he oversees herod tibbs alison center for foreign policy studies, are asian studies and internationalenters as well as our margaret thatcher center for freedom. he is the founding editor of the index of economic freedom, now in its 16th annual joint publication with the wall street journal. from 2002-2005, he was privileged to serve in the bush administration as assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs. please join me in welcoming my colleague. [applause] >> thank you. good morning everybody. it is a pleasure to have all of you here this morning. this is an exciting day for us at heritage. we have the distinct honor to remember a man that was near and dear to the hearts of not only the people here are the foundation who worked with him so often over the years, but to conservatives all across the america and -- all across america and all across the world. i'm speaking of jesse helms. i would like to thank the president to of the jesse helms center foundation for joining us today. the foundation is sponsoring this lecture series and we are pleased to partner w