movement. Sean right. We had two miles between the hotel and the airport. There were times when you have to build in three hours to get to the airport. Dan get my steps in. Sean easing that congestion, which is a major component of our compact, is going to have a major regional effect because that is a major source of transport and trade. Dan we did a paper a couple years ago about the mcc. One of the things we found more than 50 of the work that was done, that mcc products had done, had an infrastructure component. You could argue the mcc, and i am much in favor of this, there has been a finger on the scale as part of the constraints of growth analysis. They run the constraints of a country through the excel spreadsheet. The smart people at the mcc are helping you and partnering with the government. What comes out when the smoke clears his we need a port. I think it is great. I think we should be doing more a protractor. Do you have any comment on that . We should be doing more infrastructure. Do you have any comment on that . Sean those constraints analyses the final projects are determined by wherever the fact leads, where we wind up. It may be the case. It is the case that most of our portfolio is either transportation or energy infrastructure. In many of our partner countries, those that is where analysis leads. The other thing i would say is, mcc is unique as well because we are not only working on the heart of the infrastructure, but we do institutional and policy reform as an anticorruption with a heavy focus on anticorruption to create an enabling environment that will lead to a sustainable economy. In many of these places, we are engaged in that reform as well. We have a whole other section of projects we can engage in for countries that do not quite meet the compact criteria called Threshold Programs that are smaller projects. Dan it is like mcc finishing school. Sean that is right. Dan smaller projects focused on a specific thing. Sean a country that is on the right track. They are trying to do the right thing. Were trying to help get them to a good place in terms of our criteria. To really go in and leverage institutional reform. Dan we have these transparent set of metrics all over the world. You have a gap here and here. We want to use the Threshold Program to close the gap in these areas. Sean that is right. Dan it is very important. I do think this issue of anticorruption is important. I know it is enter the work you do. We as a country do not fully appreciate this issue. We have been the leader historically over the last 40 years on the issue of anticorruption. It is a vote moving issue around the world. I think to the extent we can be at the front of the parade, the better because i saw the World Economic forum had a study that the issue of corruption is either a number one, number two, or number three in 80 countries. Sean the risk skyrockets more for third parties. Until you can get a handle on that, you are going to have much of a sustainable economy. In cote divoire, one of the ministers was talking to me about the need for more private Sector Investment. The desire to have American Companies come in and work on these projects. He said, we did not know how to bid these projects out until mcc showed up. We do not understand what was needed. We were talking different languages to potential partners. That transparency, the open procurement is itself a way to fight corruption. We have a good track record. Dan talk about when you go about power and roads, if i were to associate with those words, i would think about china. How did china come across the radar screen . Sean china is very active on infrastructure projects, particularly in africa. The mcc serves as a great an alternative system. It is country led. This is something the host country is coming to us and asking for. We demand as part of the process, stakeholder buy in. That is public, private sector, civic society. There has to be by in. Youre not going to have a sustainable project if it is not something folks in partner countries want. We demand openness. We demand accountability. Value for money on our contractors and our projects. We look to identify those projects that will have the greatest amount of measurable impact on the lives of our partner countries citizens. We look to that sustainability. That determination and accountability and Knowledge Transfer to continue on working on their own is a contrast to other models. Dan it is a contrast other models. Sean a stark contrast to other models. It is very desirable. Dan i suspect when you go into many of the countries, i am sure you are welcomed at the ivory coast. Sean we are very welcomed. It was phenomenal to see. It is an honor to be representing mcc. We are there as the United States of america. The u. S. Government is involved in these countries. We have multiple Partner Agencies in our countries. They are very welcoming. It has a lot of cachet to the agency. Dan these countries want the United States. I have two other questions. The role of the private sector. The mcc has spent a lot of time and effort a lot of the project you do either catalyze project Sector Investment or offer the opportunity to bring in the private sector. Can you talk about that . Sean sure. Dan is on our private sector advisory board. Dan good timing. Sean that is a huge part of building a sustainable economy. If you do not have private capital flow and environment attracting the, i do not know how you define it as sustainable. Mcc has leveraged i think 5. 6 billion in private sector dollars into our projects over the course of our history. We have been in 37 countries with 29 comebacks for about 14 s for about 14 billion worth of development assistance. Benefiting about 200 million beneficiaries. The private sector is a huge piece of that. In malawi, the state utility just entered a 20 year power purchasing agreement with jcm capital to develop a commercials scale solar powerplant. There is a lot of sun. 95 of their power is hydro. In cote divoire, we signed an agreement. For them to do an infrastructure plan. We will have a plan that prioritizes Cote Divoires infrastructure projects. Hopefully that will be shopped around to private sector partners. We can get some investment. They are very excited about it. They want to come to the United States. They want to do a roadshow. They went to pick potential they want to pick potential opportunities. To elevate the Knowledge Level mystically of what those opportunities are and what mcc does. When American Companies bid on mcc projects, they tend to win the bids. I would like to see more of it. Dan more American Companies. Sean i would like to see more American Companies competing. Dan good. I will come back to that. One other question, the administration has made womens Economic Empowerment an important part of its international work. We have done a number of things to hope the administration on that. There is a global understanding. The initiative at opec has been an enormous success. How does mcc fit into this conversation . Sean first, w gdp, womens Global Development and prosperity, the issue was launched by President Trump. It is a whole of government approach to empowering women, unlocking womens role in the economy. Spearheaded at the white house by advisor to the president , ivanka trump, who has herself been a real catalyst for change in this area and brought focus and attention to the efforts. We are proud to be a part of it. This is something mcc has been focused on for a long time. We have a gender in the economy indicator as part of our scorecard. We have a gender and social inclusion unit within our Compact Development operation. When you start to look at womens role in an economy and press on that issue, it is everywhere across the spectrum. It is a giant opportunity to make a sustainable economy. You are not going to have a sustainable economy if 50 overpopulation is not participating. In all of our projects, we have that lens. Example is the cote divoire. In part of the compact is a secondary Education Program and a technical and Vocational Program that is designed to empower women to participate in the economy. In malawi, we had a program to bring female employment into the energy sector, which did not exist before. The state utility set up a gender inclusion unit within their entity to make that happen as part of that, they sponsored educational scholarships for young women. I was talking to a couple of young female engineers at one of the sites we visited. They said they were so appreciative of mcc. They said, we would not have our engineering degrees without the assistance you all provided. I said, what you going to do with it . They said, we want to come back to malawi and work on making the second compact successful. That is a nice self reinforcing circle and exactly the sort of thing we are trying to accomplish. By bringing attention to the issue and focusing on womens empowerment. The white house and the Trump Administration has done a great job bringing attention to this. We are proud to be a part of it. It is something mcc has as a priority. Dan i want to call a couple people. You guys will forgive me for cold calling on you. Sandra rose is one of the smartest people in town. I read your stuff. I want to give sarah a chance to ask a question. I want to give both of you a chance to ask the first couple of questions. Can you give my friend sarah a chance to ask the first question . She does some of the best work in town. Thank you very much. It is a pleasure to hear from you. I can speak for many people in this room we are glad that you joined as the new ceo. Dan, thank you for hosting. One of the things i know mcc thinks about every fall is the selections of new partner countries. Something they have been taking about for some time is, how do you deal with the question the existential question about whether or not mcc is going to be able to enter into a third compact with a country . So far, there is not then a candidate that has come up that would be a viable. There has been some resistance. Among some stakeholders to even second compact. Are the future of mcc in addition to the concurrent focus mcc has been granted. I would be interested in hearing your take on what will be necessary, what will be important for mcc to be able to make the leap into a third compact . Dan let me give tim a chance to ask a question. Share with our Television Audience who you are and the various hats you have worn. I do not know if i will bore everybody with that. I am a managing director for the investment network. Im on the Steering Committee for the private sector. It is an honor to talk to you today. Dan, thank you for holding this event. I thought you did a very good job covering the waterfront of all of the things, especially for the private sector aspect. We are interested in hearing about more. One of the things he did not talk about is the u. S. Dfc. We would have been talking about the build act a year ago. You spent some time at opec. Im curious about some things you think would be appropriate for mcc to take given the increased budget and authorities they have. Dan those two. Sean i will take sarahs first. Sarah, that is a great question. There is conversation around that. To me, that falls into, is that something mcc could do . Yes. Is that something we should do . That is a broader question. The mission of mcc is not necessarily to always be in a country. We are supposed to be helping a country on a journey to selfreliance and hopefully that moves the needle in the right direction. For a second compact, there are a variety of things and needs to be greater buyin. More money put in from her partner countries. Serious criteria that has to be met. I think that is a fundamental question that needs analysis. Before we would consider even doing that, it would take a lot of conversation with our stakeholders on the hill, the administration, among thirdparty groups. The short way to say it is, a third compact is not something i am looking to engage in any sort of immediate capacity. Tim, part of what i would love to see happen is when we are in a country, where they as mcc, but we are really there as the United States of america. How can we maximize and leverage a unified effort between all agencies . Opec and what will be the dfc and mcc fall next to each other in that availment arc. The way i think of it is, mcc comes in and creates a great enabling environment and hopefully, that will increase the attractiveness for the private sector deals that opec helps derisk and fund. What is important initially is we have a good view into opecs deal pipeline. Eligible countries such as a threshold country are compact that they are aware of what we are doing in those countries. Our timelines. Our goals. That we try to align those priorities. As we move forward and as the dfc comes online and develops, i would expect we have good communication now, but i expect that would integrate even further. Institutionalize in some ways so that it is a collaborative effort. Dan let me make two comments about that one. Thank you sarah and tim. There is this magic moment of programmatic agnosticism of 610 nine months before you sign the piece of paper where either private sector partners or the dfc that is where the magic the highest opportunity is there. Youryou sign the compact leverage decreases. We are in year four. The clock is ticking. The timer youre describing whether it is real or not it is there. There is a moment. Some of it is about timing. How the dfc and mcc talk to each other. That is very important. The other thing think about, there could be some value in the aid world and the Development Finance world have a slightly different language. In the grant world, a lot of the people who come to it think equity is something that has to do a social justice whereas develop men finance people think Development Finance people think it has to do with shareholder ownership. I think there is some value it may be prosaic, but this issue of getting the Government Agencies to have some crossfertilization of people. If you have inductions of new employees, they could do a rotation at the dfc. To the extent the dfc is bringing in new hires. Im a big believer in facetoface interaction. People knowing each other. I did spend time at opec. That was very valuable to me. They have a ton of programs they are working on. Credit financing creation. Teams have met with teams on this. There is a lot of crosstalk on communication. Integrating further, making sure institutionalize it on some level. Our people are constantly talking. What we have to do. Lets take some of the questions. I would love to hear from this woman here. Lets start with her about. E. Thank you. I was in the National Advisory council. I am back on the business side. I continue to be on the advisory counsel. Is the classic case where you have the u. S. Solar power company. The thing in terms of threatening u. S. Business the Advisory Council does not mess around. At one point we thought it would become a magna carta. Key point is it was recognizing it is not Just Marketing mcc in washington but marketing it in the countries and nations we are dealing with. That is part of the message that has to get out there. Mcc is not a granting mechanism. Financingcally a institution. Europeans have gone forward with a plan. It is something i dont know if youre thinking about it but that would be the big requirement. They use of the saudi money to blend. Is how are you getting out to the American Business . We have my friend bob over here. I was formally with state and aid and worked closely with mcc in many project including power africa. Is broader question i think the whole of government approach. Especially in todays world where we face challenges from china and et cetera. Thisestion really gets to how do you see that . Clearly it had a big impact in terms of relationship to the president ial initiative on power africa. The mcc put a lot of money into it. Translating now into pacific and asia . Are you having that kind of interaction . Thank you. We know china has been actively to projectnitiative its power and influence, can you give some comments on the situation in those countries . Are they still interested in engaging with the United States and the mcc . Thank you. And then my friend back there. Thank you, dan. I went to echo sarahs welcome from the community. We have been waiting for leadership, confirmed leadership at the mcc for a long time. We are enthused to have someone in place. We are thrilled that is you. Wanted to ask you about your opportunities the administration is seeking to resend significant develop in dollars. To me, it begs the question, this hurts the mcc. In the long run, you may be forced to only have third compacts with a handful of countries at the development is not occurring to bring them to the process where they can become threshold and scorecard countries. What is your view about what you would like to do at the table with the interagency with regard to the whole of government budget in this process . Dan have a number of questions. Sean let me see if i can do it. I will fail immediately. On u. S. Or private sector development, i cannot agree more. We have to get outside of d. C. , outside of washing. Malawi, a Baltimore Company provided dredges, caterpillar equipment was all over the place. Harvesters were from wisconsin. Ge helped do the power center. That is all. I would be more than happy to engage with players around the country. Working with manufacturers, working with the business roundtable. Whatever the creek but people are to get out and make the case. In terms of blending with the dfc, i think there are opportunities. What is important to me is that the model that mcc and the focus mcc has had since the inception does not change. That we stay laser focused on Poverty Reduction through economic growth. That we stay the leading innovators and executors of our largescale hard infrastructure projects. That is what has made us successful. That is what will continue to make mcc successful. That is what draws us the abundant talent that is at mcc. These are committed, highly educated, highly motivated Mission Driven people working on staff. It is because of that focus. There are great opportunities. We are going to work with dfc. Folks over there to see where we are. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. That is what i want to do. Power africa. Our inner agency. All of these environments are complex and very dynamic and challenging. Where mcc, where rico is not determined where we go is not determined necessarily by strategic means. Where we are, we ought to be engaged in process of working to advance those interests. Among the interagency, that is communication, that is making sure like in cote divoire, that is an important thing for mcc. It is an important thing for usd g to know and have access to. What are the needs . What are we trying to accomplish . How does this benefit what we are trying to achieve generally . The white house is a great coordinating body. The National Security council does great work in convening that sort of collaboration. It has to continue. In terms of around the world, we are around sri lanka, we are in mongolia, we are in the solomon islands. All of those are strategically important places. We are in central america. We have the ability to help advance u. S. Interests generally wherever we are. It is a process of Relationship Building and making sure we are all working clearly on the same page. Dan belt and road. Sean as i was talking about today and earlier, mcc is a great alternative and great model that stands in contrast. It primarily drives debt. Does not engage Civil Society component of a country. It is not an open bidding process. They are state owned depressive. It is the antithesis of the sort of knowledge process and result the mcc in the United States is trying to model. Dan some might say that delta belt and road may be a neocolonial model if i look and say, what happened in sri lanka, i think every u. S. Senator knows when there was a 99 year lease similar to the hong kong thing. It struck me to the extent the mcc is working to help change the dynamic of a country, i do think it stands in contrast. Sean it is a model of accountability and selfdetermination. We are there in partnership. My impression from dealing with at least the governments in malawi and cote divoire very recently, that is very clear. They appreciate it. They want that. That is mccs role. It may be a small agency. It is a great face and example of what the model can accomplish. Ok. Dan everyone has been reading the newspaper. Sean i think this is a broader conversation. We are in a resource constrained environment. A wider discussion on u. S. Development is a responsible conversation. Where mcc sets in that, we are a great way to make the case for continued u. S. Engagement abroad in development activities. The reason for that is, it works on multiple levels. We are great stewards of the american taxpayer dollars. We are achieving a measurable result for the u. S. Taxpayer. We budget what we are going to do. We stick to the budget. We achieve results. We hold countries accountable. Where conditions are not met or where they backup off the scorecard we withdraw funds or we narrow the project. That is not an idle threat. Accountability is the model. 25 of the countries we have worked with have had the project narrowed in some respect. Without accountability our our leverage and our credibility goes down. That is very important to me and i know it is important to the agency. I think it is transparent and open in terms of the in valuation that is done on the effects of the project. It is a 20 year cycle. The look back on the evaluations on our projects, we will go longer than the agency has been in existence. Youll be able to look and gather information as a taxpayer or Anyone Around the world can look and see what we have done. It is country led. You are putting the onus on the partner country. I kept saying this a few times traveling, people said this is such a great gift, it is not a gift. This is a partnership. You hold up your end of the bargain and we will hold up our end of the bargain. Sean, you will take the message back that there is a concern in the community about these decisions . Sean i understand very clearly what the concern is. From where i sit i want to use our model and our example as a way to make continued u. S. Engagement. That is all we have. Join me in thanking sean cairncross. Thank you. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. 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