Standard chartered cervone parents russia andand afghanistan. She is the first female combat veteran elected to the senate. The International Security program here and our smart power initiative. We are happy to have you here today and i know you will with enjoyment in welcoming joni ernst. No end to a list of the issues. We ask that you do follow us on twitter we are at smart women. Be sure also to check out our smart women podcast. Tunes. Use i if i can say is higher alarm goes off we have to act as in the building. The areas are behind you and i defend him or the alarm is going off we will direct you which way to go. This series would not be possible without support 50 and at t. I want to thank the team for their efforts. To thankic we like pleasealltime help me to welcome her. Thanks again for joining us for this mornings event in this series. It has been an hour to support these and we continue to ring for larry women extraordinary women who give their acts are teased on fascinating issues. We are thrilled to have senator joni ernst. She was elected in 2015 after military3 years in the in kuwait and iraq. She represents my state. We represent more than 100 countries aids us in inognizing the challenges operating in an editable world. We are pleased to have senator perspectives her of the world. Thank you for taking the time to be here today. We are looking for two but this session. I want to introduce our who isr, nina easton, o chair of most insulation influential women. Thank you for moderating. Senator, thank you are being here. I have watched you from afar it is a treat to be here. Thesentinues to exercise are women, mark power in your family. My daughter is at rep. Torres school at the United States military academy. Her. Very proud of she is strong willed young woman and believes in our country just as mom and daddy do. She does leave she can make a difference and i am glad for that. Oak in iowa,om red so was south west island, you you grewa farm up on a farm. What kind of a culture clash is that . I said with nina back home Everybody Knows me as joni. Thats where i served as the county auditor and when i went to these date sent her the , all of these people i have known for my entire life. You . Say what do we call i said you call me joni. Everybody. If i have the day off, no makeup, through my running shorts on and shop for groceries. Everybody wants to catch, if not mrs. Rarely about big world issues. We know from your Campaign Commercials that you grew up on if and you know how to castrate halls hogs. Anybody from iowa here . What else did you learn on the farm . Hard work and determination. Work ethic was an ordinance and i dont mind getting my hands dirty. Whether it was hoping my dance in the helping my dad worked in the field, you didnt grumble about it and it wasnt a big deal. FamilyWork Together as a growing up that way brought an interesting to when i see other i did a lot more than that. There has in a culture change but i think those values will carry on with me with my family. Isworking with the family not exact week what you do these days on capital hill. We were talking about the connection between women senators. Talk about that. I do work a lot with other women senators and i found that sometimes working with other women we are in green in a position that we are not flex will. Flexible. Some men will dig in so deep but then they are rated to move away from that position. Womenlding bond with senators, 21 of this now, we have that flips ability to get things flexibility to get things done and the need to move forward. I ae can Work Together solution, we are moving in the right direction. Was at an event with death fisher deb fisher. She is our neighbor from the rest cap grew up the same way i did. Across the aisle, one of the relationship that i cherish the most is senator Kristen Gillibrand new york. While, youlks are are night and day different. We do have different policies ideas. It you had with women, cant find that five or send of the policies and issues you work on together, then we work on those issues. Side we dontt talk politics, we talk about our families and i value that. You have an Army Background and use her been iraq, driving supply, or is. Convoys. Of the was the beginning war, the early part of iraqi freedom. When we got into the country and we were stationed in kuwait. We picked up supplies from the. Arehouse and the ports we would take up the supplies and delivered them forward for our warriors front. There were issues that we had a long the way. We had not been in the country very long when we got our First Mission into iraq. We did not have maps. Our battalion could not supply us with maps. They only had one map which they used in their operations so they couldnt give it to us. , we had a Tennessee National guard unit at a nearby camp that had already made a trip into iraq, they did not have maps either so the commander came over sent down with me and my first surgeon and and hand drewers, a map from the hand drawn map that he had as well and that is how we navigated going into iraq. There was a lot of movement at that time a lot of convoys going perhaps we did take a wrong turn at some point you can hunker down, safety eventually wee, knew that there would be other convoys making that route as well. The iraqis at that point were hostile in some situations to those of is bringing supplies north. Man wouldre a young swarm are our convoys. They would try to stop the convoys, they would lay down in path. You just keep rolling forward, you dont stop because it puts everybody in jeopardy. Iraqi men were not te ready to meet our law allah. Those were very intense moments because you dont want to make a mistake that would inflame the situation but you knew if you were threatened, you would have to take action. Going in. And it home. Ght all my soldiers. How many were in your company . 150. And we came home. Experiencethe ground set you well in the senate where you are on the emerging threat subcommittee. We have limited time we will dive into hotspots around the world. Cards on your chairs, feel free to write out your just one note, if i cant read it i cant ask it. Weill collect the cards and do want to include the audience in the questions. North korea. You have been getting briefings, you are at a briefing yesterday and you know a lot of stuff you cant talk about. Let me ask you broadly, do you think that there is we have been hearing rhetoric on both sides as you know. Itthere a point at which hurts our cause in trying to contain that threat . There is rhetoric on both sides. Dont think it is the determining factor at all. Is determined to obtain Nuclear Capabilities for a long time. I dont think the president spur that action, that has been an ongoing process long time before we had an administration change. The president is talking about north korea and the leader in north korea, i think that he is speaking truth to the situation. If north korea comes at us we will go back. Go back full force, there is no messing around with north korea when they have nuclear capability. I cant speak for the president , but i do not see his words has worsened at all. If they keep moving ahead with their intentions of putting a ,uclear warhead on to an icbm that if they should use that technology, then we are going to go after them. Is there anything short of an actual Missile Launch with a nuclear device, or Missile Launch designed to infect the session . Inflict destruction . That would be up to our military leaders and to provide that guidance for the president. But there are a lot of things short of nuclear. If they attack any of our allies or anybody in that region, there will be a response. Should they not attack . I do not see military interventions short of any attack, nuclear or otherwise. Out there, exists and we will continue to control. We saw some of our bombers with fighter escorts that moved a little bit to the east of north korea. That has not been done in a long time. International area. So we are in our rights to fly those areas. Northhink as long as korea continues on its path. See us continue to build our desire to protect our allies and our homeland. We will do everything we can short of war to deter this regime. A. Easton we were having conversation about the effectiveness and limitations of sanctions. Having arnst we were great discussion about the sanctions, and we know there are you an sanctions out there. There are other sanctions that have been put in place by congress. Other countries are engaged in sanctions. They have to be enforced in are the in order to work, and there is a large black market between china and korea. We need to make sure that that is cut off. Otherwise, you will not see the impact that you what to see. I was having a discussion with the south korea trade minister and he said, senator, the weight americans view north korea is not necessarily accurate. We think of north korea in the 1990s state where north koreans were maybe starving and had a poor ag economy, and they have a very robust ag economy, where they are least able to feed their people. Maybe not american diet, but they can feed their people. Thosen we applied sanctions, we need to understand they can selfsustain for a wild. Monthsay be a number of before we start to see the impact of those sanctions on north korea. Ms. Easton and youre making the point that having gotten that i level where they can eat, that when you start taking that way, you might see population level. Senator ernst yes, and that is when you might see a popular revolt. The standard of living is higher than in the past, and those who have experienced those decades of want and need, now that those wants and needs have been met and fulfilled, they dont want to go back to that standard of living. So if we start to see that theyre not able to sustain their own population internally, the Living Standards start to drop, you may see that popular revolt, but then what happens when the people rise up against such a brutal regime . Those are questions that are unanswered out there. Ms. Easton and how have you viewed chinas behavior in the last six months . Has it evolved . Senator ernst it has evolved and they have, in my estimation, when it comes to north korea, they have been very good partners. In what way . Senator ernst working on the sanctions. One thing that, of course, we needed to do was to get the buyin from china on sanctions and china actually did move ahead with some of their own thoughts on how they could curtail goods going into north korea. So they actually started moving even before maybe the u. N. Gave instruction on sanctions. We have the greatest ambassador ever in china right now. Hes former Iowa Governor terry branstad. Yeah. So governor branstead has had a very, very long relationship with president xi. They met in the 1980s in iowa and have maintained that relationship ever since then. So they do have a good understanding of each other. President xi is well versed on the United States, and the governor, ambassador branstad with china. And having that relationship has been very helpful with what we see in north korea right now. I feel that china has been stepping up to the plate. There will come a time when china will not be able to do any that and what do we do at point . Meantime, i think china has done quite well. Ms. Easton and how close are you in touch with the ambassador . Senator ernst not at much the last several months. Hes been very, very engaged in these actiontivities. We know through the state department they continue to work those channels. China has greater channels and greater accessibility to north korea than folks in the United States does. They have been very, very engaged. Ms. Easton and there have been reports that north korea is actually trying second track of finding republicans who can explain what the Trump Administration is all about. What do you make of that . Senator ernst that was a great question, a question posed by one of my colleagues on the left as well. There are two thoughts, really. You try and encourage that and start developing a relationship so you can exploit those relationships, or you just simply cut them off. What value would we get . We have to go through the pros and cons of either just, you know, ignore it or encourage it and use it to our advantage. Ms. Easton right. Senator ernst and thats up for other departments to determine. Ms. Easton beyond military action theres been talk of potential other ways to get to tamp down the north korean threat, and one is a cyber attack from the United States. Youre not very hopeful about that. Can you describe why . Senator ernst no, because north korea doesnt have connectivity like many of our other developed countries has. And i was explaining to nina earlier that she probably has more connectivity at her house than the entire country of north korea. We simply cant do a cyber attack because there is no cyber there. There is very little of that in north korea. Korea is one of the most difficult countries to get human intelligence from because it is hardened against every other country. When i visited the south koreanorth korea border, the Demilitarized Zone just a little over a year ago, they explained to us that they have jammers all around the border of the country so you cant get cell phone signals in, they cant get them out. It is a very, very difficult country to infiltrate. Ms. Easton even for china . Senator ernst even for china unless youre on the black market. Ms. Easton out of all of this bad news, you say theres good news in that you have great faith in the team thats breaching you. Can you describe that . Senator ernst weve seen so many interaction between this congress, whether its afghanistan, and north korea. The administration is very, very engaged with us in that they are at capitol hill every several weeks or weve even done a briefing at the white house as well. So we stay engaged, and what encourages me when im sitting in the allsenators briefings at the capitol, during those classified briefings, sitting up in front of us is chairman of the joint chiefs of staffs, general dunford, secretary mattis, secretary tillerson, and our director of national intelligence. So we have four of the most powerful gentlemen that are working on these issues, and theyre not just briefing us in a silo in each of their areas. They have worked together and collaborated between the agencies. If the left hand is doing one thing, the right hand knows what that left hand is going to do and can respond. So they are collaborating i know ive only been there six years, ive seen more interaction than ive seen in the previous two years that ive been in the senate. So they stay engaged with us. They answer our questions directly. When we and its republicans and democrats in these briefings and its really interesting, when theyre answering those questions, when they were laying out the strategy for afghanistan, when theyre briefing us on north korea, its interesting to see all the heads. It doesnt matter party. Were talking about National Security. All the heads in the room just nodding in agreement. But through this collaboration we have been able to engage many other countries in this situation, and thats so important to remember that we are not in this situation alone. Its not just the United States against north korea. We have many, many partners that are very, very supportive. None of them want to see north korea as a nuclear power. Ms. Easton right. So you want to talk about afghanistan. What are the greatest challenges facing the new policy in afghanistan . Senator ernst well, i think, one, to start, you have to have people that have faith in it. And believe in it, and we saw that expressed from the president gony a few days ago after he met with the president at united nations. Ms. Easton we had his wife on stage the other day. Senator ernst wonderful. Ms. Easton she was fantastic. Senator ernst lovely. When they are meeting and when the president is reassuring the Afghan People that we will support you, we will combat terrorism in your country, President Trump ghani is coming back and saying, you know, the difference in the administration is night and day. So, one, we have to show them that we are willing to combat terrorism. Were taking the gloves off and terrorists, look out. We are working with the rules of engagement with our forces on the ground in afghanistan where maybe they felt they had their hands tied a little bit previously. Now our commanders on the ground can make the determinations necessary to go after those terrorists. They dont have to wait for a call from the white house to say its ok to take down the cell. So we can see further progress. I can envision that moving forward, now that we have a comprehensive strategy. The president has made it very clear that were not in this for nation building. Were in this to combat terrorists, and i think thats what our focus needs to be. So we will do that. There are many other countries that are engaged in nation building and would like to be a part of that. Our main focus should be get rid of terrorists. Terrorism. That protects our selfinterest. Ms. Easton youve had speaking of terrorism, interesting views on isis. You have a concern that the threat has moved. To latin america and asia. Senator ernst latin america and southeast asia. We see isis spreading and i was infuriated when several years back, president obama described isis as a j. V. Team. Ms. Easton we remember that senator ernst yes, knowing that it really, through the use of social media and other ways of communicating, they could rapidly develop and recruit. And they have done that. And because we didnt put them down in the very beginning, we didnt combat terrorism outright in the very beginning, we now have a welldeveloped organization which is not just in the middle east, but spreading into latin america, its spread into southeast asia, in the philippines, and a lot of the planning on the september 11 attacks occurred from the philippines. So we have to find a way to wrap our arms around this and not just contain. I hated the phrase, when they use the word contain isis. Ms. Easton right. Senator ernst we dont want to contain isis. Lets make no bones about it, bee want to destroy isis. We want to destroy isis. Ms. Easton what evidence are you seeing in latin america . Can you describe that more