tonight, a look at how cities can prevent attacks by violent extremists. automakers and regulators talk about self-driving cars and education secretary betsy devos addresses a group of educates across the country. we'll start with remarks from michael duffin on counter terrorist recruitment. good afternoon and welcome

to the first monday, the first working monday in january. this is partnership of three organizations. my name is adam powell. i am the director of washington operations of the university of southern california and president of the public diplomacy council. those are two of the partners in the monthly event. the third part any is the public policy alumni association. i'm pleased to have the president of that organization here to also welcome you. >> it's my pleasure to welcome all of you and if i could take a moment to just highlight three events that many of you will be interested in. >> the office of historian of the department of state is putting out the volume of the foreign relations of the united states. the documents for public

diplomacy from 1961 to 1963, which is the kennedy period when many of us date back to. you have to sign up in advance and i think it will be a very interesting exploration of the history of public diplomacy. secondly, one of the things pdaa does is provides awards for the current great public diplomacy the work that the department of state, public diplomacy officers are doing. we give the awards in may and we're beginning to request nominations through the state department over the next month or so. i would ask any of you with contacts in the field to encourage them to nominate there people doing good work for that award. if any of you who are members or would like to consider being members, would like to contribute to the award fund you're more than welcome.

thirdly on february 12th at noon we'll have our lunch program over at decor house called democracy ain human rights and diplomacy. we look forward to many of you coming. kwou wi you will get information in our newsletter that will be arriving on your doorstep on january 22. also digitally. thanks very much. thanks. we have a fourth organization which has been essential these six years of the programs. to today's program, cities and combatting violent extremism. our speaker is mike duffin. his full bio is in your package. he's been a schoolteacher. he has contributed to article in the chicago tribune, chicago sun times and other publications and

he is someone who holds three advance degrees. he has one from johns hopkins in international relations. he had one from northernwerts in journalism and one from the university of southern california this public diplomacy. the floor is yours. [ applause ] >> there is a price to pay with that education. i want to thank you for inviting me to speak and you for showing up. can you hear me now? >> no. >> should i -- >> it helps if the mike is turned on. >> can you hear me now? >> yes. >> thank you for coming.

i know the weather warmed up a bit but it's still cold. i would like to thank adam for the public diplomacy council for inviting me to speak and thank you for being here. we have a diverse group of people in the audience. i'll keep the jargon and acr acronyms to a minimum. if some reason you don't have chance to ask me a question, look me up on twitter. i'm happy to respond there as well. i'd like to begin by talking about the last couple of years. we have seen a disturbing up tick in the number of mass casualty incidents in cities. many have been perpetrated by isis and its supporters. prior to november 2015, isis was urging supporters to come to the so called caliphate in syria and iraq.

tens of thousands of men, women and children answered that call. with paris and other attacks they were telling their supporters to commit acts of violence in their own communities using whatever means necessary. the attacks listed here are h t meant to show the geographic diversity. some were instructed by isis while others were merely inspired by them. some used explosives. some used firearms. some used knives and others use vehicles to kill and injure dozens of people. at the state department, we are both proactive and reactive in our approach to defeating isis. this is what we refer to as ct. we often say we cannot arrest our way out of the problem which is why countering violent extremism is so important. it's an umbrella term for range of activities focused on

prevention, integration. you'll hear some people use building resilience against violent extremism. you'll hear some people say building social cohesion. the focus is actual activities that are directed towards countering isis and other groups. which requires a considerable amount of trust. third, we need stake holders to share practices, good practices with each other. we say good, not best practices because certainly no one has

found way to absolutely counter prevent violent extremism while other -- every community is unique, there's a lot someone in lebanon could learn from someone in montreal and vice versus. we need the good practices institutionalized so when the educator or community leader takes a different position when they move on, we need someone who can take their place and pick up where they left off. lastly, we need to bring more stake holders into the fold. at the most granular level cve is about engaging at risk individuals and ensuring they build up enough resilience to reject violent extremism. we need parents, educators, coaches, counselors, business leaders to get involved. we may not consider an internship, a cve program but if it's training at at risk individual, later on they will

be more likely to resist the rekrur recruitment pitch of a violent educatio organization. the network started with 25 members and now has 125. not all members face the significant threat from isis. some face threats from the far right and some face threats from the far left. there are currently ten u.s. members of the strong cities network. members connect online and in person through workshops, annual global meetings and exchanges. the united states and several other governments support it and it's run through the london based institute through strategic dialogue.

in addition to our direct support, my office works closely with the state department's international visitor's leadership program to develop exchanges that support participation in the network. in march, 2016, the inaugural brought one city official and one civil society representative from ten scn members to the united states for three weeks. such exchanges help expose exchange visitors to good practices in the u.s. and help spread awareness among cities. it's built in alumni network. in fact, at least five members of the original scn ivlp have been to both annual meetings. they keep in touch on facebook and have collaborated with each other on their work. in may 2016, turkey hosted the

global meeting. about 200 people from 40 countries attended this event that highlighted the diversity of the network. we had the chattanooga mayor speaking there. we had a major from mnigeria tak about his experience being abdu abducted. a year later denmark hosted the second annual global meeting. this time about 500 people from 50 countries attended.

right over here we have the mayor. i'm going talk about him a bit in the slide. it's partnership between the state department and the department of homeland security office of civil rights and civil liberties. this two way exchange program has connected about 20 cities around the world with u.s. counter parts. our embassy identify the international cities first and work with dhs to identify -- we work with dhs to identify the appropriate u.s. partner city. we try to identify cities with complementary skill sets and those that express an interest

in maintaining a connection beyond the exchange. these cities aren't necessarily part of the strong cities network. some of them are and we those who are not we encourage them to join. one point i want to mention is when people think of cities to partner with international cities, the first one may be like los angeles or minneapolis. when you have repeated delegations going to the same city, that's taxing on their schedules and we want connections that people who have the time, capacity to engage their international counter parts. let's say today we exchange business cards. we want connections where when we introduce them to their u.s. counter parts they have the ability and the interest in following up and forming partnerships that require a lot of time and effort. each delegation has five to nine people and typically include someone from the mayor's office, law enforcement official, religious leader and

representatives from civil society. one delegation will spend a week in the other's city meeting with range of stakeholders and a few months later the two cities will trade roles. it's hard to quantify the success of a program but in one case we can. there was once the highest per capita number of people departing from their city to syria and iraq. after updating their community engagement strategy following the exchange, the departures suddenly stopped. we recognize there are multiple factors involved but we have heard from several cities how the exchanges helped. we were able to bring the mayor and brpolice chief. they were able to participate in this exchange.

if earlier this year we did an exchange between -- last year we did an exchange between london and los angeles. it was not feasible to ask mayor kahn to participate in that exchange. we were able to get the deputy mayor of los angeles, the deputy police chief to participate. it's just to say there's value in engaging smaller cities. these exchanges may have more of an impact. in december 2016, we partnered with orlando and tampa. we had this exchange planned before the pulse night club attack. there was nothing that we knew about a threat there. for this exchange we arrange meet wings with mayors of orlan

and tampa. such engagements allow us to put cbe on the radar of u.s. mayors who can champion this issue better than i can. the one thing i want to know about the mayor is he has been very generous with his time. i met with him on several occasions. we had an ivlp from canada come through orlando recently. we had a meeting scheduled with the mayor's office, not necessarily with the mayor and he decided when he saw this group was in, he decided to meet with them and spoke to them for about an hour or so. for mayor of a major u.s. city that's extraordinary, that commitment to this issue. this past december we brought a delegation from manchester to boston. both cities, as you know, have experienced major terrorist attacks. manchester wanted to learn about boston's efforts to promote resilience following the boston

marathon bombing. some of the delegates never worked together. spending a week in boston helped them build critical relationships. they also developed some ideas for new programming based on boston's efforts to engage at risk youth. i was there. we visited a gymnasium that trains young people who have recently been incarcerated. trained them to become personal trainers and there's a mentoring component to that. that was one example where the delegation for manchester were really excited about the program and not to say they will necessarily develop a program exactly like that, but they were inspired by that. as we speak, a delegation from boston is traveling to manchester for the second half of that exchange. in april, we brought representatives from ten cn

members from macedonia to the u.s. they have had the highest per capita number of people to depart for syria and iraq. this exchange exposed them to good practices in the u.s. and helped them connect to each other. we chose to send this delegation to tennessee and georgia to learn about integration in the civil rights movement. they met with the mayors of nashville and also visited atlanta. one thing i'd like to point out, they are not necessarily comparable to the -- they're large cities are not comparable to our large cities. for me, it doesn't make sense to send a group to new york or los angeles and that's not to say that atlanta is a small city but in the case of chatanooga, 130,000 people t population, they did have the opportunity to sit down and meet with the

mayor, police chief. everybody involved in the attack from two years ago. that was extraordinary for this group and quite inspiring for them. some of the members of the delegation. one has become a member of parliament. one is the national cbe coordinator for kosovo now and one is the minister of sports. we've had nice returns in terms of deliverables for that. i'd like to talk about the next steps. a few of the things we're planning in the future. we will expect 40 to 50 mayors. this is part of an ongoing

relationship we've had with u.s. conference of mayors. they meet twice a year. it's the one forum for ul u.s. mayors to get together, talk about cross cutting policy issues and to network. when i've attended, i'm looking for cities that would be interested in hosting ivlp delegations. r.n.ing to i listening to mayors talk about their priority it helps opportunities for them. if they have a program they are

trying to champion. they are very open to sharing that internationally. i'll give you one example. anaheim mayor, i've been speaking to him for the last two years at the u.s. conference of mayor's meeting in indianapolis in june 2016. i learned about his city of kindness initiative. i didn't realize when i started talked to him that he's really good friends with the dali lama. that's just to say when i asked him to travel to denmark for the strong cities global meeting, part of my pitch to him was hey, this initiative, a lot of other cities in other countries would really be interested in it. the mayor of nashville, when we brought that delegation there, the mayor has this initiative called the office of new americans where they help

integrate newly lly arrived immigrants into society. that was what helped us set up that meeting. listening to mayors and their priorities is critical for this partnership. next month we're having the mayors of louisville and anaheim and possibly one other mayor travel to india. right now we only have one member in india. we hope to increase memberships and get cities more active. major major tate was so impressed with

what he saw that he wants to launch a yearlong campaign. it's the strong cities network messaging campaign on kindness. one thing i'll note about this, not all cities, violent extremism isn't an immediate major concern for all cities. granted, there are attacks in places where it's quite surprising like that town, that really small town in texas a couple months ago. that being said, mayors are not going to allocate huge amount of resources just because it's topic of the day or whatever. it's just to say that by investing or getting mayors to invest in social cohesion, kind of a know your neighbor kind of initiative, that's something that some cities can buy into and you know it's not going to upset advocacy groups or whatever. that's just to say this delegation is really important

for us because it's sending these high level mayors to, priority country for us. please follow twitter and i'll update you on the progress of that. next i'd like to talk to you about the south by southwest festival. we have two panels. one is local leadership in the wake of terror. that will feature the mayors of chatanooga, orlando and manchester. i'm going to moderate which will feature some of our domestic and civil society partners. he's traveled to the netherlands to engage in a speaker program

for us. we certainly, when we find mayors or cities that are willing to engage, we engage them as much as we can. we don't want to overuse those connections. you know, i think sometimes mayors they get hammered in the press by their opponents to say they are traveling on an international junket. with tglobal meeting in denmark the mayors of anaheim and chatanooga wasn't up to par with anyone in this room yet alone the mayors of major u.s. cities. it's just to say if we ask them once, we have to really think about asking them twice. we have to make sure that experience is good for them so that they will recommend these programs to other mayors because we really do want to send u.s. mayors out there to twop

connections between cities. our role is to facilitate that connection. this concludes the formal component in my presentation. i'm happy to answer any and all of your questions. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> i see one hand up already. >> thank you. >> the trump administration has been anti-immigration. i'm wondering what the impact of

this attitude is on getting cooperation from muslim and immigrant communities and cities around the country? >> we're the state department. it's hard for me to talk and necessarily -- >> come up in your discussion? >> it's something that i would just say that the hay your-- ma with we talk with, they're looking -- i think they recognize -- they recognize our role, the state departments and it's just to say that it's just an issue that the, you know, i think we talk on a more minute level about -- more of a working level about the issues and for some people it's not a concern. the when people have concerns we

note them. it's just to say that for us, our programs are focused on the tactic, the ideology and not connecting it necessarily to the muslims or islam. i would just say that for us, i think any conversation we have regardless of what one person or another says, there are challenges and we try and work through them. >> thoouank you. i'm wondering ho ining how your

intersects with the state department and is focused on counter terrorism but specifically countering violent extremism. thank you. >> thank you. we work closely with the global engagement center. they've actually helped us with funding some of our activities. it's something we're all one happy family. the resources that we get don't necessarily cover -- they don't necessarily meet the demand for programming. i'm trying to speak plainly as i can. we don't have all the money in the counter terrorism bureau. for certain activities we'll go to our you abureau. the mayoral delegation to india. that ri funding t-- they are

funding bringing the mayors from germany, ireland and the uk. we definitely do work with them and we definitely do work with them. >> sherry mueller. what is the extent your work with a strong cities network relates to the sister cities international network, other may mayoral networks such as the one that focuses on hiroshima and the anti-nuclear set of mayors that are concerned. there's 250 of them. >> how to you interact with these already existing programse already existing programs? how already existing programs?

>> the strong cities network is not meant to compete with any existing network. in many cases we look for ways to complement each other. as i mentioned before, the institute for strategic dialogue they are the implementers. they run the strong cities they recollect. they are concerned about keeping the lights on and their organizations but in terms of connectivity, we definitely look for those opportunities. when we're trying to partner in international city with u.s. city in terms of the city program. if they are already sister cities then that's a bonus. it's just to say that the network, i think, it succeeds because it's not trying to take the place of any other network and, you know, we encourage the institute for strategic dialogue to be friendly with any and all other networks out there.

>> mike, retired foreign services officer. is your model applicable to other glow ball problems and if so is state using your model to attack other global issues. i'm thinking particularly of the climate change issue. i've read a lot of many americans and governors seem interested in that issue. i'm wondering if they are count countering. is there a possibility of fatigue in terms of foreign cities especially being asked to partner with state on problem x, y or z. do you see that a problem? >> i think we didn't invent the two way exchange. the twinning program. i don't know who started such

partnerships but it's just to say that the model can be used for multiple policy priorities and certainly the connections and i'll just say this, when we're sending a mayor from the united states overseas and most of the places where we're sending these mayors, they don't have direct connections with the u.s. and it's a long travel time. what we try and sell them on is you are going to travel fp we're paying for it, you're going to discuss our policy priorities. whatever their opinions are of them but if those, if it leads to further connections or discussion of other topics, by all means. when we're bringing the international mayors to the united states for the u.s. conference of mayors winter

meeting, they have an entire day on their schedule of networking with other mayors. i would say that's a bonus. that's a good way, that's an incentive for us to engage mayors because i'll give you one example with denmark. if you haven't worked on counter violent extremism, you probably have not heard of that city which is a lovely city. i've been there twice. because of their great work engaging at risk, they're at risk population they have created an international reputation. i think that that opens the door for further conversation on other issues. >> retired foreign service officer. i'm just wondering when you're trying to identify the people to talk to in foreign cities, foreign countries or when you're

going through the embassy, what officer within the embassy to you work with? do you work with public affairs or the political section or who are the people that are your y liaisons with the people on the ground? >> it's a public program. i'm a foreign affairs officer. initiatives like the strong cities network, as you're listening to me talk about them, it's obvious that there's a nexus with public diplomacy. when we talk about a whole of government, whole of society approach, we need a whole of washington and whole of embassy approach. when it's a small embassy,

that's easier to do because the people are typically, as you know, close to each other. in other cases like you probably know like in bangladesh, the public affairs section and the political section are in completely different buildings over a mile apart. it's just to say that we try and coordinate with everybody. the one thing i would like to do with future exchanges, it's secure some funding so that when the participants return home, every time there's an exchange, people come back with ideas and to have a little bit of funding to provide them to for seed funding. that's not to say there's definitely room for improvement on these programs. >> thanks. my question duck tails on what

you just said. in terms of follow up where you have one or two participants from a city and how much effect they have on the rest of the population. do you have any sense of what those projects or policies might be? how are they taking the information they learned and implementing that at home to have a wider affect? >> in one case, in the case of france and belgium with exchanges when we had people from both countries, when there's the distance isn't too great. they are traveling to the other person's city and helping them kind of assess their issues and what they can do. i can tell you that of the groups i mentioned that we edge gauge, whether it's an educator or religious leader or let's say

a mental health professional, counselor, religious leaders aren't experts on counselling and counselors aren't necessarily experts in religious doctrine. when we can put people who haven't been in a room together on a seven to one week to three week trip, not to say they necessarily become best friends but they know each other better. they have one coordinator. that doesn't mean that anaheim has a cve coordinator or let's say seattle. these individuals when they connect with people from other cities then they are able to console each other. to provide mentorship or

partnership and so, i think that's one of the values of the strong cities network. it's great when we can connect mayors but it's the working level people who are working on these issues and there's no one else in the building who knows what they are dealing with. we like to talk about metrics. how do we know -- that was your question. how do we know what we're funding is working. i think it's important for them to connect. they have and i would say that i definitely don't want to take the credit for everything that i presented on. it's critical our embassies identify the right people. not so say i've seen a bad exchange but i've seen some really good exchanges and it's because they were able to recruit dynamic people.

just because someone is the highest ranking, doesn't mean they're the best fit for that exchange. having those connections whether it's through the public affairs or the political sections, it's critical that they recruit these people. the biggest, one of the biggest challenges we have with these exchanges, we're offering a free trip to the united states. they all cannot necessarily accept them because it's really difficult to take one to three weeks off and they are scared to death of while they're away there's a terrorist attack or just the optics of it all. it require a lot of ground work.

there's a lot of relationship building that takes place and i think the two way exchanges are really fwogood for those cities have put in a lot of effort. like the ivlp is like a conversation starter where you want them to build political will. they already have the will and take their efforts to the next level. >> i have not worked for state department. i work for cloud flare which is an internet security firm. i was curious how many time you and mayors are spending talking about the web, particularly three different aspects. some countries there's talk of trying to sensor the internet and block jihadist content. other countries taking a smarter

approach. looking at those websites and trying to understand what's going on and counter their messages. probably the most positive response are cities and countries that are trying to build online communities and provide some of the community that is often lacking immigrant communities and elsewhere. are there cities that are doing interest things and can you point us to them? >> i would just say messaging at this point on the city level, i'm not going say i'm not aware of it but it's just to say it's not as developed as the national level messaging or private sector counter messaging and for us, getting the mayor of anaheim, getting a messaging campaign out, that's something that is acceptable when you talk about let's spread kindness.

let's have one group from one ethnicity or one group talk to another group. that's palatable for a lot of people. when you talk about directly counter terrorist narratives, that's quite challenging. our policy is not to -- if you take down content then that can reenforce some of the grievances that led people to these groups. i think that's important that we recognize that we have to promote free speech. then also, a lot of social media companies they have been updating their user agreements. we all have been on the various sites and you can access some nasty information by extremist

groups. i think there's a smart way to do it while protecting civil rights and free speech. kind of the next step for the strong cities network when we, as we develop strong relationships with cities they also have really good relationships with the private sector and i, mike duffin, representative of the u.s. government going to twitter or facebook they may not be as receptive as a mayor or someone from the community approaching them. it's just to say that it's a challenge but it's something that we're trying to find the right approach. >> are any of the mayors you talk to discussing the idea of isis fighters returning from the battlefield? maybe the ones in belgium or

trance or places like that or does that not bubble up to your level? >> it bubbles up to my level. i'll just say the one thing it's very challenging issue is when you have entire families who went to iraq and syria and granted the government can arrest the male and possibly the female and send them to prison for a certain amount of time. the child hasn't necessarily committed a crime but that child is exposed to trauma which should not be left unattended. i think it's something that there are a lot of cities that have their hands full with this issue. it's something that will take a long time for them to figure out

what to do. i think that's why it's critical that we engage mental health professionals, educators and others. post- 9/11 we've had if you see something, say something. it's important to teach, to educate people about what they're seeing and what to do about it when they see that. what we've been doing is working with other governments on the local and national level to develop programs in the pre-crime space so that if a young, let's sigh ay an 8-year- boy in whatever country the teacher catches him or her watching isis videos. that's not necessarily a crime. what do you do about that? also the challenges in several countries, they don't have a lot of people who are trained to be

mental health professionals and what not. one example, bangladesh, 260 million people they have less than 260 people fully certified mental health professionals. how do we partner with them on this issue. that's not to say we will ramp up the number of people certified from 5,000 to 10,000, more how do we train parents and coaches and all the people i mentioned to deal with these issues. the one area we've found a lot offer tile ground with is working with parents. ultimately you look at the case studies of people who have committed violent acts, what did people around them know? in some cases, people, they knew something was off but weren't able to connect the dots.

by engaging parents, teaching them, you know, what to do, that's been very helpful but the number of returning foreign fighters is quite significant. in some cases it impacts some communities disproportionately. it's definitely an issue on the minds of many mayors. but it's a challenge harnessing the number of resources that are necessary. >> it sounds like this is one of the areas where you are developing best practices or good practices. how do you disseminate them once you've identified positive approaches to the mayors involved and to others? >> one example is the strong

cities has an online hub and so we don't necessarily expect the mayor to access the website, but it's important that there is one place to go where people can go to look for this information. a working level person from the city. i also mentioned the global -- the gctf, global counter-terrorism forum, the united states and other countries have invested in, called the life cycle to radicalization of violence initiative. if you google it, i know it's a mouthful. if you google it, there's a website that constantly is updated with good or best practices. the one thing i'll point out, adam, is that to join for support a terrorist organization like isis, there's all this information on the internet. you google isis or key terms.

find a website or chat room. someone will engage you. there are tool kits, how to commit violent acts, the magazine, "inspire" or "savagery" teaches you how to do all this stuff and then you have mentorship, you can connect with people online. to counter-terrorist groups, we do have the information out there, but people don't necessarily know how to access it and they don't have the mentorship. people holding their hands. if you want to start a -- here's the question, if you want to start a cbe program in your city, how do you do that? i would say the cities i have in mind to do such programs are not interested or some on my radar

are very entrusted. we have to explain what we're doing. the strong cities network is designed to encounter all forms of violent extremism. in the bylaws we're not targeting one religion or ethnic group. if a mayor says, i want to join the strong cities network, they have a press release and all of a sudden community groups have a right to be concerned but it's just to say that it's important when ever we have conversations about what we want to do, we walk people through it and explain we're not trying to discriminate, not trying to target the first amendment, as you know, the establishment clause does not allow us to promote one form of religion over another.

that's all reflected in our approach. >> you've already touched on the importance healthcare providers and religious players are in the network, i'm wondering how they can be more involved in the future? >> if i could just talk about the practical aspect, when we have our events, melbourne, australia, is hosting the next global meeting in may. then, los angeles will likely host it in 2019. it costs a lot of money, as you know, to travel to australia or even to los angeles. so if the state department or another organization has some funding, we're lucky if we could bring one or two people from a city. certainly, i mentioned the people we brought to denmark in may. if we had unlimited funding we could have brought 10, 15

mayors, because there's definitely a lot of interest in it. it's just to say we need a way to -- we need to bring in the private sector to sponsor some of this -- some of these activities. we at the state department don't necessarily have to be involved. it doesn't have to necessarily -- if two cities want to connect on this topic and they don't want to be part of the strong cities network, that's fine. if there's a way to facilitate those connections, great. logistically, it's difficult to bring everybody on an exchange. that being said, i think there's a way -- obviously whether it's skype or google hangout or something, we do need to have forums, where a larger contingency from a city can connect with international

counterparts and, you know, i mentioned the western balkans we did in april. we met with a community called clarkston, a suburb of atlanta. they've accepted somewhere around -- if you google them you will see a lot of articles around the world about this tiny little community, 1 square mile. 10,000 people they accepted 40,000 refugees over the last four decades. apparently once people spend a year or two and move somewhere nearby. we met with everybody in the community, not all 10,000 people but we -- on a sunday afternoon, we had about 200 people pack in this community center who wanted to meet with our exchange visitors. i do think religious leaders, there are challenges engaging

them. we have to find ways to work with that. we can't do without them. >> from albany associates, i've been working in east africa on pcb programs. i was wondering what is the process to engage in the strong cities network. some of the areas in east africa had strong terror attacks. what is the engagement with the cities? civil society or government or isd or embassy? it would be good to know about the work you do. >> thank you for the work you do. albany and associates, i've heard a lot of good things about your organization. if you do have an organization in mind that you think should work with the network, i would just say the e-mail -- you can just go to the website, strong

cities network.org. their e-mail is info@strongcitiesnetwork.org. introduce yourself. they will set up a conference call and kind of figure out what you're doing, what you want to do, what's realistic. and for us, we've done workshops, we do exchanges. besides what i talked about with bringing international delegations to the united states, what we want to do, the next iteration of the strong cities network, to do -- i don't want to call them microexchanges but they're best practices or good practices in, let's say tanzania, and we want to connect those people with counterparts in kenya. believe it or not, you know, when i was in southern california, in march, there are

people who, when i was talking to one municipality they didn't know what the municipality next door was doing. that's not something we or dhs need to fund because they're literally right next to each other. it's just say that finding opportunities for communities to connect and to talk about these issues, i would say the network wants to engage and find areas of synergy for your issues. as i said before, it's not trying to be the only network. the only way to truly defeat isis is coalition national governments, you need to find a

way for civil society to work with each other. one of the challenges in the united states, i can tell you, like mayor burke for example he meets once every three or four months with religious leaders. if he doesn't they will let him know the next time he tries to get re-elected. in atlanta, every park program that engages more targeted at risk youth it's funded by coca-cola or other organization and in other countries social responsibility is not necessarily the same as here in the united states. i would say, we definitely need to find ways to work with -- if you're being funded by the united states or another government, how your efforts can

coordinate each other. coordination takes a lot of time. certainly, we could fill our entire schedules diaries with coordination information. we will coordinate but there won't be a lot to coordinate because we're not getting anything done. it's a catch-22, as you know. >> this is jack from albany associates also. you were talking about mentoring and what's been your experience with life after hate and others like that building up a partnership for mentoring and domestic radicalization programs that bring people away from radicalizing and being part of hate group and partnering with

other international groups to do the same thing, kind of build a consensus and mentoring platform? >> i've worked quite closely with christian vigilini and othe others. we don't have to reinvent the wheel. work to counter white supremacist groups, gang prevention, suicide prevention, alcoholics unanimous, girls and boys club. there is a wealth ofable th kno that we have. with life after hate, this organization comprised of former skinheads, white supremists, whatever you want to call them. one of the challenges working

with formers, as you know, is that a former isn't necessarily the best case manager or the best spokesperson for your cause. if they're speaking out against violence, is there a way we can amplify their message. the same is true of religious leaders they'll say violence is bad and these terrorists have nothing to do with our religion, hey, do you want to partner with the u.s. government? they may not want to. it may hurt their cause by being seen as being cozy with us. is there a way we can provide training or, you know, at least point them in the right direction. i think that's why private sector, charitable organizations, it's important that -- it's easy for me to stand here and say companies should donate for cbe causes.

i think at the end of the day that would be critical. with life after hate, it's important we find ways to engage with those organizations. we've sent christian and other people, we've sent them to speak all around the world. i think there's something about formers when they speak, i'm amazed all of you showed up to hear me speak. i think it's more like the free lunch. but it's just to say, though, that you can have a subject matter expert and you send them overseas or have them speak somewhere, they're not necessarily going to fill the room. but when you have someone with a compelling message, that definitely is a -- will bring a lot of people. when he's spoken, every time the christian talks, by the way, he's on the panel we have at the southwest festival, people who have stories to share, whether it's them personally or a friend

or reinvest, he always gets request for people to help -- conduct an intervention. the challenge for people recruited by isis, it takes a long long time for them to fully get out of the movement. they may condemn violence but their message isn't necessarily the message we want to promote. i would also say that, in temps of their recovery from christian -- google him, check out his book. i highly recommend it. but he's someone who, after he left the skinhead movement, it took him a good -- rock bottom for him was five years. even then, your six and seven, they were pretty rough. when you hear him speak, whether it's on 60 minutes or the megyn kelly show, that's a person 20

years removed from the movement. there's no formula to say you have to wait 5 years and 2 months but i just think it's a challenge. i think we have to really consider when we're partnering with people, are we engaging too much? i'll mention something else. when there's a terrorist attack, there are heroes and other people who really step forward, like victims and others who speak out. if we engage them too much, how does that impact their lives and them stepping into the spotlight. i've seen examples and won't mention names of people who felt like they were compelled to step forward and speak out against terrorism and, you know, they were criticized in the media. they've been trolled by certain people on the internet and their

businesses have been called and what not. it's just to say we have to act responsibly when we engage someone and bring them into the spotlight because they may not be ready for that. >> hi. paul delaney. retired journalist, spent most of my career at the "new york times." you mentioned coca-cola and atlanta. i was wondering, atlanta had a recent election and will have a -- there will be a turnover in the administration. how do you negotiate now with the new administration in atlanta? will that make a difference in your approach or are you concerned? will there be problems? >> i think that's -- what we're trying to do with the strong cities network is we want -- first of all, cbe has to be a nonpartisan issue. terrorism is bad. we have to do something to prevent it, right?

that seems simple. the photo of -- so mayor tate, he is a republican and mayor burke is a democrat. so, you know, it's important that we have bipartisan support. it's important that these programs, these good practices, as i mentioned before, are institutionalized, because if i take another job, you know, or my boss takes another job we want to make sure that the people that replace us are continuing the work and building on it. we don't have to start from square one. that is an absolute challenge. we have seen that. it's just to say that we constantly have to receivinforc

this is not the state department's network, we support the network and other companies do. and we hope cities can fund exchanges on their own. if the private sector can start contributing, if an airline, as you know, hotels are very focused on security. if they wanted to sponsor these exchanges, city officials, law enforcement, if they know ways to prevent attacks in the end will save them a lot of money. it's just to say that we need more people involved in these efforts, but we don't neced to securetize the issue either. educatortors were not expecting -- i was a teacher. educators have a lot on their plates.

classroom management is priority number one. it's just to say that you need a way to find a way for educators in montgomery county and the work that w.o.r.d. has been doing, w-o-r-d has been doing, is great. it's just to say that you need a softer approach or a way to talk about these issues that doesn't ring alarm bells amongst students or parents. i think that's ultimately, you know, students need to talk about the issues, talk about global issues and definitely a change in the administration on the local level, that could be a challenge. that's why it's important we engage mayors and why we're bringing mayors, international mayors to the u.s. for this january 24th workshop because we want this to be on the radar.

we're hopefully going to establish a strong cities task force through the u.s. conference of mayors. this is an issue unfortunately i mentioned back in september i was asked a question about the -- we're doing an exchange between las vegas, san bernardino and calgary edmonton in canada. the question i was asked, why vegas? do you have a gambling problem? what's the appeal? sadly, this is an issue that mayor goodman, she expected an attack. she didn't expect it would be a 64-year-old man, you know, but it's just to say that they expected a major terrorist attack. they've been trying to do a lot to engage -- you know, they're not just concerned about isis, concerned about sovereign citizens and other groups.

>> you said airlines have an interest. have you approached airlines or other travel countries for comp or contributions? >> not to like give away, say we're talking with this person or that person. we have started conversations with certain companies, organizations. we will lean on the mayors and cities for those connections. we don't have the personnel. i'm overextended. chattanooga is hosting an event in october. i think we're daulg it the strong cities network, summit of the americas. the caribbean. mayor burke and his staff, they're reaching out to several

corporations, just to say that we do need -- we are going to lean heavily on the mayors for those engagements. hopefully the network is just over two years old. when i took over we had about 37 members, now we have 125. we probably have another good 20 to 30 other cities kicking the tires on joining the network. it's something that if i could report back to you in a year or two with the progress we've made. certainly just like us with our foreign assistance, companies aren't necessarily walking around with a checkbook looking to -- there's a long process for them to determine who they want to donate to. we have to -- or the strong cities network has to figure out the rules and apply.

it's just to say a lot of work remains to be done. >> thank you. >> thank you. there we go. thank you for your remarks, miles smith and we try to interview those so they don't get overwhelmed by the press. since you have a journalist background i'm wondering if media is part of the network or comment briefly what the office does with media to engage on the subject. >> i'll try and answer your question. i think part of the -- for us, the global engagement center, would be working -- i don't want to say have the lead but they would have a lot of responsibility in that area.

part of it, we have to find a way to promote critical thinking. certainly on our social media accounts we clicked on something we thought was legitimate news. i'm not going to say that term. it's just to say, how do you distinguish between a conspiracy theory and legitimate reporting. if you google strong cities network, you'll find a lot of conspiracy theories. i'm not going to delve into it. it's just to say what we've tried to do, our approach has been to not necessarily respond directly to those individuals who are floating or spreading conspiracy theories, but to act with transparency. you allege the strong cities network is like some conspiracy to, you know, for cities -- one government to hand over sovereignty to the u.s. or u.n.

or whatever, first of all, we're not trying to tell any cities what to do. they're invited to participate in the network. if you think that we're up to something nefarious, come to one of our meetings, you know. we don't necessarily advertise the address but if you really want to go. like here for example, there's nothing secret about us discussing these issues. it's to say promoting critical thinking, if you're albany associates and working on a project in east africa you won't necessarily say we have a training here tomorrow. i think there are ways we can show that what we're doing, we have nothing to hide, if you will.

but finding a way to promote -- i think finland maybe has been doing some really good work with promoting critical thinking within schools, definitely with their location in the world, they have a need to really work on this issue. it's just to say that we have to find a way to get some of these efforts into the classroom without it interfering with the curriculum, if you will. >> charles schneiderman, audio video news. one of the principle strategies of a terrorist organization is to select targets that have a high chance of success. so let me echo adam's suggestion and she suggestion i think has been made, or at least implied by a number of folks around here that maybe having an accessible forum of best practices, so you don't have a paradoxical effect

of the secure cities network paradoxically making communities that aren't participating at greater risk. >> right. absolutely. >> good afternoon. george pendleton from the belle companies. your talk is quite nourishing. let me ask that senator ben sasse has written a book called "adults adrift." i guess you could probably put that synonymous to the problem of youth, unemployment, underemployment, inability to launch one's life. to what extent has the youth unemployment issue been present at the forum of the strong city networks as one of the causes for some of this violence and,

if you were to put in your own words, you said some of these cities don't necessarily think they have an extremism issue or that's not why they got into it. if you believe, in the one sense if it ain't broke don't fix it -- >> right. >> if you believe in the other sense, if it ain't broke, break it and fix it, what are the indicators that would bring a city to the conclusion that it needed to focus on some of the root causes? is that one of them, i guess is my real issue. >> i would just say, we've seen what the examples -- some of these cities have had a long history of suffering experiencing terrorist attacks. but, you know, in the u.s. for example if you look at the three cities that had the most

fatalities in the last five years or so, san bernardino, chattanooga, orlando, those aren't the cities you would have thought of post 9/11 that would experience such attacks. it's really hard to predict. with radicalization taking place on the internet, you know, a person can get radicalized anywhere. that's going to -- they're not going to necessarily travel a long distance. the areas they are familiar with are the places they will probably have the most success attacking opposed to them traveling across the country and focusing on some place they're not familiar with. employment poverty itself is not necessarily a driver to radicalization and violence. people have grievances, they feel like -- i'll give you one

example. i was 23 years old and i graduated from northwestern university's journalism school, one of the top ones in the world. i expected to be at the "new york times," you know, if not like the next day, pretty soon there after. i'm not going to talk about my salary then. it was like, i have to live at home with my parents. there was a grievance. that's not to say i was on the path to radicalization to violence, there are a lot of kids around the world that have a lot of potential. when they see they're not able to get those jobs, either because there's corruption in the government, in their national or local government, and either they're not developing the jobs those individuals could have or those jobs are going to other people who are connected to that government, that really can fuel

the radicalization process. some people speculated about engineers for example, why are they more susceptible to radicalization opposed to other people. i don't know if i necessarily buy into that, it's just to say that if you're highly educated and you expect to make $70,000 a year and you're working at applebee's or you're driving a taxi, you're kind of ticked off at the world. when someone comes in and says it's because -- they simplify complex issues and all of a sudden, you know, life can be a lot simpler if you just join this group, with conspiracy theories and extremist organizations they try to turn gray into black and white. >> with all due respect to the

"new york times" had you gone there the next day you would probably not be doing this work now. please join me in thanking our speaker. >> thank you. [ applause ] our next program will be the first monday in february, february 5th. until then we're adjourned.

c-span's "washington journal," live everyday with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up tuesday morning, we'll discuss u.s. immigration policies, border enforcement. budget priorities and possible government shutdown from capitol hill with democratic and congressional members that serve on budget committees. be sure to watch "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. tuesday. join the discussion. coming up live on the c-span networks, the u.s. house returns for general speeches at 10:00 a.m. and homeland security bills at noon. the senate continues work on judicial nominations at 10:00 a.m. on c-span3, alex azhaar, the

nominee for hhs secretary and 3 p.m., governor jay delivers his state of the state address at 3:00 p.m. next, we'll hear from automakers and government regulators as they look at the safety framework for self-driving cars at a technology conference in los angeles. this is about two hours. >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you all so much for coming. it's great to have all of you here. my name is david murphy, the founder and ceo of tech fire. we have done almost 30 events over the years. i have to say this is the one i'm most excited about. a tremendous and incredible line of speakers joining us from washington, d.c., from california, everywhere in between.