so i've been asked to introduce the introducer which is both an honor and sort of a humbling experience because if you know anything about the keynote speaker and his introducer, you'll realize that it's like being the opening band before the doubleheader of bruce springsteen and frank sinatra. but i'll shoulder on. so it is a delight for parsons and on behalf of parsons to sponsor this event and also to be able to introduce two of the

most accomplished public servants in their respective nations as well as two of the most astute analytical observers of the middle east and its prospects. i live in abu dhabi right now and i'll tell you it has been a challenging year for businesses in the region, for political folks, for government entities, and if you -- if you look at it in a snapshot, you paint a picture of all sorts of challenges and obstacles, many of which we are discussing at this conference. parsons has been in this region for 60 years. there's 4,500 of us over there right now. i think we tend to take perhaps a longer term view or open a little bit about what's going on in the region. if you do that, i think you can

find some signs of promise. i think if you actually examine some of the structural developments under way, there's reason for optimism. i see promise in the embrace of smart technology throughout that region. and if you doubt me, go visit dubai and see what they're doing in terms of integrating digital technology, analytics, artificial intelligence into actual programs to create the smartest city in the world by 2030. i see promise in sustainable growth and diverse fi indication of economic growth for the region. if you doubt me, go visit abu dhabi where there are some tremendous activities going on and projects which are pointing the way towards sustainable urban development and the

diverse economies who had been so dependent on hydro carbons. i see hope and promise in some of the cultural initiatives. and social initiatives under way in the region. if you doubt me, next time you're in riad, make sure you get a taxi with a driver who is female. or next time you're an abu dhabi, go to the island where the louvre just opened. it's the first universal museum to be opened and operating in the arab world and it's a testament to the open embrace of other cultures. finally, i see promise in the deepening of the strategic relationship and the military relationship between the gcc countries and the united states. and if you doubt me, next time you're in the region, go to the

air bases and you will see soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines working side by side with their allies and counter parts to try to create a more deeper strategic and military relationship amongst ourselves. this, ladies and gentlemen, is in large measure due to the caliber of the individuals represented by our speakers today. the uae has one of its most articulate and energetic proponents of the transformation vision that's going to create a uae that has a sense of self and state hood. has an economic development plan and has a strategic role to play far beyond its population or its gdp in the world. in general, votel, the united states has placed as the commander of perhaps its most

critical combat ant command, one of its most accomplished diplomat warriors. i would remind you that while we have thousands of men and women in uniform conducting combat operations throughout his area of operational responsibility today with our allies, the general votel are also key instruments that the united states is utilizing to try to create a new security architecture in the region, one in which the pursuit of national interests and the pursuit of sof ran objectives are in no way in conflict with the development and the nurturing of collective endeavors and of multi lateral partnerships. it's migrate pleasure to introduce his excellency.

>> thank you, bill. >> i am conscious that i am the second introducer and the final act before the main event, so i promise i'll be brief. let me start with bill. thank you for that lovely introduction. but i want to go and give a special thank you to dr. john duke anthony. dr. anthony has been one of the most active proponents for bringing people who care about this region together. not just through this conference, but all the time. the leadership that he and the council have displayed have really helped bring together the u.s. and the arab world, particularly the aa rabian gulf. really helped build very important bridges between the united states and the arab world. when we talk about the middle east, it's too tempting and too easy to focus on the challenges than on the problems.

i genuinely appreciate the council's efforts to highlight the best of the arab world and to encourage and expose the americans to the very best of our culture, our people and our leaders. it's incredibly important to show how we are building a more positive path forward for our future. dr. anthony i will say on behalf of everyone here, thank you. we are grateful for everything you and the council does to build these bridges every day. [ applause ] another thank you goes to general votel. he is very much in the present taking on some of the big challenges in some one of the most active aors. from sigh nied to syria, he

certainly has a lot on his plate and as you see, there are no shortage of threats across the region. and this brings us to the u.s./uae security partnership, a partnership that is deeply rooted in common interests and shared priorities. it was formed by political leaders but it's centcom and dod that carry this forward. working, training, fighting side by side and day by day. over the past 25 years the uae has participated in six military coalitions alongside the u.s. under centcom the uae fought with the u.s. against the taliban and afghanistan. we were there on day one in disguise against isis. and we are together now in yemen fighting al qaeda together. this partnership goes back a

long way. as far back as the late '80s and early '90s, the crown prince of abu dhabi forged a close working relationship with general schwartz cop. it was actually more than a working relationship. they developed a friendship. here we are decades later where i have the honor of introducing general votel today. it's made the region safe. but the point that gets overlooked far too often is that partnership also made the u.s. safe. there's much more to do and we have to make progress despite our best efforts against isis and al qaeda. as we do another has been gaining strength and that threat is iran. we welcome president trump's new strategy to address the full range of iranian interference and destabilization.

this includes its growing ballistic missile program, support for terrorist organizations, cyber attacks, interference in each others domestic affairs and threats to freedom of the navigation. the nuclear deal offered iran an opportunity to engage responsibly with the international community. instead it only emboldened iran to intensify its actions. in this late challenge, we can count on the uae along with other responsible countries to meet the growing threat. as we engage in these critical efforts, emirates sleep more comfortably under general votel's command in helping to keep the region secure. americans should also sleep comfortable too knowing they have the full commitment from the allied forces keeping america safe.

please join me in welcoming our keynote speaker and our friend, general joe votel. [ applause ] >> it's great to be here. your highnesses, exexcellency, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to come and speak with you this afternoon. you know you've really made it as a keynote speaker when you get selected to come and speak after a very heavy lunch. that included a large salad, bread with butter, warm baked chicken on a bed covered in mushroom sauce on a bed of warm mashed potatoes and then a chocolate cake that had no less than six layers to it. so i know my work is cut out for me or that you have great confidence in my ability to keep you going here this afternoon. but in any case, i'm very, very glad to be here. i sincerely appreciate the

opportunity to come here. your excellency, thank you very much for the kind introduction. more importantly, thank you for your personal and your country's great partnership with me and with the united states central command, more importantly with the united states of america. dr. john duke anthony, sir, thank you very much. mr. john pratt, others, thank you for the invitation to participate in this important conference. i'm accomplished -- our young people who had a chance to get up and talk and share their experience with us and i'm encouraged by events like this give us to discuss these issues and learn from each rother. i've been in command at united states central command for about 19 months. as all of you know, this is a 20 country area that spans from egypt to pakistan and from yemen

to kaz i cic stan. this has been an important region for us. in the 19 months that i've been tlr there, i would share with you right up front, first and foremost, the middle east, central and south asia that make up the central command area remains an area of extraordinary importance to the united states. we have and we have had in the past and continue to have vital national interests that intersect in this particular area. so just as this has been an important area for us in the past past, it remains an important area today in the present and it will remain an important area for us in the future. i want to assure you that as the central command commander here that this is a point that i emphasize to everybody that i speak with. the second thing i would just share with you that i've learned

in 19 months in this particular position is that partners across the region want strong and progressive relationships with the united states. without fail, every country that i've had the opportunity to visit, and i've been to virtually everywhere multiple times, there are extraordinarily strong relationships and a strong desire to work closely between bilaterally between our countries and multi laterally in a number of cases. while we may have differences politically, and we take the ups and downs of that, i'm very proud to tell you that our military to military relationships across the region have remained extraordinarily strong even through all of those ups and downs. and i'm very, very proud of the role that our military plays in sustaining these relationships. my third key point to you here about what i've learned in this position is that there are more opportunities in this region than there are obstacles. this is a very -- i think a very

important thing for meme people recognize and i think it highlights the value of the council and the work that you do that is so important to us of exposing people to this region and allowing them to come and experience arab culture, experience the countries, learn the language, get an appreciation for what is happen t ing there and be able to share that with americans and others around the world. i think this is an extraordinarily important aspect. i do feel as i look around, it's very easy. there's no shortage of things to talk about in the central command region. you can pick iraq or afghanistan or syria or yemen or any other areas that generally we have conflict in, but the fact of the matter is it is extraordinarily important to recognize that all of this are great opportunities to move forward. that's the key thing that i've learned about this. i really like the theme that has been introduced today. how best to navigate an

uncertain present and future. and i think this is a very pertinent question here as we look at this particular region. as the united states central command commander, i've often talked about this with my military leadership. we've devised a very simple approach that we use in thinking about this region. it can be encapsulated in three simple word. prepare. pursue. prevail. i'll talk a little bit about each of these. in preparing, we not only ensure our access and basing and appropriate arrangements with different partners in the area, but we also ensure that we have developed strong partnerships across the region. and that we've developed a level of understanding with granularity about the region, about the culture, about the challenges and about the opportunity that exists for us. first and foremost our principle focus is on preparing. second of all, we desire to pursuit opportunities. we look for places where there

are opportunities to move forward in supporting our national interests and the interests of our valued partners in the region. and so we look actively for opportunities to pursue, to move forward and move forward in areas where we have common objectives. finally we look for ways to prevail. we recognize that conflicts today don't normally end the way they ended in world war ii with a parade down the middle of new york city. one of the most poignant pictures i've seen is a picture taken from mosul here several months ago and it showed prime minister abadi surrounded by all of his security leadership in downtown mosul surrounded by the people. as i looked at that, that's what reveiling looks like. that's what winning looks like today. it's about our partners achieving their objectives and us being value to them. in 1789 george washington wrote a letter to muhammad abdullah,

at the time the sultan of morocco in his letter he wrote within our territories there are no mines weather of gold or silver. this young nation just recovering from the waste and dis l dissolution of a long war has not had time to acquire riches by alcultural or commerce, but our soil is bountiful and we shall become useful to our friends. united states has come a long way over the last 230 years, but the desire of the united states to be of importance and value to our allies and partners in the arab world has not changed. this instance clearly shows that we pressure our long held relationships not only in north africa but specifically for me and the members of the united

states central command in the middle east. it also underscores that now more than ever we will need each other to face the many challenges and opportunities in front of all of us. what i'd like to talk with you about today is the perspective of a military leader on how he is approaching and how we are approaching the concept of partnership in central command area of responsibility. more broadly across the globe with many of our partners. it is an approach born of failure, lessons learned, and expenditure of national treasure. both by us, the united states, and by our partners. as many of you know, central command is leading a 62 member international coalition and conducting a campaign to defeat the so-called islamic state of iraq and syria or isis. in both iraq and syria, we have largely used an approach that we call buy, with, and through to achieve our military, humanitarian, and political objectives within the confines

of our respective national policies. this means conducting military campaigns by employing and using and enabling partner maneuver forces with the support of u.s. enabling capabilities through a coordinated legal and diplomatic framework. and we employed this approach dchtly differently in both iraq and syria. in iraq we are conducting the campaign by supporting the iraqi security forces with coalition intelligence, logistics and lethal fire support through legal and diplomatic agreements with the government of iraq and with all of our coalition partners. the number of coalition forces in the theater is relatively low. and tailored to support the iraqi security forces. the iraqi security forces themselves have improved through this approach since the dark days of 2014. operations in mosul as i've talked about just a moment ago have freed millions of people

from the chains of isis and life has begun to return to the city. recently the iraqi security forces for the first time in their history conducted simultaneous operations in more than one location. recent operations all projected to take weeks and months were concluded in less than two weeks. coalition resources did support them. but make no mistake that the security forces of iraq were the lead the entire time. in syria we face a more complicated and political and military environment in fighting isis. the united states does not have a policy which supports large scale involvement in the syrian civil war. therefore, as the regime campaigns against the opposition to regain control of its territory, it must deal with isis along the way. russia and iran have both have large scale presence in syria and are operating at the assad

regime's invitation. leading to a congested operating environment and inflaming an already complex political situation. the defeat isis campaign in this environment has a much different character. although russia, iran, and to an extent the syrian regime all want to remove sis and its influence from syria, each actor has varying degrees to which they are willing to tolerate isis presence and they all have different interests and objectives in the long term. the coalition, on the other hand, has the sole objective of military defeat of isis. in some parts of the country the d dynamic has led to a case of converging forces, but diverging interests. since we could not partner with the syrian regime armed forces we chose to support an organization called the syrian

democratic forces. in this case it means employing syrian democratic fighting forces with coalition assistance through a coordinated framework. equally represented by syrian kurds and syrian arabs who have created a framework of operating cooperatively with the coalition. the establishment of civil council as a result of this arrangement made up of syrian civic leaders from the local area, once an area has been cleared of isis, has aided in alleviating governance concerns. by and large this approach is working well and has facilitated the reintroduction of local control and the return of displaced persons to their homes. another partner with whom we are conducting a buy, with, and through approach as you heard mentioned is the united arab of emirates as we operate together in yemen. the u.s. and the uae share the

common national interests of eradicating terrorism and in this case terrorism at the hands of al qaeda and sis. we have adapted our approach here so that u.s. advisers and in some cases are enabling capabilities work with emirate forces as they employ a very successful by, with and through strategy. this hybrid approach works well supporting our counterterrorism objectives but reinforcing a local approach and more importantly local ownership over the solution. and that is the goal. local solutions to local problems and u.s. assistance where and when our national security interests are affected. as i briefly touched upon while discussing syria, countering the influence of outside state actors as we work by, with, and through our local partners remains a complex dynamic in this region. specifically iran has exerted

its influence in a few different way which is require u.s. and coalition forces to adjust our methods. iran's express desire to build larger influence both literally and developing the tehran beirut access and figuratively by increasing military and political influence in places like syria, yemen, iraq and other places around the region causes concern among our numerous arab partners in the region. in this light, we are keen to use a by, with, and through approach to address iran's manifest maligned behavior with the partners, both in and outside of the region. so why does this approach work? why does by, with and through work? as i mentioned, it allows the u.s. to assist allies and partners in the region without requiring a national policy that allows -- that requires a large scale deployment of forces. this approach also enables local actors to address local issues encouraging local ownership of

the solutions and capitalizing on the much deeper understanding of regional dynamics that only our local partners can have. there are, however, num roerous challenges associated with they might not conduct in the same manner that the u.s. or a coalition partner might. in such cases we'd have to do our best to understand the reasons why or let our partners know our thoughts on other ways to accomplish the same objectives. but in the final analysis, those doing the fighting, the local forces are calling the shots. there's also the dynamic of pace of operations. we are getting better at realizing that the operations will go at the pace of our partners. sometimes fast. sometimes slow. whether it is slower or quicker than anticipated, our partners always have the lead. for example, just over the last weekend in the city of raqqa, the syrian democratic forces on

their own halted cooperations to include the coalition support to them to allow more of the civilian population and a number of local isis fighters to surrender and evacuate the city. they, because of their cultural understanding, their deep tribal relationships, realized the importance of protecting the local population with whom they wanted to work once isis is defeated. and as i previously mentioned, there have been operations where the iraqi security forces have -- that the iraqi security forces have conducted that were completed much faster than the coalition forces would have been anticipated. easy these two examples highlight in many, many other cases they could cite to you, those of us who look to work closely with your regional partners m partners must be prepared. why am i sharing all of this with you? because for the foreseeable

future, coalition campaigns and the approach of working by, with and through our regional partners is absolutely key to how many of our common objectives will be accomplished. in fact, we internally to the u.s. department of defense are working to see what aspects of this approach should be included into our training and force management systems. many of our services, my service, the united states army in particular, are taking measures now to develop forces that are specifically designed for this type of warfare. one of the tasks at hand is to define the overall concept of by, with and through. in more refined language, that lends itself to further development and discussion. and it's not just a military problem. by, with and through applies to our diplomatic, economic and law enforcements partners as well. it is a comprehensive approach. key to any def fig of by, with and through is the understanding that any support we give to

partner forces must be through a coordinated legal and diplomatic framework. it is this framework that will form the legal basis for any action and provide guidelines for the employment of not only the partner forces but of course our capabilities. additionally, we have to refine the term partner carefully and continuously. the relationship between the partner and the legal framework can spell the difference between success and failure at the strategic level. there by directly supporting or potentially undermining any diplomatic efforts. there are also other numerous unsettled definitions that we will be working to define and several changes of policy that we'll need to explore in order to facilitate more effective execution of this approach of by, with and through. and while much of the analysis is going on, we have had discussions about this approach at the highest levels within the department of defense and certainly with all of our partners. to me the philosophy has always

made sense. but now it is time to codify this approach. we owe it to our regional partners to be as clear as possible in what we mean when we say by, with and through. i'd like to leave you with one final thought. at the time of george washington's letter, neither could have possibly foreseen our current strategic environment. the letter was a statement of commitment to become useful to our friends. the united states is now more powerful than it was back then and able to make good on some of its promises. and to the extent that i and the united states central command am able to help, we will. and as i look -- and as we look forward to the greater development of u.s. arab relationships in the future, we would do well to remember that a simple commitment between friends can be more powerful than violence, extremism and oppression. thank you once again for the

invitation to speak with you this afternoon and sharing my thoughts with you. i trust that our partnership and friendship will continue to strengthen over time with all of our partners in this very important region as we work together on these and other important issues. thank you very much.

[ applause ] >> we'll take a break now until 3:30 when the next presentation will begin which is an exciting one. close your eyes for a moment. stretch -- close your eyes. i see you. trust me. empathy. i want you to stretch your

imagination. open your eyes. that's how fast it happens. in a blink no. warning. >> sunday night on q & a, executive director of paralyzed veterans of america and retired u.s. marine corp officer sherman gilums jr. talks about his own par ral sis and his work to help paralyzed vets. >> i'm trying to tell them this is the problem. from a paper perspective, from an advocate's perspective, you have to empathize. that's what will make it v.a. the ideal provider for veterans who have gone to combat and sacrificed. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on cspan's q & a. >> the boston federal reserve president says he expects three to four rate hikes next year. starting in december. the american enterprise

institute recently hosted economic scholars and banking sector experts on monetary policy issues. speakers analyze the impact of past federal reserve actions on small and large financial institutions. this is an 1:45. >> good morning and welcome to the american enterprise institute. this morning we have a very interesting policy session entitled how has a decade of extreme monetary policy changed the banking system. we've assembled a panel of experts who we'll introduce you to in a minute, but before that, let me just set the stage here. as you all know, the financial crisis changed the banking system. the resolutions that happened in the crisis integrated commercial and invest ment banking like never before. these resolutions created today's too big to fail