Transcripts For CSPAN2 Sen. Todd Young Remarks On National S

President and ceo of Hudson Institute, hudson mission is to promote u. S. International leadership and Global Engagement for ersecure, free, and prosperous future. We are absolutely delighted and welcome back senior senator from the state of indiana senator todd young with us here at hudson. Today he is a guest in our bipartisan Speaker Series dialogues and American Foreign policy and World Affairs with Hudson Institute Ravenel B Curry the third chair Walter Russell mead the discussion series is designed not to solely focus on urgent news but also on the Important News the broader questions and dilemmas affecting u. S. Foreign policy senator young needs no introduction here at Hudson Institute. He spoken many times is an important voice on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the role of congress in the u. S. Foreign policy in u. S. Foreign policy decisionmaking hes very much of a conservative internationalist on critical Foreign Policy issues, graduate of the Naval Academy and marine corps captain. And graduate degree at the university of Chicago School of business the university of london before graduating from the Robert Mckinney Robert H Mckinney school of law at indiana university. Bob mckinney was for many years hudson trustee. Also Naval Academy graduate. In still a good friend of Hudson Institute even though the headquarters are in washington. Three terms served in the house of representatives before being elected to the senate in november to 2060. You will be dialogue with someone else that needs no introduction. The Hudson Institute Walter Russell ab the senator has a hard stop at 12 45 pm. Without further ado, let me give you a warm welcome. Thank you ken for the introduction and thank you senator for coming. Its great to see you again and great to see you at hudson. Whats walter, thanks to so much for having me. Its great to be at hudson again its in light of the hoosier pedigree of the institute. Thats right. Proud former hoosier like a lot of other folks. This series of conversations, which some of you may remember we had senator chris murphy here recently, are intended not to do the usual journalistic gotcha thing but to give people in our audience here in this room and watching us on tv a chance to hear what american policymakers and serious Foreign Policy folks say when they get a chance to really express themselves. You can agree with it, you can n disagr with it but our hope is that after one of these conversations you have more insight into how American Foreign policy is seen by people who make it. Senator young, i wanted to start out by asking you about the indo pacific we used to call it the pivot to asia im not sure what work on it now. Trying to shift resources and attention into the North Pacific has been a theme weve heard in several president ial administrations. It somehow seems hard to do a little bit like don corleone we keep getting dragged back in when we were leaving. Where is the pivot to asia and what do you think we can do to advance along this . You are right, there has been a branded or rhetorical pivot to asia for some time now but its unclear the extent to which we been able to dedicate the appropriate amount of resources and attention to it. I think its one of the reasons its very important that we assess our military presence in particular regions and how we were spending our military resources is we need to move more toward naval and become increasingly naval list as a military so we can cover that large stretch of ocean in the North Pacific region. We need to strike in our alliances in that region. Some improvements are being made in that respect. Im not sure its helpful when we create uncertainty among our allies in the asiapacific. I think at every turn we need to reassure them because the chinese in particular engage in their adventurous activities they can be abtoward the e. Power located most closely to them the ones who tend to behave in a more transactional and predatory terms often times or instead they can take a chance on the United States of america and a liberal international way. I think we have some work to do with respect to reassuring our allies in the region. Moreover, whether its the military presence in foreign areas, places like afghanistan, or the institutional focus in the state department and other agencies of government on places other than asia i think it slows us down. We know that there is a next essential threat as we look at a generation into the United States is china on account of its population, its different value set and its growing economy. I would give us a incomplete if i were to grade us but we really need to be engaging partners and allies in every front, diplomatically, militarily, the mill to build relationships. Intelligence sharing where we can and a real point investors that ive been trying to elevate in terms of our Public Discourse as chairman of the subcommittee that oversees International Economic policy on the Foreign Relations committee is we need a coherent Economic Strategy to help work with these nations to partner with these nations and alternative to bowman road and some of the predatory approaches that china in particular is taking. This would be support for Infrastructure Development . Is a support for every structure development. Act which ed the bill will allow us to crowd in a lot of private money. Thats the Real Advantage because the United States can actually get an equity stake as in other countries will make it development assistance. In major developing project. It goes far beyond bowman assistance. We need more free trade agreements, multilateral where possible. There is a bipartisan consensus during the last election not to enter dpd. We accept that reality and move on. I think we need coordinated strategies with partners and allies. I think we need to come up with a written plan, which are called for. In terms of investment and some key frontier technologies as the chinese are doing. Reading a3d these are all areas where the United States but we are not making some strategic bets we are going to fall behind. And we met with success doing this historically. You think of dharma which is the predicate laid the predicate later for the internet. These dont always succeed but if we dont try we dont invest the resources we are sure to be outpaced by other state capitalist models. Coming back to the middle east for a minute, youve been one of the strong critics of saudi arabia. And have spoken very seriously about wanting to put some aide and have the a strong response to violations of human rights. I know you went and visited the region earlier this fall, did you come away from that with any change in perspective or where you think we are now in saudi arabia . Every time i travel my perspective changes. Which is why find travel so valuable. I spent more time in the senate i will continue to travel. I been critical of saudi arabia. Ive given criticism where criticism is due and ive given some credit without stew. Hand the saudis mbs in particular is really trying to modernize this country and thats something i came to more fully appreciate as i visited the country. Women were becoming power. Singly in theres a bit more breathing space for Civil Society thats not to say that just the United States of america or alexis know topo would marvel at current Saudi Society but they are modernizing. I think longer term its a real opportunity for medina to send a single to the rest of the world that you can indeed modernize ones economy and ones culture over a period of time and reconcile that with the muslim religion. On the other hand cuba the way the saudi arabia is partnering with the United States have carried out the military operations in yemen more deserving of the very vocal and direct criticism that i gave them i think they violated internationally humanitarian law. Denying food, fuel, medicine to who these and others in the country of yemen. Radicalizing people who wouldnt have otherwise radicalized. Further destabilizing the country at a time when 20 Million People were on the verge of starvation. In creating an meenvironment th was fertile for iran to come in and provide more wherewithal to the movies. Its a very complex situation but this is a complex tpartnership with saudi arabia that we likely will need to maintain for some period of time because greatest threat in that region, something that was reinforced during my visit was r clearly iran. Iran continues as all of your viewers know, they continue to try and develop nuclear weapons, continue to improve the military technologies including Missile Technology on which those weapons could sit. And engage in terrorist acts and adventurism throughout the middle east. So that destabilizing presence is a threat to not just those in the region but also the United States. So its important for us to maintain a dialogue with sometimes bad actors and complicated partners like the saudis. You mentioned you have seen some changes in saudis policy toward yemen that you thought were positive. Is that right . Yes, let me commend the government for making changes. They are targeting of Different Military targets has improved. And persuaded of that i spent a lot of time with now ambassador abas well as some top government leaders in saudi arabia. Spent some time directly with nbs and myself and senator kane who traveled together felt that we left there with a elmuch pol appreciation that they are making abthe saudis understand the need to bring that conflict in yemen to a political resolution. They strike me as dedicated toward doing whatever they can to make that happen. They are pulling and the expertise in the diplomatic weight of the marathas, the omanis, who incidentally have a positive relationship with iran. Together they are all working collectively with other gcc countries to try to stabilize that fraud region. Given the latest news from iran that the move on enriching uranium and so on is accelerating, how would you advise President Trump to prove sooner abto proceed with iran. He needs to maintain a maximum Pressure Campaign but really i think the key is going to be to have a whole diplomatic uninitiated. We really need the europeans on board so that we cannot just buy laterally apply pressure to the iranians but so that europe we will ensure they remain on board with trying to play iran back in a position to better behavior. We have our challenges first with respect to military contributions from our nato partners in europe but we need to make every effort to patch up any hurt feelings. Join hands trust and to try to Work Together with the nations who still arguably are closest in terms of sharing values and vision of a liberal International Order that we have. That brings me to some comments by president mike crone recently that the a i thought you might bring that up. I i tweeted last night whether nato was really pining for the fords are mostly dead. Reminds me of monty python episode. Exactly. And Princess Bride when he comes back. Where do you think nato is . And what should be done about it . D to stick with the tortured analogy here, improperly stimulated, not braindead. We share a common history with so many of these european countries. We share common western values. I understand there are distinctions between every nation, every country but they are our best shot and we are their best shot and this is why mccrone spoke up. I believe so many european leaders fervently hope we can breathe more life back into nato. I believe its in the best interest of our country to do that. I also relatedly think its important for us to try to establish relationships with the pacific countries going back to the endo pacific question. I know apac is not a mutual Security Alliance but it could evolve into something emore robust. Our values and our alliances are greatest assets. The chinese had to pay others. The chinese had to hire out others. The United States genuinely has friends and allies and like any friendship they need to be cultivated and sustained. President carter juan of turkey is going to be visiting washington soon. When we think about nato and problems with nato, turkey has a way of coming to the fore. What is the message you think the United States should be giving president erewhon. The yogi berra message. When you come to the fork in the road, take it. You cant have it both ways. You cannot at once purchase russian weapon systems, in this case the as 400, the air defense system, which is designed to shoot down the most sophisticated americanmade military aircraft. You cant once do that and remain a highlevel partner of other nato countries. I dont know precisely how this gets resolved but i think its a message that needs to be said. And then Work Together with nato allies to figure out a path forward. I do understand there is competing dynamics. With laying down the law but also wanting to make sure you dont fully push erewhon into the brush and orbits. Understanding there might be another leader or set of leaders who follow erewhon and they might follow the other model as opposed to the erewhon bureaucratic model. All these things have to be factored into how we scope any sanctions regime that we might decide to impose and any future actions. Im eagerly awaiting this meeting in the lead up in the conversations. One of the requirements for having a strong Foreign Policy is having a strong domestic economy. There a lot of people in the United States wonder why we are spending all this money on other people securities or aid to other countries when we have so many problems here now. How do we idbuild that economy and how do we build that consensus at home for a more active Foreign Policy overseas. We build the economy by following Macro Economic basics. We need a favorable tax regime, not just the domestic environment but with respect to international taxation. We recently made significant improvements on that front. We need favorable regulatory environment. We need trained people we actually need further investment in human capital, especially for rankandfile americans. Those who dont aspire to attend a fouryear college. We are really trying to rethink Higher Education and thats a key part of our National Security because as you said, to the extent our economy grows larger, they have the wherewithal to invest in the military technology, occasionally the foreign assistance thats required to advance our values. And to defend our values. The other report component is immigration ive studied a bit of economics i know there is two ways to grow an economy. One is to make individual workers more productive another is to bring in more workers. I havent figured out how to nudge individuals into having significantly more children through public policy. In the absence of that, we should embrace the Great American tradition of inviting others into the country to help contribute. I do think we should move toward sort of what the canadians, australians and tma others have done, which is a skillsbased immigration system so that those who come into this country can maximally contribute on day one to the growth of our company. In terms of how all that translates into our power, our ability to project force and value abroad it takes resources to do that. During the time i was in the military and recent years that has meant aircraft carriers and so forth we are going to be answering a new tech era where its going to take Iterative Development of the latest Asymmetric Technologies and the ability to defend against them. There again, much of this will come one of the great things about the United States is that so much of this will come from private sector investments and privately led innovation. But there remains an outsized role in this for research tfunded often partnering in unique ways with the private sector. When you go home to indiana and you talk to folks there about Foreign Policy and American Interest and so on, what you find they are interested in and what questions they have about where we are headed . We have a high rate of military enli