counterterrorism efforts, relations with pakistan and afghanistan taliban peace talks. stephen hadley former national security adviser during the george w. bush administration mod rates this hour-long event. >> good morning, everyone. good morning. my name is nancy lindborg, i am the president of the u.s. institute of peace and i'm pleased to be able to welcome everybody this morning for a very special program. i'm glad the weather cooperated to let us continue with this morning. welcome to everyone who braved the sort of pseudo weather event to joining us this morning. we are pleased to see the members of our international advisory council and welcome to those who are joining us by webcast. as many of you know, usip was

founded in 1984 by congress, dedicated to the proposition that peace is a very practical undertaking, that it is absolutely essential for our global security and that it is eminently possible. so usip works with partners in conflict affected countries around the world with governments, civil society leaders, women and youth to equip them with the kind of tools and learnings and information that enables them to work to prevent conflict from becoming violent and to resolve it when it does. as i think everyone in this room is well aware, afghanistan remains one of the most critical foreign policy priorities for the united states. so i'm extremely pleased usip is able to host this morning national security adviser atmar. we are very honored, sir, that you chose to accept our invitation to come here and have

a conversation with washington policymakers on critical events that are occurring in afghanistan. usip has been deeply involved in afghanistan since 2002, it's one of our longest and largest programs and we have had an office there since 2008. our afghan team there works with government, religious leaders, civil society organizations to address the underlying causes of instability and to create the conditions for peace. so this is a really important moment for our conversation on the afghan peace process. last month the afghan government hosted the kabul peace conference and made a very forward leaning over to the taliban to find a political solution to the conflict. also last month the taliban indicated their willingness to talk to the united states about

peace. and next week president afghani will open a conference together with the president of uzbekistan on regional support for a peace process. last -- or earlier this month usip hosted ambassador alice wells from the u.s. department of state who joined us to shed light on the u.s. response to all of these recent developments. so this is an important opportunity to now hear directly the afghan perspective with the afghan national security adviser, mohammad hanif atmar. we very much appreciate your coming today to share your thoughts and to give us an update on how the afghan government is approaching this process for peace, especially as it deals with multiple security threats from within the country. of course, i also want to extend a special welcome to ambassador moeed the afghan ambassador here

in the united states. national security adviser atmar has been a critical leader in afghanistan, he's been the administer of interior, the administer of education, the administer of rural rehabilitation and development and his efforts through the years have led to remarkable gains, most particularly in the education of girls, but also in rural infrastructure, in governance and much more. he was a driving force in the creation of the first afghan national development strategy and he has been an important partner in peace efforts. so today he will discuss the security challenges that afghanistan faces and a potential path for peace. he will make some openings remarks and then he will be joined on stage by steve hadley, our board chair here at usip and of course the national -- the

former national security adviser for president george w. bush. so we will have the great opportunity of listening in to a conversation between former and current national security advisers followed by questions from the audience. so please join me now in welcoming afghan national security adviser atmar. [ applause ] >> miss nancy lindborg, excellency hadley, andrew wilder, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. it's such a privilege to come and talk to such a distinguished

audience. it's an honor to be invited by the famous institute with its remarkable achievements worldwide but particularly in afghanistan. so let me first take this opportunity to thank the usaip for not just inviting me and my delegation but for the excellent work it has undertaken in afghanistan and elsewhere. colleagues, today i'm here to represent the president of afghanistan and our people in thanking you all. to pay our respect and appreciation to the sacrifices of your brave men and women in unifo uniform, your dedicated

diplomats, aid workers, researchers and politicians and policymakers. afghanistan will continue to appreciate your service. afghanistan will remain indebted forever for what you have achieved through our joint partnership. some of you have personally served in afghanistan or together with us on afghanistan. i am personally grateful to each one of you for your dedicated service. i often argue that if you compare my country, our country, to what we were 17 years ago, despite all of the security challenges that we have now, we are certainly a totally different place than -- for our citizens than we were 17 years

ago, from every perspective. from the way we govern our country, the way we give voice to our people, men, women alike, to the education of our girls and boys, to healthcare that we provide to our citizens and to economic uplift for millions of our people. i used to be a humanitarian worker in '90s and late '80s, so i understand where we were 17 years ago and where we are today. in this remarkable achievement of the people of afghanistan, you've had a great contribution. and i'm particularly grateful to the generosity of your taxpayers whose generosity, actually,

meant more school, more education, more healthcare and better living conditions for afghans. thank you for all of that. in today's opportunity i was thinking of offering a few opening remarks on where we are with the security and the peace strategy and then we will have the honor of working together with mr. hadley on responding to some of your questions if you may have them. to understand the peace offer that president vanney generously made last month let me first provide the context. three things are important in that context. number one is the threat that we

are commonly faced with. this threat emanates from -- it comes, actually, from an excess of violent extremism, transnational criminalized networks and from covert state sponsorship of terrorists. it's not just a threat against afghanistan, it's a threat against the region and by extension against the entire global community. so the starting point for our discussion when we analyze the situation in the region, we must understand that this is a common threat from a common enemy which calls for a shared mission and

responsibility. it's not just the cal ban and the hakani network that we are fighting. increasingly we see foreign fighters associated with at least three categories of terrorist networks. the global terrorist network such as al qaeda, daesh, i is horasa, the regional terrorists such as emu, item from central asia and china and pakistani terrorists in pakistan and taliban. all these four categories, the afghans, global, regional and pakistanis from symbiotic relationship among themselves and they are all drawing on the

criminalized economy, chiefly on drugs. the drug networks need them and they need the drug income. and unfortunately there has been a growth in the number of the foreign fighters in the country. primarily because four years ago there were 352,000 afghan troops plus 140,000 more or less international troops in afghanistan with a combat role with all the sophisticated weaponry and equipment humanity has ever produced. now, four years ago a decision was made to transition the combat responsibility and security responsibility to the afghans.

now, four years ago there was a yan army and still not yet developed with its strategic capabilities including its air force, but the transition has taken place successfully. yes, there has been setback, especially in rural areas, but no major population center has ever -- with the exception of kundas -- has been under control of taliban. no -- no one. and that was temporary for kunda city. so what we have achieved, colleagues, that, number one, i often hear this that when is the timeline to bring this to an end. well, our enemies unfortunately do not have any timeline in pursuit of their hostility

towards all of us, but one thing that you have achieved that 17 years ago you had to intervene yourself, the international community, to dismantle the terrorist networks opposing the threat to all of us. now that responsibility is shouldered by the afghans. so we do the fight, we do the combat, with support that we very much appreciate from our u.s. and nato partners. so one of the most significant achievements in addition to the fact that afghanistan is no longer a safe haven for these terrorists is the creation of the afghan national security forces, which does the job now

and it will continue to require support from our international partners. so if you look at how much of the sacrifice in blood the afghans do and how much it is clear now that afghanistan has begun to stand on its own feet. in this process, the strategy of president trump's and menstruation has played a key role. we welcome the strategy it has already a significant impact on the reduction of violence and capabilities of the terrorists. and to create an enabling environment for our peace reconciliation strategy.

the response from the region has been mixed. first, unfortunately, we haven't had any positive response from pakistan. not any change in the policy. that they are pursuing. and a response from the region. it's like mixed. while there is a region with peace and reconciliation and advocate stan -- afghanistan. but the concern on how to fight the terrorists has broken slightly. and unfortunately, there are asked in the region that draw the distinction between good and bad terrorists. and unfortunately, another sign of that breakdown of consensus is that we all agreed to have

state to state relations for counterterrorist. but there are tools now -- those now who look at state and nonstate axis relations with implications for all of us. there are those who say that they work with the taliban against them. we say that not only this is unethical but in terms of policy, this is self defeat. without going into details of the -- this, we are in an environment where, while we have a significant progress, we also have challenges, primarily associated with the growth of the foreign fighters and the weakening of regional

cooperation. so in this context, based on the environment that was shaped by the strategy, afghanistan launched two mutually reinforcing strategies. the reconciliation and the counterterrorism strategy. the peace and reconciliation strategy aims to separate the afghan taliban from the foreign fighters. and we can make peace with them because they are afghans if they are interested in peace. if we succeed in making peace with the afghan taliban and separate them from the foreign fighters, this will be the most effective regional and global

counterterrorism strategy. because then the foreign fighters will not have that. at the same time, our counterterrorism strategy is reinforcing our peace strategy because it aims to increase the number of reconcilable -- in the taliban. the taliban must note that they cannot win -- know that they cannot win militarily. those who believe that there is an inherent contradiction, let's look at the way these two strategies function. as those two sides of the same card. there isn't any contradiction. they would have to be pursued simultaneously to get the result. piece with the afghan insurgents and defeat for the

international terrorists trying to use afghanistan against the rest of the world. in this context, the president offered the most comprehensive peace offer to the taliban. if you're familiar with the key features of the offer, ranging from a legal package to a political security and economic package. addressing all the key issues that the taliban have been concerned with. but at the same time, we did mention to them that there are some key enablers, with violence, cutting ties to international terrorism, and no respect to

the afghan constitution, especially the rights of our women and our minorities. there hasn't been any official response from the taliban just yet. to the offer. they are still pondering, consulting each other. but the unfortunate fact is that there is been increase in violence since the launch of the peace strategy. the peace offer. so clearly, it is suggested that there are those elements who do not want peace. now, this will not -- this will not deter us. we will continue to pursue the peace strategy. at the same time, strengthen our counterterrorism capabilities.

the way forward on the peace strategy and to make sure that it succeeds, colleagues, as always, it obligated and therefore i would offer at least eight lines of effort as to how to move forward with the strategy. the first is that we have to strengthen the afghan national security force. the strategy provides a good basis for the international support. and without the afghan national security force there's no peace and reconsolidation in the country. second, there will have to be national consensus for peace and reconciliation.

not just political actors but also all sections of our society. women must see themselves in the process. are minorities will have to be comfortable with the peace process. it will have to be a peace process for all afghans. third point, there will have to be and afghan process of dialogue. we've had good success with the process. it was one of the three major groups. so it worked with them in the inter-afghan process. we need to have the right support for that process.

fourth, u.s. and afghan alignment is key to the process. we have to make sure that the two countries are fully aligned in pursuit of the peace process. fifth is regional cooperation. as i said, for the success of both strategies, peace and reconciliation and counterterrorism, we have to have regional consensus and regional support. as i said, terrorism is a common threat to the entire region and they need to know how we fight. peace and reconsideration is also an interest to all of them and they need to know whether their interests are taken into account. in addition to pakistan, iran,

india, turkey, central asian states, china, and russia, we are also looking at the critical role that saudi arabia and other gcc countries can play. particularly to support the inter-afghan dialogue. saudi arabia, for instance, would have enormous influence in the process and one of the things that we will be doing together with our colleagues here is exactly to explore how that influence can be promised for a peace process. we often hear about the counter offers of the taliban. it must start doing that. and soon rather than later. they've been there for seven

years. and we are talking to them that if you're not there for peace, then you cannot be there for -- so they have to start engaging in the process. finally, it's the role of pakistan, which is central to both the peace process and the counterterrorism. we are engaging them in different levels. there has been a strong welcome from pakistan for the peace initiative. we are engaging them now to offer concrete measures as to what can they do together with us to support the peace process. on counterterrorism, there's a huge difference between them and us.

that's the stark reality. we are simply putting this to them, that there will be no foreign fighters in afghanistan and there will be no taliban insurgency without sanctuaries in pakistan. so we need to see some action. a good process of dialogue has been initiated on passes -- pakistan-afghanistan plan. i hope we will reach an agreement there. but that will definitely be necessary for the south asia strategy and regional cooperation to support. with this, colleagues, i just wanted to explain the context in which we are in and how these reinforced strategies and can work together. i will be looking forward to your comments and questions.

thank you again. [ applause ] >> well, thank you very much. we are delighted that you are here with us today. there is no one who has been more involved in afghan's efforts of for peace, afghan's efforts for security, afghan's efforts with its neighbors and with u.s. afghan relations. and we are delighted to have you here. also, thank you for your comments. i think you provided a context that has not really traded the

media or policy community. we are grateful for that. what we are going to do is it's now about 11:05, and we have a hard stop at about 11:30. i'm going to ask two or three questions of the national security advisor. and then at about 11:15, maybe a little bit before that, we are going to dig questions from the audience. there will be microphones that will come to you. please introduce yourself. ask your question, and please keep it short because the shorter the question, the more questions we will be able to get and take advantage of this opportunity. i want to start, if i can get with something you said about the peace offer. and i don't think the american office really appreciates how remarkable this peace offer was. it was unconditional. it talks about the possibility

of taliban participation in a pull it -- political process. and it also talked about, while the constitution needed to be respected, it also could potentially be amended. so there could be a dialogue on that issue. these are major moves by president ghani. and they deserve recognition and support. you said one thing that was very important, which was that there needs to be intra-afghan reconciliation. and one of the things we've had concerns here during this team about if you have a reconciliation with pakistan, which took up arm against the afghan people, but don't have a reconciliation among the afghan people, what lessons do people draw from that? could you see a little bit more about that intra-afghan process you've talked about? what the objective?

what's the process? and where are you on that? because that is a crucial element of the peace process. >> absolutely. well, the way we look at it is challenge number one, peace between the state of afghanistan and the state of pakistan. our people are good friends and have always have a mutually beneficial relationships. the problem has been the relationship between the two states. that's element number one. element number two is intra- afghan peace. taliban and afghan he -- it did happen. but with these two, we need to work on. and the third element is the

foreign fighters. we cannot make peace with them. they are not afghans. they do not necessarily pursue and afghan objective. -- an afghan objective. so we will have to have some kind of counterterrorism against them. now, with the afghans, the taliban and the puck collies are no longer a monolithic organization. they do not have the same level of strength of leadership as they used to. so they are brought together by the foreign influence. and there are leaders now abandoning the taliban that question the continuation of

the conflict. and they are certainly in contact with our peace counsel and with the government. and they are asking for a process whereby they and their families are protected to engage in peace. something that needs to be understood that most of the, if not all, of the taliban and how connie leaders have their families as a collateral. kept somewhere. and that is the way they are to be trusted with what they are doing. so they're concerned about their families. so with this group, our

strategy is that obviously they are reconcilable and we need to talk to them. but of course, there is an irreconcilable element there. as i said, for them, this conflict is as much about economics as about politics. they are drawing on the drug and criminalized economy. they are not alone in that. the are not -- state and nonstate element that also benefit. of course, not to mention the corrupt officials in afghanistan. but when it comes to the region of states and their involvement , the peace offer alone will not be enough. we have to have the right balance between incentive and

disincentives. but when it comes to the reconcilable elements, again, the challenges -- challenge is that the government of afghanistan must have a solid national consensus to be able to engage them. it cannot be seen as peace for one section of the afghan society and lack of peace for another section. it will have to be a solid consensus on basis of which the intra-afghan process will work. now, are we capable of having that? the consensus billed for the army process gives us hope. that we are capable of having it. of course, every afghan has severed -- suffered a lot. but they are still kind enough,

generous enough to embrace a principal -- principled peace opportunity. but that process of national consensus will have to be supported by regional and international consensus. it's complicated because they are different. how to do that, we will be exploring that with our american colleagues as well as countries like saudi arabia and the uae. >> if i could ask you one more question about that before moving, what is the mechanism for that intra-afghan reconciliation? what is the mechanism for building that convinces and support of an outreach to the taliban? is it the high peace council? is it an intellectual process? is it -- what is the mechanism within afghanistan for achieving that objective?

. we have all agreed that this is the high peace council. the -- we are presenting to all of the political actors the political community as well as civil society and women. so they are. but they will have to be supported by the institutions to establish the process. the electoral process is obviously the future. now, we often hear about sharing of power with taliban. our position, the position of the people of afghanistan is an electoral process. participating in the process and if you're interested in it. that's the only way forward to have the political authority to govern.

so all of these processes will be open to embrace taliban. participation. >> i want to ask you two more questions. and then i will throw it open to the group. you talked about pakistan and what you are doing there. and the need for regional actors to support this process. there's been a lot of focus in the media these days about russia. we talked a little bit before about the role russia is playing. i would like to talk a little bit about that. and then also, i think if you could address the internal security situation in afghanistan, we've read press reports about the terrible attacks. many of them by guys who have killed innocent afghans and we express our condolences for them.

we read about those. and it gives the impressions to americans that security situation is deteriorating rather than getting better. could you address, one, the role russia is playing and, two, a little bit about the internal situation and the strategy for combating the challenges you now face? and then week will -- we will go to the audience.. recently we had this regional consensus on russia. over the past couple of years, unfortunately, there has been weakening of the regional consensus. where we agree with the russians is that the terrorism and especially the foreign fighters are a threat to all of us. second agreement is that the best way forward is peace and reconciliation. in afghanistan. so we agree on these two.

where we disagree is when we hear about that distinction that is made between good and bad terrorists. and then finding a way to work with taliban. now, of course, we have received assurance that taliban will not be provided with weapons and resources. we will welcome that assurance, and we would like to see that impact us. but we also get concerned that when they claim that there are u.s. nato afghan helicopters so- called breaking daesh from the south or even the tribal areas of pakistan to the north of the country. and just quite recently, during

the conference. we respectfully engage them. if you have any evidence of this happening, please produce it. and we welcome a joint regional investigation. into the evidence that you have provided. but if you don't have the evidence, we do have evidence that we would like you to have a look at burke and the evidence that we have is that already we have over 80 daesh related associated fighters in our custody. so we ask them to come and answer where they were recruited, who provided them with resources, and who brought them to afghanistan into the

mother region. i'm sure we need to do a little bit more of that with them. we engage each other and look at the evidence we have. but frankly speaking, sometimes when we engage in these regional actors, it's not so much about afghanistan. it's about other interests that they have outside afghanistan. like always bringing those interests or those conflicts into afghanistan. so therefore, we suggested to our american and western partners that probably afghanistan is the place where we all have a common interest to cooperate. like china said, they wanted to see afghanistan is a cooperation place with the united states and nato, not as a confrontation list. i hope that is also the case

with the russians. iran and other regional actors. you are absolutely right about these heinous acts of terror in the country, including the one killing of 26 of our innocent people. these attacks have increased over the past couple of weeks. in a way in response to the significant setbacks and crashing of the taliban suffering and the -- so they resort to this level of violence as an act of desperation. it's desperation because they no longer think about the other minds of the people. so they just commit a level of violence

to demonstrate that they exist, that they have not been crashed entirely. and that is the wrong way to actually send a message when we do realize that we need to do a lot more to prevent these attacks from happening, certain degree of this will be happening all the time, unfortunately. but if you look at the growing strength of the afghan national safety regional forces with the right support from our international partners, we strongly believe the same way that they have kept the country together without any direct combat role of the international forces. they will improve security as well. >> thank you. we will now go to your questions from the audience.

the microphones will come down. if you will raise your hand, we will bring you a microphone. let's start, the gentleman right back there. >> thank you. as you mentioned, the afghanistan has a piece of cooperation with the u.s. what is china's interest in the future of afghanistan? and how it could be helpful in the peace process to help change the conduct towards peace? thank you. >> why don't we take two questions at a time. that way that we will get more people. another question? second row. >> i'm a senior advisor for the

center for strategic studies. following the question about intra-afghan peace process, it would seem that the involvement, to have it driven by couple alone and not including the provinces in the province governors and the power centers outside of kabul, it would seem that would be the right way to approach this. not too many years ago, i was in my daughter, having tea with governor our top. i'm aware of the differences between the president and governor. the involvement in the peace process and can you give us some insights into the governor's differences? >> on china, their number one interest is security.

they are extremely worried about 80 i am, the so-called is a lot of -- islamic movement. their number we estimate to be between three to 500 fighters in afghanistan. mostly coming from pakistan. and the region. the last group of them that we arrested was basically a family with six children, two women, a couple of male fighters. these are from the province. china knows about it. frankly speaking, until quite recently, they had this wrong information that perhaps the united states or india is

behind these ati fighters. or we engage them and provided them with the evidence. so now they have a level of tactic that 80 i am moves out of china and goes all the way to vietnam to indonesia and ends up in turkey, comes back to dagestan and to afghanistan to fight. so they have a better understanding of the threat now. and therefore, this confidence in our corporation now. with them. but of course, they also have an economic interest, efficient. they present for the region. it cannot happen without stability in the region and

security in afghanistan. security in afghanistan is essential to the stability of the region. and afghanistan in addition of its vision probably the worst comprehensive vision for economic reintegration and regional connectivity that president ghani has so eloquently presented to the leadership of china, the leadership of the entire central asia. it's now having more traction. so we have been cooperating with them on regional economic cooperation as well as regional security and counterterrorism. and they are fully supportive of the peace and reconciliation. and we have obviously slight difference of view as to how that needs to happen.

their primary focus is to encourage the taliban through soft means. we agree on that. but add that there must be some disincentive when it comes to the irreconcilable elements. and disincentives will have to be provided by pakistan. as long as the taliban leaders have faith in pakistan and they are able to draw on the proceeds from drugs, they will -- there will always be an element of irreconcilable. so that needs to be addressed. we are working on that aspect as well. on the different -- differences between the national unity government, the good news is

that probably we have brought that to an end. so yesterday, couple time -- kabul time. governor atta reached an agreement. our commitment was always for a peaceful and principled way to resolve it, the differences. no matter what difference we afghans may have, we have a common thread, -- threat, a common enemy. and we have to strengthen our national unity. hence, our emphasis on the involvement of all political actors. at national and provincial level to be involved in the peace process. so that they don't see it as a threat to themselves.

now, with this army, that was exactly our challenge. hopefully now, they are learning to work together. and this is exactly the hope that we have with the taliban. if they show a commitment to dropping violence or terrorists -- terrorist acts based on our contribution -- constitution, in the political process, the country will be supportive. but where we need to have the ground rules, and that is important. number one is the role of islam is -- in our country. with the interpretation that the majority of afghans have not

the participation that the taliban has. that's ground rule number one. roundel number two is democracy and a representative democratic policy. and ground rule number three is human rights and the rights of our citizens. men and women alike. these three things, if in place, i believe national consensus of all actors, provincial or national, will be conceivably achieved. >> we've regrettably come to the end of our time. the national security advisor has a hard stop at 11:30. i want to thank you all for coming. sorry we did not have time.

please join me in think -- thanking mohammad hanif atmar for his time. [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats until the official party departs. >> u.s. attorney general jeff sessions will testify this afternoon before a senate appropriations subcommittee on his department's budget

request. we will have live coverage beginning at 2:30 easton. the senate judiciary committee will debate legislation aiming to provide protections for special counsel's, like setting requirements. watch live through the at 10 am eastern here on c-span 3. and tomorrow, attorney general sessions returns to capitol hill to take questions from house lawmakers on his department's fiscal year 2019 budget request. we will have live re -- coverage thursday. >> new york times versus united states. the pentagon papers case. president nixon is using his executive authority to try to prevent the new york times from publishing these top secret documents related to the vietnam war. >> a lower court has stopped the presses. it's been stopped by someone who fears it might be dangerous to national security. another judge refuses to stop

the presses and is a very proud of that. it's all up to the supreme court. >> it's a great -- i haven't seen the movie. it's a great story. it only stands for the opposition that the government cannot stop the press in advance. the court acknowledges there's a possibility that once the new york times and the washington post publishes this, there could be prosecutions afterwards. >> i think the gravitational force of the new york times case has created a political atmosphere where we do not go after the press for publishing things, even where the statue -- statutes say that we can. >> watch landmark cases with lloyd abrams, who represented the new york times in the case against the nixon administration and ted olson, the former u.s. solicitor general under george w. bush. live monday night at nine eastern on c-span.

sunday on q&a -- >> the news starts to spread through more papers around the country. and it seems to be swing voters. there's even a famous editorial heart and that comes out with the baby screaming, mom, mom, where's my pot? >> cunningham hosts the creator of the washington post presidential and constitutional podcast. >> the first few episodes are all kind of hanging around the concept of, we the people. so it was an explanation -- exploration of gender, race, nationality, and ancestry. then we sort of moved into the idea of a more perfect union and there are a couple episodes about justice and defense and it ends sort of with