special representative for the arctic retired admiral robert papp spoke to about the need for u.s. leadership in the institution. this is an hour. [inaudible conversations] >> good morning everybody. welcome. i'm the interim vice president for foreign policy here at brookings. i'm delighted to welcome you all today. before we begin i'd like to damage and thank charlie and tim from our energy security initiative who organized today's event. i'd also like to acknowledge and think commander jason thomas executive fellow from the coast guard at brook examination has been -- brookings has been a terrific colleague. i i hope we can borrow him back down the road. as all of you know in april the united states will assume the chairmanship of the arctic council for two years. we go back about five years, i would say are there two things that are true. one in all frank, not that many people had heard of the arctic council, and two, people who are write about the arctic council were writing about it in real saber-rattling terms. this was about to become the new area of great power tension and

policy towards the arctic with retired admiral robert papp. he's u.s. representative for the region from the brookings institution. this is an hour. >> good morning everybody. welcome. my name is bruce jones. i'm delighted to welcome you all here today. before we begin, i'd like to acknowledge and thank charlie and tim from our energy security initiative who organized this event and i'd also like to acknowledge and thank commander jason, a federal executive fellow from the coast guard here at brookings. he's been a terrific colleague over the last several months. admiral, i know you're ready to steal him back soon but i hope we can borrow him again sometime down the road. >>> as all of you know, in april, the united states will assume the chairmanship of the arctic council for two years. we go back about five years i would say there were two things that were true. one, not that many people had heard of the arctic council. and, two, people writing about the arctic council were writing about it in real saber-rattling terms. there was going to be clashes b