It is hosted by the brookings institution, and this runs one hour. Good morning, everyone. Today we are honored to host who will offer some remarks on how covid19 is affecting the American Armed forces and anything else that he would like to begin with. Then i will ask him some questions come and then we will hear from you about your questions. Apologies that we may not get to all of your questions, but we willfurther ado, start the program. Good morning. My name is john allen noon john allen. It is my privilege to welcome you all featuring our honored guest, mark esper. As secretary was sworn in the 20 seventh secretary of defense on 20 through july 2019, and it he has served in june and july of that year. He also served as the secretary of the army from 20 november 2017 to the summer of 2019. Secretary esper is no stranger to service. He is a 19 86 west point graduate. He was commissioned into the , and upon completion of ranger training, he served in the Airborne Division and participated in a call for with the cherish screaming eagles. He later commanded a rifle team inand a combat italy, retired from the army in two thousand seven after spending 10 years on active duty and 11 years with the guard in reserve. For much of the decade that follows, the secretary can td has service in and around the and as the Deputy Assistant sick entry of defense for negotiations policy under president george w. Bush. He would then go on to a distinguished career, most recently serving as the Vice President of Government Relations for raytheon. On behalf of all of us here, we are so honored to host you today for this crucial conversation especially given the ongoing crisis. This is one of the most important roles today and we want to say thank you for all you are doing good we also want to commend you for making Artificial Intelligence key priority for the department of defense. This is an issue of significance , as we struggle to ensure that we maintain our precedents around the world. Moving to the events today, when i have completed my remarks, secretary esper will provide his own. Then we will be joined by michael hanlon, who will also field questions through the or by joining the conversation over twitter. A final personal note, we know that you are theoretically neutral on this issue, but speaking for the annapolis graduates on this line probably, we are looking forward to your making happen at the end of the year americas football game. It will be one important moment. I know you are theoretically neutral, so i will just say goa navy and go army. Over to you. Esper thank for the kind introduction. I call, good to see you again. It is great to be here with you today to talk about the impact of covid19 on the department of defense and the way ahead for the pentagon and for the force. I am proud of what the dod has accomplished in the few months since late january, when i first issued my guidance, and then on february first, when we activated the Global Pandemic plan, we have remained ahead of the curve at every turn. I am proud of what we have done, and as we start to see some light at the end of the tunnel, we have many people deployed, and 40 5000 National Guardsmen are active in every single state performing a wide range of tasks. We have thousands of medical professionals and others who are out on the front lines. Our army corps of engineers with nearly 2000 people deployed have been out in the streets of america, working with governors in every single state. I am proud of what the team has done. As you know, we have deployed the comfort back to virginia after performing a mission in new york city. The same timet reached out to our friends and ive spoken to many of our partners about what we could share and how it could help them, supplies we can provide. We recognize that during this time of crisis, we still have friends and relies and to that point we are cognizant of the threats we face outside the borders. We remain as sentinels on the guard of the United States and we have seen chinese activity pickup in the South China Sea. Have seen russians continue to probe our airspace. We have seen Militia Groups busy iraq, and at all points, we are sidebyside with our partners and allies. Just recently we had a defense ministerial with our nato partners and had a good discussion about how nato can respond to this coronavirus. Oft said, we are cognizant the impacts that we see on the force and plotting the way ahead paid the department has been very busy using our researchers to work hard on their pdx and vaccines. We are also cognizant about the impacts that this covid19 may have on the force. Today i can tell you that we have had a very low impact on readiness, but we are anticipating what could be a greater impact over time if we are not if we do not see a change in the trajectory of the virus. Things we are taking into consideration, and i look forward to discussing these things in the coming hour here. Let me just say again, i am so proud of our nn women in uniform in uniform,women especially those deployed abroad. Let me pick by echoing that last comment. This is john allen. Debt ofe all owe a huge gratitude to these people, all of you who are protecting us and keeping us safe. On this question of readiness, how you are thinking about making sure that in the period to come and maybe break this down into some specific category, people, training, weight ands and equipment. I know all of those things are on your mind. If i could begin with people, the most important asset, you mentioned the force has not been hit that hard so far. I dont know if you want to share statistics on where we are. I think its about five thousand total diagnosed cases in the entire military. Also, where do you see that going in the weeks ahead . First on theer people front, one infection is to many, but i can say in terms of 2 million strong military, we have had fewer than 5000 infected. Fewer than one hundred have been hospitalized. Tohink that is a testament the fact that we have a Young Healthy force and secondly we have been issuing guidance since late january. I have now issued nine or 10 updates to our commanders to get , and as you know, each of those commanders has medical staff and resources to further amplify the guidance. We are in pretty good shape. It is tragic that we lost two Service Members, but that is fairly good when you look at how we stack up are silly in counterparts. The force is holding pretty strong when it comes to the virus. Wehave longterm impacts as have had to make adjustments to the training. Each of the services adapted their basic training given their circumstances, in some cases we do a suspension and order to testing and whatnot. For the most part we have seen over the past six or seven weeks a reduced throughput. That will bear itself out in the long run, so we are paying attention to that. I did not want to shut out the pipeline because that has ramifications that could affect us for years. He continued to improve the pipeline, and the services have adjusted to that with its testing of recruits, and other mechanisms they are taking to ensure we can maintain the flow through the system. All of the services are continuing to recruit and bring people into boot camp even though you suspended it for a short time a few weeks ago, correct . Some casessper in there picking it back up, but at no time did the department do a apartment wide standdown. Each of the services, actually i believe the army and the navy took a pause at different points to make sure they had sufficient testing kits, but we never did a Department Wide standdown. Each of the services what they needed to do. They had guidance from us, and they adapted based on their own situations. Ofy train in different parts the country. They were able to adapt it to their situation. While we are thinking about the places where people are concentrated the most, not me ask about that navy ships. We know the Teddy Roosevelt has been in the news. Are there other ships that are being affected . Do you anticipate being able to stay ahead of that problem . Secretary esper the statistics of the safest place to be is on a deployed navy ship as compared to one in port. Of the ships that we have at sea, we only have two that have been affected. The Teddy Roosevelt is the most prominent. The second one, we are not sure where she picked it up. It may have been through a drug operation. Those ships, i think that is a pretty good record. The navy has taken a lot of good practices and they have learned. Itin, before a ship deploys goes through multiple tests. They are quarantined for a couple of weeks and we do not bring one back in if it is being replaced by one going out. We have had ships that are portside that have had sailors infected, but that is not unlike what you might see at a army base where you have sailors out in the community who may get infected by the virus. Before they go to see, we bring sea, we quarantine, and make adjustments to make sure our ships get out on time. Before we get to training, which is a more complicated topic, one more question about people. Have you seen any trends in the proclivity of people to join through recruiting or to stay in for retention . There are probably competing pressures. On the one hand, people are not sure about their futures. On the other, we know silver of economic downturn is the department of defense sometimes defense has an easier time of recruiting and retaining people and you need out of that 2 millionperson force, 1. 3 million active, you need people to bring in. Out of those numbers look so far how do those numbers look so far . Sec. Esper well we do not have hard data with regard to recruiting. For a period of weeks, each of the services went to virtual recruiting and they told me the pace has maintained. We will see. It has only been several weeks. On the backside, we have equally anecdotal information. We have had those that have asked to stay on board because they like what they are doing or the economic downturn has shown folks there is greater job opportunity, greater job security in the military. We will see how that plays around, month by month, day by day. That is why we stepped back to reset basic training. We know that may, june, july are big graduation months. We want to make sure the forces absorbo observe those as many young men and women in as we can. Michael thank you. On the issue of training, i know that this is very complicated because, my sense, and correct me if im wrong, and there might be an anecdote or two about how training has been affected, but my sense is small unit training continues. You can train an army squad, one dozen people, or maybe even an air force, unit, a pilot, a backseat or, associated mechanics and control officers, you can treat those groups like small groups. Like small families. You can test, quarantine. My sense is a lot of that training continues, though i have a specific interest in whether Flight Training continues as before. I know as you get to larger echelons, you have much more concern about your ability to prevent a few individuals who may be contagious and unaware from affecting the broader force. My understanding is, in some of exercises,units, your own armys, up until now you have suspended the brigade scale exercises. You are looking to resume that. I believe, with a security for i believe last week, it was d looking to resume that. I believe, with a security for systems brigade rotation to the jrotc in the louisiana, which would be a little smaller, but more than 1000 soldiers. Is that basically how you are thinking about it stepbystep bigger exercises, and it is too sure to be too soon to be sure, i am confident, but what is your basic thinking about getting training back to where it needs to be . Sec. Esper you summed it up. The smaller the unit, the more capable you are in preserving the unit. And, the more risk you absorb that you may get more people affected. The army is working a new concept where they would do multiechelon training in a way to ensure protection. You are right we had to suspend, training exercises, red flags, etc. That is the one area when it comes a training we are concerned about. Over time, it may have an accumulative impact. At this time, we see a low impact. Over time, it could accumulate, particularly with how we train with our friends and allies. That is one concern we look at. One of the things we have done, we look at how we address our forces, test them, preserve our readiness. At the top of that tear are t ier are our tier one forces, strategic forces, our premier counterterrorism forces, Cyber Command forces. All of those types of sailors, marines, we want to make sure we take extra care with regard to testing, quarantining. So we preserve that capability we know we must have. If i could follow up with specific examples. Apologies if some of these get too sensitive or qualify that you may not be able to respond. Lets take korea we have had the air force raids, and the broader question as President Trump has tried to engage kim jongun on nuclear we have seen nuclear engagements. We have an extremely good deal for the United States, but that aside, i know you have to be concerned as the secretary of defense in getting a unit in korea. I would say, first of all, general abrams has done a great job on the peninsula. He was there when the coronavirus took off in january into february. He implemented, with the broad guidance we gave him, he took actions to control it. He raised his Health Protection controllable and made restrictions, put things in place, and he was able to preserve the force on there. We are able to preserve the fight on the peninsula with our rock allies. The general bank has been general has been able to sustain that. It is all about deterring bad behavior. They have been able to do it and preserve readiness as a result. They might still be able to do Company Level training with a couple hundred soldiers at a time, with air coordination with air force units as well as republic of korea units, they can do enough to mimic what an actual fight would look like. Sec. Esper thats right. And we augment that training with forces, a bomber presence, fighter aircraft, or a naval presence. It does not have to be stationed on the peninsula to do that. Michael while im on the subject of asia, i want to come back to readiness and covid of course, but some people have taken note of wondered, what iss have the pace of u. S. Navy deployment in the South China Sea, involving the increased tempo to. Ntimidate any details you could provide about how you are thinking about the b52s . Since i came into office, i said i was going to implement a strategy that i only supported as army secretary. The way that we maintain a degree of predictability to ensure the availability. We have been taking several steps. Some are known and many are unknown. From our deployed forces. Not just a single function or mission. This is a winwin for us in terms of operational unpredictability. With regard to the needy, admiral davidson has done a great job and has actually picked up his tempo when it comes to operations in places like the South China Sea with regards to our presence. We are conducting a lot of surveillance flights. We have conducted a number of taiwan straight transits. We are continuing to watch closely what the chinese are doing. It has been reported that the chinese have been a little more provocative in that part of the world. They suck a vietnamese vessel and they have been very aggressive. Admiralg Davidson Davidson has done a great job in the in the pacific region. Tohael i will come back training. Even as the chinese have gotten pushy, if you will, usually they have handled most encounters with a degree of military professionalism, not all encounters, as we know tragically, going back to 2001 and some other recent events maybe three or four years ago to have their ships sail right in front of hours on a couple of occasions that were dangerous. On the whole, my understanding is most u. S. Military officers and others watching the situation have considered the chinese to be pushy but within certain, more or less, professional bonds. Is that accurate, and do you see any change about whether the chinese show proper professionalism in these Close Encounters . Sec. Esper it depends. We generally qualify them as classified. Sometimes it might not be unprofessional. It might just be bad seamanship. We have seen cases where they are trying to perform a maneuver that is outside of the skill of the pilot, if you will. It is a mix of things. I talked to my counterpart, the defense minister. It is importantly we maintain lines of communication. We cite bad behavior, not just how they maneuver the ship or airplane, but also when they are taking aggressive actions that are outside of the norms of International Rules claiming territory or space that simply is not theirs. We want to make sure that we maintain, again, the laws of the sea, and the International Rules that have sustained assault really well for decades now. We see the chinese continue to try to bend those, change those, and shape them in their own favor. Michael if i can return back to training and ask you to explain from a different angle how you were thinking, you already spelled out some of the things you intend to do and how you will perhaps start with units that are in parts of the country that are less affected or have enough Hospital Capacity or if there is a problem, they can respond, as secretary mccarthy explained last week in an event we did with him. I wonder if you will also rely on more testing becoming available and therefore as you get into the summer, when you resume a red flag or brigade that youin california have even more ability to virtually test almost everyone going in, or will you rely on the quarantine concept, where you make sure anyone going to a big maneuver is tested and sequestered away for a couple of weeks, and therefore you are pretty confident that you do not need to worry too much about the potential for an outbreak . What are the different pieces of the puzzle, as you look at it . Sec. Esper for the most part, we have not stopped training. To a degree, we can create train and do some social distancing, depending on the situation. He spoke to the challenge. Each training scenario is different, say you had to adapt those core principles. Spoken to folks like dr. Fauci and are adopting his principles and guidelines, and giving commanders the ability to do that so they can optimize training. That said, as we develop greater testing capacity, we are looking at how do we do that . How do we train the force and test the force based on those tiers i spoke about. Tier will be able to are forces, who unless they displaying symptoms, we will not test them. Of thematic transmission disease is something that we have known for quite a while, but what we did not appreciate was the fact that we are experiencing very high rates in the military with regard to asymptomatic transmission. You have to be careful about that and make sure that we have the medical capacity to identify , quarantine and get them care as soon as possible. That is the approach we are taking. The longterm view is, what we do of it the next 6, 12, 18 months. View of the joint chiefs of staff, the command leaders, they will be a new normal until we have a vaccine we are confident in. That means the sooner we can adapt our practices, the sooner we can learn from the virus and make changes, the better we will be. We are looking at all of those things right now. To followupnted on a point that you made earlier, that the army itself is research on vaccines and other treatments. Is there anything more you could share on the details . Sec. Esper they were already on the front end with their Public Sector and private sector counterparts working on therapeutics. They have been on that since then. Darpa is engaged. Walter reed hospital. We are doing a lot on that end. We are anticipating an operation work speed, if you will. We are accelerating our efforts. I have been a number of meetings to figure how we can accelerate vaccine and Therapeutic Development testing and production. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get back to normal that we all recognize. The military has done a great job. Michael a couple more questions on readiness and getting back to normal. You are at the department of defense today. I know that there are some people in the building. Some people are cia. A concept in mind for the people handling paperwork, but often classified a certain amount that cannot be done by telework . Is there a contact for how that process plays out . A new normal that preserves enough of what we used to do that you could be effective handling certain projects . Absolutely. We have been pleasantly surprised with what we can do in telework. There are certain areas when it comes to telework. Our chief management officer has plans to reopen the pentagon. It will be based on the so over as plan, period of time, we can open up other Office Buildings so we can get back to normal and protect our people. That remains job number one. Protect our Service Members our ourcivilians and maintain National Security capabilities that has beenort underway since january. We opened up our bases to americans returning home from china. We have been at this for several months and we know what is important. Michael i wanted to ask about maintenance. Most kinds of training and maintenance have not been severely impinged upon. About the maintenance and equipment . It is partly a reflection of resources. Closer to 80 for aircraft, for example. Are you able to maintain that now or are you seeing some reduction in work . Or even just the spare parts providers, a contractor or subcontractor level being affected by the virus more than the main dod operators . Sec. Esper we have seen a low impact. I am watching closely. Specifically, the impact covid19 is having on the base. Not just for maintenance, but production. We have a different workforce out there than the Service Members that we have. More susceptible to covid19. Because they are out in the community, some have shut down or on a reduced workload. It will have an impact on maintenance or depot level maintenance. If you are on a production line, it could have an impact there. She has been very aggressive when it comes to working with and talking to the Industrial Base. I will be sending a letter expressing my thanks and asking how we can do better in terms of keeping it at full capacity. We will work closely with them. Making sure that we keep people on the line. I talked to governors and people in the supply chain about how to provide protective equipment. All those things are on the table. Michael sometimes the subcontractors are small and in the community. Can you say a little bit more about that and whether there are financial mechanisms . Absolutely. I have worked in the industry for a few years. The supplyu go after chain, the more susceptible your producers are, your people are to whether it is a financial fluctuation. We have to take care of them first and work our way back. Does not mean that we should not Pay Attention to them, but priority must be placed on the first end of the supply chain and work our way in from there. That is when you see a lot of vulnerabilities, the depth of financial means or whatever the case may be, to maintain those components that are critical to the product. So far, you have not really had a reaction to vehicles, aircraft ordinance, but you are concerned that there could be looming vulnerabilities because of certain Component Parts that do not get produced. Sec. Esper it is things like that. We have seen it in regard to our supply chain. In mexico, they shut down a lot of their factories. Has been working with her counterparts. I have spoken to secretary pompeo. We are doing everything to get that line backup. The is one example where line extends beyond our borders, but we still need to keep the supply chain moving forward so we can maintain our readiness because of maintenance of parts for because it is a placement that needs to come online. I am starting to get questions from viewers. A few of them could be put into one broad question. Are there any considerations about specific needs that you may need to focus on more, on spreading the word that people may not yet know or getting help in any kind of a future package that has not been targeted clearly enough on the Industrial Base or asking for more money in the supplemental, which is a different question, but based on different kinds of commands, based on the guardsmen reserve and activeduty around the country. In terms of supplemental and another cares act, in terms of existing funds that people do not know about, is there anything that you would want to send out today . Congress has been very generous to do a number of act, toleveraging position to purchase medical supplies. We need to continue to leverage that money over the coming days and weeks. We anticipate that the likely need for additional moneys, we see greater demand for medical supplies and we need to restock our inventory, but we want to continue priming the Industrial Base. We want our based at work and we want to continue with payments and cash flow. We are looking at a variety of ways that we can do that. Not an island. We rely heavily on the private sector. Either personally they have been affected or maybe they are in a state with a shut down order or maybe they are working in such close quarters that if management does not feel comfortable asking them to come to work because of the conditions. We are looking at them one at a time. More that we can and we will do as we tried to plan ahead. Michael i want to move to international questions. Do, because we have been talking about the domestic homefront a bit, is there any additional concern that you have for the department of defense to do even more in the future . You mentioned the hospital ships perhaps will not be needed because the acute caseload did not turn out to be as great and might have peaked in places like new york city. One concern is the strength of the u. S. Police force across the country, where you have seen 15 attrition in new york sick leave, people who either have covid or who are selfquarantining. The question of whether the National Guard, in particular, in compliance, may need to go help Police Forces in a more direct way than it has so far. That conversation happening . How do you use military assistance in the future . Sec. Esper you hit on something very important. 45,000 members are National Guard doing tremendous work. At the peak of our presence, we had many medical professionals out there. We were very responsive to the needs of the state and local authorities. We got to the point that you mentioned. We saw doctors and nurses getting infected or running out. Them into put hospitals and either boost them i had not heard that we yet. Ed that point National Guard would be wellsuited to doing that. Not seen that yet, but that would be a mission available to them, depending on how each governor wants to leverage them. I wanted to pose a broad question for how it is affecting threats and adversaries. The pentagon has been using this for plus one framework, that you and the secretary modified it to focus on russia and china first, then korea, iran and terrorism right after that. Already touched a little bit on china today. I wanted to ask if you had any comment on what you are seeing from other major preoccupations. And terrorists. He said terrorism seems unabated , but do you have any highlevel view or comment about behavior on russia, north korea and iran . The world remains a dangerous place and Many Americans are focused, but we are still seeing all the bad behavior we saw before, whether it was russians trying to probe or the South China Sea. Pushy thanttle more others. In other cases, we see then standing down. Much not being reported as , but we know that they are concerned about it. We are very cautious and conscious about what is happening out there. These are uncertain times. Do not know how the state or military will react. Completely get that. I meet with them and talk with them weekly. Tohave done all that we can make sure that they can remain as ready as possible to field these threats. Question on more russia, if i could. In your opening comments, you mentioned the northern space and the eastern flank of russia. What about europe and the middle east . Some people, the audience today has asked about 20 20 and other kinds of exercises. Your overall sense of preparedness in europe, specifically in regard to russia and its potential provocation. Do you provocations . Do you have worries . Sec. Esper i would not say there has been a material increase in provocations. The chinese have been a little more aggressive. The russians are busy in libya and syria. With regards to nato, the alliance has held strong. I talked with many of my counterparts. Few years, we have seen readiness increase. A Supreme Commander has made an initiative a priority. 30 dealerships ready within 30 days. I think overall, the trend has been positive. In terms of capacity, capability and ability to deploy in a timely manner. All of that is trending well at this time. That is generally where we see things at this point in time. Michael we know that iran has been hardhit. It has also been pressured by u. S. Sanctions regimen. Iran conducts activities that are often covert and not that expensive. I want to ask about iran and iraq. My first focus directly on iran. Have been some concerns about gunboat provocations. Are you seeing any change in activity there . It is getting backed into a corner with dire straits. Is doing the only thing they know how to do, which is to lash out. Sec. Esper it has had an impact on the economy and society. We have been saying that if they pay more attention to their people and divert funds to the population instead of funding , providingvities rockets and missiles to the rebels, if they focused on their people, it would be a much better place for the iranian people, but instead they continue this sec. Esper instead, they continue this maligned behavior they have been up to now for 41 years. That continues despite the impact of sanctions, despite the impact of the coronavirus. In spite of all those things. We in the United States have offered medical supplies and whatnot, and they have turned that down. My hope would be that they would focus on the iranian people, try to help them through this. Try and provide the iranian people the testing, medical supplies, the proper policies to get through this because those of the folks that are suffering right now. Michael let me now ask about iran inside of iraq. There has been a lot of news in iraq the last few months and it almost seems like the world moves so fast these days that we forget the seismic developments. There were all sorts of different types of developments. Everything from iraqi protests against their own political leaders, partly due to economic malaise, partly due to concerns the iraqi leadership was too close to iran. People didnt like that. He saw some sniper activity, perhaps with iranian sponsors. The u. S. Retaliating against a Militia Group that were instrumental in shelling our bases. That led to a backandforth. We have the one of the more dramatic developments in middle eastern security politics in recent years. It seems like the conversation on that lasted for about a week. There has been a lot going on. I wonder how you take stock of the situation today, since the iraqis are still trying to put together a new government. They are still trying to figure out if they want to stay which is a decision they cannot make until they stabilize the new government. We are still figuring out if we can protect our forces better if the iraqis do not help us enough protecting our own capabilities. What is the state of play right now as we get into may, the u. S. Forces in iraq . Sec. Esper you covered a lot of terrain. The United States policy remains unchanged. We really want iraq to be a secure, prosperous and sovereign country. Were willing to support them in any way we can to do that. We are committed to the enduring defeat of isis, which means providing training, advising and assist. The fact is the iranian government has its tentacles into the Iraqi Government. It seems like it has escalated. At this point in time, the Iraqi Government is struggling because they cannot form themselves. You have a new designated Prime Minister who is trying to pull egovernment together. Hes being influenced by iran or iranian proxies through the shia Militia Groups. At the same time, due to the collapse of oil, the price of oil, you have seen a collapse in the revenues. It is a tough time for the iraqis. What we want to seize the iraqi people enjoy the sovereignty that they want, that they desire. You see the iraqi people out in the streets, it has been about two things corruption and influence of iran in their country. We want to do what we can to help them get through that and become a sovereign, independent, prosperous nation. Michael we still have roughly 5000 u. S. Forces in iraq consolidated in a number of bases. Is that a good summary . Sec. Esper we have an obligation to ensure we protect our people. As we have seen iran maligned activity, particularly in iraq, we know that iran continues to fund or resource or direct or somehow shape the behavior and actions of shia Militia Groups in that country. That is a threat to us. Its a threat that the Iraqi Government is responsible for and needs to take control of. I talked to my counterpart about it, as has the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. When you have a government that is struggling to form itself and get control, it is hard for them to do that. We have consolidated our positions. We support iraqs sovereignty. We have to see what the future of our presence in iraq will look like in the months ahead. Michael in a minute or two, i want to finish up on the broader question of the National Defense strategy and implementation of that. That is partly related to covid19, but also largely separate from covid19. Before i do, i want to ask about afghanistan. I realize this is a complicated question because im inevitably going to be asking you a question that touches on diplomacy and the Peace Process in afghanistan. I think at the moment, theres a little bit of confusion, perhaps intentional and perhaps even desirable, about what exactly u. S. Policy towards afghanistan would be if the Peace Process with the taliban and the government led team of political actors, ngos, Civil Society if that Peace Process continues to state bogged down, if the afghani government cannot decide on how they will structure powersharing between the top two individuals, and there is an uptick in violence, especially by the taliban against the Afghan Police and army, there is really no headway on seeing even the beginning of a promising negotiation are we really going to leave next year, according to the current plan . Or is there enough play in the deal that has been discussed, negotiating the United States still reserves the right to say the taliban is not negotiating in good faith and we are going to rethink our commitments. Certainly, we are going to rethink the idea of getting out altogether come 2021. Any comment on that broader situation which is now complicated by covid as well . Im not sure if it is complicated in which he makes the fighting over time likely to diminish because people get sick. So far, we have seen no report on any reduction in violence. Over to you, mr. Secretary. Sec. Esper lets go back to the basics. The basics of this our goal remains we do not want afghanistan to ever become a safe haven for terrorists who can attack the United States. That is number one. Number two is we know this conflict between the taliban and the Afghan Government is not going to be won on the battlefield. We have to have a political solution to this. That is the process we set up. The Peace Agreement we arranged between us and the taliban that eventually will lead to an afghan negotiation. That is the best path forward for all parties, particularly of the Afghan People who have suffered for 19, 20 years. That is the path we are on. It is fair to say that path has been long and why dn bumpy, and its behind schedule. We continue to talk to both sides about what they need to do to fully implement the agreement. There has not been a reduction in violence from the talibans side. On the other hand, they have not attacked us or major metropolitan areas. On the other side, the Afghan Government needs to organize itself and reach an agreement. We understand right now theres a possible new powersharing agreement coming out. If that is successful, we can form an Afghan Negotiating Team with consent with the taliban. We have seen some exchanges of prisoners not enough. That is the way forward. The United States will continue to support our afghan partners in that process. In their defense, we have conducted counter strikes against the taliban and we will do that. At the end of the day, we want to make sure afghanistan is not become a safe haven for terrorists. We are comfortable we can get down to a lower number and still adhere to the terms of the agreement. From there, we will make decisions that are conditions based. Michael a couple more questions and they relate, again, so the National Defense strategy, power competition and the path forward more generally. I guess i could put this in broad, big picture terms. Anything of particular note you would want to say, whether it is technologies that are showing more progress as john allen alluded to earlier that you were championing in your job . Whether it is any innovation you are seeing that you want us to be aware of and is ongoing. Anything beyond the immediate Crisis Management and covid19 dimensions. It is probably too soon to know there is going to be any effect on your budgetary topline from all of the developments in the world in 2020, not to mention the president ial election in november. But certainly the way covid is affecting our gdp growth rate, our debt, Everything Else is going to be debated at length in the months and years ahead. I assume you dont have any change yet in your expected topline. Can you confirm that and then discuss whatever you want to talk to . Sec. Esper i set my top priority would be the implementation of the National Defense strategy. We have been working pretty hard on that in the 11 months or so i have been secretary of defense. I will talk about some of those things. Much of it goes unreported. On the top line, i said if we are going to continue to increase readiness, make this shift, etc. , we needed 3 to 5 growth year over year. Im concerned that the massive infusion of dollars into the economy by the congress and the executive branch, nearly 3 trillion, may throw us off that course because we all recognize the United States has an enormous debt and we have to deal with that, too. There is a concern that will lead to smaller Defense Budgets in the future. At the critical time we need to continue to make this adjustment where we look at china and then russia as our longterm strategic competitors, that means shutting the legacy force and moving to a more modern force. That more modern force looks like and completely revitalized strategic forces. Were rebuilding all three legs of the nuclear triad. Whether it is the groundbased strategic returns, the new ssbms, or longrange strategic bombers. We are investing a lot of money in ai into hypersonic, our space give abilities, cyber. All types of things. That will continue. At the same time, last summer, we kicked off and we just had an update in the last month, a new joint war fighting concept that is the successor to airland battle. Making sure we are fighting it all domains as a cohesive force. We have big plans to reach out to our allies and partners in making sure they are well integrated in our efforts. There are a number of things we are doing on a variety of fronts to get to that point. Again, i have a 10 point plan in which we are executing that to ensure we are prepared to deal with the strategic threats we see in the future. Again, those longterm adversaries being china competitors being china and russia. Michael are you concerned that even with the existing precovid19 benchmarks, we are going to see a plateauing of the Defense Budget . If that turns out to be the case, lets say we go through covid19, all the fiscal disruption, we go through the president ial election whoever wins winds up with sticking with a flat budget Going Forward because of some of the fiscal concerns. Are there still smart ways we can implement the National Defense strategy even though it will be a lot harder for you or your successor . Are there ways one can imagine or that essentially incompatible with the National Defense strategy as you see it . Sec. Esper there are things we can do that are not budget dependent, if you will, unlike modernizing the force. First of all, i think we need to continue doing what i started last summer. I came in in late july, early august, and we were able to find over three months, 6 billion. I was able to put that back into things like our new technologies and other things we need to modernize the force. But, there are things we can do that dont require a lot of money that can help us get to that. I mentioned the new joint war fighting concept. We are now in the process of transitioning to a concept called we have Immediate Reaction forces and Contingency Reaction forces. Were implementing the policy of Dynamic Force deployment. I want to move much more towards operational deployments as compared to permanent deployed forces. There are a number of things we can do to keep our adversaries off balance, to improve our own readiness at the same time that dont necessarily involve massive infusions of dollars. That said, we do need that sustained topline growth. If we dont, we are going to have to accelerate the shedding of the legacy force and turning those dollars back into building the force we need in the future. Every Service Needs it. We need a larger, more capable navy that can operate, that can implement across the seven seas. We need to modernize our air force and start thinking continue working on six generation capabilities. The army needs to transition out of the reaganera big five and get into the next era which will be necessary for high intensity conflict. The marines are doing innovative things with regard to how they are adjusting their force. I think they have a good blueprint to do that. All those things need to continue. That means we need to shed the legacy far more quickly. There may be things we need to stop doing in order to free up dollars. And, at the same time, there are policy things, adjustments we can make in our training. Relying more on our allies and partners to make sure we can get to that future end state we want ontime. Michael we are lucky as a country to have you in that job. We are grateful for the time you spent with us today. Thank you very much and very best wishes Going Forward. Sec. Esper thank you. Thank you for your paying attention and thank you for what brookings does. Michael my pleasure. Best wishes to you. Best wishes to all. Sec. Esper sign up, today, for c subbands newsletter thomas for cspans newsletter, providing updates from state governors, the White House Task force briefings, and important updates from congress. Sign up today at cspan. Org connect and enter your email word for word in the signup box. Senate committee holds a confirmation hearing for brian miller to be the special and vector general for the pandemic special Inspector General for the pandemic funds and live coverage begins at 2 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Oh yea, oh yeah, oh yeah. All persons having business before the United States. The court is now sitting. For the first time in history, here the u. S. Supreme court, live, this month. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the justices hear oral arguments in cases before the court by teleconference. Cspan will provide live coverage of each of these sessions. Wednesday, 10 00 a. M. Eastern, the justices hear two cases, later sisters of the poor versus pennsylvania and trump first is pennsylvania, a consolidated oral argument on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care act Birth Control mandate exemption expended by the trump administration, and bar versus American Association of Political Consultants incorporation. 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