Good a after noofternoon. We are going to get started. Im Shannon Green, the director of the human rights here, and it is my distinct distinct pleasur present diplomacy on National Security. I thought we would go over the agenda before the speakers up on stage. We have Catherine Brown and jay wong. Building alliances, fighting extremism. Catherine is a visiting fellow with my program here at csis and have been very fortunate having her lead this work on Public Diplomacy. She served as the executive director of Public Diplomacy. Jay wong, director of the ucs center on Public Diplomacy. The paper emerged from a workshop held jointly with jay center back in november. It conducts an assessment of where weve been with Public Diplomacy and what are the main successes under the Obama Administration and we suggest ways that we can strengthen Public Diplomacy going forward. Following that brief parensatiopr prepresentation wiben crawley. Bush administrations respecti respectively. During this time you will have an opportunity to ask ben and jim questions so will open up for q a, and we have bruce wharton, who is pleased to move it true the transition, after the formal program well invite you all to join us for a Cocktail Reception and during that time well have the paper presenting out on a touch screen so you can scroll through it and also available at the website. I would like to welcome catherine and jay to the stage. [ applause ] hi, everybody, not jay, im Catherine Brown. Thank you so much for coming. Im going quickly go through some top points of this paper we just released a few minutes ago on Public Security and national diplomacy. The paper looks more specifically at how to build alliances, countser balance extremism and dispel information from state actors. This paper was an effort by about 40 different stakeholders from across government, academia to create a document of record of the progress we have seen the last eight years with the Obama Administration building on the Bush Administration and give our best possible prescriptions moving forward into the next administration. So i am going to welcome jay, now up to the stage to go overthetop line findings and how to dispel information from state actors and i will come back. Good afternoon. Im very glad to be here and were very glad to be backing d. C. And to be a partner tore todays discussion for this particular study. As kath lcatherine mentioned, cd cb convened workers in and out of government to the success of it and make recommendation for future course. The challenges confronting Public Diplomacy today the role in counter violate extremism, state narraters, kremlin, building and strengthening foreign relationships. When Trump Administration enters, the workshop successes challenges and provide concrete recommendations for reforms and improvements in all these three areas looking at the aspects of themes, tools and structures, so im going to provide a very broad overview of some of our findings. Stakeholders agree that the overarching successes of the Obama Administration have included reaching larger global communities through new digital platforms, expanding educational and developmental opportunities existing Exchange Programs and through the young leeraders initiative. Of the india and Cultural Bureau advancing the team of entrepreneurship the selfpower of innovation, to Better Connect public diploma with policy which increase the advancement of Foreign Service officers to leadership roles, yet challenges remain for practitioners they include confronting the gap between ideals and reality within the United States with foreign citizens as domestic news as we all know its often pick ds ed up and relayed. News stories on violence, Police Brutality confronts every day raci racism, discrimination can under mine the messages about american inclusiveness with nonamerican audiences, Public Diplomacy practitioners should be better to prepare do memesti events in the field that do not connect with citizens, over all working with a stymied to effectively engage abroad. There are several roadblocks assuring theres planning to support Public Diplomacy operations which we outline in the report. Thought leaders and experts consulted for this study made the following recommendations going forward. Focus our initiatives that work instead of creating new ones, empowering Public Diplomacy. It is important to listen to prak tctitioners practitioners, investing in the practitioner professionals and must rely on the advancement in the state environment, and Technical Expertise for impactful programs. To take it seriously, paying cla close attention to audience will be essential moving forward. Pd requires a tool kit of activities, not defined by one particular program. It is essential that our conversations with members and staff emphasize how tools will Work Together and how they apply to various global and bilateral challenges and finally seeking partnership with private and civil organizations, these recommendations emphasize the big picture from the Obama Administration, we also addressed more targeted issues currently relative to the landscape and public diploma, building and strengthening alliances, encountering the violate extremism, and activities directed by the kremlin, so i will share with you just a is a general some general points for one particular area of discussion how we define false narratives through state actors through Public Diplomacy, and catherine will come and talk about those two activities. We are seeing state actors disinformation and covert campaigns to allies and u. S. Messages in many cases these are meant to influence Public Opinion around the colorworld tn against the u. S. Many elements of u. S. Public diplomacy and International Broadcasting were created specifically to defy adversary influence during the cold war this contains valuable lessons to think about strategies going forward. In terms of themes we need to articulate in broadest terms who we as the west stand for. At present it is posimportant t american values, rather than geographically specific, in terms of narratives we need to tell stories that are not about us as much as about our local audiences, our programs and narratives must resog nate with other audiences, people have an inherent right to acknowledge this is a battleground of ideas and world views. We could and should defend post world war ii, and that 21 century the white house and state department should work with congress on legislation to support properly resourced and stable Public Diplomacy and programs in regions mostefcted. The state Department Needs to do a better job of listening to target audiences to understand the needs and impact of pd programs and messaging efforts, this means partnering to understand audiences better. They consistently request not only news but entertainment such in russian so they are not i independent on russian content. The state department should try to open american spaces in russia beyond moscow, and should be remembered in the cold war included issues on propaganda issues. A tool of policy influence the United States needs a negotiating process that puts Public Diplomacy at center. There are two forms that need to improve. First the Intelligence Community needs to do a better job at declassifying that demonstrates russian and other states attempts on political and social debates so doubt and suspicion between the United States and our allies and second bring together a brain trust to inform the u. S. Government interagency approach to this issue in addition to local ngos and overseas, the information teams should be decentralized, so they can be more responsive to local audiences and finally the u. S. Government needs to develop a regional strategy with yoeurope and asian communities that would not only inspire our friends but transform conditions that lead people to position themselves as our adversaries and ill ask catherine to give us an overview of some of the recommendations in the other two areas. Thank you, jay, and nick call at usc who helped with the creation of that part of the report. Im for the sake of time going to go over the Violent Crime extremism. It is online and you will see that we go through building, strengthening alliances dispelling state actors and focus on the theemes, tools and structures needed, so for cve about extremism was based on the november turning point which provides the u. S. Administration a comprehensive strategy to counter balance violent extremism based on 15 years of learning, while the u. S. Has invested much to fight terrorism it has the soft power necessary to blunt the extremist eyedol eyedologi eyedologi eyedologies. Under the themes necessary we felt for the next administration to pro mote when it comes to Public Diplomacy, we felt the usc should in the local regional and Global Economy and also a more positive narrative would encourage greater tolerance on dignity and injustice, generally supporting the development in societies in which people including minorities and most vulnerable have plenty of avp avenues to find belongings. The u. S. Government needs to bring local actors make sure they have the operating space and Political Support to do so, pd officers should pro mote literature and books via mobile libraries. We agree professional activities as the international visitorship program, to foster relationships between foreign and leaders, the challenge extreme is narratives and general dagendas. It makes all of this work all this work should be led by civilians in government, should also work to improve intraagency operation and know the publics role is to deac conflict. While structure is important its equally critical that the Incoming Administration demonstrates on cd and puts greater weight on soft power versus hard power, its also crucial we need the field has autonomy, foreign officers must get out of their compounds and engage relationships to support with and compete and overtake extremist voices on and offline. You can read more in the report by in closing we believe that its been imperative for more than 60 years in maintaining and creating, the thought leaders an change makers and requires continued american commitment and resources over the very long term. It also requires us to live up to our values of inclusiveness, and pluralism heere at home. We hope that the Incoming Administration will work closely with the Public Diplomacy programs that have proven effective and popular about a greater understanding about american culture, and society, we believe it is foundational to facilitating Stronger Partnership with state and nonstate actors, and many thanks to the roughly 40 different contributors for this paper and to usc and also Shannon Green here at scis. I would like to welcome jim glassman, mike crowley, jim was under Public Diplomacy from 2008 and 29 under president george bush. And speech writing, overseeing president Obamas National Security communication speech writing, and mike crowley, Senior Foreign Affairs correspondent covering National Security issues. I would go on about their bios but i believe you all know who they are, and should have them in front of you. Ben and mike, welcome to the stage. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you, catherine. That kind introduction. Thanks everybody for coming an were going to start with remarks from our esteemed guests to whom ill pose a couple of questions and well have time at the end for your questions and ben, were going to kick off with you and tell us whats on your mind and jim, ill ask you a couple questions. Ive got a lot on my mind. Yes, please. No, look, ill be brief so we can have a conversation. For eight years, weve wrestled with this question how to enhance Public Diplomacy and i think would agree with a lot of the recommendations, a few points about what weve tried to do and where things are now. First, we tried to go beyond the existing infrastructure of esks change programs and Public Diplomacy abroad and find new ways to reach more audiences. The principal parts i think were in line with some of the recommendations. We asked how do we talk to people and what they want to talk about. One of the challenges is communications and Public Diplomacy is the u. S. Ere dvery is talking to people about terrorism and globe pal securit. They wanted to work with the United States on education, entrepreneurship and technology, so we werent talking to our audience about what the audience wanted to hear about, so we tried to design programs that are more affirmative and i think this relates to cve. So much focus is on encountering other narratives, but were not putting forward any alternative narrative or telling people what we stand for and sometimes the most powerful message is frankly one that doesnt even have to directly take on a terrorist narrative although we have to do that as well, its one that lifts up people that care about in other countries. Entrepreneurship work, we were pushing open every door in every part of the world, you look at the United States and you s sesee see Silicon Valley, so we are were able to take it around the world through a process of summits and brand it associated with the u. S. Government an then they can use that as tools. And frankly the entrepreneurs are the ultimate rebuke to isil because theyre trying to channel the energy and even a sense of grieve ance to improve their lives. So it is essential to the u. S. Government. Our traditional change programs are very good but also very expensive and what we did through our young Leadership Initiatives is use online initiatives, in Southeast Asia and latin america, to bring people here but also branded a way that people in africa knew that president obamacared abo about cared about people and wanted to know what they had to say, if a crisis took place like the ebola crisis, we saw participants work without us. It is an entry point for engaging audiences for embassies, is its be k a forum to pull people around for a roundtable an a brand for a tool of engagement that has an audience also targeted by extremists but we dont have to begin the conversation to say we want you to come down to embassy to talk about isil and whats wrong, we want them to come in and learn how to start a business, a conversation that builds out the alternative to every negative narrative whether it comes from the state or nonstate actor. So we have sought i wont go on because i want to get to the discussion, but i think its really important that we dont lose sight for this need of affirmative programming that talks people where they are that allows us to build networks of people that can be utilized in any number of ways and empowers people with its own right by connecting them with another. One of the things they said they got the most out of was just meeting each other because there could be someone in nigeria trying to bring medicine so mobile villages and hes talking to a guy thats using an app or developed an app that can be used so the u. S. Is convening this power given the enormous apparatus of our government and we need to use it and theres a digital component. Very briefly on encountering violent extremism, on the russia piece i think part of this is raising the awareness around the issue, part of it was said about the need to be faster whether its declassified information or just knocking down narratives, because ill give you an example when the plane was shot down over ukraine we did what responsible people do. We waited. Gathered evidence. Even though we knew what happened from various sources. Months later the dutch propagated ten different narratives about what happened to the plane and sown all kind of confusion about it. We have to be faster about dealing with people who lie because they dont really care about whether their story checks out and their story often changes day today, but their point is not so much for an alternative narrative, its just to sow doubt about whats real and whats not. We can talk about that more, but and on extremism, i think what is required is to not to use a patronizing tone to audiences when we talk about this, the two things that come back is one just reveal what the reality of isil is. I think we take for granted that people in other countries know