have a strategy that most effectively represents the interests and values of your nation. that is our goal. certainly a big part of achieving that is addressing the immediate crises of the day. and believe me, they arise suddenly and without anticipation. i was yesterday sitting with secretary of defense carter to my left and with the secretary of foreign affairs and of defense from the philippines to our right, when we got a message regarding our two vessels in the gulf and the fact that they were at farsi island. so, things can change in a nanosecond. as we plan for the coming year, we are focused on looking for long-term solutions. not the crises of the day. but on finding a way to lay the groundwork for security and stability for decades to come. some people look around at the

daily headlines and they suggest that the world is increasingly chaotic. and doomed to disorder. i'm about to enter my fourth year as secretary of state. and let me make it clear from all that i have experienced, from all that i have seen, i strongly disagree with that judgment. yes, there are challenges. when are there not? but as i travel the world, as i talk to foreign ministers, prime ministers, presidents, people all across this planet, i don't sense an unraveling of the global fabric. on the contrary. i see a world that in critical areas is actually coming together. now, obviously in some respects 2015 was a year of turbulence and tragedy. but the fact is, we also saw and

measured remarkable advances in every single corner of the globe. we witnessed barriers that have long divided nations begin to break down. we reached historic agreements on climate change, the iran nuclear program, trade. we made progress on issues that have seemed intractable for years. and in some cases decades. he had hadn't talked to the iranians in 35 years. we are working, making progress, in various sectors of economic diplomacy as well as straightforward security diplomacy. and the key word that i ask you to focus on is progress. progress. obviously our work isn't over. it's far from over. it's never going to end for one administration to another. we witness a process of transformation.

but this is a very different century we are entering, from the last century. a century of two world wars and of major conflict, korea, vietnam, afghanistan and iraq. so as we look to the year ahead, we have a unique opportunity to build on what we have achieved in a number of critical areas. obviously a top priority is the conflict in syria. to deal with the refugee crisis that it has spawned and the violent extremism to which it has contributed. let me just say a word about that quickly. much, if not all, no, i suppose "much" is the most accurate assessment of the conflict of

, the last century was a conflict between nation states. it was much of it defined by what henry kissinger has often defined as the balance of power, the great game. but that is not what is defining the conflict we see today. i think most of you would make the judgment that there is not the same sense of threat that nation states are ready to put it all on the line, given the stakes and the types of weapons that we have today. which to act as det errents. but what we have seen today are nonstate actors, who have a very different sense of the stakes, who don't react the same way to the concept of deterrence. many of whom have decided, by the way, that they just as soon die as live. which is not the norm for most people's judgment. so, our strategy is different.

our strategy, with respect to syria, certainly, is three-fold. what we're seeing emerge is really a transformation that represents not a clash of civilizations, because there's nothing civilized about daesh, it's barbaric, it's a step backwards in time, not by years, but by centuries. and it represents a clash not of civilizations but of culture and modernity. a clash of people who have been left behind and who find some false notion of explanation for their acts in the hijacking of a great religion or the distortion

of the most fundamental notions of how people should choose to live. so, with respect to daesh, we have, first of all, intensified our campaign. first through a 65-member international coalition that we have mobilized, to degrade and defeat the terrorist group known as daesh. isil, some people call it. but there's nothing islamic about it, there's nothing that merits being called a state. daesh is literally the embodiment of evil. psychopaths who murder and rape, adventurists, in some case, criminals in many places, who torture and kill and college the -- and colall it the will of god. earlier this week we heard about one terrorist, a member of daiish, whose mother pleaded with him to leave the group because she thought they were

going to get beaten and she didn't want her son killed. what did he do? he turned her in and then by his own hand publicly executed her. to quote the president, these people are killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down and destroyed, period. and we will do that. our efforts are directed both at core networks in syria and iraq, and at strangling attempts by the terrorist to establish branches and inspire attacks elsewhere in the world, including in the united states. we have known from the moment that we formed our international coalition in the fall of 2014, and by the way, it merits remembering that this coalition has only been at this for a little over a year now. we knew that success was not going to be measured in a matter of weeks and months, it would be measured in years, as it was with al qaeda. and i said at the time, 2014, that it would take some time. so did the president. but in the end, mark my words,

not as a matter of bragging, but as a matter of fact, daiish will be defeated. every country in the region that surrounds iraq and syria is opposed to daiish. iran, jordan, lebanon, qatar, turkey, down to the emirates, saudi arabia. and way beyond. which is why we have a coalition of 65 nations. the progress we have already made towards that end of defeating them is undeniable. last month iraqi forces with coalition support retook most of the proinvention capital of ramadi. further reducing the area that was controlled by terrorists. in the past half year, the coalition and its partners have worked with iraqi forces to liberate tikrit and 100,000 sunni have been able to return to begin to rebuild homents and find

homes. we've been able to free sinjar, remove terrorist commanders from the battlefield, including nearly a dozen leaders in the past few weeks alone. and we have worked together to to cut off the terrorist supply lines, to hammer their oil facilities, to take away their resources, to deprive daiish of more than 40% of the territory that it once occupied in iraq. daiish has not been able to seize a major town or city since last may. and the coalition is stepping up the pressure even further. we are intensifying air strikes in northern syria, assisting our partners along the border between syria and turkey, and helping to squeeze daiish's remaining strong holds in mosul and we are opening the apperture for further cooperation with others in the region, including russia. meanwhile, we are doing more

every day to prevent foreign fighters from joining daiish, and to stop those who do from returning to their home countries and engaging in terrorist activities. we are also doing more to rebut terrorist propaganda, to dry up revenue resources. we have opened a number of facilities on a global basis, one in the emirate, another opening before long elsewhere, that will help deal with the challenge of social media management. in an effort to be able to take away the recruitment and the lone wolf challenge. we know more than ever about daiish's sources of income and that has allowed us to be more strategic in our efforts, with greater impact on daiish's ability to be able to sustain itself. there is no question that we have significantly degraded daiish's ability to profit from the oil that it controls, and we have made anyone who might consider doing business with them think twice.

so, degrading and defeating daiish is the first pillar of our strategy. the second is to work with our partners to prevent the violence from spreading. just the other day we had a significant meeting with respect to libya, and you can anticipate additional efforts with respect to daiish's efforts to spread its tentacles into libya and elsewhere. and that is one reason why we are now providing a record amount of humanitarian assistance, more than $4.5 million to date which is more , than any other nation in the world, directly to deal with the problem of displaced people out of syria and iraq. and we are doing more to strengthen the defense jordan, lebron and other friends -- lebanon and other friends in the region. this is really important work. and i guarantee you it's going to continue.

but the main reason for these efforts is the outrageous human suffering that this war has visited upon syrians and their neighbors. many of you may have seen the so-called cesar pictures last year. more than 10,000 photographs. each individual. so not repetive, but individualized. showing massive torture, starvation, extraordinary government policy by the assad regime. in addition to barrel bombing of children and innocent families, schools, hospitals, not to mention the fact that there was widespread use of gas, which we thought we had outlawed as an instrument of war after world war i. this was precisely why we are expanding our focus now and our response to the worst refugee crisis that the world has seen since the second world war.

this fall, president obama will host a summit on the margins of the u.n. general assembly in new york and this event will be a culmination of a rigorous effort to strengthen the humanitarian system for delivery of help, to be able to secure new funding and increase opportunities for new resettlement and humanitarian mission around the world. a comprehensive effort for millions of syrian refugees, but also for those from any country who qualify for refugee status. in that vein, i am pleased to announce that we have plans to expand the u.s. refugee admissions program in order to help vulnerable families and and individuals from el salvador, guatemala and honduras, and over them a safe and legal alternative to the dangerous journey that many are tempted to begin, making them at that instant easy prey for human smugglers who have no

interest but their own profits. i might add, making them also prey to one of the great scourges of the world today, which is human trafficking. and many, many people, millions, 20 million-plus, living in a state of modern slavery. global efforts also need to focus on ways to better integrate refugees into foreign communities. in order to help them regain their dignity after the turmoil that they have endured. and this is in the best traditions of our country and many countries around the world. that is why measures to help refugees build self-reliance through education and opportunities for local employment are so important. so that the men, women and children who come to our nations are better equipped to contribute to the communities that welcome them. after the speech, i will be heading to silver spring

maryland, where i will meet with a group of dedicated americans who work in one of our resettlement centers, helping refugees integrate into their new communities in the united states. and lately, this critical work has been conducted against a backdrop of some pretty nasty politics. with people making statements on the refugee issue that seem designed to scare our citizens. but have no basis in the facts. let me be very, very clear. we can both maintain the highest security standards and live up to our best traditions as americans by welcoming those in need of help to our great country. that is who we are. that is what we do. that is how we wrote our history. that's how we became who we are. and we dare not turn our backs on future people, generations seeking the same set of opportunities.

we have the ability to protect ourselves, even as we remain a country that welcomes migration. that is why, while i am in silver spring, i will also meet with a group of refugees newly arrived. some well established. in order to hear about their experiences and to emphasize how welcome they are in our nation. the refugee crisis is not just a syrian problem. nor a middle eastern problem. or a european or an african problem. it is a global challenge of his toric proportioned and ournsions and it tests values, our self-confidence, and are very demanded the. we have to do all that we can to respond effectively. and the most effective response of all, my friends, involves the pursuit of peace.

i said to my staff at the state department, engaged in the syria conflict at the end of last year, you know, i'm tired of going out and bragging that we're the biggest donor to refugee needs, write a check, help the refugees. that can go on endlessly. we keep writing checks, we can set up a new camp. the question is, can we make peace and end this endless supply of refugees? in the past 4 1/2 years, one syrian in 20 has been killed or wounded. one in five is a refugee. one in two has been displaced. and the reality is there will be no end to this crisis, no end to the pressures on on lebanon, on jordan, on turkey, no end to the flow of people to greece and bulgaria