no matter how smart you are i predict that you're going to learn something. general kip ward has been a distinguished army officer for over 40 years.

he's held all the command billets from lieutenant all the way up through division commander and the like and later of course he was the first commander of the africa command you talk to us about today. now he's the president and coo of a very interesting company in the corporate world and we were chatting a little bit earlier before this thing started and i said you know, some of the leadership things that you picked up in the military are apropos in the commercial world as well because still, it's all done by people and we need to learn to take care of them and he agreed to that. we were also chatting before, he was born, i graduated from high school in 1945 and at 17 and i play football and the light and my best friend was from manasquan high school

across the river and they were our traditional rivals and he and i had grown up, known each other a long time and later he went to the same school, morgan state only he was a freshman there in 1946 and that's back when we had back good athletes at morgan state. later when you got there they dwindled off but at any rate, we had a chat about that so with no further a do here i'm proud to introduce general board [applause] >> let me follow up by saying good morning and extending food vote of thanks to mister alexander and michael for even letting me be here this morning to address this group and that general there, needs absolutely zero introduction, note

endorsement my keyboard because gray is one of our nations iconic heroes so let me thank you for your service over the years that you continue to do and all you've done not just marines but all of us across our nation, thanks very much. [applause] professor alexander contacted me about coming here this morning, i said professor, i'm not an academician. i've not published great volumes or tomes for people to read and the fact that knowing what you do, why what i contribute to this austere occasion and offer something to this group? he said general, that's exactly why we want you there. general gray talks about my career and i will briefly highlight a couple things that might be instructive as i go through the remainder of my comments.over 40 years in the military, my first 20 years as a soldier, i spent ensuring our

nation that the great nemesis of the cold war impacts our national security, we were going to defeat it. and i did that, a sign that some units in europe, in korea . balkanized units, armored units. i did that to continue to enforce units.82nd airborne division here in the united states. the last 20 years presented a different paradigm. and i'll talk about that. you know, since 9/11 the security challenges that we face have grave global implications and they've emerged globally. in the middle east, africa, europe, asia , all regions.

terrorist networks, particularly al qaeda and ãbut including bogle,, the most treacherous of these organizations killing hundreds of people a week that goes unreported there in the sahara. i'll shahada, they are extending daily operations across this arc of instability that exist without borders. topic for today, combating terrorism, lessons learned. lessons learned. middle east, north africa and the sahara and beyond . this enemy that possesses statewide features, not a state expounding to be one, how do we recognize them? not too long ago you had a great presentation here by a youngster,

i called him a youngster, you called me a youngster, i called ben stewart a youngster. my current director of the eia and he presented an extremely accurate laydown of what this enemy is. i won't dare to expound upon what he said about daesh and so forth but that is an enemy that has permeated our global commons. we indeed live in a complex security environment. we knew our enemy when i was lieutenant. we knew who it was, we knew where it was, we knew his intent, we knew how it operated. we could devise a plan todefeat it . so it didn't dare challenge us. in 1992, i was appropriate brigade commander of the six mountain division.i went to

somalia to help guarantee humanitarian relief in an impoverished and desolated land. and in 1992 i discovered what i trained to do for 20 years as an infantryman just wasn't working quitewell in this environment . my young sergeant, who were out doing what they did in diligence and handling it, working with tribal elders and leaders come back and said hey colonel, it's not about our maneuver here. this is about other things to help guarantee stability. and we talked about that and we got through that a bit but we knew then that the enemy presented a different face, operate with different tactics, gained its authoritythrough different means , mostly

intimidation and terror. lesson learned. did we pay attention to it? maybe, maybe not. some years later i was fortunate enough to be asked to go to egypt to meet the europe security coordinator with the egyptian armed forces. an assignment i absolutely resented then ends i still think it was one of the best assignments i ever held because it exposed me to understanding the importance of understanding those with you and you work that may not be just like you. important tour and important as the general indicated, helped create this mosaic that informed things that i later came to believe in as i moved along.

had the great opportunity to command the fourth infantry division, part of the pacific command area ofresponsibility , traveling all over the south asia region. again, being exposed tofolks who were not like me . not like me but learning. lessons learned. lessons learned. i told the general, he thought he gave my talk and information to the troops. it's about how you understand people. and how you build relationships and that will come forth again as i talk to. that asymmetrical threat we face in 1992, it was there, things were going on in the balkans and on september 11, 2001 as i sat in the pentagon

asthe vice director of operations on the joint staff , that threat became real in no uncertain terms. and i spent four days in that synagogue without leaving doing things that helped determine what our response would be to that devastating attack that would change all of us. to be sure, we were in a new era. lessons learned, we all got a crash course in it that day and wecontinue to receive it . that traditional enemy as we were trained to defeat as a military no longer existed. and maintaining security and protecting our national interests needed to occur more and not at the end of a rifle by delivering a main gun around

out of an abrams tank. by dropping a bomb from a b-1 or by firing a missile from a frigate. to be sure, that needed to be there . but more was required. more is required. i go to the balkans as the nato commander of the force in bosnia segovia in 2003. trying to establish stability, put things together so that there was what i called then a horizon of hope for people. that wasn't happening because i was a combat veteran, that was happening because i had paid

attention to otherthings in that environment that would make a difference . i worked in 2005 to be the united states security coordinator to the palestinian authority.these lessons continue to reinforce themselves. what is it that we are doing to help bring stability to an environment? this notion of security that i had been taught as a lieutenan , captain, colonel , as a young infantryman my first 20 years, was exposing to me it's limits with perspective to the total dimension of how we approach addressing this arc of instability.

i was very fortunate to have been selected to be the inaugural commander of africa command. i served in four of our nations geographic commands at that point. and during assignments. so this was going to be different if it was going to address challenges we faced and to be sure, in 2006 and2007 as we were discussing it , terrorism was well known to us all. we fought with most incidents that had led to us having it smacked right in our faces. because of what that young sergeant said to be on one of my trips in somalia in 1990 three, visiting him, i knew stability was more than just what we brought to this dynami .

what we brought was absolutely critical and he said to be sure, it needed more. and what was the more? what was the lesson? we talk about it today like it's been around forever. in 2007, we were talking about the importance of development. we were talking about the importance of understanding the society in which we were operating, knowing what was important to the people who lived there, where they were and doing things in a sustained way to address that but that they had a stake in their own stability because they had a horizon of hope. we were talking about that. you say why are you talking about? i'm talking about it because whenit doesn't happen, my soldiers , marines, sailors get called into harm's way to help

bring security and stability and i'd much rather not do that. to be sure, i'm prepared to do it. that's what my nation asked me to do. that's what i'm supposed to do as i went across the nation and in my minds eye, that ought to be our last resort to achieve the stability that we all desire in these global comments. as this condition continues, to move forward, it's even more imperative that those things that are associated with stability, defense to be sure but as was pointed out by professor alexander it's more than that. this economic horizon, this horizon that creates something for communities that exist in this vast area that we have

been talking about even id for i say this in islamic, out cara and as it was pointed out we were paying attention but conditions that spawn the creation of those sorts of activities still exist so how are we to address? what are the lessons learned? we have built great systems to deal with the securityaspect . intelligence fusion centers in cells, sustained engagement, combined and joint operations, to address threats, the use of our specialoperations forces, the use our conventional forces . i offer that same engagement is important across this arc of instability in other areas as well. what is our sustained

developmental engagement? what is our sustained diplomatic engagement? you will hear other members talk about the role of the various countries in north africa plays in helping to build security, what they are doing. i offer that some of it will be done by having better trained intelligence, better use an integrated intelligence, better sharing of intelligence, some of it will come by having better trained and efficient security forces be they national armedforces, be they police forces . much of it will come because the economic requirement, the developmental issues associated with living condition of folks in the area take a turn that will cause those who lived there to see for themselves a

horizon of hope where they are. where they are. who is responsibility is that? i offer that is our collective responsibility just as we took collective action to address it in a military perspective, that same collective action must be taken to address this kind of developmental perspective in this, that third d that we talk about today, some call it diplomacy. some call it democracy. it's about good governance. it's about good governance. to that end, what is our sustained level of engagement? just as we have to have sustained security engagement, we must have sustained developmental and diplomatic engagement. we must revoke some portion of our national treasure to that effort we don't bear that

burden alone as the united states of america. the global community bears it as a global community because the press is a global threat. but what have we don't to address the work that's being done by boko haram, by daesh who has now with boko haram caused that escalation to be seen inways never before realized ? as we move forward, as we look at programs, as we look at processes, this notion of sustained engagement for me comes home in this regard. i love our men and women who wear the uniform of our nation. i am who i am and where i am

because of this and i know that they as we are engaged globally not just because we are side-by-side fighting with them and to be sure we are prepared to do that but we are side-by-side engaging with them causing a dynamic to occur whereby there is mutual learning going on, understanding better, basing a different way and taking advantage to bring that stability to where they are. where they are. we can't be everywhere. but we must be somewhere. and this modern age of social media accelerates that, this notion of virtual reality is out there and we can do things virtually, you don't build a relationship virtually.

you build relationships becaus you are there . one of the best tools we have at our disposal is how we build relationships with our friends. because our common objective is realized as the inaugural commander of africa command, one of our main focuses priorities was to cause a level of sustained security engagement with our partners and friends across north afric , the sahara and sub-saharan africa. so they knew they could depend on just to be there that is now true in europe,in asia , the middle east, other places where us being a part of the dynamic to make stability across a range of activities will make a difference. rather than take a lot, rather

than take a lot but it takes something and where we dedicate resources and our greatest resource in my mind i are americans sons and daughters who willingly done the uniform of our nation to go forward and serve, we ought to take advantage.what are the lessons learned?they are many , they are very but they are at hand and as we work with partners around the globe, our ability to make a difference to address the arc of instability in ways beyond the force of arms ought to be a priority. and never backed away from that. but it ought not be our first resort of action. and as we supported in ways

that will make a difference, we will be able to us evaluate a horizon of hope such that neighborhoods, communities, nations, regions are doing more for themselves because of the support, cooperation, collaboration that's being received by the community of nations in their environment. let me close by saying this. we must present and cause our friends and allies and all those who enter are threatened by terrorism to present across the range of activity defense development diplomacy a scenario that causes those who

are impacted in these regions to see a horizon of hope so that they take estate and take action to address this threat. and while that's going on, we will continue to take those off the scene who are just bad actors. but that's not all that's required. the other pieces of the puzzle are also important and as we saw in the creation of africa, that in large measure has been adopted by other combatants and regional command, our engagement, our relationship , our understanding of what's important for people in those regions and then addressing it and addressing it in real ways, ways that are important to them where they are. that's going to make a difference. and i've seen that around the world.

from europe, to the middle eas , asia and africa. those are lessons of the soldier over a 40 year career and we didn't know a whole lot about much other than getting to know people understanding what was important to them, addressing in some way, however modest so that they then took steps to help create stability in the regions because that is in our national interests. thank you very much. [applause] >> are there some questions? >> that you. >> thank you very much senator

for your very profound insight and experiences, particularly working with the government. i'm sure we have many questions for you but if we may we would like to proceed with our colleague to make a brief statement about our own perspectives and then we have a few discussion. next russell, would youkindly go over there . yeah. ladies and gentlemen, first of all i'd like to take this opportunity to thank the organizers of this important event and thank you for hosting

me to speak on this important subject to all of us that terrorism that has affected all of our lives and combating terrorism is also personal matter to me as i lost members of my family and my friends who were brutally killed terrorists in my own city of benghazi in libya. i cannot agree more with the remark of general william. it's true that stabilizing and securing nations is the only way to have a sustainable defeat to terrorism and i think the world has, the international community has he supports week nations to leave security and to reach stability and that's the only way to have a sustainable defeat to terrorism. i was stopped by saying also

that terrorism is mainly tactic. and targeting terrorism onits own is not affected . we can for sure say that it's a phenomenon that is undermining our common humanity and is inherently global. and targeting it today is a vast and major work to do. the latest brutal terrorist attack in belgium, lahore and before that in tunisia remind us again and again with the urgent need for more efficient concerted international strategies to combat it. we need to broaden the way we think about this threat and take measures to prevent it from proliferating. terrorism no doubt is the

cancer of our age and no one and no country is immune from it or it what is most alarming in the present context is the rapid expansion of violent extremism, extremist ideologies in different parts of the worl , especially in the mina region and sub-saharan countries and there is no question about it. we need to cooperate on many levels to come back. and we need to learn from our past mistakes what worked and what didn't work. two the cancer of terrorism centers around the world and the need for an increasing number of specialists to deal with this problem, to defy to the seriousness of this issue and i'm sure we have among us here today excellent experts on the subject such as professor

fiona alexander who devoted a lot of his time as the director of the inter-university center for terrorism studies to this issue and i thank you for the value report that has been prepared today by the center. according to a recent un report published in december 2015, by our extremists have been able to recruit over 30,000 foreign terrorist fighters as i heard from him today and also from this report from over 100 member states. they were to travel to syria, afghanistan, yemen and libya. the same mentioned report as some counterterrorism measures that is requiring a more comprehensive approach which encompasses not only ongoing

essential security based counterterrorism but also systematic preventative measures which directly address the drivers of violent extremism that have given rise to the emergence of these new groups. i agree with the conclusion of the report that it makes a lot of sense because in my humble opinion, we need to pay enough attention to why individuals are attracted to violent extremist groups. i'm also convinced that the creation of open equitable, inclusive and pluralist societies based on the full respect of human rights and economic opportunities for all would present the most tangible and most meaningful alternative to violent extremism and the

most promising strategy for rendering it unattractive. we will not be successful unless we can harness the idealism, creativity and energy of young people and others who feel disenfranchised. young people in our society in particular constitute the majority of the population of an increasing and also in an increasing number of countries in the region. and those young people must be viewed as an and must be empowered to make constructive contributions to the political and economic development of our society of nations. they will present an untapped resource and we must offer them a positive vision of the future together with a genuine chance to rely their aspirations and

potential. recent history has shown in our region and especially in libya that while a tired security situation and conflict tends to be further exasperated by civil conflict and proxy wars that deepen the crisis and increase the suffering. it's also critical that in responding to this threat we recognize that violent extremism aims at provoking states into overreacting and then exploit ill-conceived government actions for their own propaganda ends. in the case of libya, where we see political and economic fragmentation, daesh and i suppose it's called isis in some other parts and other terrorists and criminal groups

came into being and took advantage of this security vacuum to occupy a whole strategic coastal city and undermining what's left of libya's state and succeeded in recruiting a large number of foreign fighters who came in big waves across our and controlled borders. we do not know the exact numbers of those fighters but intelligence assessments state that they are between 5000 and 7000 fighters but it's not know that the number is on the increase, especially after what isis has suffered in syria and iraq. libya in general and libyan society is not hospitable to daesh. libyan culture and religious

despised extremism.throughout our history the libyan people are moderate in nature and that applies to the islamic constitutions as well. however, the proliferating economic situation in my country may send increasing number of desperate libyan youth vulnerable to the recruitment to these radical groups. the lack of social economic opportunities and marginalization gives addition to the failed state and poor governance we had during the past couple of years since our revolution those real challenges for any future good governance in libya. again, it's critical to recognize that violent extremism tends to thrive in an environment that is characterized by complex poor

governance, democracy deficits and corruption and unfortunately we have all of these diseases in libya today and in addition to that, the prolonged end result of political conflict in the country makes it difficult to counter crisis and, with an effective strategy. i must also mention that it's not only isis that we have in libya. there are other terrorist groups and there is competition between them and we seen the relationship between them part of the country to the other preventing on the society. the different social structures and different parts of the country that is.violent extremist groups in libya cynically distort and exploit religious beliefs, ethnic differences, distortion and misuse of religion serve only

to divide our nation today our culture and our people and undermining the very existence of the libyan nation but i would like to mention that many of these radical elements came from outside libya itself. recent developments in different cities in libya such as the product demonstrate that these groups cannot be rooted in the country but it's important to add that isis and other terrorist groups have different makeups and different parts of libya as i just mentioned. in each area they take advantage of the social problems present in the area. nonetheless we should recognize that all of them are symptoms of a disease. and this is so important to remember. a lot of people think that what's happening in libya is a

result of the terrorism there but actually, terrorism is just a symptom of the disease that has happened to libya. and it's again, terrorism i must mention is merely. targeting terrorism on its own is ineffective and we need to go beyond that. there are credible reports suggesting that boko haram is collected with isis in libya as well and the implications of this could be devastating to the whole region but the spillover to reach also and has reached to europe and the us itself and as one distinguished american general suggested, and i fully agree with him, he said our strategy should create a firewall between the two groups to prevent the spread of this cancer in the area and beyond. the islamic state for the so-called islamic state in

libya is no longer a matter of a few scattered roots. it's an increasingly organized entity entrenched in a country with large government spaces and in this context, in this context i would like to emphasize that libya is a unique place geographically and strategically and should be seen in that way. if we contain and defeat libya we can defeat in north africa and the sub-saharan region and i'm sure we will. thank you so much. [applause] >> the next is a chair commission from tunisia .

mister mike moody? good morning everybody. i am thanking professor alexander and the institute for policy studies for this opportunity.to talk to you about this topic which as everybody agrees is a global issue that is affecting the whole world and every single day we are having proof of that. no country is safe from this threat. i chose not to overload this presentation which will be brief with facts and figures and stuff like that because all

this is available to everybody over the internet and the news and the media as well. i chose just to have an opportunity in experiencing that regard and while we are coming from, where we are now and where we would like to go actually along with obviously in our context and the regional context and global context of the world in general, we belong with our partners and friends and the like. just a few words on the tunisian background. tunisia is a country with more than 3000 years of history, tunisia has been throughout centuries reciprocal to many civilizations brought about by different people's. from diverse origins who had been coming, actually as

invaders and occupiers but who had ended up settling on the land and in so doing they integrated the population and bringing their ownculture background . so just to mention a few of those so-called invaders, romans, vandals, spanish, french and so on and so forth. all those came to settle in tunisia. they have all left their imprint on obviously and when i spoke of receptacle of civilizations,this is what i meant . religion wise, jews, christians and muslims have coexisted for centuries in tunisia as well and side-by-side, and

culturally very close to each other to the point that the cultures make up a mixture of a new culture, a new identity. hence the diverse city, the openness, the progress that are part of our very heritage and it's actually in our genes that this has grown. now, what on earth, you say what on earth could glean such a country like tunisia to be one of the leading providers of terrorists in this context? we know that well, people say three, four, five or 6000 of the so-called jihadists are tunisians. it's a mouse to a very obvious context and general ward just mentioned good governance.

actually if you want to sum up the origin of all that, that governments or the lack or absence of good governance, tunisia has gone through a spell of terror regime so life of political freedoms, diverse types of liberties which were not accessible to the population, the growing social divide and an even regional development scheme and people so social economic growth, a series of governance mistakes, all these have ended up in certain situations that create afterwards to the appearance of extremism that we will see later on. so the totalitarian drift and

all the collateral damages had turned out to lead to unrest and actually to revolt. in a situation of despair obviously religion offered a soothing, attractive refuge and the more desperate young peopl , we are talking especially about the young people, these young people were more prone to sink into extremism out of despair, out of frustration because of the lack of employment and social economic problems. so hence the appearance of those islamist movements which read actually in the arab world in general and more or less the same context in the whole region and in the middle east

and north africa obviously. and turn later on into political trends coming to present a credible alternative to authoritarian aggressive regimes in one case. the vacuum created by the totalitarian regimes was naturally to be filled by religion with a tendency to radicalization and it's there that it starts. when we start radicalizing then, we get into the process of extremism and end up in terrorist activities. with the 2011 upheaval and the ousting of the denali regime, the tunisian people opened their way to democracy and freedoms of all sorts, at all levels. nevertheless in so doing, in

the process the state parents is suffered a blow. do in fact to the mistrust, the mistrust left over by the outgoing regime. this mistrust generated an acute weakness of the front of an aggressive public opinion, so fond of the nearly acquired freedoms and liberties and the strong belief in their ability to establish the rule of the people by the people. that was the impression and that was the main objective. so from the totalitarianism, tunisia admit to a crisis of authority. some in profusion of political politics, hundreds of them, hundreds not to say thousands

of ngos, media , filled up the place all of a sudden. there was four or five media that were active and now all of a sudden we have tens and dozens and maybe hundreds of them active , all of them though separating against the ruler, whoever this may be . and this with the background that there's a risk of told totalitarian relapse again to go back to square one. it is indeed the consequences of democratic turmoil that extremist groups found their way to penetrate not only in the tunisian territory but also the infamous trade players of the society, all sorts of activities like armed smuggling, recruiting among the desperate youth who did not see solutions to their very

provenance, to their frustration, were not seeing all of a sudden that they were hoping that with this change of regime that there would be offered jobs straightaway and they would improve their social situation and so on. this was very slow to happen. or maybe not happening at all in some stage. so and then at that stage, all sorts of opportunities as we said like arms smuggling, recruiting among, establishing and running training camps on tunisian territory were evolving without the state apparently being able to prevent them. because they were simply

overwhelmed by so many other problems, by social unrest, pressures from the union, by political strife, by all sorts of issues that definitely were overwhelming and could not allow the state to be ready to face certain threats. just a reminder of the facts over the last year 2015, for major terrorist attacks, isis claimed responsibility for three of them and that attack against the bond and museum with 22 victims, it's the tourist resort in a hotel actually, 38 victims. the presidential guard bus, 12 victims and the latest knew of its kind attack against the city of buzz and south of

tunisia adjacent to the libyan border. in which 13 security forces were killed and sevencivilians . 49 among the terrorists were killed in the same operation so as i said, a new in-kind meaning that for the first time in the succession of events apart from the isolated acts or very specific targeted terrorist attacks, this one was meant to establish a stronghold of what we call the islamic faith in tunisia so they were attacking this small city to establish what they call and him are and to start off what they did in iraq and in syria

and so on. commenting on, when you see the over all situation it is actually an astronomical war we are confronted with. the security forces and army are fighting an unconventional enemy with conventional means so this is why also apart from the overwhelming social economic situation and problems it is also a problem for even the security forces who were never trained to befacing such an enemy . so a new doctrine had to be instated to frame the strategy in this war against terrorism. the strategy is based actually on four pillars that preventio

, protection, and response. a whole set of reforms is currently underway to optimize and implement the counterterrorism strategy with the number of challenges on the ground like interagency coordination which is very complicated and the us have gone through that after 9/11 with, they had to overhaul the whole system in establishing a legal framework which is also problematic because in making legislation to combat terroris , you have to take special care less one would compromise on liberty which in the case of tunisia, very recently and nearly acquired so everyone is very careful and very sensitive

as far as the sort of laws combating terrorism sometimes they would definitely overlap with other laws on freedom of opinion and so on. so the main goals in all this is to reinstate the authority of the state, to improving security governance, establish a sound strategy involving national and international actors, and establishing an articulate social economic development strategy to bridge the gaps and restore economy. now, is sort of concluding remarks on all this general context, terrorism is definitely a global threat

toward peace and security so the fight against terrorism has to be global. has to meet for a globally well coordinated multidimensional strategy such a strategy would never be successful if it is not based on a mutual understanding as for the needs and thespecificity of each and every partner in the struggle . and if you look at tunisia, tunisia is considered to be a beacon of hope for the success of the democratization processor process in the region and an experience that our fathers like to consider as a model even though we firmly believe that there is no regulated recipes for democratization and the property itself is a very relative concept to be implemented and has to take into consideration the

particular country specificities like historical background, culture and so on. now this model is under severe threat meaning tunisia and is under serious threat and it is in the global interest that we come to terms with the stress and continue on the path to success. it's a process necessary that extremism and terrorism are alien phenomena for tunisians. the recent events of that i talked about, which i mentioned earlier and the first of the kind defeat ever inflicted to the so-called islamic state are nothing but the stall on the substance of the tunisian identity in thatregard .

the reaction was that we would see not only the security forces but populations fighting without weapons, without arms, without anything, chasing those terrorists all over the place. so to sum it all up, in failure to set up the right dates of corporation in diverse fields between tunisia and international partners could lead us to waste an opportunity to promote the inclusive model of governance based on social justice. economic opportunity and security so again, this has to do to what i stated earlier that the threat is utterly global and so must be the response but being global it needs to be extremely well coordinated so that it's not

ready-made recipes again but it takes into consideration different aspects and different specifics of every and each partner in this war. thank you very much. [applause] >> abdul from egypt? >> let me also start by thanking the atomic constituent and in particular ceo and treatment mahmoudi for organizing this event and special thanks goes to the professor who puts a lot of effort and thinking in guiding this to discuss this issue. and i think i should say also that the remarks i'm going to make represent only myself and not necessarily my country.

when i received the invitation for this event, i like very much the notion of lessons learned. we the international community have been fighting terrorism for years and years and it's important sometime to how pause and rethink and reconsider what went wrong, what went well and try to draw lessons in order regional and international cooperation is a much until you

must. very glad general awarded use the term collective. this is exactly the lessons we've learned in fighting terrorists. four days ago egypt hosted 27th defense ministers from the region in egypt. and that topic on the table was how to cooperate better, how to cordon a better, how to share information in order to fight terrorism in their respective countries. two days ago saudi arabia also hosted a meeting for chiefs of staff from selected islamic countries in order to discuss the same issue. how to coordinate better in order to fight terrorism. but, in fact, this is not a lesson learned in the middle east or in africa alone. think about what happened in brussels last week.

tragic events. the eu court nation for characters and said that only five countries out of the whole members of the eu are really, really sharing information, open-source information and classified information that is needed in order to fight terrorists effectively. so it's a necessity also from the eu level. think globally. why the member states of the anti-isis coalition is going to reach 66 countries right now. it's because countries are realizing more and more that they cannot fight terrorists on their own. lesson number two, and i think general may explain this better than me because i am post civilian. our armed forces are designed, structured and trained to fight

conventional wars, but this fight against terrorism is a nonconventional war. what you, the u.s. has learned in afghanistan after 9/11 is exactly what we are trying to learn right now, our region. and here comes the lesson that we should not start from scratch. we should not reinvent the wheel. we should start from where you ended, and here comes the idea of sharing experience. does it require new training methods for our armed forces? of course, yes. does it require new weaponry systems? yes, of course. new structure a new command and control? i think yes. these are questions that needs to be post. lesson number three has to do

with planning. and this is not me speaking actually. when i discussed the matter with the military officers fighting terrorism on a daily basis, they tell me that we used to say that military planning needs a lot of expedientexperience. so it's for generals to plant and for young officers to execute these plants. we have learned from fighting terrorists that it should be the other way around. it shouldn't be a top down process. top down process. it should be a bottom up process. those young officers who are fighting terrorists on a daily basis have the know-how, the experience, that terrorist tactics on a daily basis so they can feed the planning process very well. the lessons they have learned on the battlefield that if we keep the planning process in the

capital in air-conditioned rooms, we will lose this fight. lesson number four, professor yonah alexander mentioned a number of isis fighters, 35-40,000 fighters, and like 10 to 15,000 in boko haram, and seven to eight in al-shabaab, somalia, and others in television. you reach like 70 or 80,000 fighters, terrorists. the question is how did terrorist organizations were able to recruit these huge numbers? the answer is simple. they had used to tools. first, very attractive narratives. number two, they reach out to young people through effective use of social media.

and in order, that this is the lesson, in order to fight terrorism effectively, with you to develop a counter narrative to the narrative of isil, shabaab, isil and boko haram. and it comes the importance of religious institutions like in tunisia, i can egypt and elsewhere. and comes also the importance of reaching out to those young people. if twitter and facebook will help us reach out to them, we should use them. if local leaders can help us reach out, we should use them. if local languages will help us, we should use there. i remember a very good experience that after egypt have developed a lot of counter narratives and counter thought was to what was i was listening and what boko haram was doing, we collected them in a book and we translated into a very locally which in nigeria element to the very remote villages in

schools and mosques in which reach out to the people and it proved to be very effective. lesson number five, development. if we're going to have the tools in the sahel countries in africa and visit the towns and villages where boko haram were very effective in recruiting people, it would be very easy for us to recognize that those are deprived young people and unemployed. so it has to do with the development. that's why, allocate 10 billion egyptian pounds in order to create jobs and build schools and hospitals for those young people. creating help is important and this has to do also with the good governance aspect general

ward mention in his opening remarks. lesson number six, technology. and this is always a forgotten to mention in our discussion. think of a country like libya with long borders with egypt come with tunisia come with chad and other countries. how can a country like this fight across the border terrorists? neither country can afford using traditional ways to secure these borders, meaning to deploy one attack every single kilometer. they cannot afford to do the egypt cannot afford to do. tunisia cannot afford to do it took but if we have the high-tech equipment we can do it. and here comes the question, whether the developed countries

already to provide the underdeveloped countries with this high-tech equipment's or not. it's not only related to securing borders. it also relates to the tactics of fighters. i'll tell you a story. the international coalition were able to liberate singe our, ramadi -- sinjar, and to create flash only. but look what isil did before we go from these three major cities. they left a lot of mines and ieds behind them in order to prohibit the refugees and others to return back to their homes and towns to the iraqi government is facing a lot of challenges cleaning and clearing these minefields. they need a lot of high-tech equipment once again. this is the reputed source of an

iraq but syria and libya and elsewhere. so once more it's up to developed country could is whether they are ready to provide this high-tech equipment or not. lesson number seven, sectarianism. and this also was mentioned by professor yonah alexander. the fact is the sunni victims of isis is more than the shia victims, then the christian victims and the yazidi victims. not ever be deceived by the narrative of sectarian rift or sectarian violence. it's political conflict at the end of the day. those people are using religion, are using sects, using companies using this narrative in order to

relieve political. it's not about religion. it's not about different sects. let me conclude by a question. of those seven issues complex and that we the international community have already learned, those are lessons that we should learn. i think we should come back to this question in the q&a. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much. professor from morocco, please. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i want to tell you that i am

very happy to be here. thank you for giving me this opportunity. it's very difficult to be the last speaker, and i will try to be brief and share with you some reflections about this topic. we have learned a lot about lessons, and in my country, morocco has been victim of this terrorist attack, first one was in may, in casablanca in ma may 2003. since this time we learn a lot of lessons, and we learned, we listened. and since this time we start practically with a strategy, multidimensional strategy.

the moroccan approach today, we can say that we are in front of some sectists experience. without, first of all, this strategy, we are on three pillars. the first pillar was good governance. and security, good governance. of course, we are facing a similar war, and we have to deal with this. so our security services have to adapt on what we did before.

and the first and very important state was how we can bring all the democratization services to have deep, deeper cooperation. so the first state was we enter cooperation between security services. and we had to give to this security services more capability. and more, of course, training. and we can see that we have today very good experience, and we know more about these groups, how they deal, how they recruit, when they can find the funding and what kind of organizations

they have. the second pillar, imagine the religious spectrum, and imagine religious spectrum, we had, first of all, to start training immense and open this mission to women. and i can say that this experience in whole arab world and islamic world is really important. because we know, all of us, the role, the important role of the women in our society. bring them to this, to the mosques and give them training and give them the opportunity to

act as -- [inaudible] -- but you can see exactly as the imam in some cases. this experience of extreme imam, objective, was to bring the imam to play the role. and the role of imam must be fresh. it was the opportunity for us to get the role for the others who use mosques as a space to give violent and extremist speech and political speech, too. of course it, in this express today we share with a lot of

other countries, in africa, in arab world and in europe. we start to train somebody -- some imam from france, from other european countries are asking morocco to share with them this experience. with mali, with ivory coast, with the guinea and with other countries. the third pillar, and as all my friends say before, that we have to go to this human development. and, of course, to being your of all the needs -- to be near of

all the needs in the poor areas, the social and economic deficits in some areas. for this strategy of human development, give today very important results and very good results. we can see that this strategy today give to morocco the opportunity to face these groups. and as you can observe in this strategy, we have one pillar you can see, what you can, that we are working on the short term, is the governance security

pillar. and the two others, how we can work on the long-term. but facing terrorism from morocco, it's a very big challenge, but in the same time the aim of this strategy is how we can fight terrorism and continue to build democracy. how we can fight off this extremism, but in the same time how we can repeat what the choice, since more than one decade. our goal to be state and to build democracy. it gives us today a lot of

element that come in this context, regional context, we can continue, as you know, morocco is, i would say it, the oldest state in all the region. and the moroccan political system, the monarchy is one of the old monarchy in all the world. our political system, our state and morocco is there a sense 788. -- is their sense -- so we deal with morocco we have to keep in our mind that this state has very deep and long story. because of that we have a very good, the state have a very good

control of all the national territory. and very important proximity from the citizens. and in the same time, we have the chance that taking -- the team is not part of the political game. so all the moroccans have the most important confidence on the king and on the monarchy. so we can have the feeling that they have when my brother, and the one who would be the last institution on which they can of course ask some reassurance. the new context today is completely different in our region from the first bombing in

casablanca in 2003. now we have to face new emergent threat, and i think that in the moroccan strategy, first of all, we have all those nonstate violent actors in this region, malicious, rebellious groups, separatist groups, terrorist groups, criminal groups, and so. and, of course, our friend from libya talked about some groups, can see only in libya we have nearly 300 malicious, military groups. and when you go it will be to this arc of sahel and soap

opera, all these -- and so harrop. all these terrorist groups dealing with all the terrorists and link it today to all these terrorist groups. and the transnational organized crime. for this reason i think that the moroccan approach take, on this time, on one hand, and as the major goal of terrorism, and the terrorist groups, we have certainly daesh as you say, but we still have -- and we can observe at this time that it is acting in both of african countries in mali, in ivory

coast and others. we still have today very bad and important activity of, as my friend would say, boko haram. we talk less maybe about boko haram, but it's one of very bad groups. and al-shabaab. the second point when we focus on the terrorist groups in the moroccan approach, we never put the transnational organized crime. we have in this region very important activity. and what we learn that today, and i will be, i'm realistic. i'm not optimistic, not pessimistic, but just realistic.

we are moving for more instability and surgeons, and the future in this region is with a lot of uncertainty. so we have to chance, and in our region we have to do our homework. and we must move out just to put some concepts, but to have some real strategy, and to act all fast as responsible states. unfortunately we still have some kind of thinking in this region, and we still have some dreams and some kind of people role in this region. it will bring more disaster your

and we still have some people, bad information, bad informant or non-conformant come in with some proposal or solution, and it will be a disaster. i think that today we know that we have to come it will before us, the foreign fighters. we have 1500 moroccan foreign fighters and syria and iraq. 495 was killed, 217 returns from morocco, but we have 1000 from algeria, and we have 5200 from tunisia. and i can move around.

if we go just to the north, we will have 1700 from france, fighters coming from france, and we have 815 in belgium, 415 from germany, 500 from uk. even sweden, 150. i can go over out a lot of countries, because what we know today that daesh, and this is for the first time, a terrorist group had this important member of foreign fighters, and the number today is around 45,000 foreign fighters. what we observed last month, that more than 4000 are dead from syria and iraq to libya.

we know also that a lot of young people from the region who have opportunity to move to syria and iraq, and now to libya, are still in. they have today the capability. they have all what they need as many, and they have weapons. so how we can face this global enemy with only national policies? it will be very difficult. we are facing a global enemy. we need global responses, and we need global strategy.

the second element, transnational organized crime, and i think that this issue, we talk less about drug trafficking, and i remember that general, we had one years ago very important program about these issues. today, 185 tons from cocaine arrived every year to the western of africa and sahel region. it represents 25% from the international markets of cocaine and the needs of the european

market from cocaine come from there. 32% from the city. one kilo of cocaine today and sahel, we can sell it at 24,000 euros. you cannot serve that there is no place for other drugs, soft drugs, cannabis or others, nothing around here the second element is the proliferation of weapons. one of the consequences of the libya wars was that today we have a lot of open markets in

this region of sahel. more than 10 years ago you could do, you could buy one ak-47 from chinese origin around $75. you can have today into sahel, ak-47 one stock russian for less than $55. and this proliferation of weapons of not only small arms, but we know that a lot of missiles are they are, especially some seven and other kinds of missiles. so it's a very, very big concern, and we know today that

all these groups are working together, cooperating together and using all what they control as zones and, of course, roads. we know american captives today are very, established in the sahel and so harrop. we know that we have opportunity find somewhere in the south east of nigeria. some groups were speaking spanish. to use them as guides and to use them in this illegal activity. we know also that this illegal immigration and smuggling, human

smuggling, is very, very important activity. and a terrorist groups use this tragedy, human tragedy on their goals. for this and for the third, last point in the moroccan strategy is that we believe that we need the international cooperation. morocco is open to this, sharing information, sharing intelligence. there has been other countries. we had examples with france after the attacks in paris. in belgium after and before brussels, and a lot was spent with the spanish government, with a lot of, even with ivory

coast today and a lot of other countries. but we believe that we need to build our own regional strategy. and not to have external intervention in the region. it will be back response and that solution. but at the same time knowing how homework, knowing how we can cooperate in this region. if you still have come and we have all the time, we are happy to share that the borders are closed. you have example between close border between morocco and nigeria your they can give you the idea that no way to cooperate against this enemy.

a decision i think that we need today to act as responsible state, and to move out a lot of paradigm coming from one other history and other area. we have to build the future, and the future, will be either all of us saved or all of us victims. ..

thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. we will try to open up for the general panelists. please identify yourself. yes, sir. >> my question is for general ward. on the security and counterterrorism efforts, how could the u.s. and the international community deal with the government government e political exclusion, economic and corruption? >> i think based on my experience and what i see as a way ahead, i talked about how we cooperate and many of our security from intelligence

centers themselves to collective training events to the activities to address these specific threats. you heard the comment made by the colleagues with respect to the tactics to address the bad actors on the scene and we had to do that. and i think we must devote resources to do that. at the same time, to address it over time to do those things that are required to get at the root cause of why these are allowed to exist, we must do more. and so therefore, the ones i talked to him t to sustain the governmental engagement, those are the things that likewise in my minds eye off to have the same priority if you will in a

collectively acollective way as. it's not the u.s. required to do that. i believe it is a requirement of the world of the nation to participate in the activities that provide an understanding of the area the activities are to exist in and it does things that are commensurate and needed by the population, not from our perspective but from the perspective of those that are there. and then based on that, the deliberate activities that would address these things and i use the term that will provide this horizon of hope. it won't be perfect but it will go a long way to address the conditions that underline the correcpositions that breed these things because both are in despair. it's a long investment and it won't happen overnight.

we've got to be persistent and focused and remained to it over time. >> i have a question on eventually many of these fighters that will return with combat experience. what strategy was to manage to deal with the returning nationalists? >> thank you for that question. it's one of the major issues that we have to deal with

because they are already there. so definitely it is a strategy that needs to be implemented and as i said in the remarks it is kind of a tricky situation. it's sensitive because we have to deal with those people and give them a special treatment to avoid any further activities and so on th but the issue is also o preserve. it is rather difficult so definitely there is a special

strategy for that and we are trying to frame and they would be funneled closely to avoid any relapses or any sort of activities. so but again, it is still a difficult approach and the situation that we have to face. we had this vacuum and now of course they are back in prison

and of course we have to respect the law. [inaudible] but today it's what we can have of course to be treated as criminals. general, your appeal for having this comprehensive approach in the development really is something we can fully support.

it is a policy in my country we do it and also at the secretary level we have the pre- minister and the ministry of development, the ministry of foreign affairs to talk on a weekly basis. we operate that way in principle but my question is the following. when we do this it takes a long stamina for our societies because here we are in the present societies with quick action to receive the results today and not in a year and my question is could you elaborate i think that is overlooked between the two havbutwe need tc communication and strategic stamina. how do we do to keep support in our societies for these very long-term approach is? because we all know that the development doesn't happen overnight.

>> that is a great question and a great point. thanks to your office as well. i'm aware of what goes on having worked in your forces into these endeavors and the importance of it. >> it would include the people in the countries that would go on. it's made it to be understood. to provide the barriers wit it o longer the case.

those things impact on neighborhoods and it doesn't matter if it is in america or europe or asia because of the global commons and where we are with technology, transportation, markets, access to resources and all those things that advantage the populations globally and have to be built to sell a product to receive the product.

if my neighbor in michigan knew that. we could give up on promoting that narrative. he turned around and looked at his infantry. we have to use any means we have

to continue to move forward even in the face of those that don't want to hear it. they fall away from delivering it. once again we are out of time and i've been asked to speak. thank you for being with us today. it's been very informative. thank you to the panelists alike and i would say just in passing we need a global strategy.

iat last be adapted along the way. to then turn and make it happen. >> one word that hasn't been mentioned that is crucial and that's education. we've got to educate in america and the free world as we know it today. what this idea is all about and what he had really means, so we have to go back centuries and study the history of what this means. we understand how it works and when you analyze it it can mean different things to different people and above all it can lead to understand also how these words have changed. it has changed now and it

changed in the beginning of the 20th century in the light and it has to now with concrete. do we want to remain free? and to remain in the free world they really need security right now. that's what we have to be able to provide us with is a complicated issue. thank you. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] today at 7 p.m. eastern with the abuse of prescription drugs and heroine on the rise look at the handling of the issue from the health experts, former addicts and the u.s. senate including the comments from president obama and presidential candidates ted cruz. >> it's not going to be

washington, d.c. that steps in to solve these problems. it's going to be the church is how charities, loved ones, treatment centers. people working to help those struggle to overcome their addiction. it's a disease. we released the first national drug control strategy and we followed that up in 2011 with the prescription drug abuse prevention plan and we are implementing the plans and partnering for communities to prevent the drug use. with the white house and republicans over the next supreme court justice we look at

the leaders have said in the past concerning the nominating and the confirmation process of individuals to the supreme court. >> in my view, confirmation hearings no matter how long, how fruitful and how thorough can alone provide a sufficient basis for determining if a nominee merits a seat on the supreme court. >> a thoughtful senator should realize that any benefits of barring the ideological component from the court are not likely to outweigh the damage done to the courts institutional standard. the ideological opposition to the nominee at the one end of the political spectrum is likely to help generate similar opposition to the later nominations from the opposite end those are some of the programs featured this week on c-span. >> the supreme court nominee

continued meeting with senators today. the reporter sent this picture of senator al franken saying that he found the process on. also, alex sent a message of meeting number ten for the nominee judge garland with the senator. senator mark kirk became the first republican to meet. how disappointed are you that your leadership.

getting to know my own constituents. we are going to go to respond just after a couple of quick questions. could this influence some of your republican colleagues and what would be needed? the constitutional process nominated by the president in the united states to fill the te seats that we know exists on the court that we need an open-minded actual response to

a. that you had mentioned that you want your senate colleagues to man up. what specifically do you want to do now so that it isn't just for nothing? >> it shouldn't be just for nothing but we should have a long discussion about the key issues before the court with the eminent jurists of the country when it is really something else for the judge's mind that has been told it's the chance to discuss what's going on for the nominee of the supreme court and the key issues. one of the issues is by statute as the judge garland knows we've

had 32 shootings in chicago this easter weekend and for me to attack those from chicago. >> [inaudible] i understand that the republicans are getting with judge garland and leading by example and showing what a rational and responsible guy would do for the constitutional process to go forward.

[inaudible] single file. speak to >> thanks for coming. that would be lovely. thank you. [inaudible conversations]

met with senator mark kirk yesterday. "the new york times" reports that he is among 16 republican senators who now say that they will hold courtesy meetings with the nominee despite a vow by the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell not to hold meetings. the story goes on to say senator kirk is up for the reelection in the state of illinois and is one of the most endangered incumbent republicans this year. >> tonight on c-span the supreme court cases that shaped the history come to life with the

series landmark cases come historic supreme court decisions. our 12 part series examines the stories and constitutional drama behind some of the most significant decisions in history. >> john marshall in marbury versus madison is a political document that sets up the political structures. it's also the law and if it's the law we have the courts to tell what it means and that is fine and the other branches. >> the fact that it's the ultimate case is exactly what you don't want to do. >> who should make the decisions about the debate and the supreme court said it should make the decisions about the debate. >> tonight we look at the case that limited the citizenship guaranteed by the newly enacted 14th amendment only those rights explicitly spelled out in the constitution. the slaughterhouse cases. >> the deputy chair of the

people's freedom party in russia talked about political opposition under vladimir putin. he also touched on the political climate in chechnya. he believes it has become an ideal environment for the recruiters. hosted by the council this is about 90 minutes. >> welcome to the atlantic council. i am the deputy director of the center here at the atlantic council. i'm delighted you can join us here today for this important presentation of the report titled a threat to national security. i'd really like to extend a particular welcome to all of those joining around the world and especially in russia do you live broadcast. i encourage everyone to join the conversation at twitter using the handle #asrussia. it is a welcome to honor illyeah

here today, a liberal politician who joins us here today from moscow. he's a deputy chairman of the people's freedom party among us which is led until his death last year.