there's the nsc officials who week on a weekly basis, which will often take forward work that the nsc has asked for or made -- prepared work for the next nsc so it's complementary of ministers. >> and cobra -- do they come in on those meetings occasionally? >> well, some of them will be the same officials. >> i would like to give some comments from the chief of defense staff that he made to the committee in november around the construction of strategy. he said it had been agreed to start constructing a mechanism to deliver a grand strategy looking at the world as it might be in 2030, 2040. i'd like to know the reaction of the ministers on how realistic that is and perhaps could start with mr. letwin. how do you describe the grand strategy? what do you think it's meant to achieve? and has that been taken forward? >> the overwhelming point in that that we made a decision after a lot of discussion to adopt what we call an adaptable position because we came to the view that we were not likely to be omni present and the things that happened last week bear out that reasoning. and, therefore

what does the nsc no. do? >> we keep going back to the assumptions, first of all. the question really should be revised. >> go ahead. >> we specifically set out in the sdsr to have an adaptable posture. one was that we should withdraw closer to all men and closer to the appropriate assets in that direction. there were others who said to go exactly the other way. but we should have are highly committed posture should the complex of the future be like the ones we face in afghanistan now. there would not be requirements for widespread capabilities. we chose an adapted posture. it recognizes that there would be limitations on the money we have available. but what posture would give us the best capabilities? when it comes to looking at some of the angles we did not choose to prioritize, we decided we would have to invest to get capability that was unnecessary. i think that the broad decision was correct. where we have to constantly keep the review as the risk assessment. two years, of course we will. >> let me put it another way then. does anything that you see currentl

it is part of the nsc papers that are presented. it is part of the discussion at the state department, part of the discussion in the oval office. of course it is part of the discussion. we have to include it. it is important, and we ought not to pretend that it does not exist. it does, and we have to pay attention to it. it should be part of our discussion and debate. >> you're great to let me come down, come on up to new hampshire. the skiing is great this winter. >> and as they said, i think, during the

i can tell you that it tastes of nsc. [laughter] this is a -- this is an extraordinary country. when i was researching this book, i can't resist. i'll be available to find it. when i was doing primary research, i found myself last year drifting the republican committee of the rural county in the deep south and the committee members looks pretty much the way it would've expected the members of the republican committee in the rural county in the deep south to look like they were bracket and sunburned and muscular and one of them asked a question, you know, you're losing for a long time and now you're winning. what advice do you have for the goe. and i said, you know, one of them is mistakes he made under the bush presidency he started running up huge deficits, spending lots of money in washington and you start downstate rate and euthanasia in a shudder went through the room when i got to the part about single-sex unit. i thought maybe that was not the red example to give to the republican committee of the rural council in the deep south. [laughter] and sure enough, when it finishe

commission and council and the senior director at the nsc had the privilege of being the decision makerithin the prime minister's office in jerusalem. what should the europeans and americans and the israelis do in confronting what is a consequential change in the middle east, and particularly with respect to the muslim brotherhood? >> i will go first. [laughter] thanks for that question, mark. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. it is a policy to some degree. there is a good argument for sometimes just not being too proactive and having to wait and see approach. i think you would be a mistake. i published two weeks ago and not hidden the "washington post" but i got criticized quite a lot for it. my point was trying not to make the brotherhood be this 10-foot giant, because my fear would be we are all thinking the brotherhood is going to take over, and we embrace it immediately fearful that if we don't, then we are going to be -- they aren't going to like us and we aren't going to find ourselves in a good position. i think that is -- and i see the temptation with its -- to stick to th

of the most significant changes since two mile island was a program that has at least two full time nsc employees at every site with unfettered access to all activities 24 hours a day, seven days a week. as a result of the operating experience and ongoing research programs, we have developed requirements for severe accident management guidelines. our program of continuous improvement based on it is operating experience will now include evaluation of the significant events in japan. we have begun enhancing inspection activities to temporary instructions through our inspection staff to look at the licensees' readiness to look at design-basis accident and beyond design-basis accidents. we have issued an inflammation notice to licensees to make them aware of events in japan and requiring them to verify capabilities to mitigate conditions that result from severe accidents. over the past 20 years, there have been a number of the new rule makings that enhanced the domestic fleet's preparedness against some of the problems we are seeing and japan. the stations' blackout rule requires every plan

it is part of the nsc papers that are presented. it is part of the discussion at the state department, part of the discussion in the oval office. of course it is part of the discussion. we have to include it. it is important, and we ought not to pretend that it does not exist. it does, and we have to pay attention to it. it should be part of our discussion and debate. >> you're great to let me come down, come on up to new hampshire. the skiing is great this winter. another month of great skiing. >> coming up on c-span2, a house hearing examines the budget of the office of ocean energy management. president and refuse president obama's trip to latin america. on television, on radio, an online, c-span bringing public affairs to you, created by cable, washington your way. >> the bureau of ocean energy management director announced that more offshore drilling requests will be approved in the next couple of days. he testified alongside the interior department's natural resources revenue director about the department's 2012 budget request

commission and council and the senior director at the nsc had the privilege of being the decision makerwithin the prime minister's office in jerusalem. what should the europeans and americans and the israelis do in confronting what is a consequential change in the middle east, and particularly with respect to the muslim brotherhood? >> i will go first. [laughter] thanks for that question, mark. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. it is a policy to some degree. there is a good argument for sometimes just not being too proactive and having to wait and see approach. i think you would be a mistake. i published two weeks ago and not hidden the "washington post" but i got criticized quite a lot for it. my point was trying not to make the brotherhood be this 10-foot giant, because my fear would be we are all thinking the brotherhood is going to take over, and we embrace it immediately fearful that if we don't, then we are going to be -- they aren't going to like us and we aren't going to find ourselves in a good position. i think that is -- and i see the temptation with its -- to stick to t

our ongoing nrc response is that the nsc operations center remains in a 24/7 posture. this has involved the efforts of over 250 nrc staff on a rotating basis. in addition to the people that are staffing the operations center, there's hardly a person among the 4000 people in this agency that are in one way or another contributing to the response, whether it's through information technology needs for the people in japan are the region for staff in taxes which is backing up for the operations officers and our operations in to help maintain an information flow on the currently operating reactors in this country. the entire agency is coordinating and pulling together in response to this event. so that we can provide assistance in japan and not miss any of our normal activities regarding domestic responsibilities. in addition we read and -- we remain aware of u.s. efforts to provide assistance with their counterparts in tepco in japan. the u.s. government has an extensive network of radiation monitors across the country. epa system has not identified any radiation levels of

commission and council and the senior director at the nsc had the privilege of being the decision makerwithin the prime minister's office in jerusalem. what should the europeans and americans and the israelis do in confronting what is a consequential change in the middle east, and particularly with respect to the muslim brotherhood? >> i will go first. [laughter] thanks for that question, mark. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. it is a policy to some degree. there is a good argument for sometimes just not being too proactive and having to wait and see approach. i think you would be a mistake. i published two weeks ago and not hidden the "washington post" but i got criticized quite a lot for it. my point was trying not to make the brotherhood be this 10-foot giant, because my fear would be we are all thinking the brotherhood is going to take over, and we embrace it immediately fearful that if we don't, then we are going to be -- they aren't going to like us and we aren't going to find ourselves in a good position. i think that is -- and i see the temptation with its -- to stick to t

it is part of the nsc papers that are presented. it is part of the discussion at the state department part of the discussion in the oval office. of course it is part of the discussion. we have to include it. it is important, and we ought not to pretend that it does not exist. it does and we have to pay attention to it. it should be part of our discussion and debate. >> you're great to let me come down, come on up to new hampshire. the skiing is great this winter. another month of great skiing. i want to emphasize that their purpose is not to blame crisis or to revisit every vote taken before and during the crisis. if you have this data the percentage point is so much greater than the the gdp excluding those, then you do with it. compare that to the unemployment rate. [unintelligible] there is an extraordinary opening of the gap scents 2007.uince 2007. the issue is what is causing that. there are some benefits that have been heavily discounted. it goes to the process in which corporate investment is made. what they do is a look at th