of the complexity of the task we have here. i want to get us into the rest of the morning. again, thank you all for being here. thank you to the alliance for peace building for putting this on. a man who need no, sir introduction, ambassador dick solomon. >> well, i was preempted a little bit by some of rob's intrope ducktory remark-- intro. we see this building as a community resource. i tell that to all of our friends and skeptics in congress. we hosted not too long ago the 50th anniversary of the congressional black caucus. i keep telling people do more events here and i could give you a fairly impressive list of

other folks in congress since they paid for about two-thirds of this building project, i keep saying to them use the facility. and i think they're getting the message. but for many of our friends, collaborators and the work that we do, we're just delighted we are able to host events like the one we're doing today. and we owe a special debt to the alliance for peace building and its many agents and spies working up on the hill, et cetera, who have made a major contribution as we, the institute, have gone through a very challenging year. i don't know need to go into gory detail but i think you're aware that this past year there were efforts to not just eliminate our budget but to eliminate our charter. and we all spent a lot of time

working with our friends from several organizations making sure that people on the hill understood the value of our work. as i'll comment in a couple of minutes on some detail, one of our biggest supporting communities has been the military, that they understand full well the value of what we do. so we came out of the trials of the 2012 budget process, i think, in a stronger position and without going into detail we just had a very reassuring development to come out of the house appropriation process for the coming year for the 2013 budget, which indicates the measure of support that we do have, not just in the senate, which has been the core of our traditional support. as you know, we were really a

senate creation and at key points our supporters in that body have come to our rescue but very much this past year. so again, we are deeply indebted to the align and delighted that we're here to collaborate today. managing complexity, i don't want to cut into rick barton's time but let me say a few words about that concept. if we can step back from the daily headlines and specifics of our work, we're living at a r r rear -- remarkable break point in history. i have enough gray hair to say where the dramatics of conflicts

have changed remarkably. this country remarkably overnight with the start of world war ii went from the isolationism of the 1930s to involvement in a major way in the course of the great conflict of world war ii. that was a break point that's remarkable because overnight we switched gears, went into industrialized warfare, built a major international coalition and prevailed in what looks like a short war for four years. the second major break point, of course, was the onset of the cold war. and what's important to know about that experience is it took us over 15 years to figure out how to deal with the soviet challenge, from the sub version of czechoslovakia through the cuban missile crisis, we were

trying to figure out, you know, what was the way to respond to a very complex environment of political subversion, new weaponry and a very determined adversary. as you know, we came out of that period with deterrence, containment as concepts that guided us through the cold war. the good lord willing we prevailed and came out not with a bang but a whimper. only a couple years later, the first attack on the world trade center in '93 and then of course the big attack on 9/11. i think we're in a period where given the theme of complexity

we're struggling, all the agencies of our government and all the countries around the world trying to figure out the character of conflict today and how to deal with it. now, rob, i'm not going to get on and do a debate right now but rob stressed the issue of, you know, is war the current norm. i'm thinking of steven pinker's new book which says, hey, if you look at world history the use of violence in warfare has declined significantly. it may be that what i personally view as a strategic blunder of the intervention into iraq in 2003 was really the last time we will see this kind of warfare barring some surprise and of course the world is full of surprises. but we are in a period where we

are still trying to figure out how to deal with not the kind of conflicts that we dealt with state to state confrontations or conflicts that required major military interventions but a much more complex environment that ranks from the kind of terrorism or the security challenges that we face from an organization like al qaeda to the great challenge and concern with issues of nuclear proliferation. so it is a major period where this group and the work of the institute are trying to figure out what is the right mix of responses. part of the responses are understanding the character of conflict today and it's not just imperial minded nation states as we all know. it's a much more complicated environment.

and we're looking at concepts, trying to come out with best practices, understanding what the issue of rightness is, as it gives opportunities for negotiating settlements. the requirements of building coalitions today in a very different international environment. but it is also the challenge of bureaucratic complexity and one of the points that we're all well aware of is the need to break the traditional stovepipes or sort of isolated activities of the different big agencies of not only our government but others where the collaboration among the various agencies that would be required to deal with a situation are proving to be a real challenge.

now, i see real changes just in the agencies of government that we deal with and just two or three recent examples. a couple years ago the chief of naval operations called me, and said we have these disaster relief operations, they're very important for our access around the world, building friendships and collaborative relationships. will you, the institute of peace, help us establish a working relationship with the ngo community because we need their humanitarian assistance activities, capabilities and we can provide the transport, the communications, the security environment. but a situation where they are reluctant to collaborate with us. so we got those folks together with the navy, they ended up negotiating a protocol for their interactions which would preserve the operational

requirements of both sides and it is i think attributed to our military's ability to conduct humanitarian assistance operations. earlier this week i had dinner with a very senior military official who had commanded a combat brigade in iraq. it worked with our people who had helped negotiate some of the local tribal conflicts that required his troops to remain in a certain area. this senior officer was taking casualties and our contribution in helping through political means to resolve local conflicts meant that his casualties went down to zero. he was able to redeploy his troops and out of that has come a recognition in more than one

senior military officer of the value of collaborating with the institute and other agencies. the senior officer is talking about the need for prevention. he emphasizes a need to understand what he calls the human domain of the conflict environment. that is, the culture -- the political dynamics of the communities in which his soldiers might be deployed. several years ago the state department asked the institute to help mediate between the philippine government and a muslim insurgent group and our regretly recently deceased colleague gene martin did a remarkable job of bringing up to the edge of a very important agreement a resolution of the so-called ancestral domain

project in the philippines. so i'm reasonably optimistic that however long it is taking, we are seeing the concept changes that -- and the restructuring of our big bureaucracies for dealing with this much more complex world and your work and our work and collaboration are a very important part of that transformation. so we're delighted to host you here today. i told melanie that i was impressed that your three or four days here you're going from institution to institution. you've been at the wilson center, you're here, the only institution you really should also add to your magical mystery tour maybe is the holocaust museum where we're doing some collaborative work on the

genocide prevention issues and the rr2p, responsibility to protect project. melanie, i'm delighted to welcome you to the podium. you've been a wonderful friend, supporter, colleague and along with rob, with chick domback and all of you here, we're delighted to have you with us. thank you. [ applause ] >> welcome, everyone. recognizing i'm the only thing standing between rick barton and his speech, i'll be very brief. but first thank you very much, rob, thank you very much, dick. i've known you for 12 years now and worked with you and it's

your leadership that has made both this magnificent physical space and this home for our community possible. but much more than that you've created the intellectual space for the peace building to bloom. i'd like to thank ambassador barton for being here today. at the beginning of your tenure at the state department, you have been such a wonderful friend to our community for so long. we are so grateful to you and want to welcome you. thank you. i'd like to thank our usip planning team. it has been such a satisfying and joyful collaboration. planning conferences like this takes tremendous attention to detail and we've enjoyed every minute. staff, can you please raise your hands. today would not have been possible without the work of our wonderful staff. i feel it a privilege every day

to come and work with you so thank you for all that you do. as i think about being here today with all of you, i think of a tale of two takes. in the first table about eight years ago, i sat down with the architect of this beautiful building at a building that usip held for the mock up of the building and the architect talked to me about the vision that he had for the space, even sketched a little bit on a napkin. i wish i'd kept it. he thought about a space that was monumental enough to uphold the noble goals of peace, that was light and transparent enough to represent the underlying principles of peace building and solid enough to represent the work, because it is work, that we do to attain peace in the world. it's tremendously moving for me to be here, to see this vision come to life and to be holding our first joint conference at usip. and another much more modest

table 12 years ago, the founders for the alliance of peace building sat around my kitchen table. i it just taken on the role of program director at the hugh let foundation running the conflict resolution program and a number of the leaders in the field said can you help us? our field is so competitive, we're spending so much time competing for scarce resources, we have so little coordination for creating a unified voice, will the foundation give us some funds to put together a group that could represent -- it was conflict resolution and conflict management. to be leading the organization with 80 organizational members, several hundred practitioners

and strategic partners in a wide range of sectors related to peace brings me great satisfaction. i'm inspired by the passion and energy of our members, many of whom are here today and the real change all of you are creating in the most complicated areas of conflict around the world. i want to give a final thank you to my parents, jane and larry cohen, who are in the audience. my father is a cardiologist, my mother is a social worker and together they've taught me much of what i've learned about peace and healing. so thank you to all of you. we look forward to a rich, rewarding day. [ applause ] pamela aall who is provost of the academy of peace building will introduce ambassador barton. >> yes, i'd like to add my

welcome to all of you here in the room. it is great to see you here. we've been planning this for a few months and it is wonderful to see this in fruition but i also know it's the first time for some of you in this building so a special welcome for the first too many visitors. my name is pamela aall. . i'm the provost for the institute for academy of international conflict and peace building. it's my pleasure to introduce ambassador rick barton. rick knows all about conflict complexity and he has worked in some of the most prominent institutions of international affairs. the state department, usaid, the u.n. and even the center for strategic and international

studies. soap he knows all about sielos, but he also knows how to break them down. he has been absolutely remarkable in his career for being able to bring people together to get them to talk across communities. he is now leading a great big new effort that we are very, very excited to be working with and delighted that it has come to fruition and with that, rick, i'm going to turn over to you and we look forward to hearing what you think are our challenges and how you're going to solve them. [ applause ] . . >> well, thank you. thank you, pamela and thanks to all of you, all friends.

i do feel like this is our home. it's a great, great pleasure to be among so many great peace builders. al of you have dedicated so man. as i look around the audience, i just see people that i have admired for a long time. your dedication, your professionalism, your perseverance. one thing i find in this job is tenacity is a fairly important quality. it is not one i would necessarily put at the top of my personal list, but i find there must be more of that new england tra strain that i realized before i moved in the state department and this particular job a few months ago. all of you have clearly shown that. thank you so much. without it, we would not be making the progress we are today. thanks to melanie and dr. and mrs. cohen for the gift --

obviously, chick dombach. i think there are a bunch of other old friends here that deserve mention, but bob loftiss, my predecessor, who is here in the middle of the audience. you should stand up as well. he made it possible for us to build on a solid foundation. bob. [ applause ] he is here now at usaip as well. we stand at a break through moment. a chance to make the u.s. government more effective and coherent in building peace and we must seize this opportunity. to do that, we'll need your continuing help and openness to change.

at cso, our commission is to prevent violence and accelerate the departure from violence. we are trying to fashion an organization that can make an impact on policy and in programming in the first 12 months of a crisis. it is a high bar and every time over the last six months that i told people about our mission, i have heard the same two words spoken quite differently. "good luck" and "good luck." in both cases, people want us to succeed, but i also hear concern that making an impact in some very challenging places is just too tough. we know we hahave a lot of worko do. all of us face difficult challenges, not only in the places we work, but with the attitudes s and structures tha

confront us. for example, we know that almost 80% of recent conflicts stem from two years of a settlement or cease-fire. why? we know that donor countries spending priorities are consistent regardless if the country is at peace, in civil war or recovering from war. why? we know that 162 offices were involved in afghanistan reconstruction. why? to answer these questions, to be more effective, we see the need for fundamental changes. the u.s. has spent significant money and effort in the last decade to avoid conflict. whether to spend $3 million or $3 trillion, we have not gotten it right. with your help, i believe it is

possible. but we also know that work like yours has contributed to the decline of conflict around the world. i believe we are on the cusp of historical change. i believe this is change you have dreamt of for a long time. i believe your work has brought us to this tipping-point moment. for that, i thank you. making history is not easy, but i believe that if we can work differently and work together, we have an excellent shot. many of you have been on this road for quite a long time. it is not hard to see a narrative arc to the work at both the grassroots and international level. development groups that saw the links between violence and poverty began working to address the root causes of conflict. organizations like search for

common ground and partners for democratic change began to work this boundary. i'm speaking of this like distant history, but many of those people are in this room today. meanwhile, the field began to take shape at high levels everywhere. in the early 1990s, the u.n. began to recognize our work as a distinct discipline. in 1995, the peace building fund and support office was organized. in 2008, the u.n. adopted the latest definition of peacebuilding. only 121 words. of course, the development review, qddr, released in 2010, identified conflict prevention and response as a core mission of the state department and led to the creation of cso. secretary clinton has told me and anyone else who will listen

that cso is one of the most important things to come from the qddr. i know she is invested in our success. by the way, i don't mean to suggest that cso is a crowning achievement of this movement. in fact, the u.s. must improve. i do think that elevating these issues at stake and giving them heft has been on your minds for some time. it is a great honor to try to bring it to life. the qddr has reached a critical mass of people who recognize the need and plan what needs to be done and work together to do it. we are coming to the greater recognition that building democracy, human rights and economic development or health all build peace. whether we call it peacebuilding or stabilization or something else, we all need to work together to seize this moment.

now, where will a cso fit into this rather crowded space? our ambition is essentially to be more effective in an increasingly dynamic world as rob and dick described. as i mentioned, within the u.s. government, we haven't seen the best co- heegs. it also means recognition that the u.s. will be a pivotal and vital player, but not always a dominant force. we need to be humble. so we have to think about the length of stay in our place and the resources available right from the beginning rather than saying we'll get in there and make it up as we go along. effectiveness also means boosting the impact of local ownership. everybody talks about local ownership and sustainability, but i still don't believe we do

it. and frankly, we need to. we can't travel as freely as we used to, we need to expand our partners, we need to get around standard bureaucratic excuses and we don't want to get into a place and end up owning the problem. we have to be much more agile in what we do and who we can count on to do other things. we must bring a new sense of focus and urgency to this work. what we are offering at cso is essentially a process. it starts with determining a center of gravity for each engagement, someone with cross-cutting authority with a network of offices who encouraging innovation. so if, heaven forbid, we have 72 agencies working in a place, they know what they are doing and they are working with each other from the start. we think of it as a board of

directors model, engaged at the front end as many people have an interest in the case. be inclusive, bring them all to the policy-making table. come to a decision on a way forward so every one buys in and no one can take a shot at it later. with that, we then need a fast, rigorous analysis that is built from the latest local realities. in and out side of the capital. when the secretary interviewed me for the job, we talked about how when she visits a country, she ends up with the same list of deliverables, irrespective of the case. it is often terrorism or aids or food security. all good causes. if you tell me which office or bureau is going out to do the analysi