We are fortunate to draw on a network. Who has taughton at jackson for a number of years , retired army officer who served for 38 years, including as commander of the field army. He is a renowned expert on planning, andisis counterinsurgency. He served in iraq and afghanistan alongside the u. S. Further cementing that special bond that connects the United States and united kingdom. I am a dear friend and grateful he has taken the time, along with your friends over your right shoulder to join us. We are delighted today to be joined by general jim mattis. General mattis over four decades was commander of u. S. Central while all of that is well known, what might not be well known is that when he was teaching at yale, he ask our students to lay out their strategy for afghanistan, and he told the students he would send the best essays to general mattis to grade, which he did. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for your service to our country, and thank you for grading those papers. At this time, i would like to hand it back to the person who will run our conversation today. Thank you. Being with us this afternoon or this evening. Start by asking you to reflect for a moment on the significance of the covid19 event. Youbig a magnitude do . Ssess this from a perspective what are the key historical parallels that come to mind as you think about your career, service, and security challenges, large and small . What concerns you most about what we are seeing right now. We are interested in your perspectives to kick off the conversation. Thank you for having me here. Careful about making predictions, especially about the future. Degree blind to a right now. No matter how authoritative some people sound, they are using assumptions to give predictions that will be proven or disproven in the weeks and months ahead as more data about this virus becomes known and we see how people respond in our scientific medical community response. Without a doubt, you can make some broad generalizations. If we go back in our own history , including young students, certainly the impact will be greater than 9 11. Quantifiedt can be at this point. The impact on the global order, economics, social order, and i bynk that the denial of this certain government figures anywhere in the world is very unwise. I think a recession is very likely, and the depression, global, is a possible outcome. We will have to see on how we do on reopening, but i will also say the fragilitys being exposed to the International People who thought a supply chain with single sources was economically wise, that will be shaken. More importantly, leadership competence will be evaluated differently. Enter into some kind of social contract that they will pay taxes and give authority to people who will take care of us, make sure the prosperity, safety, and security of the when yous there, and see the social cohesion breaking down under populism, it has gained some strength to a breakdown of cohesion. What is underpinning social cohesion, the social contract is being washed away to a degree. That is not true everywhere. Where wenational order had come to give respect and support, the united nations, the eu, the who, they have been tested, and in many cases rejected as part of the solution or even part of the problem. That they were already under a certain amount of stress has given them a test. As we go forward, we will have to see if the sovereignty of the far, fromoo sequestering medical supplies, closing borders, turning off or doesof information this drive us together . These are questions that will rely heavily on the Political Leadership for answers. Governance effectiveness will be people this time and will be scared and scarred by this for years to come. We have seen good Political Leadership in countries in historical times like this, bring them out stronger. We have also seen regimes and political structures in countries collapse, so it will be interesting to see how we respond. In world war ii, the trauma of that, the great depression, we did a lot of things together. I think it is to be determined if we would become interrelated, integrated, interdependent, or try to go our own way, which would be a horrible outcome. Let me pass that over to graeme lame. Hate following someone like that . It is set up for failure here. Tohas been my good fortune people likeime with reinforce whatld general mattis said. Probablydanger is we individually as nations can deal with the symptoms, the results of this virus. We can contain, control it. If you want to deal with the sars, the flu come of your bubonic plague, this is coming back around again , the next time at the wheel, if you do not address the cause of these pandemics, then we will be attacked in a way that could be of greater magnitude than the one we are facing right now. , it is quite simple. Our responsibilities are to protect our people, prosperity, and way of life. 9 11 hit all three. This pandemic has hit all three. It byent seen the end of any manner or means, and differ not careful, the outcome of prosperity, the global economy, will affect our children and wetdrens children, so markets in asia, whether it is bushmeat markets in africa, south america, all of these things can only be addressed as a collective, as part of an deal withse to something which will rip our ourts out and take away future and our childrens future if we dont address it. The importance of reaffirming aat it is to be an ally, not convenience, not comfortable, not tangible. To be in ally requires commitment. It takes time and trust. It does all that, but it is over a huge amount of time. This, i camen for upon what i think is probably the most accurate articulation of what an ally is, and it was the secretary of state, 1949, when they went to sign the nato treaty in washington. His line was simply this, the reality which is set down here is not created here, the reality is the unity of belief, of , of theof interests community of nations represented here is the product of many centuries of common thought in the blood of many simple and brave men and women, and it is well that these truths be known. That is what it is to be an ally. That is what it takes to deal with something. Dont throw blame. In the 1930s, the blame was on us to allow germany to rearm, how we the englishspeaking people through our good nature allows the wicked to be rearmed. Germany, the with blame lay with us. Now, do not recognize that and that is across government, across all political parties, the social contract, it is the great work being done by commerce, business this is bill gates. What a fantastic effort he has put into trying to grapple with this problem and bring those parts together in an allied cause, no different than the Marshall Plan. If we do that, we might just have a chance. Thee dont, the answer is future will be challenged. We will be ok alone, you absolutely will not. Thank you. I want to give general mattis an opportunity to respond to that, who has written passionately about the importance of allies and alliances to u. S. Interests in the world order. Your service in nato and other leadership roles, working closely with allies. General mattis, what would a greater allied approach look like in the current covid19 context . It is not a traditional military military,t are there defense leadership planning lessons you might apply to how you would approach this broader Global Challenge . Hasust the fact that yale , i used toight now remind my american officers that not all the good ideas come from the nations with the most aircraft carriers. Has neverb, who received public acclaim for it, is the one who broke the enemys logic in iraq that led to the shift in our tactics and approach, for which some american generals have been given credit. In fact, it came from allies. The three things i learned about the data dependent america from any threat over 40allied years of you paying my tuition were allies, allies, allies. I do not know how to construct, whether covid or fascism or communism or militarism, i do not know how to defend america, because we dont just defend a geographic realm, although i could not defend that without allies either, but the realm of ideas that grew out of the reformation, the enlightenment, and those are passed to us as George Washington put it for our safekeeping. We will see if the idea of a. Epublic like this can survive what with the Lessons Learned from history, to answer your question directly, what would they look like . Clearly you need intelligence. You need to see Something Like this early, or see it coming, so the person you would do is have something, maybe the world health organization. We would be honest in our reporting, and the urgent. We would report quickly. It would go into some sort of international loop, whether in one location are connected by the internet, as we have the capability to do today, and the best minds in the world would be working together to shortstop this thing, and people with warning could use it. Political leaders would be guided by science and medicine, not narcissism, and quickly decide to start taking action that would be based on a compilation of scientific and medical opinions of what are the most effective ways to stop this, reverse it, safe life. This is something that begs the human problemsolving approach of collaboration, of getting. Ogether our species has been dependent on this, and it is as if we have lives of long, fat, dumb, happy, we think we dont need allies, things like the Marshall Plan or nato to defend its idea of democracy. When you get to that point, then you have really strayed from what we call the greatest generations view of how you live on this planet. They came back from world war ii and said a depression that left 20 of the boys draft into the army had to be fattened up before training because malnutrition was so bad. They came back from a war where hundreds of thousands of their buddies died and said, it is a crummy world and we are part of it whether we like it or not. They are called the greatest generation, not just because they stop fascism in its tracks, but because as truman put it, if we not only with fascism, we welcome the japanese, german, and italian people back into the community of nations because they recognize that we needed to band together if we werent going to just keep revisiting this. How do we get to a point today where we are closing borders, shutting off the sharing of information, now penalizing people who want to work more broadly in the best interests of humanity, and so i think what you want to do is read your history and understand why did the greatest generation come home and put the imf and world bank in place . Who lost ourle economic hope for prosperity and a good life for their children did not have to turn to a fascist for hope. There was a lender of last resort out there. Lastere is the lender of resort right now in this world for hope against covid . We are all scrambling to put it together, and thank god for the nongovernmental organizations, plus some democracies have done well, taiwan, israel, new zealand, australia, the republic of korea, everyone is stressed by it, but this is not the failure of some of the democracies to deal with this well. It is not a given. That was a choice. When you have bad strategies, whether war or peace, people died. Those would be some of the lessons i would bring up to expand on what graeme brought up about the allies. I dont know how you do this without allies. I served this country for 40 years and fought against enemies. I dont know how you fight this intimate without allies, and i alonethought those fights before. It was always alongside allies. Something has gone wrong here. Nations combined to go after ice is, an international coalition. Largest11, we had the Wartime Coalition in modern history because new york city had been attacked, fighting in afghanistan, grew to 50 nations. Look where we are today, the austrian ambassador when they the me that america made single most sacrificial pledge in World History after world war ii. Mean thenking, you Marshall Plan . No, not the Marshall Plan. Is when you set up nato. After world war ii you couldve have said europe, that is it, twice in 25 years you have dragged us into one of your silly wars. We are through, turning to latin america, asia, africa, and the middle east. You are on your own with the soviet forces in germany. Instead he said urination pledged 100 million dead americans in a nuclear war to protect democracy in europe. I question if we could make the pledge today. That,ant your reaction to in particular this question of leadership in the current crisis. General mattis referenced a number of countries performing reasonably well, allied nations that are performing perhaps better than the United States and the u. K. In confronting covid. Leaderse any particular that have impressed you, or more generally what are some of the qualities in a crisis like this that leaders need to nationally convey . I think there was an anything, myif experience is that in a time of think we hadpeople 2008, and these were serious events, a crisis is defined by unpredictability, uncertainty. Is a classic example. We are scrambling even now to understand the nature of this virus. To franklin roosevelt, 1933, the one thing we have to fear is fear itself,. O you get this enormous energy lecture roosevelt great in 1910, later on in that speech when he talks about journalism , youeing a force for good get a great deal of speaking to people, who then say this is not working. It is broken. The impression is it is happening everywhere, but it is not. My entire life has been about that, but getting it right. When you look at character, character is exposed in times of great crisis. , he waschurchill complicated, complex, but that never turn his back, press ward, never fight. E to churchill spent his entire life falling down and failing, getting up and getting on. , keepou are in hell going. Character is more often defined by the experiences a person has not had, then by the experiences he has. What we find in our leadership is a lot of people who have been very successful, their life has. Een pretty easy ,t hasnt been presented with trulyese people in chaotic situations, great uncertainty, lifeanddeath have recognized the responsibility and have leaders theygrown within that so are fit for their time, fit for their moment. What you want is to make sure that people look at our leadership and do ask that it, isnt fit for purpose . Are the individuals or collectives leading and demonstrating a level of thoughtfulness in this crisis . Take for instance, i think it was benjamin franklin, the first american, he had 13 virtues. What were they, sincerity, industry,moderation, these were the things the defined somebody, one of your founding fathers. These are the things we look for in many ways in our leaders, and if they are not there, we should ask why they are not. If an individual cannot better themselves, than they ought to bring people in who can measure up to this crisis. You for those comments on leadership. A reaction to it. There are a number of countries that are offering different leadership models in this crisis, hiding data, using crisis to enhance authoritarian control. How do you assess how some other nations in the world are responding to what is happening . Is this an event that will create lots of different crises of stability or legitimacy . How do you view the response of other actors, particularly china and how that relates to Global Affairs . If you look at how nations respond to these things, they do have lyrical cultures, their own societal cultures, and i have been surprised this was a complete surprise, life is not fair. This should not have happened. Surprise, legitimate surprise usually comes from a legitimate lacks one, or it comes from a comesmate black swan, or from things you could not anticipate happening at once. This is neither of those. This is part of the human condition for the last couple of thousand years. Isorance, while it widespread, we should not enthrone it. This was seen coming. This was something we read about , have had legislation about it in our own congress, and so when you look at the character of what we have rewarded with Political Leadership in our democracy, you have to look at it and say, why did we find this such a surprise . Why have we seen some stumbling around . Do you accept it or deny reality . Churchill got very frustrated when a reporter said these are dark times and these are terrible times, and they are. There are tragedies in the human condition all the time, but churchill rejected it and said these are stern times and they call for us to do not just our best, but do what is necessary, and if you dont have people who take it on like that, it doesnt matter if the model is authoritarian, democratic, a monarch, or whatever. They are going to have to come to grips with this reality, whether you enjoy sitting on the couch and washing your hands four times a day or not, this is the reality. This is our battle of the bulge, the battle of britain. This is the way its going to be. Leadership is going to take a combination of competence and ,ill need empathy, compassion and empathy in this case will be one of the leadership tools. When you look at how this is handled around the world, competence is absolutely required. The competence to do something. I think that right now in some es, the populace movements populists movements have spawned to some degree, the american myth, isaac asimov said my ignorance is every bit as valid as your intelligence. That is simply not true. It has to be addressed as a big con game when it comes up. When you look at Something Like china now, where you have an authoritarian party in power that prioritizes staying in power and expanding that power more than anything else, then we should not be surprised at the challenges we have had getting Accurate Information since it is seen is what is good for the party survival. That has beena threatening us in the south china sea, the young people in hong kong, the democracy in taiwan, so this is a continuation. We even see chinese and Russian Federation military activities as apparently starting to pick up tempo right now, which is something we have to look at as consistent, but disappointing with countries where democracies still have some hope bringing it inside the community of nations in a responsible way. Can you bring it up imagine if those countries . Conducting Cyber Attacks why up . Bring it can you imagine