Lori robinson was a Lieutenant Colonel when she first came to brookings in 2001 and we had the great pleasure spending a year with her in her new career military education which is like more of an education asset brookings to the military fellows than for them but created a friendship and sort of a fan club. Brookings that continued over the years as she rose through the ranks. A lot of you know her story and well talk about her story this morning before we also get into some of her observations on Strategic Issues before the country and then have time for your thoughts and questions as well. And also im very happy that this is happening during Christmas Season because in Holiday Season more john i feel like ive got my Christmas Wish in getting the chance to welcome Lori Robinson back. Her story since were like enough to cspan coverage today, for those of you who want to watch its a wonderful life and may not want the Jimmy Stewart version, you get just as good a version with general robinson, amazing story. She was from an air force family but chose not go to the air force academy herself and went to the university of New Hampshire but air force rotc. This is by the way a couple years ago even though she looks about 35, she is a couple years older than that. This was back in the 1980s and then was commissioned an officer, became whats called an error battle manager with his eye for described as the person tells the f15 pilots where they can go. So to speak. It literally is the person who does that. She moved up to the ranks, was the first woman ever at the Fighter Weapons school which is the Real Top Gun School because its the air force version of top gun. L. It are looking for the real sort of tom cruise and demi moore g. I. Jane, this is the real thing right here in terms of the first when he did that as well as many other accomplishments throughout her career. All of you t know that she was e of thee very few roughly halfdozen women ever in the u. S. Military history so far to attain the rank of 4star general, which happened about 2014 i believe when she penned d on four stars and a first position with that rank as the air compound Component Command at their command. Should present been nice Wing Commander for the 405th Expeditionary Wing and a ploy to the middle east and have a lot of combat experience in the broader iraq, afghanistan and centcom theater. Shes seen a lot of the world into various roles, and on top of that as you all know she finish a military career as the first woman in American History to lead a combatant command when she ran Northern Command at norad from 20162018. Of those you doing the math may recall that time is when kim jongun was launching his icbm tests, and when President Trump and kim jongun had not yet become such good buddies. So theres quite a bit of tension in the t relationship, d she was the one responsible for protecting the country in the event of a north korean icbm attack against north america. On top of that if that wasnt enough she then had to manage the military assistance to broader sibling authority efforts as the three big hurricanes hit in the fall of 2017 or 2017 as well. And. And so anyway, were going to talk a lot more about career, but without further ado please welcome please join me in welcoming general Lori Robinson. [applause] he is way too generous with his complements. Pretty sure everything i said was just a fact. Tried to be consummate although again i am just thrilled. What id like to do if it could, ill try not to call you lori too much because you deserve the title general robinson and truly remarkable story that all this can be inspired by but it couldnt have been easy throughout any point of your career as a woman, and of what to bring her back to the earlyrl days especially and start there, i just described a little bit of how it was first to decide to join the military as woman and then the early years of working your way up to the ranks in a very macho culture which is still is today i think, how did you handle that and what was the big challenges and what were some of your insights or personal methods of dealing with that culture . So michael is right come , md was in the air force. At 18 years, and the oldest of five, the oldest to youngest is six years, and my dad sitting to look at the fact hes going to have to pay for college for five kids and hes like, lori, once you go to the air force academy . I was like absolutely not. Ive been in air force for 18 years and are ready to do something else. Egos would you like to go to college . I said university of texas, hook em horns. And he said im paying, youre going to the university of New Hampshire because its our state of residence and so i was going to be an english major, teacher. But the first year i was so happy to be out of home, my grades might suffer just a little bit so i decided to become an english major and the teaching you would have to take a picture so much what am i going to do with this . I decided to join rotc because i thought for years and that would be good. When i got, my job was air battle manager, the guy in charge of our detachment said laurie, talk to your father. You need to get out of this, youll never get promoted. I thought im not going as by dad to do anything. Im in it by myself. Luckily enough as michael mentioned, i had the privilege to be part of an initial squadron at the the Fighter Weapons school, the best institution and of his first table instructor there, but i will tell you when you ask somebody about what molds you, that was probably one of the places that really molded me. The place that taught me about being part of the team, because you would brief with the pilots can execute with the pilots, debrief with the pilots, hang around together. But more important, the biggest lesson i learned there, we had a boss, and our boss was awesome to us, you realize youre you are part of something bigger than yourself. And i r r thought, what is he talking about . You know . It was over time i realized that it wasnt about me, that it was about the institution. And so that place, that time really molded me. Just for context say, my husband is sitting up here, he was at Dulles Air Force base at the same time and thats will remit. He flew for the thunderbirds and a very dear friend of mine, retired lieutenant general, my husband is a retired to start, a second table instructor at the Fighter Weapons school and she what the entire syllabus for discipline of intelligence. So i will tell you, as a woman there i thrived because it wasnt about being a a woman. It was not getting the task done. It was of being very confident of what it did and tried to get best of what i did. When you walk into a room though and you realize you were the only woman in the room you become very self aware of that. But what i realized in that community, and it was all Fighter Pilots, was what they cared about was you being good at what you did. Thats what was important. And so from that i would tell you, if you went to my career and what we call a combat air forces, so Fighter Pilots, i flew on the back of a wax, on joint stars. It was understanding one, that it isnt about you, it is about the institution, two, the more that you can teach people that work with you and work for you to be better than you, when you leave the institution, hopefuy you left it better than when you got there. And so when i got to my first flying unit and my career field of the time with one of those career fields what we c would sy eight their young, and my goal was to make it, everybody to realize they were part of something bigger than themselves. So over my career i have tried very hard to teach. I would always say to my subordinate commanders or other commanders say, as long as its not illegal, immoral or unethical, lets learn from whatever experience it was. I think that shaping and understanding about the team effort and understanding that your part of something bigger than yourself, was really, really maybe a different human being. As a increased inff rank, was a two star in qatar, was a three strut Langley Air Force base and then a four star in the pacific and out in colorado, you know, the notion that ithe was a woma, and i am [laughing]gh that notion, that would be the headline the people would say. And my headline wasnt this. My headline was, im a commander. Im a general. Im an airman, and they just happen to be a woman. And if i make the woman more important than all those other things, then i didnt disrespected institution. I do realize that ive done things that other women happened. Av i do realize as michael said, the first everyry female combat command and have recognized that come at a realize i have a lot of people watching what i do. I do take that on, too. But i dont want the woman to be the headline. I want the commanded to be headline. I have just tried all the time, michael, to be a team player, to be the best, any job anybody ever gave me, and to make those around the better than the. Did it get easier or harder as you rose through the ranks, being a woman . Did you reach a sort of atmosphere and ambience and a group of people where it became more natural for them to think of you as all the things you said . Or did in some ways become harder . Im curious, ive never asked you this question before. I said to michael, be nice. [laughing] so heres what i discovered. In my circle, in the air force, and with the friends that i grew up with, it was a nonevent. Thats just lori. Lori is doing what lori does. And for them, in fact, i had very good friends that i was a four star with and a three star with andy to start with, and so for them that was like, that didnt matter and a two start with. This isnt meant negatively but it was interesting now with the other services because there are not as many general officers, a female general officers in the other services. So i felt, i tried hard because in my circle everybody knew me so that wasnt, they knew it i was capable of. They trusted me. I trusted him. I put extra energy when it entered a new job that was going to qatar for your as commander, you know, i didnt know general mattis at all. And nowow im working for generl goldstein but when he is not there general mattis is there. And so i worked extra hard to quickly build the trust. Ly i never ever felt that people didnt trust me but i wanted to earn that very quickly. Just because i was different, you know . Ill tell you a story. I went to china and met the chinese air chief, you know, he again, its a different culture, right . Its that howdy bill that trust that trust as quickly as you can and no, hey, either as the command of the Pacific Air Forces. Again i just happen to bee a woman. Anduse i was differented because in Different Services and countries, i put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure that i kept everything on an even Playing Field and im here to do a job. As an abouthe manager, maybe just a little bit on that, i would like to explore what that means for for a crowd on televn and here and watching and learning about the military. Can you tell us, you are involved not only in the air to air relevant but the air to ground, the grant attack piece of that, right . You essentially, you and your colleagues remapping the entire orchestration, the entire choreography of a concerted effort that involves everything from Electronic Warfare come talk fighter aircraft, ground attack aircraft, hole punch a lot of put together thats right. Let me give, this credits old enough to give you my first analogy, top gun. Thats the second weapon to school but top gun, if remember at the end of top gun with the round scope and the guys talking the maverick asymptote and were the bogeys are come right . And get a couple of nods . Good. Thats what i did. Im talking everybody, the Fighter Pilots and if i was out on the radio want to tell them what the bad guys are, to ensure the guys are going to help them drop the bombs to put on target, they had a path to go do that. We also worried about the orchestration of takers, where they could get gas and all that stuff. Worried about other orchestration to ensure that the joint force commanders were met. So whatever was asked of us that we knew what we had to do to ensure that those objectives were met. And often because i deployed to saudi as a young one deployed to him on as you mention, our missions would be anywhere from 12 to 20 hours long. You learned a battle rhythm. Again as recent as your session to the airr force has been, as young as you still are, you still have seen a lot because when you join the air force we were just operating our first stealth aircraft, and cruise missiles were a new thing. We had not yet seen all the laserguided bomb accomplishments of operation desert storm. Desert storm itself was only 10 smart bombs, 90 dumber bombs by total tonnage. Now were added air force where those percentages have reversed, or even more, where we have an large number of stealth aircraft, where we have laserguided bombs, gps bombs, where we also understand the limitations of these things because you have to know with target is for you can name aim a weapon at it so counterinsurgency warfare weve seen the limitations as well. Weve got all sorts of Unmanned Aerial Systems out there. I just wandered from the point of you whats been the most striking change in air combat over that time and that career . Thats a great question. The thing ive been amazed about, if you go back a look at Desert Shield and desert storm which the air force has been in the desert since 1991, we have left, or in the middle east, and look at the way we fought in desert storm, it was how do we deconflict february sources to ensure they get to the target . Versus, if you look at now, we work very hard on integration. How to be consummate each other, how do try to make sure that whatever the capability we need, we can integrate it into the total force . And to include where do we use drones . How to use nonkinetics, all of that. I think the joint fight has grownfi tremendously. And i think to me and a warfare scenario, its the joint fight that is really taken shape. And i think thats been so beneficial. When you can go overseas and to work with your joint brothers and sisters and then you come back and you see them someplace else, you know each other. Its not all of a sudden youre walking into the building and you cant, you know, whose that . But when it starts up there, now youve been to the desert together, youve been to afghanistan together, you have been to iraq together, whatever, but youve got thiss common background. And i think as ive watched that over time i think its been a very positive thing for not just warfare, but for the department of defense. We will come back in a couple of minutes and talk about the application of these capabilities in todays security and firemen and some of what youve seen with getting with china and specific and north korea, the first i want to come back to the question of the state of military today and specifically the question of gender integration and diversity. I guessitit im going to ask yoo questions, one about whether the glass is halffull or halfempty, and regardless im sure theres morry euclid would suggest the military can do to improve. You are one of roughly a half a dozen women who have reached the rank of four star, which is great, but i also had excellent to be there are not many in the pipeline, after you all theth women have may not have another women 4star, general note is tilted in service, but this may be a blip at least for a while. And then its about 15 of all military personnel today who are women, which is lot more than it used tos be but obviously nowhee near 50 . Im not sure if 50 is the correct goal but most of all what i wonder about is i still see a lot of reports of sexual mistreatment and abuse in the military. Thats true across our whole society i dont want to pick on the armed forces specifically, but i see this trends continue to get a lot of headlines and cause a lot of concern, rightly so. I guess again in light of your own story and of which is in todays armed forces, is the class halffull or halfempty . After we talk about that i would love to a couple of your suggestions for how the military can do better by women. I think the glass is at half. Heres the positive things. Theyve opened up all the jobs you could do in the military to women. You cant ask for that. The military is a meritocracy. I did speak at a talked about about in the tenant is lieutenant is lieutenant when you raise your right hand. And i think from that perspective thats why it is half. When you look at the sessions, we are doing a great job of assessing a good percentage of women. The hard part comes time when people are thinking about families. I think the hard part is, and ill tell my story about that. My husband as imagined was a thunderbird pilot. We were leaving nellis ellie got to know why bomber, and it was time for us to move and they were going to send him to korea and the two okinawa, japan. And, of course, he had gotten promoted early so he made rank early. He was ara fight about. Hes a Fighter Pilot and im an air battle manager. I was never going to be more than a Lieutenant Colonel if i was lucky. He was going to be a general officer. I said to david, i said david, why dont i get out and used it in an i will follow you around and we will do all that . Weyo didnt want because of kids. He looked at me, as sweet as he could and he said, and what is it you would get if you got out . And io was like, well, i dont know. And he goes, okay, you state in and ill go fly for the airlines and go into the reserves. And so when it comes time to make those decisions, if thats the hard part, is, and its a have the militaryar married to military. It can be to make people that bothpe have jobs and how to orchestrate alle that . And so i would say its as after i think we do good job of assessing. The hard part is keeping the women in. I know i havent touched ace on this. I know people are looking hard at that. How do we do that . One of thewo things i would alws get a lot of young ladies, and talk to me, how did you do it, and one of the things i would always tell them, the first was you have to have a hard conversation about whose career comes first. Whenever you dont have pressure on you. Because the second you have pressure on you then it becomes an emotional decision and not a rational decision. And have that constantly. Have it every now and then. And then decide how long can you be a part . How far are you willing to live apart . What is it, the longterm goals are, what do that rationally windowsill pressure. And so now, david and i didnt do that butut that was a Lesson Learned for me, and so i think come first of all, it has to be a family decision. It has to be something that is talked about. And then, because sometimes maybe its the womans career that has more potential than the mans. But just have that conversation. And then i know that the services are working hard. I just saw in the ndaa, the extended paternity leave and so thats a good thing. So the services are working hard on how do we make it so that we can keep women in . We talk about women but i want to say its about diversity. Its not just about women. Its about how do you keep different talent sitting around the table . How doou you ensure you have people of different genders, different races, different backgrounds and experiences so when youre the person sitting at the head of the table that you got whole bunch of different voices sitting there . We can talk about me as a woman but i think the bigger story is how do we keep a a diverse tab . Because i think that makes you a better commander, that makes you a better decisionmaker when you have all those different voices telling you things that you probably have not even thought of or didnt even know. I wasas thinking about dates and, what kind of civilian jobs could you do after being an air battle manager . I guess offenses recorded for a Football Team maybe. [laughing] butsi that would probably be if more about p breakthrough and sy in the military. E i wondered when youre talking about the difficulty that sort of child raising years, and should the military do more to let people believe or five or ten years and then come back at right and still even have a future . Thereve been some efforts but its an very specialized niche is. There have been effort and i know theres a program out there. I dont know the particulars i dont want to speak and misspeak more important to that i know theyre looking at that, too. They are trying to, how do we ensure that we have Senior Leaders diversity at the top . How do we make that path to do that . And so i know that theres programs that the implement a little, but i dont know recently what other things they have done. Back to the point come its a tough subject the back to the point about sexual abuse within thel military. I sometimes wondered as father of daughters how would i feel about my daughters joined military and i frankly cant decide. Itn makes me nervous to sell evs report. On the one at the fact that there is more transparency is good but the number still seem to be moving in the right direction. Do you have a sense about how prevalent sexual mistreatment is in the military and whether the services are really getting focused enough on doing what they must to address the problem . I would say, if you recall what general welsh had his hearing to become the chief of staff and with just had a big problem down at Lackland Air Force base. Focused effort on sexual assault, sexual harassment, mistreatment, not treating people with dignity and respect in the workplace. We had a bright shining light on that, and we have a lot of programs that are out there. I think theres a couple of things that are important. So in some ways i could tell you its totally different than when i was in the 80s out at Nellis Air Force base, totally different. I would tell you theres been a lot off progress made. I would also tell you that the commander sets the tone to the commander is one who sets the tone about, you know, will not tolerate. I can tell if they won whatever i would have subordinate commanders and senior enlisted folks for the first briefing, that was one of the topics i talked about. I think its gotten better, but it think we still have a ways to go. I know that we continue to deal with it. I know weve got some wonderful programs in place. I think that how do i want to say this . Its just, its a hard problem and what you have to do is create the environment, one, that it is not tolerated, and two, that then if something happens to somebody will come tell you. And you do create that transparency if something happens. And then three, whatever happens after something happens, make sure that its done transparently, too. One last question on the people of the military and then we can ask you a question china and with great and finally let others share the joy and pleasure of speaking with you. What i wanted to get your overall sense about the military in Society Today because we know a lot is asked of a very small number of people. The activeduty armed forces are less than one half of 1 of the population. Even if you add in the reservists, and begins her husband did a great deal there and the reserve component is a huge part of military, even if you add in reserve, civilian dod employees, still less than 1 of the population. Im not suggesting it should be five or 10 but because its a small fraction that means fewer and fewer people in direct contact with the military, and direct aniston of the military. Is that a problem and its own do you have any ideas what we can do about it . Are we seeing a greater distance between the military and the society that the military exists to protect . So i dont consider it a problem. I just consider that we should understand that. I just retired and my husband and i moved into a neighborhood that has no military. Were in in a place that we ner lived before. As i t stumble upon things and people, we live near a military base but we are further away from it. What i realized is when you tell somebody that you were in the military, and between my husband and i we had 73 years of service, when you tell somebody that you in the military, the first thing they say is thank you for your service. And then ask what you did. So what i realized is that percentage is small but i think in the big scheme of things, people are grateful for what the military does for this nation. I will tighten this, i had the privilege in the last year and a half to speak to a few civilian corporations in their leadership venues, and i we start out with, for 37 years i supported the independent constitution of the. United states against all enemies, foreign and domestic. People sit there from it because its not that it doesnt resonate with them, its just they have seen somebody stand up and do that. Then i talk whatever am going to talk, and then at the end i tell them i was honored to serve for 37 years to defend the United States, to do what i did so that they could do what they do because our nation needs them to do what they do. Ds and so to me all we have to do is continue to talk about it and not be shy. But the other thing ive been really mesmerized by,th michael, is how cities and towns embrace our warriors that have come home. To me thats awesome. To watch people be so proud. You know, i went to New Hampshire this fall, david and i did, and they did a veterans day event. And it was amazing to watch that little town in New Hampshire embrace all those veterans and say thank you to them. So i think theres obviously pockets, but just understand it, and to me do outreach like, that you can and just do what we do. Because the nation needs us to do. Thankae you. Thats a great answer. If i could ask you about china. I wanted to go back to your next to last job in the military when you were the we talk a lot about the South China Sea and Naval Operations and boats and freedom of navigation operations. But you also have to think about airspace and what china was doing by way of trying to keep people out of certain air Defense Identification Zone issues, tried to declare these spaces where any of the country would have to alert china, sort of indirectly asked for permission to use International Airspace. How do you see the overall situation . Is a getting worse . Do you feel we stabilized the situation and the china now is not going to encroach further . Do you feel likee were still on a potentially delicate place where things could get worse . What did you have to do to continue with his challenge . Ill tell you my experience and just a couple things about where we are not just because it only know what ive seen in the news. I took command in hawaii, and admiral law clear was the commander, then pacom, so he presided over the change of command. In his speech, he said this is a huge area of responsibility. 52 ofab the globe is the responsibility of that area. And he said 83 of that 52 is water. But 100 of that is air. And i remind everybody of that. And always quote admiral locklear. I didnt say it, he did. Heres what i realized, is that come first of all logistically to move things around the area is very difficult. Its a long ways. Just to get off for why to go anywhere, it takes you six hos if you want to go to the west coast or if you want to go to guam, its nine hours or so to go to japan. But the area of concern, you know, the way i thought about it, was very small or if you thinkif about the relationship between china, russia, more than south korea and japan in the contested islands and all that, its small. But getting stuff there, moving stuff around is difficult. One of the things i had to deal with was folks flying. We would like around all of that stuff, just as the ships did the freedom of navigation, and making sure that we didnt do anything silly or m get inside f places that we shouldnt go. I mentioned to you before i met with the chinese air chief, and one of the things he talked about all the time was our surveillance work in places they shouldnt be. No sir, they are in international waters. Them to be there. One of the things we worked on really hard was how do you act International Airspace when you going to intercept somebody . How do you, as you intercepting somebody, who does what . I had a whole bunch of folks working with the chinese on that as those people at the pentagon and all that. We worked our way through that about. I think that was very helpful. I think the thing as i watched my time there, i watched china going from being defensive in nature, worrying about the mainland, versus continuing too move out and do more stuff further out and then begin joint operations. And so i know i have continued to work on some of that stuff. I know they have continued to defend those islands. And so it was different to watch. The thing we have to think about is they aree in this for the lg game. They are in this for the long game, and wed need to understad that, that this is something that theyre just going to continue to work on over and over again. Does your gut tell you we can sort of probably work it out with china . In other words, if we are smart and resolute and a lot of the things are saying you will be challenging over the long haul, that we should be able to reach a new modus operandi were china gradually becomes another superpower and wants to flex its muscle but we can push back and the right ways with our allies in such a way there are greater ambitions, or do you feel worst thing by every and maybe the potential for war is almost inevitable . I dont want to rso get intoe diplomats role. As secretary mattis used toas tl us, let us take about do what the state department does, but the diplomats do and make sure that we provide that military capability to them. So p not being in those talks ad not being in that, i would be speculating and i dont think thats fair. But i think whats important to understand is what we do in the military is to make sure whenever were asked to do were ready to go. So youre agnostic . Very. A lot of people are not including in the military. I think its important we keep having this debate on china. I appreciate your observations. One last question from the an with grit and then i will invite others to weigh in. Thisll be a question you will not be able to completely answer im sure for two recent one, no one knows the answer and two, some of what you noticed classified by the going to ask anyway because its about north koreas potential missile threat to the United States. That was your job to think about and worried about come potential to address back in 20162018. Im just going to throw this out and see if you want to take potshots at what i propose. My own view is that north korea is probably not yet in a place where they can mount a confident icbm threatt to north america, for the following reasons. They would presumably not do this out of the blue. If its in a in a crisis or wae situation, weree probably going to our best to make sure the missile is not even launched. North korea wofer to get b through the multiple step process of getting the missile off the launch pad and having the reentry vehicle work when theyve only done three icbm tests in history and none of them tested a warhead on the way down, thank god and finally get through the mid course interceptor system. I would tend to think the odds are with us and odds are pretty high that north korea probably cant attack an American City today with any high confidence of success, but i would love to see if you have any comment on any of that to the extent youre willing. No. [laughte [laughter] kidding. So let me just say this, first of all for about this time that kim jongun did 23 shots in 17, you know, every time we got indications and warnings that he was going to do something, i had to make the assumption that it was going to hit the United States. I had to make that assumption every single time. I couldnt assume that he wasnt going to make it. Secondly, i testified to this that i had confidence in our capability to defend the United States. Thirdly, what i would say in addressing all of that is that every time he tests, hes testing. And you know, we get concerned about failure and you can often learn more in failure tan you can in success. And so you know, as ive been watching in the news and my and in my time there, being a part of very elaborate capability, you know, we watched him get better. You know, we watched him be able to do things. I couldnt give you i can tell you this, first of all, the training that happens to defend the homeland is awesome. The things that we did to make sure that the homeland was defended throughout the, you know, the network of capabilities was constantly being looked at. And we all assumed that it was going to hit the homeland and we all think that every time he tests, hes gaining capability. Thank you. Very helpful answer. Well, please, if you can wait for a microphone, identify yourself and pose a question to general robinson. Well start the seventh row the woman in the light tan jacket. Connie from voice of america. I just want to follow up on the north korea question that michael just asked. So, we are seeing threats that north korea is going to give a Christmas Present to the United States amid the escalating tensions right now. I was wondering what comments you had on that and i was wondering, since you were there in the military serving from 2016 to 18, are we going to return to the fire and fury again in the next year . First of all, im not going to comment on that because im not in there anymore. Im not in the military, but secondly, okay. I got lost in your fire and fury, go to the first part again, im sorry. [inaudible]. A Christmas Present i dont know, you know, ive read in the news a little bit. I know that the Pacific Air Forces commander was just here and they were watching, we listened to the president say they were just watching. And i think that everybody is paying attention to whats happening and again, i have all faith and confidence that whatever happens, you know, well be able to defend the United States. But i just know what we see in the news. Well go to the gentleman here in the black jacket, fourth row right there, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, general for a very fascinating remarks. My question is that earlier this year the u. S. Center of the university of sydney released a report and they concluded that china, particularly antiarea denial, have developed to the extent that it has undermined u. S. Ability to project power in the indopacific. Whats your view . I would say this, last i was in the pacific and we practiced, then we talked about this, so, you know, my information is dated so please forgive me for that, but i think that we continue to look at our ability to project power in the time and place of our choosing. And i think that, you know, as much as theyre watching us, were watching them and were looking at capabilities that we can do to continue to be able to do that. Come here to the second row, please. Gentleman in the green iish almost christmas tie. Candy cane. I like the candy cane. Special agent u. S. Customs and 9 11 responder. This is in a sense a followup to a question i asked general dunford, general chief of staffs during the summer. You answered transparency and as a 9 11 responders, 9 11 truth. Org pointed out anomalies of what happened especially at the trade centers at 9 11 and the writings of the doctor, formerly of the army war college. And will brookings and you in your capacity, especially with your background from the air force, can brookings be a venue for exploring anomalies in what happened on 9 11 as we approach the 20th anniversary so we can achieve transparency regarding what happened that day. Im never going to speak for brookings, but i think they have and i asked michael to comment on this, but the amount of capacity they have here and my experience when i was here, you know, i had the privilege to stop and think, which you dont get that privilege to do very often. What i was mesmerized about my time here, the wide variety of my time here. Id ask michael specifically to go there. Anyplace you can sit down and think and explore is awesome. And i would just say briefly that the best people on terrorism at brookings and counterterrorism include bruce rydell, dan byman, Susan Hennessey and a few of the scholars, those are people you might look for their writings in the future. And tom in the far row. Hi, tom. Im tom and here at brookings. Are you having fun . Yes. Excellent, great, excellent. And my question built off an earlier comment you have made. Last year the joint staff published a joint, shattering the central tenets of which, below threshold of Armed Conflict and an idea a departure from the past is this idea of joint and intergovernmental cooperation. And so my question really is, what do you believe that either the army or our interagency, intergovernmental partners need to do to actually achieve the policy goals that have been set forth to achieve our ends . Great. Thank you. So, what i would say, first of all, you know, obviously, thats a policy question, but what i would say, these are the kind of things that any military meme thats going through brookings should take advantage of to build relationships, because at the end of the day, it is about relationships. So to the extent that, you know, some of the courses that you have the privilege to take while youre here, you know, and im sure you have brothers and sisters at state department and at csif and other places, build those relationships, you know . And its those relationships that when you need them it will come out. The thing that i recognize, we all think differently, right . I mean, you know, us military people, whats the task, okay, here is the way were going to accomplish it and the course of action that youve got. Make a decision. Well, not everybody thinks like that and theres no judgment there, but its relationships that help to be able to sit down and talk about it. So what i would tell you as you work through that and as you work through the global integration things because you need the interagency as a part of that, that you will be able to reach out and build a relationship, you know, and have somebody to talk to to help you think through the way that somebody else might be thinking through it. I dont think, you know, theres forums where we have all of us together when it comes time for big decision making, but i think, you know, its more it is as important that you reach out yourself. I cant tell you, i had five tours in the building and what i realized early on was that the importance of not burning any bridges because if id come back to the fifth tour and working with the same people with the second and third tour, and i wasnt a team player, you know, it doesnt mean that i acquiesce, but theres ways to talk about things, that it would have been a very difficult fifth tour, and so to me, that relationship, so, upper here to place where you have time to go do that you know, do that and take advantage of that, and reach out to your the other fellows here at the places where they are and youll never know what you learn in five years. Slightly broader point for me, i just want to give a shut out to the armed forces in general for the way they take professional military education seriously. Something that i continue to be astounded by. You could say its a luxury in the sense the military is big enough. The people can literally take a year out of their normal progression of responsibilities, but whether you consider it a luxury or a necessity, i think its more of the latter because what it does, it gives the Lori Robinsons and jim birds and eric reeds the ability to just learn about, for example, where is china headed . And when im 10 years down the road in a position of command in a crisis and i want to figure out, is this a crisis where we need to ratchet up or ratchet down or find a diplomatic way out and the military advice is going to be crucial as the future president decides what to do. Its the ability to think back and reflect on history and on philosophy and on governmental dynamics and how decisions are made in a bureaucracy and all of that kind of sophistication in addition to the technical military expertise that makes our military leadership so exceptional, you know, as ive gotten the privilege of getting to know some of these amazing americans over the years to see what that professional military education has done to compliment their world view something to sustain in the armed forces, were lucky when they come to brookings, but in general as they want to envision higher rank and joint service, so, lets go to our other question if we could, please, start here in the front row and then over there to the third row. Hi. If you want to look identify yourself, please. Sorry, chris mcrae. If you were to look 10 years forward in terms of technology, its the one biggest thing that might go right or wrong in terms of technology. I mean, we hear of all of these things like, you know, the computer has just been tested by google that can do 10,000 years analysis in 10 seconds, but its hard to sort of understand exactly where all of this is going and it would be nice to have a positive scenario. [laughter] well, hasnt everything been positive today . Yeah, so what i would say, one of the things that i know and i can only speak really for the air force and as im reading. I think people know what its going to look like in 2025 and 2030 and what capabilities do we have today, and what do we need to work on to do that and how do we, you know, you heard talk about just the document on joint warfare, how do we envision that were going to Work Together to defend the nation or do what the National Command north asks us to do. So, i dont think theres one big thing, but i think theres a lot of things that people are working on to go, hey, this is the way its going to be based on what we know out there. I think the thing that we work on really hard is how do we make things faster . You know, because if you look at the googles or the apples or the microsofts or those kind of folks, im always impressed by how quick, you know, they have new capability. How can we do that in the military to ensure that we can do the things that the nation asks us to do. Here in the third row here, please. Thank you, maam. Vivian with the defense daily. Thank you for being here. And i wanted to ask you the space force question now that youre out of uniform and all, but one of the bills essentially have been passed to allow it to happen next year. Can you talk a bit about how the space force, you anticipate it, it benefitting or at north com, you know, the leadership roles that you have and do you regret youre not in the military right now . Can i answer the second question . You can go thank you. My pleasure. So not having been involved in the dialog and not and again, i dont want to Say Something that im i dont know anything about so i wasnt involved in all the dialog because i was out in a joint job. You know, i know general jay raymond and you know, when we made him in charge i would tell you, that was the best pick our nation could do. And so what i would tell you is, watching him do his job, i know hes going to do the best he can with as he tries to shape all of this and how does he integrate that and what do we do with that. I dont know enough specifics to give you an intellectual answer. And, no, im very happy to be retired. Its, you know, 37 years is a long time. I tell people this though, i enjoyed every single second of it. I had i was so blessed with great mentors, great friends, great jobs, people that believed in me, independent of what i did for a living and put me in places because they saw potential. I cant imagine anything better, but im happy to be retired. The one thing i miss is the people. I miss the people. My friend here in the white sweater. General, thank you very much for a very good presentation. Even though i know you, please introduce yourself. Im elliott herwoods and im retired. I worked at the state department during the dual use principle and i would like to have your thank you for a very good presentation. I would like to have your comments on the diversion of Technology Development from the from government sources to corporate sources and what the implications of that are internationally. Wow. Make sure i understand your question. So because we have corporations and ill use an air force example, like Lockheed Martin makes a lot of our airplanes, since they do that, what is the implications of that and then what does that do to us internationally. Yes, thats correct. Formally Technology Development was the realm of governments. So what i would say, one, we havent finished in the military, we still do a lot of research and development. So we have a lot of that still going on. To have the corporations, if you will, when i was a young one in the military, we had four airplane four or five Different Companies that made airplanes and so that is not new news. What was interesting about it, especially if you look at the f35, and you look at the consortium of countries that participated in the beginning of that, you know, and the ability for us to be interoperable around the world because we understand each other, its the same with the f16. We have f16s around the world. Our ability to Work Together, it increases that capability and we know the capability of all of that all of those other airplanes. So, i think from a in a positive vein, i think its good, one, that we have somebody focused on building stuff and we have some r d and we can Work Together with industry and two, the fact that we can deploy it around the world i think helps us in the long haul because if we ever have to go and defend the nation or defend something else, were not going to do it by ourselves. Were going to do it with other folks and so, to the extent that, you know, we can start with interoperability at the beginning, with like capabilities, i think is very helpful. Time for one or two more questions, we go to my good friend from the Japanese Air Force is here first and then maybe up to thank you. I im here okinawa, japan. Yay. Thank you. And talking about japan last year, we have female and women. Yay. And talking today, so my question is regarding the regarding the emerging technologies such as ai. Ask your comment regarding the ai to the management, thank you. So first of all, when i was a commander in the pacific, my good friend, we had the opportunity to spend, my husband and i had an opportunity to spend a lot of time with him and i just saw him a couple of months ago here in washington d. C. , he was hes a wonderful person and i enjoyed working with him. So ai and air battle management, youll have to show me about the capability of ai to make a decision. You know, one of the things in and obviously its supposed to be learning machine, right . So the more you work, the more it learns. Because when youre sitting up there in an e3, as an example, there are times that the situation isnt exactly what we thought it was going to be. And so the human interface to that machine and the human voice to whatevers happening out there, is very time critical, time sensitive. Do i ever think its not going to happen . No. You know, as we watch ai develop and progress, i think that you know, theres you know, the way were moving forward i can see it. Do i think anytime soon . Probably not. I think whats important is, and one of the things our chief of staff in the airport as youve seen is the connectivity between the force and i think i think thats where we need to get to and then kind of work on that as we continue to develop and understand all the capabilities of ai. By the way, a little advanced advertisement for my good friend tom stefaniks book, working on ai and warfare, a book coming out the next year or so and i think hes going to try to put it in perspective and maybe slightly deflate the hyperbole around ai without pooh poohing the future at all, but nonetheless recognizing its not the be all and end all of everything, thats a fair summary. Gentleman here in the fourth row, time for one or two more and well wrap up. Morning, im from senator murkowskis office from alaska. Yay. And thats a big focus for you. Right now were working with general shaughnessy and the future of norad north com looks like and the line and early warning. Im curious, how much should we be focusing on the arctic and integrating not just with canada, but how much we should focus on it being a north com issue, a ucom issue, something that were working on right now. Please tell the senator i said hello, i have huge respect for her. So when i testified for my confirmation hearing, i think it was senator sullivan that put the map down in front of the general and i, remember, and said you have to fix this problem, right . I would tell you a couple of things, i know in my time and im sure general oshaughnessy has taken it leaps and bounds, we worked hard on that to make sure that there was no seams between us, and that the talking between all of us was consistent in the things that we thought needed to be done were consistent. I think that, you know, when you look at i dont know how we can say it can be just a canada problem. Its an alaska and canada problem, its a north american problem, really is the way i think about it. When i think about the things that north com were doing as we were getting ready to do more exercises and understand more in the arctic and we look. I know my first summer there was the first time we had a cruise ship go through in the summer and you know, that kind of opened everybodys eyes. And so i think we have to be very sensitive to it and i think we have to understand whats going on. You know, what are the russians doing, what are the chinese doing and what is our capability and then, what can we invest to ensure that we can detect and take care of things at ranges we might need to and thats kind of the dew line and rebuilding some of that. Im sure that general oshaughnessy is leaps and bonds, and he has the right sight picture and we have to Pay Attention and the environment. Weve had our feet in the sand for years and years, and now we need to start thinking about putting our toe in the snow. And so, i think hey. But i think that we started very we worked hard, but i know general oshaughnessy is really working hard at all of that, too. And i know that the collaboration between ucom, indo pacom is tight knowing the individuals involved. Does that answer your question . One last question and well wrap up. And we have just one more so this gentleman over here, perfect. Yay im kevin lee from international affairs. Two questions, first question is that he said just one. [laughter] no, im teasing, im teasing. Maybe combine it into one. No, its okay. A few months ago, russia test their new pioneer hyper sonic weapon. So, on as far as i know, u. S. Have no similar hypersonic and russia claim that its not deterrable and not interceptable for the norad. You have command in norad and so id like you to have some comment on it, not interceptable at all or our Missile Defense system and also norad can have some capability to intercept it and also deter it. So here is what i would say. As i was leaving the department, this was a very hot topic and i know that they are working very hard on understanding what they saw in russia, and what they perceive the capabilities will be and as importantly, what can we do to defend the United States. I dont have fidelity data on that, but i know that that is something that people are paying attention to and making sure that we continue to work on defending the United States, so its worth noting by the way, that a lot of hypersonic weaponry is in the determinable phase as it reenters the atmosphere and some kind of hyperi cans can be addressed and thats why part of the Missile Defense agency has a 10 billion a year budget for developing technology. In closing let me say its the end of the year and im nostalgic and i want to reflect on the amazing women weve been blessed to know at brookings and four standout and with lori, join me in thanking here and first, alice riffland maybe the greatest of all we lost at brookings a life and career at age 88 and came back to brookings at age 72 and fixed d. C. s finances during the last 16year stint with some help from others, but just one of the greatest of all time and then, jan nolan who had been a pioneer dealing with Nuclear Strategy and a lot of air force issues as well, and then of course, a woman still very much with us, that were all very proud of these days, fiona hill, ive just ordered my fiona hill tshirt and theres not an action figure yet, but maybe soon. [laughter] and amazing friend, join me in thanking general Lori Robinson. Thank you. [applause] i hope everybody has a wonderful Holiday Season and thanks for your thoughtfulness. I appreciate it a lot. [inaudible conversations] the house will be in order. For 40 years, cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events from washington d. C. And around the country. So you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979. Cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Government. In just a moment we expect oral argument to begin with a d. C. Circuit court case whether former White House Council don mcgahn must comply with a subpoena. About an hour and then another case regarding how lawmakers unseal documents in the mueller investigation. Thats expected for about an hour, too. Live coverage on cspan2. Once again, waiting for the oral argument in the Supreme Court in the Court Whether don mcgahn will have to testify from the subpoena and once again, documents from the mueller investigation, that also should last an hour, live coverage here on cspan2. We expect this to start in just a moment. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] oyea oyea oyea all persons before the honorable United States court of appeals for the District Of Columbia circuit. Draw near and give their attention so the court