She is the founder and chair of Albright Stonebridge group, a Global Strategy Firm and prof professor of diplomacy at georgetown university. Admiral James Stavridis is dean at the Diplomacy School at tufts university. He served as admiral supreme in europe, and he is currently the chairman of the board of directors of the naval institute. And overseeing the expansion of the work, an award wing journalist in europe, and served as editor of the wall street europe based in brussels. And senator tom cotton has served as a republican senator from arkansas and he has served on the select committees of intelligence and after a law school at harvard he left his career to serve as an Army Infantry officer including service in afghanistan and iraq after 9 11. Good morning. Our topic this morning is simple, because i have four smart people here and they have a lot to say i have a feeling. This is quite simple, and i want totart with youdmiral stavris and tell me your three National Security priorities for the next administration. I want to start with one that may or may not surprise you. I think that cyber is extremely important. The reason i put it at the top of my list is because i think that in cyber, we have the et greatest mismatch between the level of threat which is quite high and our level of preparation which is frankly quite low. In other words, we worry about north korea, but we have options that we are prepared. We worry about russia, and we are kind of prepared and we worry about spry lent extremism, but sigher, we are not there. So cyber. And two is the broad return of brief politics such as broadly characterized russia and china, but i add to it the bubbling mix that i believe is going to be the reton of the world stage of germany and japan which is going to be fascinating, and above all in this sentry, the rise of india and how the move the pieces around is going the bel challenging, and this is going to get into the South China Sea and crimea and Everything Else that we face. Second is the great power politics underline disorder. And the third for me would be the continuing stresses and strains from the violent extremism which we tend to identify as radical islam which is a significant part, but we have also racial challenges. Dylan roof is a extremist, and others, and so that strain of violent extremism under the surface of the great power politics and looming out there like a tower is cyber. Secretary albright . I would certainly agree with all of those and then have my own kind of list. In a little bit different organization. I do think that we are living in a completely changed world in terms of the International System and how we operate and govern those questions. The discussion as to whether it is all sta actors i would argue that the presence of nonstate actors has added an awful lot of challenges, especially since our tool, our National Security tool box is set up to deal with states and not nonstate actors, and so the governance, and the second, i think, it is the challenge of how the great power rivalries go on, and there i really do think that we have to be concerned about what china and russia are doing, and then also, as secretary kerry said, what is going on in europe. So those aspects, and looking at the regional problems that come up and bite you that you have not been ready for. And the third aspect has to do with the more process, and there is no faith in the institution, and this is going to go a little bit not just to the cyber fwoux information. I stole this line from sill conn valley, but it worked so well to explain it. It is that people are talking to the governments on the 21st Century Technologies. The government hears them on 20th Century Technologies and providing 19th century responses. And therefore there is no faith in the institution, and trying to figure out how to deal with all of this, and i have a el elegant term for this, and the world is a mess [ laughter ] that is going to let ordinary people understand what we are saying. You think that there has to be some way that we look at the institutional structure, and i think that we need to understand the following thing and i am hoping that we have a chance to talk about this more is Foreign Policy, National Security policy does not come in fouryear or eightyear segments. It is no president coming in with a clean slate, and so there has to be a look at what is out there that has to be dealt with, and the things that will bite you that you dont know are coming. And which leads us to senator cotton, and we have been talking and found it very interesting the way that you are looking at this, that we talk about three National Security priorities, and we are not talking about the necessarily threats, and you view those quite differently. Sure. And thank you, martha and the institute for peace. I cant disagree with the admiral or the secretary, but as mar ththa said, the title of th panel is priorities and not threats. The threats of china, and russia, and rogue nations, and islamic actors and transatlantic groups and no telling what they will do in ten days or the first ten days of the trump administration, and all of us in government know that you have to react the to contact, but are where can the new administration go out the make the contact and take the initiative to set the priorities to fundamentally advantage the United States in strategic competition. So three areas, and this is a good time to pursue them. This is a new administration when the people expect a new path, and it is a time when you have the most e domestic politic Political Capital and working with congress, and so the first stt substantial increases in the Defense Budget, and maybe going back to the National Defense panel in 2014 based on bob gates budget in 2012 and the the last time that the department of Defense Budgeted before the budget control act went into effect, and the sequester spending cuts took effect. Second is a thorough ongoing review of the strategic posture. Both the bush and the Obama Administrations first year in office took a are review. A and the world has changed drastically, and russia and china are developing different things, and china is violating the inf treattreaty, and if the to be believed they can deliver drones into our coastal cities, so we have to fundamentally reconsider the nuclear and the Missile Defense posture, and third, the domestic issue that has far reaching International Consequences is to accelerate the shale revolution in energy revolution. We are blessed to have a country of great innovators of risk t e takers and investors of fantastic scientists and geology that permits shale production in a way that no other country in the world has that combination help us to become a Global Energy super power and that is going to give us a freedom acti action, and put more strategic pressure on rush sharsia, and t three a areas to pursue them, and whatever happens in the world, and it will give us greater strategic flexibility to pursue policies in particular countries and regions. Thank you. Fred . Er for decades already, i have been stealinging secretary albrights ideas, so let me first say that i want to grab on to the world is a mess as a fact. And then the other fact, and it wont become more orderly unless the u. S. Gets more deep l deepl engaged. There is no one else to substitute for us, and if they dont, less benevolent actors will fill the void. I want you to remember on this day, because we are at a defining moment in history. You can pick your date, 1919, 1945, and you can go back to or 1789,ut that is where we are. Couplehat one of the most fraught moments of history which is the transition to a new president , new party with the untested president , and we had that in 1961 with the youngest president of all time john f. Kennedy and we ended up with the bay of pigs disaster in april, and with the failed vienna summit with where the soviets decided that the president was weak with the berlin wall, and then a year later, you had the cuban missile crisis. So that is what set the parameters for the rest of the cold war, but we almost had nuclear war. I am not saying anything like that will happen this time, because the cold war was at stake then, but i believe that global system is at stake now. And so my big overarching roof is to adjust and reinvigorate the practices and the values that we have always had. And then three pillars and these are the three issues. Europe and russia. I think that it was terrific that the secretary pointed to the European Union, because the European Union comes unraveled or more dysfunctional, you cannot have a Strong America in the world with a cornerstone of engagement. And the advances of russia are pushing on that. And both of those things we need reassurances for europe, and we need russia to know that there are certain lines that cannot be cross and redrawing the borders that can be be tested at the allies of the top of the list. The second is in the middle east. Here i want to embrace the Atlantic Council and the work that the center has done with madeleine albright, and steve hadley, and not a crisis in the middle east, but a crisis from the middle east where you have extremism, and migrants being exported again undermining europe. We cant deal with that in the short term, and it is to be dealt with in the long term with the allies and doubling and deepening the are relationships with the allies in the region, and that is our traditional allies and then working in the long run to tap what steve hadley and madam albright saw. Youth to point to prosperity. And also, a point to russia, and if china is the threat over time, it is a stakeholder now, and it has a huge amount at stake right now. We cant put ourselves into the conflict with china if we want the global system to be reinvigorate and readjust and survive and we have to do it together with china. Along those line, i really think that we then have to double down the relationships with the allies in the far east, because if we are strong with our al allies with japan, with south korea and others, we will be able to have a much more positive relationship with china, and so those are the three u. S. europe middle east china asia. Thank you. Senator cotton, i want to go with you on this, what do you sense that the Donald Trumps priorities will be . We have seen the tweets and the things that he has said in the campaign and since he is president elect, and what is your sense of the priorities in terms of the Foreign Policy . Well, he is going to the make America Great again. And how is he going to do that . Well, some of the issues that i touched on are the ones that the president elect campaigned in substantial increases of military spending and u fundamental reconsideration of the nuclear and strategic posture and the oil and Gas Production and these things whatever he says on the twitterer or media interviews are not good things for countries like russia or iran or some of ther adversaries in the middle east. If you are look atle some of the appointees to the cabinet whether it is jim mattis or mike pompeo, these are not shrinking violets. I suspect that President Trump what he said on the campaign trail and based on the nominations will take a firmer line around the world with our adversaries and try to project greater strength and demand more respect for the United States. And less willing to make concessions without receiving concessions in return. I think that those are all good things and a good change after eight years of the Obama Administration in which the president said famously early on that he wanted to extend a open hand rather than the clinched fist, but sometimes the clinched fist has to precede the open hand. And this is something that we have never seen before with thet tweets, to this number of tweets like this. It is usually a statement, and, you know, vy formal, but those tweets have moved markets and moved ford and carrier, and how will that work in Foreign Policy . Can it move foreign leaders, secretary albright . I will try and be polite. Let me just say that i amor v am very concerned about the tweets and the general messages going out, and the if i could say that secretary kerry said that i invented the term indispensable nation and i didnt, it was president clinton but i said so it often it identified with me, but nothing about that term that says alone. It means that the United States has to be engaged and that is the message that i think that we need to get out there and not as America First, but as america as a partner there. Is nothing wrong with partnerships. I know that americans dont like the word multi lateralism, and it is too many syllables and ends innism. But it means partnership, and the world as we see it in terms of the what you call the glowle ball issues throughout, whether it is terer errorism or disease or nuclear proliferation, those issues require partnerships. And is so, i do think that there has been a system in place in the world for a very long time of how governments communicate with each other, and how president s communicate with each other, and how those documents are developed, are they a part of some kind of a decisionmakin process that does in fact reflect what the government thinks and what the congress thinks and what the American People think. And the tweets dont deal with that. In fact, they are but if you want to shake it u up, and if you want a reset, and you want to get someones attention and taiwans attention and chinas attention, why not . Because i let me just say it is fine, and disruption is an interesting theory actually and i think that it does not hurt. Destroying is not a good thing. I think that part of the issue is that i think that it is absolutely essential, i said this, that Foreign Policy does not come in four or eightyear segments. Every administration, especially of a different party, tries to do it differently, but it has created great concerns, and let me just take one example from the transfer from clinton to bush. I was in the middle of negotiation,s with the north koreans, and p bill pbill perry wrote about it. The decision made by the Bush Administration not to continue the talks so i would put north e korea into one of the more dangerous are aspects of what is going on out there, and i use atz an example that you may disagree with what president obama did, and i might disagree with what president bush did, and actually steve and i took a pledge not the to talk about the past, but it is it what itis, and it is essential that there is some understanding with what the track is, and what the role of the United States is, and how we behave as a responsible power in cooperation with others, and tweets doesnt do it for me. And anybody else want to jump in on that . I will. I agree with the secretary albright, that think of it as a diet f. Your d of it as a die f. Your diet is exclusively shots of expresso, but parts off a fulsome diet where you are conducting diplomacy, you are executing disagreements and executing treaties and moving forces and a extra shot of expresso can jazz you and energize it, but where i worry about it is where i think of the young officers a and military context to it. Say a tweet appears that says, hey the next iranian gun boat that crosses the bow of the navy ship is going to be blown out of the water. Which he said. I dont believe it is a tweet, but a you are very close, because i did this story yesterday. And what we need to recognize is that particular shot of expresso has an effect all of the way down to the young Commanding Officer where he or she is dealing with the kind of the rules of the engagement moments, and so you are potentially kind of create a short circuit from the ultimate commander in chief town to the operators on the ground, and it can be the same in diplomacy and the same in economics, so where i come out is that in occasional shot of expresso, okay, but it cannot be, collusively u your diet. And the senator said that it wouldnt be and you have a madison there, and others doing those things. And so let me just embrace the tweets. As you know, im a little schizophrenic here as a journalist and Foreign Policy analyst. And as a journalist, he has good heavens captured the news story everyday and pretty brilliant what he is doing, but let me compliment the admi because the tweets need to be accompa accompanied, and they have to be accompanied by a strategy. But you cant expect the strategy to be there yet, but it has to come relatively soon. There is an unpredictability that the president elect has embraced, and on many issues, that can be useful politically, and on the global stage, the u. S. Has to be predictable, and the allies have to know where it stands, and the allies have to know where it stands and accompanied by the tweets, it is fine and can be highly effective, but i dont expect the president elect to put on a Bumper Sticker save the national order. But this is a tweet that i would like to see that i want President Trump to make global Ame