The president and ceo of the center for american progress. [applause] house everyone doing . Good afternoon everyone. I am so happy to once again thank you for joining us for this important event at an incredibly critical time for our country and the entire international community. The gathered together at the dawn of a new decade and at this moment its becoming clearer that the 21st century will be defined by a singular competition. A competition not of technology or of weaponry, but of ideas. Ideas about how to solve problems and one of the best ways for societies to do so. I believe the 21st century will be defined by a competition between democracy and authoritarianism and while this competition may not have the same military consequences of the cold war that unfolded between democracy and communism, it is similarly a competition to define the future of the world. As we all know, there are two distinct and opposing polls in this debate and on the one end is the United States and many of our allies and on the other end this the countries of china and russia and as we should all recognize, mine is not passive in this debate. Its assertively making the case for its form of government on the global stage in africa, latin america and the rest of asia. It argues that its form is more adaptive and effective, better able to address challenges like poverty and Climate Change and if we really want to be honest with ourselves, there are days our country erotic behavior makes chinascase very well. And yet, despite the sharply defined goals of this competition , our world is perhaps more complicated than at any other point area because this confrontation is not onlyoccurring between countries , its taking place within countries as well. Over the past few decades democracies themselves have over the past few years democracies themselves have witnessed the rise of leaders impulses like victor ormonde in hungary who has weakened the press and judiciary in india the Worlds Largest democracy, mister modi has championed a citizenship law discriminating against members of the Muslim Community and move that echoes is the disgraceful muslim man in the United States and our own country the president of the United States has attacked our federal judges, declared free press and enemy of the people and undermined election after election. To say that President Trump is a friend or a faithful steward of our constitution and democracy might be something of a stretch. Yet its not just democracies that are facing challenges from within. Even as democracies grapple with this rise of authoritarian populism, autocratic states have experienced protests demanding greater political freedom, largely Peaceful Demonstrations have brought down dictators in algeria and sudan and protesters have flooded the streets of hong kong, moscow and just this past weekend throughout iran. These Different Countries are united by their opposition to political repression and by their pleas and demand for the very simple right to have a say in their own political future. Indeed, in a world where were between nations is thankfully rare, the battles between authoritarianism and democracy may be moving within nations, not just between them i want to make a simple plea to the very esteemed group. It is to move beyond realpolitik and neutrality. We are fortunate to count so many scholars and leaders in this audience and i appreciate the call for analytical detachment, but this is a moment for choosing. We must consider moving beyond that repot realpolitik to defend democracy and add importantly here at home. There are so many moments in our history where todays realism looks very much like tomorrows hypocrisy. We must of course reject the dangerous unilateralism perceived by donald trump who speaks admiringly of foreign dictators or insulting and alienating our allies area and instead we must, and this is so obviously true, ensure that strengthening collaboration with our democratic allies stands as a core pillar of our Foreign Policy agenda that since joining with our partners to defend our collective Democratic Institutions againstinterference from authoritarian states. And unfortunately we havemore news of that happening today. And we also must stand up or fundamental human rights. But in order for the United States to uphold democratic values, we must fully embrace them here at home. Indeed, other countries take notes when we dont live our values whether it is widespread use of bitter Voter Suppression tactics for ever present political corruption, our government must End Solutions to advance fundamental, defend the premise of this nation that every Single Person deserves a meaningful chance to earn a better life and receive equal treatment under our laws and to takepart in our democracy because at the end of the day , whats most fundamentally weakens democracy is from within. Is the idea that democracy no longer delivers results for their people. That view reads a cynicism that is crippling. And so we must repair and revitalize our own democracy. When we invest in our people and education and research and infrastructure and healthcare, we both deliver results for our people and strengthen ourselves for that competition with china. So it is 20 20. This year will represent a vehicle moment in the United States. It can help forge a new Progressive Agenda in Foreign Policy and domestic policy that tackles the great challenges of our time. In the Foreign Policy a arena that means taking on the urgent threat posed by Climate Change and americas unnecessary war and return us to diplomacy with iran. Is incredibly grateful for the partnership of all the people in this room , not today but four days, weeks and months to come. And i have to say when i think of the people who have propelled that fight for democracy and human rights towards this core of our Foreign Policy i can think of no one better to make that case and our special guest for our next keynote session, ambassador samantha power. From 2013 to 2017 he served as our nation 28 permanent representative to the un and in that time she played a pivotal role in shaping americas response to every Major International issue from opposing russia, russian aggression in syria and the ukraine to enacting sanctions against north korea and ending the evil of crisis. Since the conclusion of the Obama Administration ambassador power is served as a professor of global leadership, public policy, human rights at the Harvard Law School and last year she published a memoir, the education and idealist which was hailed as one of 20 19th most notable books by behind us, Washington Press and New York Times andlet me say it was a fantastic we. Wheres honored to ambassador power could be here for our team a contribution on the power of National Security please welcome back to the state kelly maximum and help me get a warm round of applause for ambassador samantha power. Class at all, hope everyone had a good lunch and a good breakout session. Ambassador power, welcome. To recap the National Security conference, the first hundred days. Youre an astute person of experience, the first hundred days of an administration and therest of the administration as well so i look forward to your perspective. I want to mention your new book theeducation of an idealist. There are periods of that book i feel ivemoved with you through so its nice to see it written down in such a compelling and personal way. One of the themes that comes up throughout the book is how to advance your ideals and navigate the very complex National Security bureaucracy which many of us in this room have lived through and seen the ups and downs of process. How do you get things doneto reflect your values and your ideals . Many people in this room have been aggressive Foreign Policy agendas but theres always friction about that i would love your reflections on for the room first of all, thank you. Its great to see, like a big reunion a lot of people i havent even seen since that fateful day in january 2017. When everything changed. A galaxy far far away. So its great to be back in that galaxy. I guess i may be would give you the answer into two parts. Where i landed after eight years of learning on the job in the executive branch, i sort of encapsulated in the book in x and expression that i borrow from a couple professors, a stanford professor, but he brothers and the expression is shrink the change. And the best example i can offer of that child over in the book is it, the trump years that brought about the democracy recession, they contributed, their accelerating it, there helping fuel it in america is part of the democracy recession but we were living that for all of the years of the Obama Administration. There were 13 straight years of freedom in decline around the world and you and i were in jobs, many people were in jobs with that portfolio and it was maddening and we were trying whats a different tactics to try to chip away at that problem, gathering society, creating instruments at the un like special repertoires on freedom of association and things like that and working a discrete human rights issue. But sitting with my more creative younger members of my team in 2015, we came up with this idea of a very modest campaign called hashtag free the 20 which was our way of taking this huge problem of freedom in decline around the world and the resurgence of nationalism and populism, of zero phobic flair in many circumstances but turning it into something concrete that we could conceivably achieve and i dont think we thought even that we would achieve that much but we thought we would in profiling 20 women, female Political Prisoners around the world that we would make their families know that america care, reach them in jail, that their leaders would know there was at least some reputational cost and in the end thanks to the work of many people in this room and others and actually 20 female us senators as it happened, there were 20 female us senators at the time in the senate on a bipartisan base basis through their weight behind the campaign, 16 of the 20 women were freed from jail when you ask how you get things done , we can solve or even make much of a dent in the freedom recession but we did have something concrete with proof of concept that then morphed into other campaigns that were again about very discrete causes but sometimes you can define yourself out of meaningful action, especially now where issues like Climate Change by definition you feel so small even if you have a very influential role in a future administration so that a policy level. I guess iwould say now that were in this period , of not even having the ability to do things like make a list of prisoners and try to get them out of jail , even something that modest, i feel like now its each of our responsibilities as we work towards a change in november 2020 10 takes form on january 2021, but i feel like a lot of terms have been thrown around like rebuilding trust and restoring alliances and i wasnt in the breakout session. Im sure it got much more concrete but i think one thing that we can do now, those of you who have strong and thick and longstanding relationships with other countries is we need to answer the question of actually what will it take to not rebuild trust is of course we know it wont be real overnight what are the kinds of very discrete and shrink the change, doable, achievable measures at woodland with outsized influence with other countries . For some it a visit, cabinet level visit. Early might make a difference. For some its, i we will talk about this imsure but resubmitting our papers for the paris agreement. And that will take hold and come into effect early days after we do so but i think when i talk to young people i often say when they say what can i do, i want to make a difference in the world id say no something about something. It feels like we have a responsibility to know how to alter the ecosystem, the things that are within our control as someone said earlier, but lets hear from , lets use the time we have to hear from others what will make a dent and then comparably, we talk a lot about the us, a great question earlier to the previous panel. About how to create Foreign Policy, i dont want to paraphrase you but the Foreign Policy that resonates with a domesticconstituency. That has domestic appeal. That is not entirely knowable because people are different all around the country and it depends on what subsection of the American Public one is thinking about but that would be another really good way to use our time right now is to understand, weve talked about i think in the china context how do you walk that line in selling domestic mobilization around our and the investments. Around ai investments. Around renewal and rebuilding of our diplomatic corps. What is the sweet spot there on china where its not nearly the return as we were talking about, not a return to a cold war enemy that brings about that domestic globalization but the face also for the areas of cooperation we know we need. What is that sweet spot . Some of you have been listening to john favreau on positive america and weve been going around the country and he found himself very surprised to hear among independents and swing states swing voters how much it surprisingly matter to people that we have lost the respect of people around the world that we feel alone. People in that interesting middle, its one thing about Traditional Democratic voters people who changed their Party Affiliation from election to election, they just feel like its not good to have your respect and your Favorability Ratings plummet. Thats interesting and that will have a ramification for the next administration and again, how they packagewhat were doing. But it would be great to drill into, we know thats an issue that might resonate but then whats the remedy, what are the messages woodland and maybe its not this community who is best positioned to do that. I certainly dont feellike im particularly good at that. Knowing how to bridge the differences but if weve learned anything , in every sort of discussion like this among Foreign Policy experts, someone brings up the need to do that. So wheres the work being done to, in a very specific way run through each of the issues and find out how to get the most in this big bang for your buck so you can sell all the wonderful things that your breakout session that we decided we needed to do im going to put you on the spot a little bit. If you were in charge of the world and you were looking around all the priorities, we have no shortage ofpriorities. Change, endingthe wars. Rebuilding that respect , what would making a dent look like to you and what would be your first big Muscle Movement policy decision that you would maybe considerin the first hundred days . For a modest, just a little bit of a copout only because you did ask that question others i will try not to repeat what others said and i did sit in on jakes china breakout session as well. So heard a number of great ideas in that space. I guess i would say, i would start with and i will repeat a little bit but try to offer some something that i didnt hear. I start with the enabling environment, and to get back to the ecosystem, thats where what they have referred to as the diplomatic blitz but the trust blitz which that enabling environment, what one does in north korea or the South China Sea will turn and the power of our messaging in terms of the diplomacy will turn on our success in building i dont want to say rebuilding because by definition it will look different now but building a new relationship with the republic of north korea by injecting our more trust into the relationship with japan. It goes without saying that our European Partners heads are exploding and have been for some time so thats part of the enabling device is just somehow again, were not going to solve it in the first hundred days or the first term but retrieving americas word, americas credibility. The legitimacy of our actions, retrieving their sense that we have systems and processes, some of the things dennis wastalking about projecting that so that they , that theres going to be a huge amount of ptsd in our interactive litters who are for the first year, this administration did the normal things. They would meet with the senior director for this and assistant secretary for that and at a certain point he realized you people have no idea what trump is aboutto do about anything. So as we rebuild our systems also projecting and restoring confidence that nature, not just in our word and whether outward matters. So thats part of the enabling environment. Personnel issues that michelle forno and otherstalk about in terms of our diplomatic corps i dont need to say much more than that but to put a fine point on it , 225,000 us personnel, us pentagon personnel serving overseas today,225,000. 9000 diplomats. 225,000 to 9000, its one example of something that long predated trump but maybe from gives us an excuse to breathe new life into, theres signals you could send early on. Climate of course, we be depositing our instruments of reaccession i suppose. And that would be very welcome but i think on climate, not only the breaking down of silos that we