Southern california Annenberg Center for communication leadership and policy. Im also president of the Public Diplomacy council. Those are two of the partners in these events. The third partner is the Public Policy alumni association. Im pleased to have the president of that organization here to also welcome you. Its my pleasure to welcome all of you. If i could take a moment to just highlight three events that many f you will be interested in. The office of the historian of the department of state is putting out the volume of the Foreign Relations of the United States, the documents for Public Diplomacy from 1961 to 1963. Which is the kennedy period when back to. S date they are going to be releasing it, 20 at the door. You do have to sign up in advance. I think it will be a very interesting exploration of the histry of Public Diplomacy. Secondly, one of the things pdaa does is provides awards for the diplomacy t public work that department of state, public dimcy officers are doing. We give the awards in may and were beginning to request dipl work nominations through the state department over the next month or so. I would ask any of you with contacts right now in the field to encourage them to nominate. There are people doing good work for that award. If any of you who are members or would like to consider being members of p. D. A. Would like to contribute to the award fund, you are more than welcome. Thirdly, on february 12 at noon we will have our Lunch Program over at decor house. Called democracy in human rights and dimcy diplomacy. We look forward to many of you coming. You will get information in our newsletter if you are members which will arrive on january 22, also digitally. Thanks very much. Thanks, cynthia. Reef a Fourth Organization which has been essential these six years of these programs. That is the American ForeignService Association which has graciously hosted these events for six years. But to todays program. Cities and combating violent extremism. Our speaker is mike did you havin for six years. S to duffin, his full bio is in your package. Hes been a school teacher. He has contributed to articles to the chicago tribune, chicago suntimes, and other publications. And he is someone who holds three advanced degrees. He has one from Johns Hopkins in international relations. E has one from northwestern in journalism. And one from the university of Southern California in Public Diplomacy. Mike duffin, the floor is yours. [applause] michael there is a price to pay with that education. I want to thank adam and the Public Diplomacy council for inviting me to speak here today and thank you for showing up. I know the weather has warmed up. Can you hear me now . No. It helps if the mike is turned on. Michael can you hear me now . Yes. Michael thank you so much for coming. I know the weather warmed up a little bit, but obviously its still pretty cold. I would like to thank adam and the Public Diplomacy council for inveeting me here today to speak. Thank you for being here. We have a Diverse Group of people in the audience. Ill try to keep the jargon and acronyms to a minimum. If there is anything that needs clarification, please let me know. Obviously well have a q a session at the end. If for some reason you dont have a chance to ask me a question, look me up on twitter, im happy to respond there as well. Let me first begin by talking about the last couple of years in terms of countering violent extremism. We have seen a disturbing uptick in the number of mass casualty incidents in cities. Many have been perpetrated by isis and its supporters. Prior to november, 2015, isis was urging supporters to come to the socalled caliphate in syria and iraq. Tens of thousands of men, women, and children answered that call. But with paris and other attacks, they were now telling their supporters to commit acts of violence in their own communities using whatever means necessary. The attacks listed here are meant to show the geographic diversity of isis influence. Some attackers were directly instructed by isis. While others were merely inspired by them. Some used explosives. Some used firearms. Some used knives. And others used vehicles to kill and injury injure dozens of people. At the state department were both proactive and reactive in our approach to defeating isis. We train Law Enforcement in how to detect and interdict terrorist plots. This is what we refer to as c. T. We often say we cannot arrest our way out of the problem. Which is why countering violent extremism is so important. C. B. E. Is an umbrella term for a range of activities prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation. Youll hear some people use building resillins against violent extremism. Some people say Building Social cohesion. E focus here is the actual activities that are directed towards countering isis and other groups. There are four basic principles of c. V. E. Efforts internationally. First, we need to identify the source of the problem and make sure our programs are appropriately designed to achieve our goals. Second, we need to encourage the various branches of government to work together. The ministries of health and education, for example, are importing critical partners in this effort. We also need to encourage governments to partner with Civil Society, which requires a considerable amount of trust. Third, we need the stakeholders to share practices, good practices with each other. We say good not best practices because certainly no one has found a way to absolutely counter, prevent violent extreme i. Extremism. Unique,ery community is there is a lot someone in lebanon can learn from someone in montreal and vice versa. These good practices institutionalized. When the educator or Community Leader takes a different position when they move on, we need someone who can take their place and pick up where they left off. Lastly, we need to bring more stakeholders into the fold. The at the most granular level, c. V. E. Is about engaging atrisk individuals and ensuring that they build up enough resilience to reject violent extremism. Beyond Law Enforcement we need parents, ed tators, coaches, counselors, and Business Owners to get involved. We may not consider an internship a c. V. E. Program, but if its engaging, if its training an atrisk individual, later on they will be more likely to resist the recruitment pitch of a violent extremist organization. One of the ways we have tried to promote a whole of government and whole of Society Approach is through the Strong Cities network. Created in september, 2015, the network started with 25 members and now has 125. Its a first Global Network for cities focused on countering violent extremism. Not all members face a threat from isis. Some face threats from the far right. And some face threats from the far left. There are currently 10 u. S. Members of the Strong Cities network. Members connect online and in person through workshops, annual global meeting, and exchanges. The United States and several other governments support s. C. N. And is run through the london based institute for Strategic Dialogue. The networks policies are determined by the 26member steering committee. In addition to our direct support of s. C. N. , my office works closely with the state Departments InternationalBusiness Leadership program to develop exchanges that support participation in the network. In march, 2016, the inaugural s. C. N. Brought one city official and one Civil Society representative from 10 s. C. N. Forers to the United States a three weeks. Such exchanges help expose Exchange Visitors to good practices in the u. S. , and they also help spread for a three weeks. Such awareness about s. C. N. Among u. S. Cities. Because s. C. N. Has multiple events around the world each year, there are numerous opportunities for members of the multicountry exchanges to interact. Its essentially built in alumni network. In fact, at least five members of the original s. C. N. Have been to both annual meetings. They keep in touch on facebook and collaborated with each other on their work. N may, 2016, turkey hosted the inaugural s. C. N. Noble meeting. About thund people from 40 contrition attended. Which highlighted the diversity. We had chattanooga mayor speaking there. Talk about a july, 2015 attack in chattanooga that killed five military members at a recruiting station in chattanooga. We had a mayor from nigeria talk about his experience being abducted by boko haram. We had a former white supremacist talk about his exit from the skinhead movement. We also had a survivor of the attack in norway talk about that or deal ordeal. A year later, denmark hosted the Second Annual global meeting. This time about 500 people from 50 countries attended. We had anaheim mayor, Los Angeles Deputy mayor, and delegations from las vegas, louisville, and san diego in attendance. To the right, right over here, hans. The mayor its a city north of bruss sell in belgium. Bruss sells in belgium. Brussels in belgium. A partnership between the state department and the department of Homeland Security office of civil rights and Civil Liberties is the City Pair Program. This twoway Exchange Program has connected about 20 cities around the world with u. S. Counterparts. Our embassys identified the International Cities first. Then we work with d. H. S. To identify excuse me, we work with d. H. S. To identify the appropriate u. S. Partner city. We try to identify cities with complementary skill sets and those that express an interest in maintaining connections beyond the exchange. These cities arent necessarily part of the Strong Cities network, although some of them are. We certainly those who are not, we encourage them to join. One point i want to mention is when people think of cities to partner with International Cities, the first one may be like los angeles or minneapolis. The problem is when you have repeated delegations going to he same city, thats taxing on their schedules and we want connections that people who have the time, capacity to engage their international counterparts. Today we Exchange Business cards, we want connections where when we introduce them to their u. S. Counterparts, they have the ability and interest in following up and forming partnerships. As you know require a lot of time and effort. Each delegation has five to nine people. And typically include someone from the mayors office, a Law Enforcement official, religious leader, and representatives from Civil Society. One delegation will spend about a week in the others city, meeting with a range of stake horlsde. A few months later the two cities will trade roles. Its hard to quantify the success of the c. V. E. Program, but in one instance we we can. In 2014, we partner lavorta with columbus, ohio. Had it had the highest number of people farthering to syria and iraq. After updating their Community Engagement strategy following the exchange, the departures stopped. We recognize that there are multiple factors involved, but we have heard from several cities how these exchanges have helped. They eventually joined s. C. N. And the mayor speaks around the world about the effort. This is a small municipality, we were able to bring the mayor and police chief, they were able to participate in this exchange. Obviously if earlier this year we did an exchange between london last year, we did an exchange between london and los angeles, it was not veezible to ask the mayors to feasible to ask the mayors to participate. We were able to get the deputy mayor of los angeles, the Deputy Police chief to participate. Its to say there is a value in engaging smaller cities. These exchanges may have more of an impact. Thats not to say they dont have an impact with larger cities. In december, 2016, we partnered in march day with orlando and tampa. We actually had this exchange planned well before the pulse nightclub attack. There was nothing that we knew about a threat there. It just so happened they were very good at Community Engagement. That was something we wanted to highlight with the delegation from marsais. We arranged meetings with the mayors from orlando and tampa which complemented meetings with stakeholders on the ground. Such nangements allow us to put crrnings v. E. On the radar of u. S. Mayors. Of u. S. On rate dar mayors. Radar of u. S. Mayors. I have met with the he mayor on several occasions. We had an ivlp come through from canada and we had a meeting scheduled with the mayors office. Not necessarily with the mayor. He decided when he saw that this group was in, he decided to meet with them. He spoke to them for about an hour or so. For a mayor of a u. S. Major city thats extraordinary that commitment to this issue. This past december we brought a delegation from manchester to boston. Both cities have experienced major terrorist attacks. Manchester wanted to learn about bostons efforts to promote resilience following the Boston Marathon bombing. Some of the delegates never worked together. So spending a week in boston helped them build critical relationships. They also developed some ideas for new programming based on stons efforts to engage atrisk youth. I was there. We visited a gymnasium that trains young people who have recently been incarcerated, trained them to become personal trainers. There is a mentoring component to that. That was one example where the delegation from manchester, they were really excited about the program. Not to say they are going to necessarily develop a program i was there. We visited like that, but they as we speak, a delegation from boston is traveling to manchester for the second half of that exchange. In april we brought representatives from 10 s. C. N. Members in kosovo and macedonia to the u. S. These two countries have had some of the highest per capita number of people depart for syria and iraq. The western balkans also accounts for about 1 3 of s. C. N. Membership. This exchange exposed them to good practices in the u. S. And helped them connect to each other. We chose to send them to tennessee and georgia to learn about interchange in the civil rights movement. Met with the mayors of nashville and chattanooga and visited atlanta. The one thing i would like to point out, cities in kosovo and macedonia are not necessarily comparable to the their large cities are not comparable to ours. Sense to idnt make send a group from there to new york or los angeles. Thats not to say atlanta is a small city, but in the case of chattanooga, 130,000 people, the population, they did have the down, meet to sit sense with the mayor, police chief, everybody who is involved in the attack from two years ago. That was extraordinary for this group and quite inspiring for them. Some of the members of the delegation, one has become a member of parliament. One is the national c. V. E. Coordinator for kosovo now. One is the minister of culture, youth, and sports. So we have already had some nice terms of deliverables from that exchange. Id like to talk about the next ups. Terms of a few things were planning in the future. U. S. Conference of nayors, on january 24, the mayors, on were january, this the state department is hosting a workshop for domestic and International Mayors from canada, germany, ireland, and the u. K. We expect about 40 to 50 mayors. This has been part of an ongoing relationship we have had with u. S. Conference of mayors. I have attended they meet twice a year. Its the one form for all u. S. Mayors to get together, talk issues and network. On when i have attended, im looking for cities that would be interested in hosting ivlp delegations. The ones we work with, the bureau of educational and curl affairs on. And Cultural Affairs on. Identity cities that would be good for the program. And hopefully, we started doing this a little bit. Sending u. S. Mayors overseas. A lot of u. S. Cities, they are focused on international trade, foreign and direct investments, but listening to mayors talk about their policy priorities it helps to identify opportunities for them to if they have a program that they are trying to champion. They are very open to sharing that internationally. Ill give you one example. Anaheim mayor i have been speaking to him for the last two years at the u. S. Conference of mayors meeting in indianapolis in june, 2016. I learned about his city of kindness initiative. I didnt realize when i started talking to him hes really good friends with the dalai lama. This is an initiative that has received support from lady gaga and the dalai lama. Thats just to say when i asked him to travel to denmark for the Strong Cities global meeting, part of my pitch to him was, hey, this initiative, a lot of other cities in other countries would really be interested in it. The mayor of nashville, when we brought that delegation there, the mayor has thi