2's book tv. up next on c-span 3, remarks from the chair of the national endowment for the arts, jane chu. the nato general talks about russia's role in syria. after that, a look at data transparency. on the next washington journal, congressman tom mcclintock of california. he was resigning from the freedom caucus, saying the group's tactics have undermined conservative goals. mark pocan on efforts to pass a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. an a congressional reporter with bloomberg ba will talk about wednesday's deadline to fund the

federal government. washington journal is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, and we welcome your comments on facebook and twitter. now, the head of the national endowment for the arts chairwoman, jane chu, outlining plans for her agency's 50th anniversary. legislation creating it and the national endowment for the humanities were signed into law in 1965 by president lyndon johnson. from the national press club, this is an hour. >> welcome to the national press club. my name is john hughes. i'm an editor for bloomberg

first word. that's bloomberg news's breaking news desk here in washington, and i'm the president of the national press club. our speaker this morning the chairman for the national endowment of the arts, jane chu. we invited jane chu to be with us on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the nea, which i understand the actually anniversary day is tomorrow. first, i want to introduce our distinguished head table. this table includes members of the national press club and guests of our speaker. from the audience's right, lisa matthews, vice president at hager sharp and a member of the national press club speakers committee, melissa walker, creative arts therapist and healing arts program coordinator at the national intrepid center of excellence at walter reed national military center, amy

henderson, curator and a member of the national press club speakers committee, abel lopez, jerry, a past president of the national press club and chairman of the press club speakers committee, skipping over our speaker for a moment, nick, deputy ceo of the u.s. capital visitors center and the member of the national press club speakers committee, who organized today's event. thank you, nick. fabian barnes, director of the dance institute of washington. freelance reporter and blogger who covers the arts. [ applause ]

i also want to welcome our c-span and our public radio audiences, and i want to remind you you can follow the action on twitter. use the hash tag npc live. jane chu was born the daughter of chinese immigrants in shawnee, oklahoma, and she was raised in ark dell feeia, arkansas. she studied music growing up. she received a bachelors degree in piano performance and music education from a baptist university. she received her masters degree in music and piano from southern methodist university. and she still wasn't done with education. she holds a ph.d. in philanthropic studies from

indiana university. she has served as president of the kaufman center for the performing arts in kansas city and as executive at the kaufman fund. she also has served as vice president of external relations for union station kansas city. she was confirmed as the 11th chairman of the national endowment for the arts last year after serving as the nea's acting top executive since january 2012. earlier this year on a trip to los angeles, she said, quote, with the shifting demographics of america, this is a great opportunity for the arts to be at the center. she also said, quote, arts is an equalizer. please join me in giving a warm

national press club welcome to jane chu, chairman of the national endowment of the arts. [ applause ] >> thank you, john. thank you, john, and thank you to everybody joining us here and online to help us kick off the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the national endowment for the arts. i want to acknowledge a few special guests who are sitting at the table we've been called out and are helping here to celebrate our milestone. abel lopez, associate producing director of the latino hispanic theater. it is located here in washington, d.c., and it's a long time grantee of the national endowment of the arts.

i also want to introduce fabian barnes, director of dance institute of washington, another long time grantee for the national endowment of the arts. and in addition to dance classes, the dance institute offers an award-winning mentorship program called positive directions and the positive directions program prepares high school students for college or employment by offering dance classes, life skills development, and educational services. and our third guest is me lliss walker. melissa is an art therapist where she works with service members who have been affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. the national endowment for the arts formed a healing arts partnership with walter reed in

2011. together, these three visual arts, creative writing, and music therapy are creating new possibilities for members of our military through the arts. thank you for the work you do every day to empower and inspire people through the arts. [ applause ] in many ways, 1965 was a time of optimism and of hope and of reawakening. the voting rights act had been signed just a month before the national endowment for the arts was established and america completed its first successful space walk earlier that summer, and after three attempts, marchers from selma, alabama, successfully reached the capital steps in montgomery. and it was a turbulent time to be sure, but it was also one

where we could begin to dream of new freedoms and new frontiers. and it was in this climate that new aspirations for the american people that the national endowment for the arts and the national endowment for the humanities were created on september 29th, 1965, so the idea was to form an agency that would nurture and elevate the nation's culture for the advancement of american civilization. the works progress administration program, neither the national endowment for the arts, nor the national endowment for the humanities were formed for economic reasons. they were also considered to be about something bigger. president lyndon johnson signed the national foundation on the arts and humanities act which gave birth to the nea and the neh. the purpose of this act was to nurture american creativity, and sustain and preserve the

country's artistic traditions throughout the nation through dance neighborhoods of cities large and small to vast rural spaces for all americans to experience the arts. it was written that the world leadership, which has come to the united states, cannot rest solely upon superior technology, power, wealth, but must be solidly founded upon worldwide respect and admiration for the nation's high qualities as a leader in the realms of ideas and of the spirit. spirit and ideas, these are the things that energize us and enrich us and make our lives worth living. america is what it is today because of its commitment of chasing wild dreams and pursuing innovation and finding the passion that ignites our spirits. the congress of 1965 recognized that in order to be an effective

leader with might and strength you also had to have heart and soul. for the past 50 years, that's exactly what the national endowment for the arts has been doing. from steppen wolf theater to the american film institute and prairie home companion, pbs' live from lincoln center, from 86 other countries in 66 languages and grants to attract students and teachers and initiatives to deliver programs to communities across the nation from earlier arts programs at military installations to featuring the masters of jazz and folk and traditional arts in schools and in concert halls and on radio and tv. thousands of artists and arts

organizations of all genres have received national endowment for the arts grants during their formative years, and over the past five decades, national endowment for the arts had made 147,000 grants totaling $5 billion and with a significant ability to leverage those dollars, so for every dollar awarded by the national endowment for the arts, an additional $7 to $9 from other funds were made to the same arts projects. a 1 to 7 riatio is a very good return on our investment. our 50th anniversary is our opportunity to celebrate these once emerging artists and arts organizations that are world renowned forces and applaud their contributions to our world's cultural landscape. when it comes to the arts, there is no such thing as a

marginalized population. we're committed to ensuring that every individual from child to grandparent and from tenth generation to newly arrived immigrant has a chance to find their creative voice through the arts and live in a community where creativity can thrive. why is this important? because the arts instill our lives with value and connection and creativity and innovation. they make our world a richer and more rewarding place to live. for instance, the gala hispanic theater. it's a major cultural touch stone for washington's hispanic community, and through the power of performance, it gives people the opportunity to celebrate who they are and where they're from. and for others, gala is a way for them to connect and see how our differences are causes for celebration. at the positive directions

mentoring program, 100% of alumni have graduated from high school and attend college and some have gone on to perform with prestigious dance companies and on broadway. what explains this level of success? in dance, you're taught to carry yourself in a way that lets people know you take pride in yourself. that is the power of the arts. there's a similar sense of empowerment at walter reed. one service member explained how the process of arts therapy worked. he said we're trapped in our own heads and these dreams and these nightmares and these flashbacks, but once we get down into the writine ining and the music and art, we can change it and take it wherever we want to whenever we want to.

sue bell is joining us today from miriam's kitchen, a shelter here in washington, d.c. for chronically homeless men and women who face physical or mental challenges. sue, will you please stand? sue told us the story of marvin, who first arrived at a miriam's kitchen six years ago. he regularly ate meals at the shelter, but he was uncommunicative, and staff members found it difficult to find a way to truly reach him. art therapy turned out tor marvin's game-changer, and it game his way to express himself when he wasn't up for talking. he became with sacred circled, and he moved out to jewelry making. and it became the foundation for his case managers to earn his trust. in may 2014, after countless miriam's kitchen meals and case

management service, marvin slept in his own bed for the first time in six years. together, we're helping marvin maintain his home and thrive in his new life. thank you, sue, for sharing the story of marvin's ability to express himself through the arts. [ applause ] then there's the story from wanda from conway, north carolina, who let us know about her experience drawing with her grandchild. she wrote in that precious time we got lost in our imaginations talking about colors, shapes, and shadows. it was absolute heaven. it was a time and feeling and joy that i doubt either of us will be likely to ever forget. maria mendoza wrote us to tell us her story. i had the privilege to attend and graduate from booker t.

washington high school in dallas, texas. in that space, i learned to embrace my identity and discover my capabilities. there was a constant push to be anything but ordinary. dance has inspired me to find different ways of tackling and handling issues. while we're celebrating the work of the arts and the national endowment of the arts for the past 50 years, we began to ask ourselves how we can best multiply these experiences over the next 50 years? how can we better understand and expand the way that the arts infuse our country? how is the arts infrastructure changing and how can the national endowment for the arts and other creative entities change with it to better support the ideas and the initiatives and the dreams of american people? so to explore these questions, we're announcing the launch of a new initiative today called

creativity connects. it will build the relationships between the arts and the general public as well as between the arts and different industries outside of the arts. and we have three main objectives with this initiative. one object is to show how the arts are central to the country's creativity ecosystem, and two, it will investigate how support systems for the arts are changes. and three, it will explore how the arts are connecting with other industries that want and are using creativity. it wi during these conversations, we'll discuss where they'll find creativity in their personal lives and their careers, what kinds of benefits the arts bring to the table, and we'll identify any gaps that be strengthened to connect the arts to other fields that want creativity. so using information from these

roundtables and inputs from experts across different industries will produce a summary report on the state of the arts today and the report will give an overview of changing artistic practices and the key pieces that arts providers need to produce their very best work. through this, we hope that new programs and partnerships will emerge that will fortify the spaces and the skills, capital markets and networks, that are artists need in order to thrive. this report will help inform the next phase of creativity connects. building a digital interactive systems map. this is a map that will help the public visualize what types of projects are happening in the area of creativity in the 21st century, who is supporting it, and what existing resources are available to strengthen the arts sector so no matter who you are or where you live, our hope is all americans can use this map

to locate their role within the creative ecosystem and realize how integral creativity and the arts are to their everyday lives. we'll introduce these elements to the initiative over the next weeks and months in order to support innovative arts projects. we're so excited about this because we have an opportunity to build bridges between fields and expand the support base for the arts and demonstrate to other fields the benefits of working with the arts and culture sector. so this creativity connects initiative ensures that we're not only nurturing the conditions that will allow creativity to thrive today, but for the next 50 years as well. this is a forward focus and it provides the impetus for two other initiatives. so we're so excited to announce

a partnership with play bill and disney theatrical group. the song writing challenge will officially launch in mid 2016 and will be limited to three cities in the pilot phase, but we're looking forward to providing more details on how the high school students can submit their own songs in the coming year. and we're also encouraging the talent and the creativity of our young people by allowing a new element to our poetry outloud initiative, which is called poetry ourselves. in addition to reciting published poets, each of our state champions will be given the opportunity to submit an original work of their own poetry. this original poem will be

judged separately from the recitations in their national finals. later this fall we'll also announce those who have been awarded grants for the imagine your parks program. imagine your parks is a special anniversary program that celebrates the natural beauty and the diversity of our national parks system. grant projects will support the arts that took place, and it will expand the way we think about the arts in relation to our national world. now let's talk about the celebratory events coming down the line. tomorrow, september 29th, we'll have a panel of nea chairs. the panel will be moderated by pbs news hour. the festivities continue on october 14th when a taping of in

performance at the white house will honor the joint 50th anniversary of the national endowment for the arts and the national endowment for the humaniti humanities. this celebration concert, which will be called a celebration of american creativity, will be broadcast nationally on pbs on january 8th, 2016. in december of this careyear, w be participating in an event at the lyndon b. johnson library in austin. in addition to my travels for the creativity connects roundtables, i will continue to visit communities throughout the country meeting with local community leaders, arts organizations, artists, federal policymakers to see how the arts are making a difference in the places they call home.

this will be part of my effort to continue the national conversation about the arts in our lives. we'll host a national convening in conjunction with the kennedy center in october 2016. our focus will be on the future of the arts in america and this convening will bring together artists, thinkers, policymakers as we continue the dialogue about how we can strengthen the arts sector for the next 50 years and explore how the arts are a critical opponent to imagining and building and securing our future. throughout this coming year, we'll also be posting new multimedia content on our website that showcases the impact of the arts on the nation in partnership with our state agencies. this content will include more than 60 videos highlighting the role that the arts play in every u.s. state, district, territory, and region. and we'll also produce a dozen milestone videos detailing the key grants in the history of the

national endowment for the arts and how those grants have made an impact on american culture as a whole. and through crowd sourcing, we'll continue to collect and post stories from the public an how the arts and the national endowment for the arts have influenced their lives. we are already received 100s of stories, and we welcome your stories today. you can browse a selection by visiting our website another arts.gov. where you can find stories like s sue's and wanda's and maria's. we're moving closer to having all of us understand and appreciate the many ways that the arts and the national endowment for the arts have touched their lives and their communities. since taking office last summer, i have met with -- and i continue to meet with -- members of congress here in washington, d.c. and in their home states advocating for why the arts matter. i've traveled to almost 30

states and 107 communities building relationships with state and local leaders, and seeing how our nea grantees are changing their communities for the better. i've been joined by the voices of arts advocates and patrons and leaders, musicians, pl playwrights, national leaders, state governors, and eventually i hope everybody watching today will join in this chorus too. it's time to move away from the notion that the arts are a separate part of society and that some people can participate in the arts and others cannot. we're seeing firsthand that the opposite is true. when we see through hard evidence that the nonprofit arts sector alone, that's the sector that the national endowment for the arts supports, contributed $12.1 billion in one year to the nation's economy and it

employeed 168,000 workers in one year who earned a total of $7.8 billion in compensation all in a single year, this tells us that the nonprofit arts sector alone has a formidable presence. and when we see that the ways people are participating in the arts have expanded, we can celebrate that americans recognize the value and the meaning that the arts bring to our everyday lives. the arts are a sector that is robust and textured and there's some type of art for everyone and the cultural landscape can accommodate different attitudes better than it has before because america is recognized throughout the world where the size of your dreams is limited only by your imagination, where creativity can inspire new things when things seemed

impossible. th the national endowment for the arts is here to nourish those dreams and that creativity and that expression. it has been a remarkable 50 years, and we are looking forward to an equally remarkable future. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much. i have some great questions that people have written down for you. if the nea wants to connect to the creativity of americans across the country, how will you

partner with the tech giants like facebook, google, twitter, et cetera, that have the online audience and that ability to connect to so many? >> the answer is yes. that is a great question because creativity we've seen that are so many areas, including technology as you have mentioned in this question, it's burgeoned. we limit ourselves anytime we think creativity happens in one plays. we see creativity happening through the technology and we see it happening in the back booth of the coffee shop. so our ideas of connecting with all of them and seeing how all of this is burgeoning and ultimately connecting one to the other is at the heart of what we're wanting to do with the creativity connecting initiative. to be continued.

>> questioner says tell us more about the initiative you mentioned in your remarks regarding veterans and the arts. >> we would love to continue to expand our work with the military service members. thank you, melissa. i know she's echoing our sentiments because we've seen so much of a transformation and an ability to support the military service members at walter reed, and now we want to expand. the idea is can we get into all the communities, especially when our service members from walter reed go back to their homes. there's something there that we can always continue. we fwhknow the power of the transformation of the arts, and we want our service members and veterans to be able to have that too. >> in a more specific way on this issue, how can the arts be used in healing within health care? so how can the arts support people who have memory loss with memory loss and chronic

illnesses and how also can the art support their care givers? >> the arts are a wonderful tool to be able to support those in the ageing process that would only just be me and not you, but we're -- i'm teasing because we're all ageing, but the arts are central to that and we have our center for creative that too. we've seen arts be an equalizer because it calls out the dimension in each of us and in those with dementia who can express themselves in a different way than the linear use of words, so the arts are critical to our human development, our health and well being, and they're starting to really burgeon out there. the more programs we can support in that area through poetry and

writing and dancing and singing, they're all attached to the creative ageing process. we will soon find that that's one of the best avenues of expree expressi expression. >> how do you see the arts engaging older americans as the opportunities of this demographic shift toward longer, healthier lives? is there any specific outreach for the elderly? >> similar to the creative ageing type, we are starting to see -- and i just visited a place in california where there's a senior center where arts are thriving there. it's at the heart of all they do now to express themselves. so as we all age and as we all get older and find different ways to express ourselves, we

can get even more immersed in the arts and free ourselves and it calls out that spirit and that imagination that helps us thrive way beyond just the linear, everyday activities. >> you mentioned in your talk this questioner notes about arts being a great equalizer. how can the nation's art museums be more accessible to all people and help further the nea's mission? >> we've seen really great programs coming out of art museums that are answering and asking that same question. what's so great about this is that those art producers, artists, arts administrators, programmers are starting to think about creative ways to make sure that they are reaching and becoming meaningful and relevant to the community. and i've seen some programs out there that are equalizers for those who have english as their

second language or not as their first language because there are other ways to express themselves, and it is such an equalizer. museums are starting to really burgeon also in that area, so check around some of the great things that are happening there. >> do you face any negative perception issue with members of congress over the nea's budget due to the culture wars of the 1990s, and could you also give us an update on how you're doing on your budget with congress and your overall funding situation? >> well, we have met actively with members of congress. i want to thank those arts advocates and patrons and all of you who continue to communicate and educate what's out there because the main message we want to get out to congress and to absolutely everybody is that the arts are not in a corner and

they're not a frill. they infuse our lives every day in so many different ways, and we want to make sure we have this mind-set of both and as opposed to either or. either or mind-set would be it's this way, so it cannot be that way. or if you win, that means i lose. we're trying to get across of both and. you can have different perspectives and they come together, and the arts are great at that. i'll tell one quick story and then answer your question about members of congress. my parents were from china, and they came over to the united states separately. they met in the united states. i was born in oklahoma, as mentioned before. i grew up in arkansas, so i have struggled and navigated through this bok choy corn dog setup. if you've been in that setup where you have tried and figured out how to honor the different

ways, the different perspectives, of how people think because you cannot force fit them to be exactly alike, that has been my whole life. and i've come to very much appreciate how to do that, how to appreciate the ambiguity of that. the arts are one of the best ways to honor the different perspectives and the different ways people think as long as we can continue to send out that message that the arts are everywhere. they're not a frill. so when i meet with members of congress -- and i very much appreciate getting to talk with many of them -- they have been recepti receptive. at this point, most appreciative that the nea budget is holding

steady and it's stabilized and when many pots of allocations have sh runk, there's been no moves to cut it. people really are starting to understand that the arts are tied to health care and human development and our service members, and they're tied to arts education and they're tied to equalizing the playing field and they're tied to the different perspectives we're born with or meet every day. that's one of the best ways to connect, so we have been very appreciative in complex budget conditions that the arts have been stable. >> how many organizations would disappear without funding help from the nea? any idea how many are entirely

dependent? >> i would have to get you -- i couldn't hazard a guess to that, but we're so appreciative of the network that the national endowment for the arts has. we work in tandem with our states arts agencies, regional arts agencies. we have a large network of service organizations as well. so all together if you look at this network that we built together, the arts are thriving. they're not off by themselves, and they're not solo players. we're all honoring the different ways we work, but on the other hand we're partners together. so if you ask the question on how many would go away, it would be a really complex -- because we have such a strong tapestry of the network in the field. >> i have a couple of questions about individual artists and they're related.

one is will the nea ever consider funding individual artists again, and the other one is president obama's campaign included an arts platform? one of the proposals was to create a modern-day wpa program called artist core. isn't there a way for government to do more to support artists? >> during what you were calling the culture wars, there were direct grants earlier from the national endowment for the arts to individual artists and that was removed during the culture wars. but to clarify, individual artists as well as the wpa, there are still connections between individual artists and jobs for arts. first of all, the national endowment for the arts does still fund individual writers.

in the literature area, that is fellowships, translation fellowships, writing those. we provide and honor individuals in the jazz, the nea jazz masters, as well as our folk and traditional arts, metals. the way individual artists are supported through the national endowment for the arts really is through the nonprofit organizations that have programs that bring in individual artists and we can do chapter and verse on specific ones, but not directly. then in terms of the question about the wpa, when you start really looking at how many jobs in the nonprofit arts sector, which are supported in arts and also the national endowment for the arts funding with the arts organizations, it's already formidable in its own way. so it isn't just the wpa providing jobs. there are jobs out there through the national endowment for the

arts support. so it is more diffuse, but it's still there. the concept is there. >> how has the reduction of art and music programming in k-12 education affected the significance of the creative arts in american life and what can nea do to counter this trend? >> well, we are very concerned and very aware of the cuts in arts education in the schools because we think it's more than just a frill, as we've said before. we've seen firsthand -- when i visited in california in a low-income neighborhood with very few opportunities, here was an elementary school that had an arts program that not only had arts lessons and music lessons, but they had curriculum that infused science and the teaching of math. the science teacher said -- it was a third grade class -- when

i used the arts curriculum for the arts test the kids standardized scores skyrocketed. regrettably, i tried to pull the arts curriculum away for one lesson and the tests went down. it's like a mini creativity connects initiative. we know that the arts has an overlay on other subjects that we think can add a dimension to the quality of our lives higher academic performance strongly associated with feeling like they're able to express themselves. you're cutting almost the dimensions to so many other things that make our lives richer, makes students' ability to perform academically and socially in other aspects as

well. while the nea has supported programs to help teachers develop, we're supporting with far larger grants and can be multiple years renewed for a collective impact that connects schools with community organizations that are out there doing great jobs as well. if we can start thinking in terms of the whole system and have everybody connected together, just as we talked about the network before, that's what we're going in with to see if we can start stabilizing that. we're very concerned. >> we're going to have the education secretary in later this week. >> right. >> this questioner asks what are the chances nea can work with the department of education? questioner notes that the department of education seems focused on data-driven outcomes such as employment, salaries. what can nea do to help the department of education redefine

student success to include joy, creativity, the other things that the arts bring? >> well, we've been very appreciative of our partnerships with other federal agencies. we have some active partnerships between 30 and 35 other agencies. look at what the dance institute has done in terms of its ability to help students through dance. high school students graduate. many of them attend college. many of them get jobs. 100% of them graduate. so when you see examples like this working in tandem with other federal agencies such as the department of education we want to keep those and deepen those conversations. we're not often silos, but we're working together. i know we meet quarterly with hud and begin to share stories about what we're all doing because they do see the value of the arts.

we need to be doing some of this together. >> this questioner notes that as we are here at the national press club what would you say about the state of arts coverage in this country? is it pretty on target, or is there room for significant improvement? >> there's room for improvement. there's room for communication. now that i've traveled for a year, the arts are thriving. there are so many great things happening in nearly every community. it can be more robust and things can be leveraged everyo ed even they are thriving. when you have seen one community, you've only seen one community and that is a key to how many ways the arts can infuse our lives. there are nuances within every community that mean something to one community that may mean something different in another. so the arts can customize and be

transformed that way. so the one place that i think we can deepen or broaden is our ability to communicate that this is happening. so yes, it can be significantly increased in terms of our ability to communicate. hey, the arts the thriving. they mean something to all of us, and they provide the value and the meaning and they connect us. we need to get that message out even more. >> couple of questions about washington. how have you found running an arts organization different in washington versus kansas city where you ran the kaufman center for the performing arts, and how has washington impressed you as a cultural center? >> well, i love washington. there are some wonderful washington arts providers. there's something for everyone in this microcosm of a city, so it's been great. in some ways running a performing arts center has been similar to washington in that

it's still that mind-set of bok choy and corn dogs. it is still that mind-set at the kaufman center for the performing arts pulling people together who loved the arts for different reasons but didn't always have the same perspective. dry wallers, because i oversaw the construction of the kaufman center for the performing arts -- we were talking with drdry wallers and oboe players. they don't talk the same way. we have the way to honor the different perspectives they're opposing to each other without force fitting everyone to be alike. i see more similarities actually. maybe a little more dense in population. >> a couple of questions related to your background. how has your training as a professional musician influenced your leadership style at the nea? and how has being an artist

affected how you lead the nea? >> it's been absolutely central in my leadership style to be involved in the arts. my original training was in music and i lived for. i majored in music in college. and one of the ways it's affected my leadership style is that it's a big deal for me to think about emotional intelligence. so what we do is important, but how we do it is equally as important. and so my training in the arts and in particular music has been at the central part of that because if you are playing the piano and you're playing beethoven, they don't sound the same. the composers weren't thinking the same way. but i would, as the performer, would have to make sure i was

representing the style of that composer. when you're leading an organization, everybody you talk to isn't always beethoven. you have to understand where they're coming from just as much as you do before you even lead because you can't lead anything if you don't have any followers. so being able to connect with them and have them feel like they've been heard is the first step, and paying attention to the different nuances and the styles came from my original training, especially in the music. >> speaking of beethoven, is the ageing of the audiences for classical music and opera a threat to those art forms future v viability?

>> i don't think so. it would be looking like a whole garden of flowers and if you looked at one set of flowers and said the peonies are okay, but they're not thriving and then you looked at the roses look. that's the anal ji. the ways people participate in the arts are expanding and we're seeing that three quarters of all americans participate in the arts first through technology. they create videos, they might download and participate, so because we are seeing there is a transition in the ways people participate, we cannot say that people are not participating in the arts. we must broaden our view. so in addition to the traditional ways we measured, we're seeing that they are right on the edge and cusp of being relevant and honoring the traditional ways as well.

even this or that, they are going to continue to thrive. >> what impact does the boom g booming -- >> we have a really cool proc s process -- you were mentioning contemporary art. it used to be they were off in different categories. now we're seeing that because the world has become so global, even the art forms are starting to do this giant mashup. so there are pieces that used to be and let's use an orchestra with a video. it used to be a video would

accompany the wonderful music of an orchestra, but now we see there are pieces created where the video and the orchestra together are the piece and you can't really extract the two without losing the entire piece. art forms are becoming that way as well in terms of the global mash up. so one of the things e we want to make honoring is making sure our grants are relevant and honoring the new forms coming online. so we have a three-step process. the first people who read the we bring in citizens, experts in the field including laypersons who review the proposals first. it's a wonderful thing. we're cognizant of the different contemporary art and different

styles. people are really with it when reviewing this proposal. >> some think that film as an art form is on the e decline. what do you think about film? >> when the ways people participate in the arts are expanding, so let's broaden the way we're looking at it. i think film is actually -- when you start looking at some of these film festivals where hundreds of thousands of people are coming in for a week to a city that's not only burgeoning in tourism and hotel and lodging, but new films and the development of films are thriving because they have this massive audience for a week or a

month or a summer o or however. that's the new way people are participating. >> what kind of responsibility do you see the arts managers of tomorrow needing to be focused on? what would your advice be to future art managers? >> one of the things i'm seeing is a trend nationally is that it used to be that an arts leader or arts manager was highlighted for their availability to lead. if they were very informed and a specialist in a certain area. they really know their stuff in x area. but nowadays the leaders of tomorrow and today are ones who know how to cincinnati the size

different pieces. the world is becoming more global. those who stand in the middle and listen to those who understand the nuances of different ways people are coming but really having that emotional intelligence level of combining those. they don't seemingly fit or don't look like they are fitting but can honor the different ways and bring them together. those are the future skills of leaders of tomorrow. >> in the past there have been calls to create a secretary for the arts as a cabinet level position. is there any restructuring of the arts in the federal government that should happen?

>> we haven't had any discussion in the cabinet. we are appreciative in terms of the complexity of holding stable. it's a symbol of how important the arts are. it's back to that same thing we want to get across. they are not in a corner. they are not a thrill. they really touch all of our activities even when we're aware of it or whether we're not aware of it. so that is one demonstration of other people recognizing it. something we want to get that message across as the arts belong to everyone. >> we are almost out of time, but before i get to the last question or two, i have some

housekeeping. the national press club is the world lease'ding professional organization for journalists and we fight for a free press worldwide. to learn more about the national press club, go to press.org and to donate to our nonprofit institute, visit press.org/institute. i'd like to remind you about upcoming speakers and they are all this week. it's a busy week at the national press club. on wednesday, september 30th, education secretary arne duncan will address the national press club luncheon. on thursday, october 1st, the national press club welcomes a luncheon address. and on friday, october 2nd, utah governor gary herber will address a lun con. i'd like to present our guest with the most honorary heirloom

a national press club mug. i wanted to ask you a couple questions about the big picture. president kennedy said that a nation will be judged not by its politics or wars, but by its contribution to the human spirit. how is the united states doing? >> i tend to think in terms of what we can be. it really is back to the united states thriving and winning when we can imagine and when we can dream with our own creativity on what we can be. i think when president kennedy made those comments, that's back

to the spirit that we don't ever want to lose. and we don't ever want to have anybody take it away from us either. let's continue to spark the spirit within us. it sounds like a commercial, but arts are great at doing that. let's give ourselves permission to make sure we can honor that. that's when america is at its finest. and finally on the eve of the national endowment of the arts 50th anniversary, what do you see for the next 50 years? what would you like to see celebrating at its 100th anniversary or since your future successor will be celebrating that 100th here at the national press club, what would you anticipate they be talking about in the organization 50 years from now? >> i anticipate they would be talking 50 years from now we would not even be having a conversation about explaining that the arts are not a frill, they are not off in a corner by

themselves because everybody would so get it. it would become like many of our tribal partners and our families in of the native american who is do not have the word arts in their vocabulary because they are so infused with the arts in all they do. it's just part of their life and don't know it any other way. so in the next 50 years the chairman of the national e endowment for the arts will be thanking and celebrating all the new types of activities that the arts are tied to in our everyday lives. things we can't even think about due to the technology developments and things like that. and we will still be honoring all the ways we have traditionally, it will be the both and. >> how about a round of applause for our speaker? [ applause ]

>> i would like to thank or staff including the broadcast center for organizing today's event. if you'd like a copy of today's program or to learn more about the press club, go to that website press.org. thank you, we are adjourned. a house panel will hold a hearing on taxpayer funding of planned parenthood. the organization's president testifies before the house oversight and government reform committee at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span 3. a signature feature of book tv is our all-day coverage of book fairs and festivals from across the country with top nonfiction authors. here's our schedule.

in early october the southern festival of books in nashville. the weekend after that, we're live from austin for the texas book festival. and near the end of the month we'll be covering two book festivals on the same weekend from our nation's heartland it's the wisconsin book festival and back on the east coast the boston book festival. at the start of november, we'll be in plabd, oregon for wordstock. followed by the national book awards from new york city. and at the end of november, we're live for the 18th year in a row from florida for the miami book fair international. that's a few of the fairs and festivals this fall on c-span 2's book tv. >> now a conversation with nato supreme allied commander general philip breedlove.

>> very excited to be on stage with general bleedlove. i need to do a blanket apology. . i just got out of den tangherlini surgery this morning sorks if you see me drooling on this side of the face, that's why. we were talking you'd like to begin. i'd like for you to do that with a broad brush through of the coming nato summit that's next summer. the last one was last year and i remember covering that, covering president obama and then secretary of defense chuck hagel. the big news was all about the coalition against isis. that's not going to be the case, i imagine, next year. why don't you start off with your thoughts about what the key outcomes of next year's summit

should be and i'd love to hear me tell you what you think they will be. >> thank you, first of all, and thank you for having me. it's good to speak to this crowd. as i looked at the diversity of those in attendance, i expect a lively question and answer period. that's all very good. i think that in talking about warsaw, you start at wales. i was privileged to be at wales. i think we saw an agreement to make probably the most substantiative changes to our alliance in the history of the alliance. i was privileged to sit in the room with the heads of 28 nations, encolluding our president, and watch them with their deliberations. i think the things that struck me most and right up front was how quick and how firm their

commitment to solidarity, their commitment to collective defense, their u commitment to the bedrock of what nato is all about. how quickly that came and how they carried that message. the military commander that our leaders saw so clearly that commitment to our solidarity and to collective defense. and then we talked about all of those changes to to nato that you have seen begin since wales. some of them already come to fruition since wales. changes in the readiness and responsiveness of elements of our program, changes to our command and control structure, to better address some of the issues that we saw in russia. how those now in large are

you've seen the standup of our nato force integration units in our smaller nations forward. you have seen the multinational northeast given the mission of being ready every day, all day for an article v contingency. you have seen us implement, we tested it in its alert and deployment and it's already been exercised. clearly, it's step one of several steps to get to the final adaptation of our force structure, but i think what is good to see is that the tasks that the leaders of our nations gave us in the military at wales we have made great progress on already. and that's why i also mentioned that i don't like to talk about the road to warsaw. it makes it seem like warsaw is an end.

warsaw is anything but an end. it is the net set of agreed to adaptations that we have to make to continue to prepare ourselves and better position ourselves for the challenges that we see out there. and i think that if i could sum it up into just a couple words, the road through warsaw is about looking at the readiness and the responsiveness of the entire nato force structure. lots of talk about the vjtf. it's a very robust brigade-size capability completely enabled by fires and other things. but it's a brigade-sized unit. a brigade-sized unit is not a big deterrent value. it's a great capability to meet challenges we see. e deterrent value comes in the entire nato force structure being more ready and responsive. so i think that the road through

warsaw is about the continued adaptation of the nato force structure. how we continue to bring our forces to better responsiveness and readiness to meet those challenges. so that's what i see coming down the road from warsaw. >> you just did that without ever once mentioning the word russia. >> well, i think that's important. let's talk about that. since wales in nato we talked about strategist direction east and strategic direction south. and they are two very different issues. strategic direction east is all about russia, it's about russia changing the rules and your force is now to change international boundaries.

they continue to occupy the peninsula of crimea. and so strategic direction east is about addressing russia. strategic direction south is more about dealing with the problems that our southern allies see every day in the flows of people, criminality, terrorism, foreign fighters that are escaping these ungoverned spaces starting in western iraq, going through the la vont into northern africa. so a very different problem. now i'm sure we're going to get into it in q&a, but the two are beginning to merge as we see russia apart of the syria equation. let me also point out and i think it's very interesting that in our last ministerials, one of

our bright, well-thought ministers brought up that general breedlove, you talk about strategic direction east and strategic direction south. we in the north are worried about strategic direction north and what we're beginning to see happen in the arctic with the militarization of the arctic by the russians. so now there's a voice that begins to talk about strategic direction north, strategic direction east and strategic direction south. so it is bigger than just russia. >> today is a huge day because as we all know at 5:05 this evening will be the long awaited bilateral between president obama and vladimir putin. the last time the two of them sat down for a formal face to face was in 2013 in northern ireland. a lot has happened since then,

as we are all aware. the cancelled meeting with putin because of edward snowden. we have had the russian invasion of crimea. we have had arming separatists in ukraine. back when this meeting took place, there was a g8. there's no longer anymore. if it weren't for john kerry i adopt think we'd be having too many conversations with russians. i'd like to ask you how much of importance do you place on this meeting today and what realistically can we expect to come out of it? >> i u think i can answer the first half, not sure about the second importance. what importance do we place on this? i think it's incredibly important. we have said, and many nations have said, that we need to have a dialogue, we need to be able to communicate with and engage

russia. we talk an awful lot about europe whole, free and at peace. i probably am out of step, but i add prosperous to that. if you want a europe whole, free, at peace and prosperous, you're going to need to engage a nation that has a vast energy reserve, a nation that has vast energy infrastructure, a nation that has incredible rail and road capability to connect. and so if we are truly going to find that final way forward to be whole, free and at peace and prosperous in europe, i think we have to find a way to engage russia. i think that before we can truly get to that level of engagement that giving us the opportunity we want, we also have to find a way that russia can rejoin a

community of norms that does not embrace changing international boundaries by force. so there's work to be done. but all of that work starts with dialogue and so i think it is very important that our senior leaders talk. >> russia rejoining a community of norms can syria possibly be that route? >> well, that's a good question. how to answer it. any way we can begin to have a conversation is a step towards where we need to be. i think that as the european commander and certainly as a nato officer, i'm more focused on the european piece of this. and i think if truly russia

wants to rejoin that world of norms, a first step would be to begin in ukraine. show that they are ready to rejoin the world of norms and western value in ukraine. so that's what i would put on the table first. >> do you think you understand the view within the administration as sort of on russia in part because of your position right now? do you think that we understand what exactly russia is trying to do with syria? >> in syria, well, i think that there are let me answer. i can speak for myself as the military commander in nato.

first of all, i think that russia very much wants to be seen as an equal on the world stage as a great power on the world stage. i think that russia very much i think that russia very much wants to take the world's eyes=á off of what they are continuing to do in ukraine. watch here the good thing we're doing in syria. don't pay attention to what's going on in ukraine. so i think that's very important. i think that russia very much wants to maintain warm water ports and airfield capabilities and they saw that possibly being challenged by the progress on the ground of those opposing the assad regime. i think that russia very much wants to enable and prolong the assad regime because that is

their legitimate door to their ports and their airfields in syria. i think that russia wants to be able to slow the advance of the opposition to mr. assad in syria and then after all of that, i think that they will do some counter isil work in order to legitimize their approach to syria. >> you listed many things before you got to isil. >> that is the way i see it. >> defense secretary ash carter said last week when he was speaking to the press standing next to the ukrainian defense minister that he doubted whether or not, i can't remember how he put it, but he said there's doubt interests truly converge in syria. he said it was possible that the russian military build up could amount to just pouring gasoline on a fire.

are you similarly concerned or pessimistic? >> well, i think that if nations could come to an agreed tact to how to deal with isil, this would be a good thing. i think that, as you heard explained there, that is the question. is this really about isil or is it about all those other things that i just list ed. and so i think that what we need to do is watch what they do. i have said more than once, i'm always asked what is russia doing and now in eastern ukraine or excuse me, been asked more than once what is mr. putin doing now in eastern ukraine. what i almost always answer is if someone walks up to you and

said they know what mr. putin is thinking, you should discount what they say. i have learned that you very few people know what mr. putin is thinking. so what we do in a military sense is we look at the capabilities and the capacities that mr. putin is creating in eastern ukraine and then derive from that what they could do, rather than try to guess what is on their mind. so here's what concerns me about what's going on in syria. we see some very sophisticated air defenses going in. we see very snis indicated air to air aircraft going into these air force. i have not seen isil flying any airplanes that require sa-15s or 22s. i have not seen isil flying any airplanes that require snis indicated air to air capabilities. so what i'm doing is what i have

always done. i look at the capabilities and the capacities that are being created and i determine from that what might be their intent. these very sophisticated air defense capabilities are not about isil. they are about something else. >> can you complete that thought then? >> as i said before, i think high on mr. putin in russia's list is preserving the regime against the those putting pressure on the regime and those who might be supporting putting pressure. >> you said people are always asking you what is putin thinking. so i will rephrase that question. do we even understand what mr. putin wants in ukraine? >> so i go back to the original

premise. i'm not sure what mr. putin wants. i agree with most of them. and i look at the capabilities and capacities that mr. putin is creating, and i ask to what end would they be? so what we see now, some like to call it a movement towards a frozen conflict. i don't like that term. i think it's more of a warm conflict. i think mr. putin is continuing to provide those things that allow the conflict to simmer in the southeastern part of ukraine. and why would he do that? i think what he's demonstrated is he can destabilize and keep the situation unstable in the southeast. why would he do that?

if the situation is unstable in the southeast. this discourages foreign investment. it keeps the ukrainian forces in the field, which is a cost and a burden to the government and if te keeps the situation in southeast ukraine unstable and continues to demonstrate to the people of the rest of greater ukraine that the government can't influence or retain control of this area, so all of this is e destabilizing and not help tofl a government that needs to get on with reform. that needs to get on with economic recovery, that needs to encourage international investment, et cetera, et cetera, and a warm conflict in ukraine is detriment to all of those possibilities. >> do you think nato is eventually going to get okay with the idea of just sustain

ing a warm conflict? >> again, i'm at great risk to speak for nato, so i won't do that. i think what is important is that the nations of the west more than nato continue to see what is happening in eastern ukraine. we talk about getting to michk to where we measure what's going on in ukraine. and the implementing agreements of february last year point to the agreement and in that agreement there are some pretty important points. one of them, which i like to talk about often is the reestablishment of the international order of ukraine. the reestablishment of the

sovereign actions of ukraine inside of its internationally recognized borders. there are a lot of things that need to be done before we are there. and remember that we have had well over 1500 armored vehicles, armored capabilities moved into eastern ukraine. we have air defenses there now. we have russian command and control structures there now. we have the stockpiles of equipment to support those forces. in order to get all of that out to reestablish the border of ukraine, that will take months and months. what about a good show of faith? show that we have a responsible way forward to e reestablishing the international border of ukraine. >> what do you think are the chances of the agreement coming

into fruition in the next coming months? >> next couple months? >> not couple months, in the coming months. i mean, the krem lin have continued to provide military support. >> i think this is a long-term proposition, not a short-term proposition. >> so ash carter has, in some ways, become the secretary of reassurance. everywhere he goes he seems as if he's reassuring allies that america's military will be behind that. and definitely in the case of our eastern european allies. almost all of the reassurance steps that we have taken so far militarily seem to be temporary. we have seen rotational deployment. we have seen more exercises. we have had had supplement l

funding. what needs to be permanent? what is the new normal? >> so i like the second part of your question better than the first. i won't use the permanent word. what the new normal is i think we'll see these assurance measures for quite some time. it's more than the united states. it's about our nato allies being a part of assurance. i was tasked as the military leader to develop assurance measures. it was described as air, land and sea, north, center and south. so we have set about building those assurance measures, air, land and sea, so we have done that. and we have a great rotational presence of several nations, but

certainly the united states, of ground forces which we say heel to toe and continues in theball tick nations, poland and romania so we have a land presence there to train and then that land presence facilitates exercises or receives increased presence to do more exercises. in the air presence, we have tripled our air policing stance so that before the russian invasion of crimea, we had one set of air policing operating in the northeast. now we have three. it's taken several forms,

increased positioning of our groups now the u.s. has four forward destroyers. each is capable that we have continually presence from the med and other locations. so we have developed these air, land and sea assurance measures, north, center and south. i think that's the new normal and i think we saw that affirmed through the last series of ministerials and that will be, i think, further defined as we go through warsaw. >> what's your view on that? >> i think that we will never see -- you're talking with hospitals and dod schools? >> you can ratchet it back. maybe not the schools.

>> i don't want to speak for our nation's decision makers. i'm not hopeful that we would see a large new movement of forces out of america into europe for a lot of reasons. one, you don't uproot all the jobs of a large force of america in today's world. i think what you're going to see in the future is increased rotational presence and i think you're going to see an increase in our forward stations of stocks and supplies and capabilities and then forces can go back and exercise and work to create a presence. in all honesty, i do not see large u.s. forces permanently meaning hospitals, schools,

commissari commissaries, returning. >> what are the next steps in ukrainian military training and assistance then? are we training these guys to do legal things? i know we're not providing legal aid at this point, but why won't we give them -- if we are training them, why won't we give them weapons? >> what we will do in the future with the ukrainians is largely up to the ukraines, what they ask for. curre currently they are training their national guard troops. i've been there and visited the training. and we are training them in skills just like we train ourselves in small unit skills.

this is really how do you apply the words. so we're in the midst of training program for the national guard troops. >> can you walk through for me, though, the rational at this point in not providing them lethal weapons? >> i think i can best do that by reciting what you have heard the pundits say. and that is that lethal weapons may be seen as provocative in a situation where there is hope

that we have reached a wall or at least a decrease in the fighting. i think that's what you hear most say. >> but you sound like a man who doesn't believe that. >> you have heard me, many in this group, has heard me before. i testified that i believe that as we approach this problem that we should not take any options off the table. that all options should be considered. that has been my advice and that hasn't changed. >> warsaw, can we talk a little bit about what before we get to problems in the east, what can nato do about problems in the south? i'm speaking specifically on

migration. what should the rule of nato be here and is this something that will be taken up in a real way next year? >> once again, i will not put words in the mouths of 28 political deciders. what i always talk about is that nato has things that it can offer if our political leadership chooses to do that. let me point you to two great examples. the problem of piracy off the horn of africa. nato partnered with the eu. the military competency, the military command and control structure, the military force structure of nato married with the eu's unique other governmental capabilities reaching into the judiciary policing and other assured functions so that the military competency afloat married to the eu other governmental e

competencies have essentially eliminated piracy. clearly the tactics and techniq techniques and procedures of the ships and the merchant lines have also helped. what you saw was a great marriage of what nato can bring to a problem with what the eu can bring to a problem, eliminated piracy off the horn of africa. so we have competencies and capabilities that we can bring to a problem. and just one more quick example. i think it's the ongoing progress slow but measurable progress we're making in kosovo. the mission working with the rule of law, judiciary, policing, coupled being recognized by both capitals as

the force keeping and maintaining what we call a safe and secure environment and guaranteeing freedom of movement. so we have a nato capability unique military capacities and disciplines, married to the other governmental capabilities of o the european union bringing opportunity to kosovo. so i think there are places where nato in concert with other entities that can address part of the root problem, there's opportunity there. but again, this is entirely a decision to be taken by our nato political leadership. >> do you see a challenge for nato in figuring out a way to balance allies, concerns in the east versus the south? >> i think it's best been said probably three ministerials

including at wales. you're tired of me saying that, but the capacities that we build and sustain in our capabilities these are applicable to both problems. the maritime parts are equally applicable in the medtarian as they are in the north see or black sea. so there are things that apply to both. so as we go forward building and enhancing our readiness and responsiveness, all of that brings tools to the table that can be used either east or south. the problem in the south is

there are so many more tools that need to be in the kickback that are beyond nato's core military competency that we would need to be in concert with others to truly get out the issues in the south. >> thank you, general. we're ready for question and answer. >> thank you. my question to you is about the issue of russia's antiaccess area denial in the baltic e sea region. there's a fleet of russia. we have air incidents have more of them. we have issue of deployments.

we have them already rockets brigade. we'll have them the next few years. what ir respectable what nato would do on the issues and these are dangerous weapons with a range of 1,000 kilometers offensive weapons. also we have a new air base so my question to you is what should be the proper nato response towards that and what you think could be feasible in that matter. thank you. >> i think i saw three questions emb embedded in that. let me first because it's the

easiest to deal with talk about the sea and air instance that you mentioned. first, i think we need to recognize that all nations have a right to exercise and train. we do as well. what is important that we do these exercises and training it rations responsibly. that we adhere to norms in how we conduct them. that we properly announce them when they start, when they finish, who is going to be a part of it, what the objective is. and invite each other to come and be a part of view said exercises. so when it comes to exercises, if done properly, we should not challenge this it. we do them. clearly there are some issues and you have brought some of

them up. wrong air space, flying through congested air space, not announcing start and finish, large size, not invited, there's things that need to be worked out. but let's at least say that russia as well as the west has all the rights to train, if done responsibly. we have mechanisms. one of the places we actually still have good mill to mill communication, we do a series that stands for incidents at sea, but we have broadened it to talk to air, land and sea so we can continue to try to deconflict what is happening out there. so as to a antiaccess area denied, typically we talk about

this in terms of building anti-ship and anti-air capabilities, but as you have brought up, you broadened it some to land attack capabilities. anti-access area denial is a growing problem. a large platform for capability, as you have pointed out. i would also point out that in their occupation o of krocrimea russia developed a very strong capability in the black sea. essentially, their coastal defense cruise missiles range the entire black sea and their air defense missiles range about 40%, 40 to 5% 50% of the black sea. so it's not limited to the baltic region. it has grown.

already in the black sea. frankly it's one of the things we're beginning to watch that they develop in the northeast mediterranean. as we see these capable air defense capabilities beginning to show up in syria, we're a little worried about another bubble being created in the eastern mediterranean. so how do we react to that? first and foremost, we have to realize that in peacetime, we need to exercise and operate in this air space to assure that we have and declare that we have open access to the baltic seas and the black seas. you have seen a responsible series of exercises which have been announced and conducted both in the baltic and black seas and those will continue as a part of the assurance measures that we talk about. we need to contest that those are not forbidden spaces.

they are open areas of water and air. and second of all, as an alliance, we need to step back and take a look at our capability in a military sense to address a challenge. this is about investment, this is about training and capabilities, et cetera. >> there were a slew of questions in the back. all the way on the end. >> i've professor at princeton university and a senior fellow. so you have called on the europeans to do r more militarily, maybe spend more. but the europeans are doing a lot of other things and it's a low growth area. take the sanctions estimated to cost them a quarter or half a percent of gdp. they are spending a lot of money

on economic renewal and things like that. to spend money on defense now would mean to take money away from something else. in fact, a lot of the big countries are spending less. so if you think they should, where do you think the money should come from? should they be spending less on things like sanctions or military activity elsewhere? or less on getting their own economic house in order or what? >> so i'm going to answer your question and you would like my answer. that is a question you should pose to our political leadership as a military individual. it's really not me to talk to nations about what they should do in an economic sense. i don't mean to be flip with you, but that's a question better asked to military leaders. but let me do talk to a couple

things. the personal pronounce you used was you. i haven't called on the nations to increase their spending. what i do as a military man is call on the nations to invest widely the money that they have and to help them understand through programs that the supreme allied commander for transformation, we give them investment targets and capability targets so that we can help the nations understand what they are going to invest in, how they can best add to the allianc alliance's capability. so we talk about that. then the second thing that i do do is i encourage the nations to use their military force as a part of our ongoing assurance measures and adaptation measures. this is one of the places we have had a good response. as we set up to build the

original, we felt like we needed three or four center nations to have a sustainable rotation of the center part of the very high readiness joint task force. and when we went to the nations and asked, we had seven nations respond. so while the nations do face challenges in their budgets and their investment packages, what they have done is put their forces into the mix and made them available to nato to do these things that we called for in wales. adapt the national core northeast and build, et cetera. so i do encourage, again, i don't want to be flip, i do encourage the nations to look at their investment profiles. i am as encouraging about inside of those investment profiles hit

ing the 20% target, which is that 20% of the investment should be on recapitalization and buying capital assets which enable their militaries. but as the military, i'm more about helping them shape what they do buy and then employ what they have. >> you had a question, the gentleman in front. right here. >> sydney from breaking defense. general, i was talking the other day with general hodges about his component of command. e he talked about how very different this it russian threat is from the threat officers like you grew up with in the cold war and how it requires not only different equipment, but

different modes of operation, really a different culture in terms of initiative, decentralization, what's different about this compared to the old days and how in terms of investments, organizational structure and the culture on leadership of your forces do nato forces need to adapt to russia take two? >> okay, thanks. i call him the energizer bunny. he's one of the most -- i don't know how to say it. he's one of the most energized

commanders you've ever met out there. he's really making a great difference as he engages the armies of europe. now we're talking in my u.s. hat as ben is a u.s. commander, not a nato commander. so how do adapt? let's turn that back a little bit to when i first became the u.s. commander. two years and three months or so ago, we were looking at how we were going to bring ourselves out of afghanistan. what the draw down was going to look like in afghanistan. and then how as a u.s. commander and a nato commander we would adapt our force structure after that mission began to draw down. long before the invasion of crimea, we decided that we had become an alliance that was very

good at counterinsurgency operations. we have really perfected this business of exski quit intelligence and striking that on the ground in a e precise way at exactly the right time to get the right effects. that is an important skill set and that skill set does contribute to other military capabilities. but what we had not done for over 14 years was that larger kinetic battle that collective defense battle the ability to fight at brigade division and even core level that we just had not done forever. so even before the invasion of crimea, we began thinking about how do we adapt u.s. force capability and nato force

capability post isaf. and of course, then e we had crimea, other issues, and we saw that truly we do we saw that truly we do need to get back to our core capabilities and capacities in nato, those higher end capabilities that enable us to do collective defense when we now have a threat that demonstrates that they will change international borders by force. and so, i think it was presheci what we decided to do and we have refined the approach to build exercises and training that sort of re-enable, re-train, re-grasp those skill sets that allow us to meet our collective defense capabilities. and so you have seen a series of

exercises and pretty soon jaguar 15 in the southwest mediterrane mediterranean, primarily centering on spain, italy, et cetera. we will have a fairly large exercise to help us to hone those larger force skills. >> right in the middle. uniformed officer. thank you. >> thank you, sir. spanish defense a tachement always happy to see you. about the strategic direction south, you mention, what is the ucom's operational relationship with africa? >> okay. so the question i think is what is a -- good to see you, my friend. what is ucom's relationship with africa? so it's two fold. as you know, the afri-com

commander, my good friend rod rodriguez really has no forces assigned to him other than a marine force which is at -- as you know. and so, all of the afri-com force structure is really shared with ucom. we are a force share ere with rod rodriguez so the bases of u.s.-european command shared with our great allies like yours from no rhone around through the mediterranean are those platforms by which ucom helps support afri-com's missions. item two, clearly your nation and other nation who is are in the ucom area of responsibility are affected by everything happening in north africa. all the things happening in north africa spill across the

mediterranean into your nations. and so, ucom supporting nations like yours our relationship is how do we help you deal with those issues. so i say all the time that my command has its own war fighting responsibilities. we have our own issues. but one of the things that ucom soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines do every day is enable centcom and afri-come so we have lots of responsibilities in both directions. >> let's go back to the back. second row from the end. >> hello. i'm poland's dcm. first, thank you very much, sir, for your leadership in leading nato, you know, in this effort to reassure the allies and to deter any possible disturbance in the region.

i cannot overstate the importance of nato's presence of u.s. presence in the region as a factor to prevent any possible destability in the region. i have a question but one a centers a road for warsaw. as a historian i can't help thinking about this in historical terms. there had been different roads for warsaw in the past. better to say different powers, use those roads for different purposes. to attack poland or to attack each other. the fact that we are talking in the context of a road through about increasing nato responsiveness and readiness and capability, to prevent any possible conflict, i think it speaks to a great historical achievement of nato and how nato was efficient in breaking up the geopolitical curse over poland

and our neighbors. my question is, though, about the future. sir, you mentioned the long-term adaptation of nato in the -- as a kind of a perspective for nato summit in warsaw. could you please dwell a little bit more -- i mean, what would be the main ingredients of that adaptation and what kind of, you know, ambition we should set to ourselves to make it substantial and real. thank you. >> so thanks for that question. and the answer is a bit broad because, again, what will happen is that the military commanders, myself, the saceur an ennew -- well, in here in a couple of days we'll have a new sacdeed. denny, french air force four star. the military commanders will put on the table a series of recommendations for our

political leadership to consider. i would not want to right now sort of put that cat out in the open. but i think that you could broadly understand that they will follow along the lines of what i said before. we need to continue to develop our readiness and responsiveness. we need to continue to invest in and develop a lot of capabilities. as you know, the alliance has nations which have a lot of great what i would call blocking and tackling center of mass capabilities. ground forces. certain air forces. certain naval forces. what we lack are exquisite things like strategic lift, intelligence surveil listens and reconnaissance. cyber defense. et cetera, et cetera. so, we need to take on developing those capacities in

places where we are thin right now. and then again, as we talked about, we have -- we have already succeeded at changing the readiness and responsiveness of portions of the nrf. we need to continue to adopt the nrf but that's not the end. that's why i say through warsaw and you correctly point out that may not be the best choice of words but i'm trying to communicate. but the point is we should not stop at the nrf in addressing our readiness and responsiveness. what truly will deter nations is as we bring the entire nato force structure, even just incrementally, more ready and responsive. and to the gentleman's previous question that takes money, doesn't it? prioritization and aloe case of money in order to do that. but i think as we go through

warsaw into longer term adaptation, it's about capabilities that are shored in and about continuing to address our readiness and responsiveness. >> i think we have time for a couple more questions. right in the middle. >> thank you. let's see. is it on? okay. joseph, cis. i'm going the try to provoke a little bit, i guess. nato has a lot of very good capabilities in terms of industrial scale war. which i think it was originally designed for. this spear tip force is also a pretty impressive new addition to that in terms of how quickly it can respond. but it seems when we discuss both tra steenlgic direction south as well as strategic direction east, we are seeing a lot of shall we say a mixture of internal and external security

factors. so, you know, russia in eastern ukraine, well, there's also a separatist force there, too, which, you know, there's sort of intermingled and the ability to undermine state sovereignty even from, shall we say, from the south, as well. you know, we look at the refugees coming in on a massive scale. you know, what kind of capabilities could nato develop in order the address this sort of internal/external mix that you see? perhaps either the streamlining of the communications between the internal policing forces or even the integration thereof. that would be my question. >> so i don't see that as provocative at all. i think that's heart of the matter on what we need to look for and that's what we're talking about all the time. some people label -- you talked about two things that i have written down as hybrid and south. some people like to talk about

hybrid war. i normally call it unconventional war. hybrid makes it sound neat and new and flashy and all that. really hybrid is just old tools being applied in a different way and i call that unconventional war. and then, south. let me attack that one first because it's easier. as we talked about earlier, in the south, this problem is i think bigger than the core competencies of nato. there's a lot of thing that -- a lot of things that nato can do about the problem in the south but the answer in the south is not military. it's military plus a lot of other things. diplomatic. informational. economic. et cetera, et cetera. and so in the south, nato can continue to develop capabilities and capacities that address t