Coverage of the election process and transition of power. C span, your unfiltered view of politics. Dennis mcdonough served as chief of staff and Deputy National security advisor under president obama. Next, he outlines president elect joe bidens policy priorities which include Coronavirus Response, the economy, Climate Change and Racial Justice. He also talks about the current president ial transition period and associated National Security challenges. The center for strategic and International Studies posted hosted the event. Its 50 minutes. This week, u. S. Elections, bidenharris transitions and their implications for korea and northeast asia. Our guest this week, perfectly positioned to address this critical and evolving set of issues with not just implications in washington, not just implications in seoul, but implications around the world and we are lucky to have mr. Dennis mcdonough, former white house chief of staff. Cabinet rank, we have broke therein cabinet rank ceiling here. Former Deputy National security advisor and former advisor to the n. S. C. He has sat at the nexus of Foreign Policy, u. S. Politics and communication an he knows a Little Something about northeast asia as well. The pride of stillwater, minnesota, he currently is a professor at notre dame, an i think he microing mores the st. Johns University Athletic department from afar, i see the football helmet in the background there, an institution hes a proud alum frfment he holds a masters degree from Georgetown University and most, i think, notably for those with follow entertainment, played by john hamm in the movie the report. Welcome to the capital table. Excellent. Great to be with you. Been looking forward to this conversation and happy to see ictor too as well. Lets go to our usual panelist, victor, professor at georgetown, former bush n. S. C. , welcome back victor. What how did notre dame get mcdonough . What happened to the hoyas . Seems like the recruiting game was off. This is a real problem. We have to figure out how to rectify this. Im going to say right here and now well give dennis the job at georgetown, how about that. Well just do it. Lets just do it. Emergency faculty meeting after. This welcome back, victor. Last but certainly not least, n. S. C. , erry, former currently advidsor here at csis, i think you overlapped with dennis at the obama n. S. C. Thanks. Fun jon hamm fact, i didnt know that lets get into it as they say. Ill turn to mr. Mcdonough. You served as key advisor to the obama campaign, the obama transition, in addition to other government positions you held. Right now theres lots of machinations here in washington. All of us have been fielding questions from friends in all corners of the world about whats happening. Can you just share your expertise and your analysis from the place you used to occupy in tells of Foreign Policy, government experience, communications and i mentioned, i should have mentioned too a Longtime Health staffer as well. Walk us through whats happening in washington. Thanks so much. Its good to be with you guys. I hasten to add that most of those things that you generously cited in my bio i did with you or because of you. And so its really good to be with you and to be reminded of our long professal careers together and the many kindnesses you have shown me along the way. Its really good to see you. Look, theres this period in the United States called transition. Its the period from the election, the first week in november, until inauguration on january 20, per our constitution, at 12 01, the point at which the president elect becomes the president of the United States. At that moment hes addressed by the at that point hes addressed by the justices of the Supreme Court as mr. President. When that happens, the former president goes off into the rest of his life and its all been men so far, theyre why im saying his. Thats why im saying his. And the president elect then becomes the president of the United States. That transition period is a period at which time People Like Us work, you know, if were coming in with a new team, we work with the Outgoing Team and we work importantly th the existing professional career professionals in the government to get ready to understand what the best available intelligence on whats happening, for example, in north korea, whats the status of personnel in important agencies . Where are there vacancies that need to be filled and planned retirements . And then looking at the budget. How much money is remaining for the fiscal year to do this thing that has to be done, as soon as the president and his team become operative on january 20 at 12 01. Theres a very particular thing that has to happen for all of at work to start, which is little known head of a little known agency called the General Services administration which basically staffs and provides Office Supplies and support to all the other federal services. The head of that agency by law makes the determination for purposes of the transition when the president elect is indeed the president elect. Its called ascertainment. When that ascertainment is recognized, all the things we just talked about can begin. You know, you going in to talk to victor and sue at the white house or in the agencies about getting ready to govern. As we did in late 2008 and early 2009. Ut if ascertainment is not recognized, then that whole process is on ice. Nothing is happening. And so thats a space we find ourselves in right now, which is basically a moment of suspended animation on when president elect biden, Vice President elect harris and their team can begin the preparations for governing. And one very concrete example is something that we know very well which is we were assigned to stick with president elect obama when he took the president ial daily brief. Every morning. Starting two mornings after the election. President obama got the brief on that thursday morning, then took it six days a week. Not on sundays, not on holidays. Until january 20, 2017. So took it basically for eight years and six weeks. Right now Vice President biden or president elect biden is not afforded that courtesy. So, one comment, im worried about that. Because we have ongoing intelligence issues around the world that im hoping that him and his team can get up to speed on and hopefully that begins soon, because ascertainment will be recognized. Sorry for the long answer there. Mark no, thats great. True to your former playing days, you beat me to the spot of the ball. What i was going to come in and ask you, how serious is this . Let me ill editorial myself and provide historical elections, the transition felt short to me. A lot of work, not enough time. Number one. And number two, we, like the biden team, faced some pretty urgent crises. Especially the financial crisis unfolding all around us. But there was iraq, there was afghanistan. There was terrorism. A whole host of things. In this case, you have the pandemic, right, you have Economic Issues associated with stimulus and or recovery. In addition to the issues you mentioned, not getting the p. D. B. , north korea. How serious is this and whats likely going to happen to break he stalemate here . Denis its a really good question, on whats going to happen to break the stalemate. It looks to me like theres an effort in two ways, to try to address this and then ill get into the seriousness. An effort in two ways to address it. One is, i think the president elect and Vice President elect and their teams are doing everything they can under the circumstances to get ready. So it looks like theyre consulting really aggressively nongovernmental experts. The president elect is going calls with traditional with leaders, handling those calls in appropriate fashion. That is to say, taking the calls from our close allies first, getting into calls with our competitors and adversaries later. So theyre doing as much of the work as they can absent access to the government offices and information and personnel. The second thing that others around them are doing, you know, members of congress on the hill, the press, and thers, is trying to urge the g. S. A. Administrator who determines ascertainment to make that determination. You could call that pressure, you could call that efforts to promote transparency around that process. But those are the two ways theyre trying to address it. And then the question, how serious is it . Maybe the best way to address the seriousness is to go back to that issue you highlight which is the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Think for a second back to the campaign, you remember that when you and then senator obama were on the road campaigning. He came off the road campaigning to go to the white house for a meeting on the financial crisis after the fall of lehman brothers. , that began a process of lets call it a warm handoff from victor and his teammates at the white house and in the federal agencies to the incoming obama president elect obama team and president elect Vice President elect biden. Kind of crystallize that even more clearly, remember that the secretary of treasury designated by president elect obama was tim geithner. I remember we saw him in the chicago Transition Office and we both saw this guy who looked like hes about 30, and we were wondering who he was. Somebody kind of straightened it out for us a little bit later. Ends up being a very critical appointment. He has a relationship with secretary paul centennial because they worked together when paul sent was in treasury. Geithner was at the new york fed. Not only do they have a relationship, but president obama had been in close consultation with the Bush White House on these questions. And then the Treasury Department itself, personnel there, welcomed the Obama Transition Team into the building. So that meant that throughout the month of november, december and january, there was coordination on the Big Questions in the Global Financial system, such that that handoff from secretary paulson to secretarydesignate geithner ends up being pretty smooth. Notwithstanding the fact obviously the economy is still suffering significantly. But clearly whether it would have been worse had there not been as effective a handoff and i think thats a question we have to ask ourselves now. Does handoff from secretary mnuchin to whoever his backfill is, at the moment does not appear positioned to be as smooth and as kind of transparent as that last one. And so that gives me some concern. Mark i would add too that it also facilitated, as i recall, this is 10plus years now so, recollections are fading, but it allowed the Obama Transition Team to launch secretarial bright and then representative secretary albright and then representative leech, to coordinate and begin facilitating theres only one president at the time, but to collect information in coordination with the outgoing Bush Administration on the global response. So thats the global picture, thats the let me bring it a little more to northeast asia and from a different perspective, and thats over to sue. Sue, you were, i believe, in the white house as a career official detailed to the n. F. C. If im right on that, can you talk about what that looked like from your end, two, thoughts about whats happening now, especially from a north korea National Security purview that is your specialty . Dr. Terry i was a c. I. A. Detainee to n. F. C. During the Bush Administration and stayed on through the transition. Everything dennis just denis just said is true. I was there. I have to say the transition from president bush to president obama i think was as good as it could get. Of course the Obama Administration also propelled the transition from obama to trump [indiscernible] and he just talked about that. But everyone, i remember, cooperated with the Incoming Administration as much as we could. Trying to make the transition as seamless as possible. Which is really the hallmark of american democracy. Right . During the transition period, the new folks that are coming in came into our offices at the executive building, at the n. S. C. Of the i remember seeing them all through november, cember, staff detail, policy memos on what weve been working on. And of course the Intelligence Community [indiscernible] on all these issues. For the Incoming Administration. So, its really sad now that were in this situation, you know, as you mentioned, transition time is a chaotic period. Its not enough anyway. Its a short period, even if everythings going smoothly. So its really sad. Also you have to remember, you want to talk about north korea. You know what north korea loves to do is to greet the new administration with a series of provocations. This happened with the Incoming Administration of obama, in the first four months we saw a series of provocations. We saw this in the second term of obama. We saw this when President Trump came into the office. So we need to be fully prepared. So im very dismayed that what were going to see is the messiest transition in american history. Given that President Trump is still not conceding and making it difficult and calling this election illegitimate and so on. Im very concerned. Mark ok, sue, great stuff, as always. Im going to bookmark the north korea piece. Were going to come back to that in a little bit. Good stuff there. And over to victor. Victor, thoughts on this these threats threads of issue here . Victor a couple of thoughts. So i was i left the government before the transition. But my understanding of it was the same as what sue said. At least at the n. S. C. Steve hadley was the National Security advisor and it was very important to him that there be a seamless transition in that the Outgoing Team provide as much information as possible to the incoming team. And i only know because as they prepare those things, they reached back to people who had worked on certain issues, to offer their insights for the purpose of providing a good transition book or transition papers or files for the incoming Obama Administration. And my understanding and you guys could speak to it better than i, was that that was something that was very much appreciated by the incoming team. I think what is happening now is just an absolute travesty. As sue said, there are many, you know, there are many very important and boiling issues around the world which the president elect and the Vice President elect are not getting the highest quality information on. I mean, theyre relying on People Like Us on the outside to try to help them and they need that information. And then i want to just emphasize one point that mark made which i had not thought about and that is for you guys, you were actually in a transition for november to january, you said that felt like a very short period of time. And that makes me even more concerned because, as sue said, who knows what the North Koreans are doing, who knows what the russians and the chinese are doing and it is we havent even talked about the pandemic. Let alone the pandemic. So from a National Security perspective, it is doing a disservice not just to the incoming team but to the nation, to be behaving this way. Where the incoming team doesnt have budget, doesnt have office space in the buildings as they sort of get themselves ready. The just a travesty. Mark and one quick followup before i get back to denis and resume that thread, because its just been fantastic. In his insights already. We want more. But one quick one to you. Saw there was a call between it the seoul president and president elect biden. What should seoul be thinking about . Victor i think for all the allies it puts them all in awkward positions because theyre not able to theyre not able to fully interact with a Transition Team thats fully stood up and will be able to hit the ground running in january. And so, yes, we see the Foreign Ministry coming over, there are a lot of Ruling Party Members that are coming over. But without that ascertainment, it makes it very awkward for all u. S. Allies and partners who want to sort of get to work with the new team and so its ing a disservice not just to domestic policy and National Security, its doing a disservice to all of our allies and partners. Ark thanks. We cant get enough. So lets go a little deeper on policy. You sat as a key Decision Maker in the west wing for eight years. Can you just run us through two really interesting elements here that people ive heard people ask about. One, the challenges that the Biden Administration will face, especially Foreign Policy comes to mind, and how to prioritize those challenges . And really the subtext for this show which happens to be in and around covering topics in an around northeast asia, will there be enough time and attention and resources allocated to the north korea issue set . Could you address that little bucket of issues . Denis yeah. Just one thing and then before that, ill pile on what both sue and victor said. President obama, both in his current book and in his public commentary over the course of the last couple of days, since his book just hit the shelves on tuesday, and as sue also said, Michelle Obama also commented about this in an extensive post that she had in social media the other day. That they were extraordinarily grateful to the existing White House Team and to president bush and mrs. Bush for the many kindnesses that they extended them in the context of the transition in 2008 and 2009. Including famously now the bush doctors showing the obama doctors around the residence daughters showing the obama daughters around the residence. Those of us with kids can resonate with that. Mark, youve gone through this with the many changes youve gone through with your service to the country and your family. Starting your family in seoul and beginning that really important process there and obviously ensuring even now that your kid are still studying in korean i think is really admirable. But in as much as victor from afar, sue, you know, in the white house, played a role in that, i just want to call that out and say thanks to that. But you were just about to say something. Mark i was going to say, thanks for that. I think youre exactly right. The family piece is really important. One. And two, i dont think the transition would have been as good had victor been at the n. N. S. C. He has a reputation. Denis i think theres some evidence that he might have been moved before the transition. [laughter] [talking simultaneously] victor thanks, guys. Thanks, guys. Mark absolutely. No, victor, no, in all seriousness. And, please. Denis this is right to but this is the most important this is trite, but this is the most important, critical statement. The most Precious Resource in a white house is the president s time. And its quite clear both as so take, for example, how they rolled out ron clayne last week as the chief of staff. That highlighted two things. One, rons role as ebola coordinator back in 2014. D his role in 20092010 in overseeing the investments in the stimulus as a result of that Great Recession in 20092010. He carried out those functions exceedingly well. As has been acknowledged as such by republicans and democrats, people inside government and outside government. But the reason they highlighted those two things is those will be the first two major priorities of this white house. Which is, the pandemic and the economic dislocation thats resulted from it. Theyve also been very clear, as you can see on buildbackbetter. Com, the transition website, that the other two major early priorities are Climate Change and Racial Justice here in the United States. So theyve listed those four enumerated those four major priorities. Obviously the first three that we mentioned do have northeast asia implications. And so i think its important to think about it in that way. First. , a very s sue suggests hardlearned lesson, we do have adversaries and competitors who are going to try to force themselves onto the agenda in washington. And so that will require some al discipline from the Bidenharris Administration and will require really tight coordination with our allies of the type that victor was just talking about. Which is why i did think it was so important that that call with moon jaein happened earlier this week and the readout was made public so people could see the fact of that call. But then the last thing is, this is something that i think we kind of took a little crap for and thats a diplomatic term, took a little crap for, when we were in the white house is, youre going to see a lot the action on these major priorities early in the administration in the Foreign Policy area handled by the cabinet. And i think youll see that the president really being clear that hes empowering his cabinet and underscoring to his cabinet that he wants to make sure that theyre taking the ethos and the promises he made in the context of the campaign which is overwhelmingly to reinvest in the alliances that are so important to the u. S. And obviously none more important than the two critical alliances in northeast asia. With korea and with japan. Hell really be pushing on his cabinet representatives to get out there, to make those promises real. And so when you think about the fact, well, is this going to be, you know, on the president s todo list every day . Not necessarily. I mean, in all candor hes going to be dealing with the pandemic and hes going to be dealing with the economy. But its going to be on his agenda every day in as much as hes directing the cabinet members to make real his promises to the alliances to the allies on behalf of the alliances, to reinvest and reinvigorate u. S. Priority in those. I hope thats mark thats really helpful and interesting. Let me follow up on one piece and perhaps just suggest also and tell me if im wrong, its also going to be something that its incumbent on the n. F. C. And others in the cabinet and the National Security agencies to watch carefully in that you outlined a situation where youve got your first one of your first points is the most important resource is the president. And Everybody Knows this. The leaders know it around the world. The allies know it. So it is there is no substitute in some regards, right . At the same time youve got an unbelievably huge agenda here that the president elect has made clear he wants to focus on. And empower his cabinet. But on the other edge of that is you have to be mindful of, if im mistaken and correct me if im wrong again, is you dont want to appear distracted, you need the requisite level of engagement and you have serious Foreign Policy challenges that will force themselves on the agenda early. How do you balance that from your Vantage Point as both white house chief of staff and Deputy National security advisor . Denis yeah, i think you put your finger on it and i think thats where your team becomes so critical and thats where the relationships with the cabinet become so critical and then thats where i think the norms and traditions of things like these glattory phone calls are so important. Because i think its really important that, for example, seoul understands that of all the things the president elect has to deal with right now, he really wanted to prioritize that receiving the congratulations from the resident of south korea. Its meant to be a very important signal and i hope its interpreted as that. So one is theres going to be pieces of the job that the president elect and his team and then the president , after january 20, will continue to do those things. Those will be regular interactions, Major International meetings and so forth. One. Two is, it also requires then people like you, victor, sue, who are the president s representatives, in the white not just e engaging through state but from the white house with the embassies in washington and with our people on the ground in capital to make sure that they understand that through them and their interaction with the president , the president remains vigilant about these challenges. And so when i say, you know, for example, north korea trying to assert itself onto the agenda of the United States and that requires discipline on the side of the United States, what i mean there is twofold. One is, it requires the discipline of great professionals like sue and victor and their successor in the n. F. C. And throughout the u. S. Government staying on top of whats happening. Coordinating the whole u. S. Government, and then communicating clearly with our allies. But it also means not letting the North Koreans dictate the terms of the dialogue or the debate or the discussion. So thats going to require discipline too. For all that you need, like, you need a really experienced set of professionals in the n. F. C. , as i said, like you or like sue or like victor. Mark excellent stuff. Let me take that and you really set up victor well. Because, victor, you did that job under the bush 2 administration. You had direct engagement with the North Koreans. You represented the president , the white house in a range of meetings all over northeast asia. You coordinated within the government. Can you just talk about what mr. Mcdonough said in terms of how this translates in the current context to seoul, pyongyang, tokyo, beijing, other interested parties, if you will, in the north korean context, and then writ large asian policy . Victor happy to. So, you know, i think i mean, the first thing we have to think about from the perspective of our allies and partners around the world is that when we think about process and policy coordination and interagency, from their viewpoint, nothing really has been normal over the past four years. In many ways, its nothing like they have ever seen and the United States, which generally tends to be fairly transparent, fairly reliable, when a message comes in or a message gets communicated to their governments, you know, they understand that thats policy. None of those touch stones were there, have been there over the past four years. So all of them are looking for some sense of stability. Some sense of predictability, some sense of transparency. And i think this administration the president elects group, these are all experienced people. Theyve all been there before. They know how to do this. Its just not being given the tools right now to be able to exercise. One of the first things dennis point is interesting about the president is going to rely on his cabinet officials to play an important role, particularly at the outset. From the worker bee level, like denis held the two most difficult jobs in the u. S. Government, chief of staff and Deputy National security advisor. I think amazing, i dont know how you do both of those jobs and still survive to talk bout it. [indiscernible] mark did jon hamm have gray hair when he played you . Victor i think that is also very important because the rest of the u. S. Government in a transition is waiting for the leadership to come in so they can understand what the process is going to be like. You know, there clearly are established we used to call them subp. C. C. s. P. C. C. s, Different Levels of meetings across the inner agency. Every administration does it a little bit differently. So theyre all looking for direction in terms of how they can start the professionals can start to organize policy, how they can be helpful, what is important, what is important to the Incoming Administration, and they can sort of read about it on build back better or in statements that the president makes. But inside the government worker bee level, they want to know what is the next operational step that they should be taking as coordinated across the interagency and as directed by the n. S. C. . So theres a lot of machinery thats just waiting to get started. And were not able to do that right now. The other thing i would say from an allies perspective is, you know, i think were going to be returning to a much more traditional style of diplomacy where american messages about values and democracies and Global Leadership are going to return. Were not going to be americaisolated anymore. And i think almost universally every all of our alike, i would say universaly, all of our allies and partners would dearly welcome that. I think theres been so much flux over the past four years that that would be really welcomed. So i think theres a lot of folks out there, both here in the United States, in washington, d. C. , and in capitals around the world that are waiting to work with the new administration. And theyll welcome a return to u. S. Diplomacy. Not that it will be exactly the same as in the past, but certainly the main curns of u. S. Diplomacy as they remember it currents of u. S. Diplomacy as they remember it. Mark great. To your point, i was going to ask this question and you essentially answered it in your previous answer. There has been an emphasis in the campaign by the biden campaign, to be specific, on an emphasis on alliances, democracy, promotion, multilateralism and in a word, or in a sentence, your answer is, the players in northeast asia, especially our allies, or rather, i cannot talk this morning, our allies in northeast asia will welcome that and you think more globally, there will be an embrace of that among our likeminded friends, partners and allies . Victor absolutely. Theyre like people who have been in a desert for four years who are starved for water. I think theyll welcome it dearly. Moisture ok. Over to sue. Sue, coming back to the bookmarked issue of north korea. You heard denis very good comments about not dictating not aloy louing pyongyang to dictate the terms. Thats an interesting thread there. You heard a little bit more about how the Biden Administration might run in terms of president ial time. Obviously that looms large because we just went through two, 2 1 2 summits between pyongyang and washington that were unprecedented. Can you unpack that a little bit and just talk about implications on north korea and what the North Koreans might be thinking at this moment . Dr. Terry sure. First of all, like glenn close said in fatal attraction in the late 1 80s,ings she said, im not going to be ignored. Right . So north korea is not going to be ignored. We already talked extensively bout how north korea historically conducts provocations around the election. Particularly when washington is distracted. I think everything that was said, its Biden Administration obviously is prioritizing domestic venue and ambitious agenda and will have to empower his cabinet and worker bees to ensure north korea does not do what we all think they are going to do. Because the North Koreans are going to force their way in. We just talked about how dent trump himself was [indiscernible] ballistic missile. That was three weeks after inauguration day. President obama, within four months of his Incoming Administration, a series of provocations. So if north korea tests, and i think initially they will start with a technique of probably a smaller provocation, like a ballistic missile, then slbm, but if they conduct a major provocation like testing this monstersized missile besaw we saw on october 10rks they will probably calculate that the Biden Administration will have no choice but to prioritize north korea because it will be a big deal. Because that credibility and reliability of north koreas capable to capability to strike the United States with a nuclear weapon. Ere was a i think th piece talking about this, why , if uld be such a big deal they test a [indiscernible] to show that they have this multiple reentry capability. So we need to stop that. I think the most important thing would be the people who are being charged on the in charge of the north korea policy would have to Work Together and coordinate with our allies, with south korea, we can prevent these kind of things that weve seen. Weve learned a lot for the past three decades of dealing with north korea. So, you know. Mark you think it sounds like youre leaning heavily towards a prediction that the North Koreans will do something in the coming weeks, months, to force themselves back on top of the agenda . Dr. Terry i think what theyre going to do is watch very closely for any kind of signal, any kind of indication that the Biden Administration is interested in an interim deal back to negotiating. This is what i mean. Its not a foregone conclusion because i think there are things we can do to prevent that from happening. Instead of just letting north korea dictate by being not paying attention to north korea. Theyre watching very closely. This situation is unusual. We have a very strang transition period where trump has still not conceded. We talked about all the difficulties stic theyre facing. There are a number of factors that north korea is considering. So i dont think they will immediately turn into a major provocation. Again, start with something smaller, a smaller provocation. But we i think, and the United States, the United States government, the incoming Biden Administration, can take steps to send the right kind of message and signal to north korea. In coordination with south korea. Its not a foregone conclusion. We know where they will be headed if we let six months go by without sending any kind of signal to north korea. Mark great stuff, sue. Ok. Im going to you know, after the show were going to take bets but you saw im going to come back to you. Im joking. Really good stuff on your point i just thought it was excellent in terms of we know where this will go if unless theres robust policy development and intervention for lack of a better term. Thats really interesting stuff. Ok. Dennis, last word to you. Were almost out of time here. Want to pick up on one element that sue said in terms of the china factor. Not in terms of north korea per se, but, look, this is the largest issue, at least in asia and you could argue globally in terms of the president s Foreign Policy docket. President elect Foreign Policy docket. Thoughts on where this might go and i just would underscore that obviously seoul watches this very closely, tokyo as well, in terms of the policy development and the direction. So, the floor is yours and this will be the last question. Denis thanks. Look, i think i tell my students all the time that if you think about kind of the International System that we kind of started our careers in, ou know, basically the kind of unipolarity around the u. S. Which had just kind of won the cold war, knocked down the walls of eastern europe, you know, kind of relegated the soviet union to kind of its appropriate place, i think the International System, our student, my students now are going to be operating in is this one of dominated by competition between the United States and china. And so thats point one. As youre suggesting, i think it is a dominant question in the International System. Point two is, im routinely surprised at how fundamentally the con sent consensus among National Security professionals in washington has changed on the right path on china since we left government in 2017. Its quite remarkable to me that kind of decades of consensus around this question speaking, engagement has given way to something much more akin to competition. Which brings me to my third and last point. Thats also that changed consensus will be reflected in the biden team. So i dont think youll see ubstantial change off of current course and speed of seeing china as a competitor first and foremost. I think there are a couple of places where we hopefully can see some collaboration or cooperation, including one of the top four that i mentioned, Climate Change. The other is i do think that kinds of rekindling some of the kind of rekindling some of the exchange in and around education, i think, will kind of come off the cold footing its on now. But otherwise, competition in and around trade, competition in and around investment and in and around technology, as well as kind of a perception here in washington of china having kind of broader expansionist or broader kind of expanded concerns in asia is something that i think is going to be front and center for american policymakers and i know it is something that our friends in korea and our allies in korea and japan are thinking about a lot. Not in exactly the same terms. But i do think that thats something that im eager to see be developed, fleshed out, and examined in the kind of traditional talks among allies that victor talked about, you know, a couple minutes ago. I think this will be [indiscernible] in that conversation. Mark thanks, guys. Great stuff. If i may, i know i said the last question was the last question. But one quick followup that i think would be interesting to inform the analysts, experts, government officials, reporters who watch the show. Not to flesh out some huge framework for china here in one minute, but youre sitting at the deputys table, youre doing a review of china. What questions are you asking . What are some of the issues you want hashed out by the agencies . Not necessarily answered but we need to think about. Denis i think the biggest one china mean xiled for u. S. Interests . I think xi is a new kind of ader, with a new kind of ideas for china and i think we should be very cleareyed about that. And i think those are the question notice broad sense that it behoove american policymakers thats the question i think would behoove american policymakerers to discuss this from. Which is to say, lets make sure that we understand what it is that china is about. , d i think this is also why as all three of you guys understand, this is why president obama spent the kind of time he spent pressing these questions with president xi. Im not sure that we quite answered that question yet. But i think its critical to understand that and then theres ancillary questions like, you know, what are the limits on him . What are the institutions in china that are going to limit him . And then how do most importantly, of the ancillary questions is, how do our allies see that . Thats where id start. Mark excellent. Excellent stuff. We cant thank you enough for, one, the answers that youve provided, the insight, the council, we really do appreciate you being here on the show. We tried to classify stuff before you come inside every day. We get cabinet rank official here. Victor took out the trash, sweeping. Its all good. Sue always has the best background so she just brings that. That great library, its fantastic. As well as their fantastic expertise. We really had a great session. Dennis, denis, we cant thank you enough. I would be remiss i do think the answer of the question who have is going to win the korean world series is the doosan bears, my favorite team. Im going put word in your mouth. Im just going to lump you in with the doosan fan. One to one in the 11 in the korean series right now with a dramatic ninthinning cliff hanger in yesterdays game. With that, were going to call the gavel. Dembings nis, thanks again denis, thanks again. We are honored. Victor, fantastic stuff. We always appreciate it. Sue, great insights. We really do appreciate it. Were going to be watching closely the north korea piece that you underscored in your last question. Thats i know of interest to everybody who watches this show. With that, thanks to kia for their sponsorship and support. It is invaluable on this show and its been an insightful, fastpaced with a little bit of fun along the way episode. See you in two weeks and [speaking foreign language] denis thanks, guys. Mark thanks, denis. Victor thanks. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] with joe biden as president elect, stay with cspan for live coverage of the election process. And transition of power. Iowa governor kim reynolds gave an update on the Coronavirus Response in