Inaugurated the global war on terrorism but we will replace it with a mexico au mf and you just thought, is this progress . What do you make of this . There is a sense that maybe we went bananas there for a while but how about a mexican invasion . There is the fatigue of big wars, tens of thousands of troops deployed to iraq and afghanistan but most americans are, for better or for worse, a nerd to a small footprint, small drone strike. What they are contemplating is use of that which is a few missile strikes, performative and symbolic missile strikes against drug labs in mexico. We are putting the war back on the war of drugs. There is a real downside even if these were pin strikes. There are many downsides to attacking cartel and damaging our relationship with mexico. I think it does reflect where the conversations i dont think many are serious. That said, this does normalize them and make it more likely that they future president may act on them. I want to read a quote here from the chairman that the house now has a task force on countering the cartel. The chair talked a bit about the examples of what an au mf would do. What we want, according to this individual is to get mexico to ask for military support such as Close Air Support while they are prosecuting a target and surrounded by [indiscernible] which is exactly what happened earlier this year. Navy seals were calling Close Air Support and all of the guys would be gone and we would move along. This is getting back to this idea of, mexico is in a civil war or an insurgency but they just dont understand it or they wont try hard enough. You have heard over and over, as i mentioned before, this idea of insurgency, stability operation. I remember during the battle days of iraq and afghanistan, which Cato Institute was opposed to at the outset, thinking, at least 7000 miles away. It is a bearable thing for us to be doing but at least it is really, really far away. The idea is that you would import the insurgency or a Counterinsurgency Campaign and stick it on your border in your largest trading partner . That seemed to me there is this idea of, to me, living in an alternate reality. It is not to make light of the fact that military scale, using military equipment, 50 caliber machine guns. I am not saying that these guys are out there in their backyards with slingshots. These are real bad dudes with real heavy weapons but it is escalating a conflict that is right now at a pretty low level to full on shooting. Let me find another one here from the online audience. Lets go to you people here. I am juggling three Different Things and forgetting about the living, breathing human beings. By the moderator in my . Right down here in the front in the white shirt. Sorry. Hi. My name is veronica with the National Coalition for drug legalization. I think the larger question that no one has really asked is, what are your thoughts on the legalization of all drugs and do you see this as a way to reduce drug violence and drug overdoses and what would it take to get people to start taking about legalization of all drugs . Of course, that is the only way we will see the reduction in violence and deaths. We learned this with alcohol but it seems like we have very short memories. I always tell people, when i go to my drug dealer, which is the neighborhood liquor store, and i look on the shelf at bourbon, which is my drug of choice and it says 45 alcohol, and never even crosses my mind that they may be lying to me or might have fentanyl in it. That is because it is legal and regulated. The solution is, to legalize all drugs in the same way. Unfortunately, it seems like you are asking about the prospects rather than even entertaining Something Like a halfway step like decriminalization, which is happening in europe decreasingly. The czech republic, germany, they are not arresting people for possessing any of these drugs for personal use. They are not even hearing people talk about escalating the war on drugs. I dont really have a lot of optimism about our prospects. Lets go to another person right there, checkered shirt. Another question for dr. Singer. What role does drug scheduling, under the controlled substance act play in all of this . We are talking about synthetic drugs and amateur chemists trying to stay ahead of though wall with bureaucrats scheduling new synthetic models for these drugs. What role, if anything, does that play in the crisis . Well, if anything, the Drug Enforcement administration does the scheduling. By scheduling of drugs, as schedule one, that means it has no accepted medical use and a high tendency for abuse. Among drugs that have been placed in schedule one, first of all, you are depriving research and the opportunity to do Clinical Research on drugs that could potentially be very helpful such as psychedelics, even a lot of the drug war hawks are suddenly realize the benefits of psychedelics may have for the treatment of ptsd, particularly in veterans and other problems. We basically stunted Clinical Research of psychedelics for 50 years because they were placed on schedule one. Cannabis, i dont think that anybody with a straight face could say no accepted medical use of cannabis. That is one of the downsides. The other downside is they are helping to create a market that the cartels and other people want to get into the drug market can get into because if you make a schedule one, it is no longer available through the legal market. Heroin was made schedule one they did not have a schedule for that but it was banned in the United States. The man who invented it gave it the name heroin. That was banned in the United States in 1924. That became the number one opioid that people were using in the black market because obviously it became attractive for people in the black market to sell. It is on the formulary and much of the developed world. In some countries like canada and germany, the netherlands, switzerland as well. People are often times given heroin when methadone is not working for them as a form of medication and treatment. A question came in that im going to manipulate a little bit and then throw to you. It was about the cartel itself. You wrote a book about that. In reading about in preparing for this, some of these folks are really, really bad people. Lets just say that up front. One of the things i was reading to stress this up, they have sophisticated testing equipment. Sometimes they will get an addict and just shoot them up with the drug to see what it looks like and then one particular instance, the guy died and then they just sent that stuff to the border anyway. You think to yourself, who would do that kind of thing . I guess to stipulate, not nice guys. What with the cartel do . What is your best guess at the responses. On paper, the United States military in the u. S. Marine corps the United States marine corps will mop the floor. That is not the way it works. What is your best read of how the cartels would respond to a greater u. S. Military role, shoulder to shoulder with mexican military or not . The political aspect is hanging right there, obviously, but what is your best guess to how the cartels would respond . This is a great question. The discussion is not based on reality and fact. It is not bad and good actors. When the Mexican Government in 2006 declared the war on drugs, it was like a discourse, a narrative about the bad people and the good people. The bad ones are the Cartel Members and the good ones were the military, the federal police but we understood that in context of war, we are talking about insurgents attacking too where we really dont know. We are talking about military groups also getting into here. This is what happened in colombia. Not all the time, u. S. Soviets in the case of 2006 to today, we are talking about military dress in civilian suits in order to not affect the perception of the military. This is going to be very complex. We are not talking about bad people and good people. Who are the perpetrators of this and who are the victims . Where the disappear people . Some of them were collateral victims and some of the ones who disappeared were the bad cartels. Also, the mexican military collaborated with u. S. Agencies. What is going to happen in the conflict of war . This is going to be much more complex. We have a monolithic bad actor that is dedicated to traffic drugs. It is not a serious we have a model, all of these things have bad men leading with capacity to fight against the military of mexico or the United States. Now, we have a third component here. The Mexican Government is not going to allow u. S. Military force into mexico. What is going to happen . Are we going to have the militarization mexico has reached levels we have never imagined. There is a monopoly of the Public Safety at the federal level. They control the ports, the customs, migration. They are participating in the construction of the projects, they are participating they are going to be dealing with an airline that has been created. They are participating everywhere. I dont know if that gives you an idea of what the Mexican Government is thinking about. We can really create a war against two countries. I dont want to be pessimistic but is the Mexican Government going to support the u. S. Military . I dont think so. Lets see there is somebody all the way in the back there. Sorry if you had your hand up. Thank you so much. I have so many questions but i will boil it down to one. Thank you very much for your book. It was awesome reading. Is the government essentially a Transnational Criminal Organization . And you repeat the question . Is mexico a Transnational Criminal Organization or could it arguably be perceived that way . The Mexican Government . A Transnational Criminal Organization . Okay. If you are characterizing the Mexican Government, all of that that, i am glad you didnt mention the concept statement the mexican state as that National Criminal organization. Probably when you characterize the Mexican Government, you are thinking of them, because we are talking about the secretary of defense, or the head of secretary of Public Safety that was the Main Organization that was formed during the six year period, the administration of felipe. But if you are talking about the Mexican Government are connected with the cartels that some political figures are considering, it is a tactic which is driving today the narrative among certain political groups in the United States print i am talking about a very important section of the republican party. Everything mexico can all the government is connected. El chapo is in prison. You are kind of like assuming that the whole government, including the president of mexico and the military is directly connected, collaborated , and also participating in the drug trade. And that they are all combining themselves to bring the drugs to the United States. I think this is a massive exaggeration. It is very risky and it is going to put the whole country of mexico against the military of the United States, the government of the United States. There is going to be a war against two countries because there is a war on drugs but if you characterize the Mexican Government as a Transnational Criminal Organization they will declare a war on mexico, and this is very dangerous. That was a Charles Tilly question, are getting back to organized crime. I think, unless there is an other hand, which i dont i think we have exhausted most of what i saw that wasnt stepping on other questions here. Yeah, i think we have covered most of what we needed to cover today, and i dont want to stand between all of you and perfectly legal it will be available, so i think this is a very important, very grim topic that i think is going to be persistent in the years to come. This unique perspective is going to have a role to play and i am very thankful that we covered what i think is a tremendous amount of different aspects of this issue. It is 4 20 on a friday afternoon. Thank you very much and please join me in thanking the panelists here today, thank you so much. [ applause ] [indiscernible ] [indiscernible chatter]ernible ] [indiscernible chatter] Defense Department officials discussed findings and recommendations of the review including mitigating biological threats and training and protecting military forces in combat. The event was hosted by the center for strategic and international studies. It runs just over an hour. Welcome and good morning to everyone assembled here in washington at csi as and those watching online and tuned in to cspan 1. We are delighted to be able to host this one hour session today and the release of the inaugural department of defense bio defense review. We are doing this today under the offices of bipartisan alliance for Global Health security cochair, former cdc director julie, and former senator richard special thanks to my colleagues at csis, michaela , mclean, sophia, special thanks to that csis Production Team that is putting this altogether, eric, alex. Theo and duane. And special thanks especially to Jennifer Nicholson who has helped us over many weeks and planning this out and many others that i cant really begin to humor, there has been a lot of support for putting this together. Bipartisan, as we were here in this postcovid moment, and it has the potential, as we were here, to bring about fundamental changes. A few minutes ago, we published here at csis , my colleague emily harding, Deputy Director of International Security programs, and i published article questions hes on the release of the ppr. Michaela, we recently published an essay entitled the worst is over, now what, that examined this postcovid moment that we have entered, and it began by unpacking many of the factors of pessimism that there will be little sustained progress in building preparedness and response capabilities against future pathogenic threats, but it makes the case beyond that that there really is reason for optimism and hope, based on several factors. Survey work that shows strong american support for an active u. S. Government engagement in this area at home and abroad. The appointment of new Senior Leadership team at the white house, the cdc, nih, and elsewhere. New capacities in the white house and cdc and elsewhere, and the de facto bipartisan consensus, despite the rancor and the noise in our country to better protect americans for investing in new technology and better biosafety and bio security and other issues. And most importantly, in our deliberations today and in the paper that michaela and i published, we make the case if the wheels of government continue to turn in generating new Security Strategies and analyses for improving the performance of the u. S. Government, the vitally important for how u. S. Departments and agencies are to perform. The budgetary needs and the oversight to ensure accountability. Special congratulations to secretary Deborah Rosenblum and her many colleagues who have worked long and hard to generate this important work. A certain urgency surrounds strengthening bio defense in our government, but it did take 21 months to complete this, and the delay is are a reflection of the complexity of the threats and the science, the array of dod institutions involved. The inevitable conflicts and bureaucratic politics, but we are at this point now where it is out and the moment has arrived to accelerate its implementation. The world of bio defense has changed profoundly and dod needs to change accordingly to move ahead. This lays down a new paradox around bio threats coming from multiple directions, including national from china, russia, iran, and north korea. Creates new opportunities, and the massive proliferation laboratories. We will hear more in this discussion around china and the question of what exactly is the threat that is posed. If the bpr is careful, i think we will expect greater clarification as we move into the future. Is it engaged in bio weapons programs . There are other questions that emerge out of this that we will also have to think about. Chinas larger environment what becomes of them . Also, what about our Bilateral Dialogue . Is that dialogue is there space for that . The bpr, as we will hear today, that Institution Needs to bring about greater accountability in the next coming days. Action plan of the next 12 months. This will really be a critical task. A bit of the down payment. I believe that is all possible. Dod is bio Defense Activities a longstanding friend and colleague, a generous support system. Many fields related to this broad enterprise, an exceptional commitment to strengthen americas defenses. From november of 2021 to april 2023. Before joining the biden administration, deborah was the executive vice president. We will hear from