The audience. Questions on arrival and select add few at random which i will put to the secretary. By the way, your predecessors and most recently john kerry have addressed us on prior occasions but the times in which they served seemed less perilous than the present. Today as you and i were discussing, our country and the world face an existential threat from north Koreas Nuclear program, many governments in the middle east are struggling for stability despite the enormous reduction in the capacity of terror groups like isis, plots, and horrific violence against civilians, mostly muslims continue, and there is clear evidence of russia meddling in democratic elections in the u. S. And europe, just to name a few of the issues on your plate. Its clear that old answers dont work. Thats why many here applaud the fact that you have an unusual resume for a secretary of state. Educated as an engineer, your journey over four decades to become ceo of the worlds sixth and most the worlds sixth most valuable country is nothing less than astonishing. But hey, you were an eagle scout, one who later headed the boy scouts. Before joining the Trump Administration, you traveled widely and met regularly with Global Leaders and displayed curiosity about the world, which is of course why you received our award. As you know conducting Foreign Policy is hard, nuance, ability, trust and respect with those with whom you interact. You should know for the last five years worldclass scholars and Program Directors have helped congressional skaf on bipartisan basis, analyze toughest Foreign Policy challenges from china to putins russia to assads syria to maduros venezuela. Laying for Foreign Policy as we build relationships across the aisle. Just maybe some of our alums from our program will run for congress themselves or work for you in the state department. Let me recognize a few of our guests and then turn the podium to you. Starting with changes to the International TradeCenter Management association for hosting this event. Thank you, reagan building. 900 people wanted to fit into this 600 person auditorium, so i apologize to those who came a bit late and couldnt be accommodated. Some of our white house appointed trustees are here clul including them, a duggin, Natalie Reyes and our beloved former chairman ambassador joe guildenhorn and his amazing wife alma is here. Welcome to our supporters and ambassadors from belgium, greece, hungary, league of arab states, luxembourg, nepal, republic of slovenia and spain. Welcome, too, to senator ron johnson who has escaped for an hour from the tax wars on capitol hill and to former senator johnston. By the way, one staffer from senator johnss offions office attended our Foreign Policy program. Finally let me acknowledge our own relationship and acknowledge staff, my old buddy, margaret, your chief of staff, and newly minted and highly reviewed assistant secretary for europe we s wes mitchell. Now welcome 69th secretary of state mr. Secretary, the floor is yours. [ applause ] well, good morning. Thank you, jane, for a very kind introduction. Also thanks to the Wilson Center for this opportunity to address you today. The Wilson Center made many important contributions to Public Policy over the years and therefore very fitting venue for our discussion today on europe, 100 years ago United States entered world war i under leadership of president wilson. While we tend to associate wilson with spearheading americas first major involvement in european affairs, i think is worth remembering our commitment to europe was earlier championed by a predecessor of his, Theodore Roosevelt. When roosevelt died in 1919, just as wilson was striving for peace in europe, european leaders joined American People in an outpouring of grief and praise. British Prime Minister david george remembered him as an inspiring figure far beyond the countrys shores. Another british politician said he had been the greatest of all americans in a moment of dire stress. A french senator said apostle of cause of right on the other side of the atlantic. President roosevelt was beloved in europe because of his vigorous commitment to the continent in the years before and during world war i. While president wilson steadfastly adhered to neutrality policy, roosevelt felt responsibility to come to europes defense. It was reported he even once asked president wilson for permission to personally lead Army Division into europe. He had even written to British Army Officer saying if we had done what we ought to have done after the sinking of the ship i and my four boys would be getting ready to serve with you. What motivated Theodore Roosevelts objection and news rality and argue the defense of europe. We can see the answer in something roosevelt told u. S. Congress in 1904 and i quote, a great free people owes it to either self and to all mankind not to sink into helplessness before the powers of evil. Roosevelt knew that the defense of freedom demanded action from free nations confident in their strength and protective of their sovereignty. Roosevelt also knew that the United States and europe then, as we are now, are bound by shared principles. Our nations live to selfevident truth on which western civilization is built, liberty, equality, and human dignity. These foundational principles are protected by the construct of our institutions dedicated to the rule of law, separation of powers and representative government. Our principles are also protected by external threats from collective determination, action and sacrifice in the face of security challenges. World war i was the first great test in the 20th century of whether the United States would pay the high cost of liberty. Theodore roosevelt never participated in that war but did pay the high cost. His son clinton, fighter pilot, was killed in the skies over france. In past decades, our way of life, and by extension our core western principles have been tested by totalitarian threat of naziism, soviet power and communist ideology, by ethnic and sectarian conflicts and by internal political pressures. Together the u. S. And europe have passed these tests. We know the United States and europe are again tested today and we will be tested again. Under President Trump the United States remains committed to our enduring relationship with europe. Our security commitments to european allies are ironclad. If we are to sustain shared commitments that ensure stability in the region, the Trump Administration views it as necessary for our allies to be strong, sovereign, prosperous, and committed to the defense of shared western ideals. Over the past 10 months we have embarked on new Strategic Policy that bolsters european and american security. Namely a recommitment to europe in the failed russia reset. A new effort to adapt security institutions to combating emerging threats like terrorism, Cyber Attacks, and nuclear proliferation, and an expectation that european nations accept they are more secure when they contribute more toward their own defense. These new policy directions will better position the United States and europe to confront the challenges that threaten our prosperity. The actors that seek to sew chaos and instill doubt in our laws and institutions. The enemies that threaten our security and oppose our way of life. This is a message i will repeat in my meetings with nato and osce leaders and bilateral meetings in a trip to europe next week. The preservation of our liberty begins with guaranteeing that our people can live in safety. To that end, the United States places the highest importance on security relationships with european allies, including nato. Alliances are meaningless if their members are unwilling or unable to honor their commitments. Earlier this year President Trump reaffirmed the United States commitment to article 5 of the nato treaty because it is the best mechanism we have to deter aggression. As the text of article 5 reads, the parties agree an armed attack against one or more of them in europe or north america shall be considered an attack against them all. Any attack by any actor on a nato member state will trigger article 5 and the United States will be the first to honor the commitment we have made. We will never forget how nato members can quickly stand with us after the september 11th attack and we will do the same for them if they are attacked while the west continues to seek a new relationship with post soviet russia, thus far it has proved elusive. Both attempts by the Prior Administration to reset the russia and u. S. Europe relationships have been followed by russia invading its neighbor georgia in 2008 and ukraine in 2014. Russia continues aggressive behavior toward other regional neighbors by interfering in election processes and promoting nondism ideals. We together with our friends in europe recognize active threat of recently resurgent russia. That is why the United States has strengthened its deterrence and defense commitments in europe to the european deterr t deterrents initiative or edi. Earlier this year the administration requested 4. 8 billion in its budge towards. This increase of 1. 4 billion over the Previous Year will enhance the u. S. Militarys deterrence, defense capabilities and improve readiness of forces in europe. The edi facilitates training and exercises with our european allies and partners to better integrate our militaries and provide security for europe. It will bolster the capacity of army, navy, air force and marine corps to deploy assets and support nato joint exercises. In view of russias military exercises conducted near borders of Baltic States in september, our ability to respond to attack in concert with our allies is more important than ever. The edi also includes 150 million to help ukraine build its capacity for defending its territorial integrity. The United States recognizes that the war in ukraine, in which people are still dying every day, must come to an end. We have repeatedly urged russia to begin the path to peace by honoring its commitments under the minsk agreements. Any resolution of the war that doesnt entail fully independent, somp and territorial whole ukraine is unacceptable. Russia chose to violate the sovereignty of the largest country in europe. The United States and europe have stood shoulder to shoulder since 2014 in confronting this russian aggression with a coordinated sanctions policy. Our transatlantic unity is meant to convey to the russian government that we will not stand for this flagrant violation of international norms. We hope russia will take steps to restore ukraines full sovereignty and territorial integrity and fully implement its minsk commitments allowing us, then, to begin the process of restoring normal relations. But let me be clear, minskrelated sanctions will remain in place until russia reverses the action that is triggered them. Were committed to the success of an independent and whole ukraine. However, ukraines future depends also on winning its internal struggle to implement broad range of economic, justice security, and social sector reforms. We encourage ukraine to continue building capable, trustworthy institutions that will reduce and eventually eliminate corruption, strengthen their judicial system and deliver Economic Prosperity to their citizens. Ukraine crisis also made clear how Energy Supplies can be wielded as a political weapon, enhancing European Energy security by ensuring access to affordable, reliable, diverse and secure supplies of energy thats fundamental to National Security objectives. The United States is liberalizing rules governing the export of liquefied natural gas and u. S. Produced crude and eager to work with european allies to ensure development of needed infrastructure like import terminals and interconnecting pipelines to promote the diversity of supply to europe. In july President Trump announced that the 3c summit that the United States will provide Technical Support for croatias kirk island project. The United States will continue to support european Infrastructure Projects such as l g receiving facilities in poland and interconnector greece, bulgaria pipeline to ensure no country from outside europes energy union can use its resources or position in the Global Energy market it extort other nations. We continue to view the development of pipelines like nor stream 2 and multiline stream is unwise as they only increase market dominance from single supplier to europe. The United States recognizes the fragility of the balkans and will continue to work with partners in the eu to bring stability, prosperity and democracy to the region. The people of the balkan countries to them we say abandon your old animosities, so that peace may become permanent. You have a chance to direct the new course of history. Blood lines should no longer be battle lines. The United States and the world long to see a new generations of serbs, croatians, albanians, bosnians, kosovar and others who will forgive the past, even if they can never forget it. A testament to americas shared values with europe is cooperation on issues beyond the borders of europe which affect us all. The United States and our european allies have partnered to hold Bashar Al Assad accountable for sanctions for crimes against his own people. Since the beginning of the syrian crisis, eu and Member States have pledged over 9. 5 billion euros in humanitarian stabilization, resilience assistance. Those efforts are continuing as the Global Coalition to defeat isis stabilizes liberated areas. As the last pockets of isis are defeated in syria, International Focus turns to resolving the syrian civil conflict, our European Partners must continue to be strong advocates for the u. N. Led agageneva process unti resolution 2254. That alone can be the basis for rebuilding the country and implementing a political solution that leaves no role for assad regime or his family in syrias government. Our European Partners have also been strong supporters of our diplomatic and Economic Pressure Campaign against north korea. In addition to enthusiastically supporting u. N. Security council resolutions, countries have taken unilateral steps to maximize pressure on the regime in pyongyang. Portugal froze all diplomatic relations with dprk in july. Spain and italy have expelled north korean ambassadors. Latvia has fined banks who have violated the sanctions. Our european allies know north korea is a threat to all responsible nations and requires a coordinated response. We commend our alease for increasing pressure on the regime in pyongyang in order to achieve the complete, permanent, and verifiable denuclearization of the korean peninsula. The partnership that the United States and european nations have forged are critical are a critical basis for confronting the threats of today and tomorrow both in europe and outside of europe. The United States and europe face many challenges and threats that unlike in the past are simultaneously dispersed among many geographic front lines and across multiple do mains, whether nonstate terrorist actors, threats of a more conventional nature, cyber threats, or nuclear threats. Because we know we are stronger in confronting these challenges when we are working together, we will pursue even greater cooperation from and with the nations of europe, our best partners. History has shown that when we are united, we succeed in the face of shared challenges. As i remarked earlier, one of these challenges is russia. Europe and the United States seek a normalized relationship with russia. However, russia has shown it seeks to define new post soviet global balance of power, one in which russia, by virtue of its nuclear arsenal, seeks to impose its will on others by force or partnering with regions who show a disregard for their own citizens. This is the case with Bashar Al Assads continuous use of tem cal weapons against his own people. The dissolution in the soviet union liberalized Russian Society and created new trade opportunities that benefit russians, europeans, and americans. But russia has often employed malicious tactics against the u. S. And europe to drive us apart, weaken our confidence and undermine political and economic successes we have achieved together since the end of the cold war. Playing politics with Energy Supplies, launching Cyber Attacks and disinformation campaigns to undermine free elections. Serially harassing and intimidating diplomats are not the behaviors of a responsible nation. Attacking a neighboring country and threatening others does nothing to improve the lives of russians or enhance russias standing in the world. We want russia to be a constructive neighbor of europe and of the larger transatlantic community, but that is russias choice to make. Russia can continue to isolate and impoverish itself by sowing disorder abroad and impeding liberty at home or it can become a force that will advance the freedom of russians and the stability offu eurasia. Theres much more that binds the United States and europe together than drives us apart. The jcpoa is no longer the only point of u. S. Policy toward iran. We are committed to addressing the totality of the iranian threat. We ask our European Partners to join us in standing up to all of irans maligned me half. The Iranian Regime is antithetical to principles and totalitarian suppression of individual, political and religious freedom. Neither the United States nor europe wants another type of north Korean Nuclear threat on its hands, nor are any of our nations at ease with irans attempts in the middle east, to support for terrorist organizations, militias on the ground in iraq and syria and an active Ballistic Missile development program. At europes intersection in the region, we know turkey cannot ignore iran because of geographic proximity and cultural ties, but we ask turkey as a nato ally to prioritize the common defense of its treaty allies. Iran and russia cannot offer turkish people the economic and political benefits that membership in the western community of nations can provide. We recognize important contributions of nato allies made in afghanistan, and we ask them to maintain their commitment to the mission. The in state of the United States new south asia strategy is to destroy terrorist safe havens and deny their reestablishment while Afghan Government continues to strengthen its own capacity to maintain security and create the conditions for reconciliation with the taliban and an inclusive government that accounts for Ethnic Diversity of all afghans. We know this will take time. But if we fail to exercise vigilence and undertake action against the terrorist threat wherever it is found, we risk recreating the safe havens for which the 9 11 plot was hatched and carried out. We urge proportion ate contributions of troops, funds, and other forms of assistance as we seek to eradicate a terrorist threat that will not be confined to the place where it was born. Natos Resolute Support mission is our goal to ensure afghanistan develops ability to secure regional stability and prevail over terrorist threats including al qaeda and isis. Even though isis is on the brink of complete extinction in iraq and syria, the threat of isis and Terror Networks will persist in our own country and others. Isis is looking for new foot holds wherever they can find them, including region in south africa. We must take action so these areas do not become the next breeding ground for isis, al qaeda, or other terrorist groups. When these groups are able to occupy territory without disruption, their strategists, their bomb makers and online propagandist have a better time plotting attacks elsewhere in the world. This for many months was the case in raqqa. In support of our african and European Partners, particularly france, the United States recently committed up to 60 million to assist the g5 joint force to combat terrorism and potential rise of isis in the region. Will continue to have new an unexpected origins. Evolving and unpredictable nature we face is clear to brussels, orlando, nice, berlin, istanbul, london, manchester, barcelona, new york, and many other places where people suffered at the hands of islamic terrorists, many of whom were radicalized in front of a computer screen inside their own homes inside their own countries. The threats we face are clear to countries like turkey, greece, italy and germany who confronted destabilizing impact of waves of irregular migration from africa and middle east. Darkest hours of world war ii Winston Churchill declared british people would fight on the fields, the beaches and in the streets to protect our country. Today our fight is increasingly located on the internet, at passport checkpoints, and in the hearts and minds of young people in europe and around the globe. European security institutions including nato must be properly adapted to address internal and external threats such as radical islamic terrorism, to address Cyber Attacks and to address unchecked migration. Though we know these are the threats of the future, too many headlines have already declared these are the threats of today. New threats to the United States and europe are longterm unpredictable in timing and localized in many different places. Properly anticipating and combating these threats require a greater european commitment to security because local responders are the most effective deterrent. While the United States will continue to maintain our guarantees against a catastrophic failure of security in the region and will continue to expand resources to maintain our protective umbrella, the nations of europe must accept greater responsibility for their own security challenges. Our alliances must be made stronger in the current strategic environment. A lack of dill against and duty will only invite greater risk. President trump said in warsaw, and i quote, we have to remember that our defense is not just a commitment of money, its a commitment of will. Our expenditures are in some ways a reflection of how much we seek to protect peace and freedom. We once again urge European Partners who have not done so already to meet the 2 of gdp target for defense spending. This year albania, croatia, france, hungary and romania have nearly committed to attaining the 2 benchmark. These nations know they must invest in security to preserve liberty. Every nato member has previously agreed to the wells pledge on defense investment. Its time for each of us to honor that agreement. We also urge greater Security Integration provided that the relationships are efficient and serve shared interest. These commitments are necessary because our freedom and security is at stake. The United States and all nations of europe, especially those who once lived under the weight of communist dictatorships value our freedom assignation who is can act on our own authority. If we do not exercise responsibility, we will not have sovereignty. If we do not have sovereignty, we will not have freedom. Maintaining sovereignty also entails cultivating virtues that make it possible. Free nations must exercise vigilant protection of Civil Societies and the groups, families and individuals that is compose them. Governments are empty shells when detached from vibrant Civil Society and deep respect for selfevident truths. We can win every great geopolitical struggle. But if we are not apprehendiape vigilant, our own people may lose in the long run. Depends how willing we are to protect the core truths upon which our political and economic freedoms are based. We know the people and leaders of europe are having many conversations about their future. America will not attempt to impose answers to those questions. We recognize that europe is composed of free nations who in the great tradition of western democracy must be able to choose their own paths forward. Because in the past, the United States committed to working with europes institutional arms. While we recognize our allies are independent democratic nation wall street their own history and right to determine their future. This position has a particular relevance for what is transpiring in the uk over brexit. The United States will maintain our longstanding special relationship with the United Kingdom but at the same time maintain a strong relationship with eu regardless of the outcome of brexit. We will not attempt to influence the negotiations, but we urge the eu and uk to move this process forward swiftly and without unnecessary acrimony. We offer an impartial hand of friendship to both parties. The next chapter of european history must be written in europes own words. As i mentioned at the beginning, 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of americas entry into world war i. This november marks centennial of another world event in history, the beginning of the russian revolution. The soviet union collapsed 26 years ago. A few symbols and phrases associated with decades of soviet rule endure in the english language. The gulag, the fiveyear plan, the iron curtain, the berlin wall. These few words, almost universally understood capture bitter and brutal history of communist rule in europe and russia and they remind us of what can happen if they fail to defend Core Principles of liberty and sovereignty in the western tradition. In our time, forces like authoritarian nation states, radical islamist terrorists and hackers with a lust for chaos are attempting to erode our principles of freedom, equality, human dignity, rule of law and representative government. We cannot fail to take on the sovereign responsibility of protecting those freedoms. As Theodore Roosevelt also said, every nation, whether in america or anywhere else, which desires to maintain its freedom, its independence, must ultimately realize the right of such independence cannot be separated from the responsibility of making good use of it. Wherever this responsibility the u. S. Will maintain commitment to peace, prosperity and liberty for europe. As we reflect on how our ties with europe have endured over the past 100 years, the United States stands by our european allies and partners so that our free societies will be standing strong together another 100 years from now. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you, mr. Secretary, for a speech that i think is worthy of many of the leaders youve cited, woodrow wilson, who served us as president 100 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt, franklin roosevelt, Winston Churchill. You linked all parts of the world, and that is why we honor people like you with our public and business awards over the years. So let me focus just a bit more on europe since that was your topic and youre going to europe next week. Bob dickey and i were recently at nato visiting with our extremely able ambassador, kay bailey hutchison. She convened a lunch of eight foreign ambassadors to nato. What came through to me is a view they have that this is a zerosum game. As the United States focuses on problems around the world like urgent problems, and you cited many of them, like north korea and iran, it will pay less attention to europe. I thought that your speech made the point that this is not a zerosum game. That if a strong europe stands with us, we are stronger together to face the tough problems around the world that are also developing blowback to europe. Am i right . Was that the elevator pitch . That is the message ill be taking next week. Just as the last 100 years, i think, have proven we view the current times were in similarly, the United States cannot alone cannot confront all these threats. They are so widespread and also so interconnected. You can pick any one of the threats i went through and youll find points of connection between every one of them in some form or fashion. Whether a russian involvement, china involvement, iranian involvement, islamic terrorism involvement. But we are confronted with particularly complex time in our world of dealing with threats to our Civil Society. Were only going to prevail against those threats with continuing to use our allies, the strength of our allies. One of the things the United States is blessed in our Foreign Policy and in our National Security posture is we have many, many allies, many allies all over the world. Those alliances were forged in shared blood and shared sacrifice. Unlike many of our adversaries who can count their allies on less than all the fingers on one hand, because they didnt forge those alliances through those shared sacrifices nor are they forged through shared ideals. So i think what were recognizing and promoting is the strength of these historic alliances, which i think over some period of time, perhaps since the end of the cold war, we lost our way a bit in some of these relationships. Maybe a view in particular in europe that with the end of the cold war, the imminent threat that everyone faced for that 70 year period was now diminishing. What we now realize is it didnt diminish. Its still defining itself. Its still searching for its role in the name of russia. These threats emanating out of the middle east, brought themselves right to the shores and borders of our european allies whether it be through mass migration but also with the mass migration comes the transport of those who would kill others and sacrifice themselves in doing it. These are threats we can only confront with a very Strong Network of the alliances. It is really in some respects a recommitment, but its also a redefinition of what this alliance means. The message President Trump carried early on when he went to europe and received a lot of criticism for it was to demand of our allies that you care as much about your freedom and care as much about the security of your people as we care about you. When you la at the commitment the u. S. And sacrifice the u. S. Makes in terms of not just the taxpayers dollars but our own men and women in uniform, the commitment we made seemed to be a little out of balance. The president was sending a message that were committed to this alliance. You have to get as committed to it as we are. What ive heard in my ive had a lot of dialogue in european counterparts, that message has resonated. Were seeing it in the commitments to nato, commitments to defense spending, a recommitment of personnel. This was really what was needed at this time where we are under these enormous threats. We have to strengthen the alliance, natos capability to deal with what are now new and changing threats. That was really the purpose of the president s message early in his presidency, which weve now followed through on in crafting these stronger relationships. We have more work to do. But i think our message to europe is nothing has changed in terms of our commitment to you. Nothing from that time you made the decision 100 years ago to enter world war i in your defense, nothing has changed fundamentally. The same values that bind us are still there. Lets keep that strong. Mindful of your time, i just want to get in a few questions about other topics including questions from the audience. I would note that an interesting point you made in your talk was about turkey, that turkey now has a choice. It can become more connected to europe, which is a huge advantage and to us, or not. I heard that loud and clear. I want to turn to the question of state Department Funding and organization, something that many people are interested in. Every Organization Needs renewal. The Wilson Center needs renewal. Surely everyone here, including long serving Foreign Service officers think the state Department Needs renewal. However, questions have arisen about steep cuts in your budget proposed by office of management and budget, doesnt mean thats what congress will enact and what some claim is a hollowing out of your department. Most recently today two valued friends of the Wilson Center, nick burns and ryan crocker, both of them enormously experienced Foreign Service officers and ambassadors wrote a piece in the New York Times with a lot of information about who is leaving and what its implications are. My understanding is there is another side to this story, so i would like to ask you to tell your side of this story and give us your vision for what the state department should become. Let me start quickly with the budget, because i think its the actually easier question to address. The budget the state department was given in 2016 was a record high budget. Almost 55 billion. This was above what traditionally has been a budget that runs kind of in the mid 30 billion level. This was ramping up over the last few years. In many respects for some good reasons. As we look at that spending level, quite frankly, its just not sustainable. It is very difficult to execute 55 billion budget and execute it well. Its a lot of spending and deployment of resources. I take our stewardship of those dollars very seriously. I take congressional oversight seriously and not going to brush them aside light handedly. So part of this was just a reality check. Can we really keep this up. The truth of the matter is it would be difficult to keep it up and do it well. Secondly, part of this bringing budget numbers back down is reflective of an expectation that were going to have success in some of these conflict areas of getting these conflicts resolved and moving to a different place in terms of the kind of support that we have to give them. So its a combination of things, that sustainability, a recognition those numbers are really the outliers. The numbers were moving to are not the outliers. They are more historic in terms of the levels of spending. The state department redesign, and i use the word redesign because it would have been easy to coin day one and do a reorg. When i use that word, moving the boxes around on the org chart. When i showed up at the state department i was stunned when i got it out and had 82 reports to me. 82. Now, almost 70 of those are special envoys, special ambassadors, positions that have been created. So we immediately undertook an examination of whats a reasonable way to run the place, and that isnt it. Having run a large global organization, and ive been through three major reorganizations in my history, and actually enjoyed doing it, its always focused on how do we help the people be more effective, how do we get the obstacles out of their way. We took another direction. Since i dont know the department and its culture, we had a massive listening exercise. We had 35,000 people respond and 300 facetoface interviews and continue an active dialogue with people today. What is it if i could do one thing for you that would make you more effective and make your work more satisfying, what would that be . We got hundreds of ideas. Weve actually selected about 170 of those ideas that we are now perfecting. The reason we call it a redesign, most of these had to do with work processes internally and work processes with interagencies that we should be able to improve the way people get this work done. Some of is is tools and enablement, so things like we have a really antiquated i. T. System. I was shocked when i went down to spend an afternoon with the bureau and said whats the one thing i can do . They said get us into the cloud. I said what do you mean, were not in the cloud . They said no, were still on all these servers. Thats a big cyber risk, first. But it really made it very cumbersome for people, and when i started using my own computer, i started realizing how cumbersome it was. A lot of the projects that have been identified out of the redesign are process redesigns and some enablement for people. Its all directed at allowing the people at the state department to get their work done more effectively, more efficiently, and have a much more satisfying career. We have a lot of processes in the hr function that have not been updated in decades. And they need to be updated. How we put people out on assignment, we invest enormous amounts of money in people that we deploy to missions overseas, and i was stunned to find out in a lot of the missions these are oneyear assignments. We invested all this money, we send them out to the mission. Theyre there for one year. About the time theyre starting to figure it out and have an impact, we take them out and move them somewhere else. Well, a lot of people have said to me, you know, i would really like to stay another year. And start contributing. So its a lot of things like that that came out of the listening exercise. So we have five large teams. Theyre all employee led. I brought in some consultants to help us facilitate, but the redesign is all led by the employees in the state department. The issue of the hollowing out, i think all of you appreciate that every time you have a change of government, you have a lot of senior Foreign Services officers and others who decide they want to move on to do other things. We have had our numbers of retirements are almost exactly what they were in 2016 at this point. We have the exact same number of Foreign Service officers today, were off by ten, that we had at this time in 2016. There is a hiring freeze that i have kept in place because as we redesign the organization, were probably going to have people that need to be redeployed to other assignments. I dont want to have a layoff. I dont want to have to fire a bunch of people, so i said lets manage some of our staffing targets, which is normal attrition. Having said that, i have signed over 2300 hiring exceptions. Because i have told every post, if you have a critical position and you really need that filled, just send it in. And i think i have had out of 2300 requests, i think i have denied eight positions that i decided we really didnt need. So were keeping the organization fully staffed. We have had over were still running our foreign officer school. We hired over 300 this year. So there is no hollowing out. These numbers that people are throwing around are just false. Theyre wrong. There was a story about a 60 reduction in career diplomats. The post career diplomat was created by the congress in 1955 to recognize an elite few. The number of career diplomats in the state department have ranged from as low as one at any given time to as many as seven. When i took over the state department, we had six. Four of those people have retired. These are your most senior people. They reached 65, they retired, they moved on. We have a review process, were very selective in replacing those, but we actually have a review process under way and were evaluating a handful of people who might be worthy of that designation, but we still have two. But we went from six to two. It was a 60 reduction, sounded like the sky was falling. The other comment i would make is, while the confirmation process has been excruseiatingly slow for many of our nominees, i have been so proud of the acting assistant secretaries and people who have stepped in to acting undersecretary roles. And when i read these articles that theres this hollowing out, i take offense to that on their behalf because the people that are serving in those roles are doing extraordinary work. And they know theyre not going to get the job permanently. They already know we have a nominee, but they come in every day, they work hard. They travel with me around the world. And its that group of people that have helped me put in place and helped the president put in place the north korean strategy with the international sanctions, syrian approach to the Peace Process that we think were about to get on the right track, an approach to negotiating with the russians on ukraine, an approach to the defeat isis campaign. The iran policy. The south asia policy in afghanistan, our new posture towards pakistan. The free and open indopacific, all of that has been done with the people that are working there today, and im very proud. Im very proud of what they have done. Theyre working hard. And im offended on their behalf. Im offended on their behalf when people say somehow we dont have a state department that functions. Because i can tell you, its functioning very well from my perspective. Have we got more we want to do . Yes, we got more we want to do. And my only objective in the Organization Redesign is to help these people who have chosen this as a career, because ill come and go. And there will be other politicals that will come and go. What can i do to help them, because they have decided they want to spend their life doing this. And they should be allowed to do it as effectively and efficiently and without a lot of grief and obstacles. If i can remove some of that for them, thats what i want to do. Let me tell you, that message will resonate around the world. A lot of people wanted to hear that. Your time is very short. I just would like to group briefly three questions from the audience into one. Molly cole, who works for representative gerry connolly, and im sure was one of our vaunted stars in our Foreign Policy program, asks, do you think support for democracy and human rights abroad is an important part of the state departments mission . Thats one. Matt, who heads our kennen institute, George Kennen literally was a scholar here at one point, asks where do you think progress with russia is possible . And finally, mike, who you met, who heads our polar initiative, asks, in light of the increased interest in activity in the arctic, is the arctic in alaska of strategic importance to the United States and to it european arctic allies . Well, as to human rights and human dignity, of course, they are priorities. What i have said about those elements of our Foreign Policy is those are values, and those are values that are enduring and they never change. When youre constructing Foreign Policy and strategies and approaches, you have to prioritize. And you cant deprioritize human rights. Its with you. Its part of every policy decision you make. The question is how do you want to affect it . And if you say, well its a priority, priorities can change. This can never change. This is enduring, and its part of every Foreign Policy construct we develop. What i would say, if youre dealing with a place like syria or iraq was in under isis occupation, the most important thing was saving peoples lives. How can we keep people from getting killed . Because the ultimate human right is the right to live. The right to live first. If i can live, then i can begin to take care of my family. Then i can begin to fight for my human rights. Then i can begin to fight for my human dignity. If im being killed every day, im being bombed, im being gassed, our priority was save lives. So were going to save lives first. If we do that, we stabilize areas and then we start creating the conditions to insure peoples human rights and dignity are respected. With respect to russia, there are areas of mutual cooperation. Were working hard in syria to defeat isis, and were on the cusp of having isis once and for all defeated in syria. We got work yet to do. Were working together with russia on how to prevent a civil war from reerupting. So we had a lot of conversations over what does russia see as the end state of syria, what do we see as the end state . Theres a lot of commonality there. Tactically, how we get to those peace talks, were working very closely with one another on, we have our ups and downs. If you saw, i think it was a very important joint statement was issued by President Trump and president putin from da nang, vietnam, on the margins of the apec meeting, that was an important alignment of how we see the syria Peace Process going forward. It was an important statement to have russia confirm that they see it the same way we do. Well use that and well build on it. I think there are other areas of counterterrorism, russia has great fear of migration out of the Central Asian regions. Terrorism inside of russia, we think theres areas of greater cooperation on terrorism with russia. There may be opportunities for cooperation on afghanistan. We have not yet come to what that might be, but were talking about it. In ukraine, what i have said to the russians is, were never going to get this relationship back to normal until we solve ukraine. It just sits there as an enduring obstacle. And weve got to address it. So as you know, i appointed a special representative, former ambassador to nato kirk vulker, to focus on nothing but working with his russian counterpart, which putin appointed, to work forward. Working with it to see if we can break the log jam. We had some very substantive discussions. Were pursuing the possibility of a peacekeeping force in ukraine to stop the ongoing, every day people are killed. Civilians are killed. We want to stop that first. Save the lives first, then lets start working toward the process. So there are many areas of cooperation with russia. They have many others they would like to work with us on. We just dont think its time to do that. With respect to the arctic, the arctic is important today. Its going to be increasingly important in the future. Particularly as those waterways have opened up. What i can tell you is the United States is behind. Were behind all the other arctic nations. They have dealt with this. They have gotten way ahead of us. The russians made it a strategic priority. Even the chinese are building icebreaking tankers. High are they building icebreakers intheyre not an arctic nation. Because they see the value of these passages. Were late to the game. I think we have one functioning icebreaker today. The coast guard is very proud of it. As crummy as it is. And i know in the budget, there is money in the budget for us to for one more. To build another icebreaker. But the whole arctic region, because of whats happened with the opening of the arctic passageways from an economic and trade standpoint, but certainly from a National Security standpoint, is vitally important to our interests. And so our engagement through not just the Arctic Council but through other mechanisms is important to working with the arctic countries on international norms, what are the rules of the game going to be, because these are areas that have not been addressed in the past. So very important. So, time is up. I was going to ask you what you want your legacy to be, but listening to you, i dont know that that question can be answered yet. Youre all over the world. Youre focused deeply on the tough questions. Youre headed to europe next week. You have to come back and answer all of the other questions we couldnt ask today. Is that a yes . Yes, ill be back. Thank you, mr. Secretary. [ applause ] the cspan bus is on the 50 capitals tor, visiting every state capital and hearing about each states priorities. We kicked off the tour on september 15th in dover, delaware, and now visited 12 state capitals. Our next stop for the 50 capitals tour is tallahassee, florida. Well be there on december 6th