Welcome back to the afternoon session of the National Security forum. My name is juan zarate, if you were here this morning i was privileged to be sit down with director pompeo for what i thought was a really interesting conversation. I hope you did as well. Bear in mind were not just the people in the room, great, good looking crowd, but were being livestreamed so we need to be on our best behavior. I have the distinct honor and privilege of introducing this afternoons session and kudos to the whole team for assembling this discussion with two of the most important, if not the most important figures in National Security, certainly with now the National Security advisor h. R. Mcmaster with us this afternoon. So, a real honor and privilege, i think, for all of us to have general mcmaster with us today. Ive been asked to introduce general mcmaster as well as mark who will conduct the interview. Mark as you know is the ceo for foundation of defendings and democracies, one of the great minds in the world of National Security, and in particular on iran policy, the use of sanctions, the use of pressure and power in our National Security. No doubt hell do a great job with the interview. Let me introduce general mcmaster for those who dont know him. He, of course, is the 26th assistant to the president for National Security affairs. He is the president s National Security advisor. General mcmaster has led a life of service to this country in the army, and in the military, graduating from west point in 1984, taking command of various units and commands in iraq, afghanistan, in the United States, on behalf of the army and the u. S. Military. General mcmaster is one of the great warrior scholars of our day and i think its a great privilege that he sits where he does next to the oval office at the side of the president. Hes the author of dereliction of duties, one of the great studies on military political relations during the johnson period. He holds a ph. D. In military history, and is, again, one of the great scholars of National Security. Finally, just a point of privilege, i noted my relationship with director pompeo earlier today. I have a personal relationship with general mcmaster, been privileged to know him his entire career and this is not just a great public servant, not just a great patriot, know the just an incredible warrior scholar, but hes a great man, a great father, great husband, and ive been privileged to call him a great friend and so, i think all of us as americans, regardless where you are politically. Regardless where you stand on National Security issues should be incredibly proud that we have somebody of hrs caliber and character in the position of National Security advisor, especially at a time of so many challenges. So with that, allow me to introduce Lieutenant General h. R. Mcmaster, our National Security advisor and Mark Dubowitz for the afternoon discussion. [applaus [applause] thank you, juan, for that kind introduction. Im a huge admirer of juans as well and the groundbreaking work he did on countering threat and harris financing. And hes been a friend, mentor, example for me for, as hes mentioned across my entire professional life and its just a real privilege to be here alongside him. I heard he said that he loves mike pompeo, made me a little bit jealous. I love juan more and love mark and fdd. And its a privilege to be with you. I want to thank the foundation for defense democracies for holding this event and for the discussion and one of the president s recent decisions to approve comprehensive strategy with problems set for iran. I want to thank fdd, critical issues, including the earlier work on threat posed by islamist ideology and add ver sver adversaries using the internet, and think tanks as well as we develop integrated strategies over the past months. Of course, theres no shortage of topics to discuss and i look forward to the discussion with mark on a broad range of topics, but i thought id outline a few of them and in general terms and then talk about the iran strategy. First, we face the challenge of revisionist powers who are subverting the post world war ii, cold war, postcold war political, economic and Security Order that the United States helped to create and lead. An order that has prevented great power conflict for over 70 years and expanded a free and Prosperous Community of democratic states. Second, we face the challenge from rogue regimes, rogue regimes that flout international norms, pursue weapons of mass destruction and extend terror to extend their influence and extort concessions from responsible nations. Third, we face barbaric, nonstate actors who perpetuate ignorance, foment hatred and use that hatred as justification for mass murder and unspeakable brutality against innocents and they do this under a cloak of an irreligious, wicked ideology. These disparate actors often appear on the same battle grounds. They often operate in parallel, but at times they cooperate when their interests align. For example, russia and iran aid, abet, and sustain the murderous assad regime in syria. That access perpetuates a civil war that strengthens islamist terrorists who portray themselves as patrons and protectors of that party and conflict. Iran, in turn, uses that same conflict, end conflicts in iraq and yemen, to pursue gains and threaten israel and saudi arabia and others with their terrorist and militia proxies, as urgent threats like these to u. S. National security have increased, our strategic competency has actually diminished. I think weve been prone in recent years to what we might describe as almost a narcissistic approach to National Security. Strategies are frequently based on what we would prefer rather than what the situation demands. In recent years, we have allowed incomplete plans, disconnected from the problems they were meant to address, to masquerade as strategies. So, what complex challenges that ive highlighted briefly to National Security and complex challenges like those manifest in syria demands to direct the purposeful employment of all instruments of power. So as we establish first order principles for the National Security strategy, the importance of using every element of National Power, diplomatic, informational. Military, economic, Law Enforcement, intelligence, in an integrated way is at the top of that list. The president s new strategy toward iran is a good example. Instead of focusing almost exclusively on jcpoa, the new strategy the Iran Nuclear Deal, the strategy considers the full range of irans destabilizing activities. Including its material and Financial Support for terrorism and extremism. Its complicity in the assad regimes atrocities against the Syrian People, unrelenting hostility to israel, its repeated threats to freedom of navigation, especially strategically and Cyber Attacks against the u. S. And israel and allies and partners in the gulf. Grievous human rights abuses and arbitrary detention of forces including u. S. Citizens on specious and false grounds. As the president made clear in his speech on october 13th, our strategy integrates all elements of National Power and is oriented on neutralizing the government of irans destabilizing influence and con straining its aggression for militants. Second, revitalizing our traditional alliances regional partnerships as bulwarks to a more stable balance of power in the region. This is where the president s leadership has paid off tremendously as youve seen, a growing together, a mutual understanding, much closer relationships and understanding of common action with our traditional allies and partners in the region. Denying the Iranian Regime and funding for its maligned activity, this is where juans work is extremely important. Opposi opposing activities that distort the wealth of the iranian people and countering threats to the United States and our allies from Ballistic Missiles and other asymmetric weapons. What we must do is we must rally, rally the International Community to condemn the rigcs gross violations of human rights and unjust attention of american citizens and other foreigners. And last, we must deny iran all paths to a Nuclear Weapon. This is the Strategic Direction that the president has given us. Our next challenge is to execute and as i mentioned, rally all of our friends to the cause. As a secretary of state said to cis yesterday, states that use terror as an instrument of policy will only see their International Reputation and standing diminished. It is the obligation, not choice, of every civilized nation to combat the scourge of terrorism. So as we develop the strategy, we began work wherever we could with our partners and allies. Now were mobilizing every element of National Power and efforts of our key partners to achieve our objectives. Where new resources or authorities are required, we will seek them. Where organizations must be reconfigured and retooled, we will change them and procedure to work hard hand in hand with our allies and partners and with members of congress to defend america and advance our vital interests, but we need your help. We need fdds help and we need the help of all of you here. We need organizations like fdd to continue their scholarship on the threats that we face and we need our media, our press, investigative reporters to look hard at countries like iran, and north korea, and help inform the world about how these rowing regimes skirt inks is as, brutalize their own people and menace their neighbors. With the knowledge that you and others help to bring to light about these threats, america can act with confidence. That confidence comes not only with knowledge of threats, but as we know, it comes from knowledge of who we are as a nation, what we stand for, what we value. That confidence is essential to generating the will and the commitment to prevail in the competitions we face and is part of regaining that strategic competence. Thank you and i really look forward to the conversation, mark. Thanks, everybody. [applaus [applause] great, first of all, general mcmaster, thank you for being here. I know your time is precious. Thank you for your service to our nation, and thank you for bringing an understanding of the nature and gravity of the iranian threat. I want to start with just a more broader topic of just how you develop integrated National Strategies and what they mean to you. I think youve given us some insights in your speech. When you came in as National Security advisor with a mandate to develop these strategies. Tell us about your vision of integrated strategies and in particular with respect to the iran strategy. So we began with the president s guidance who said, this white house, and by extension, the National Security council, has become very tactical and we are very much involved in areas of responsibility and actions and programs, initiatives that ought to be within the purview of the department and agencies. So, he asked us, decentralize where we can. And support the departments in executing our policies, but think, think clearly about the problems and opportunities we face as a nation. This was also based in, i think, all of our understanding that the balance has shifted against the United States in recent years and decades, and we have to we have to understand how to compete more effectively, compete more effectively to advance and protect u. S. Interests and to shift the balance back in favor of the United States in some of these critical competitions. And so, to do that, we have initiated and are well along in an effort to develop integrated strategies for our what were calling National Security challenges. First order challenges that are relevant to protecting and advancing american interests which we define really as four fundamental interests. First, its to protect the American People and to protect the american homeland. Second is to advance american prosperity, third is to achieve peace through strength and the fourth is to advance american influence. And i would say the president s made great progress on all four of these. We could talk about that if youd like. But then we use the vital interests as the lens through which we extend these and we craft our overall ab objectives based on how it relates to the American People and its first National Security strategy. What we do then is involve the president s National Security cabinet in the framing of these problems. In describing the situation, understanding how its relevant to our vital interest. And laying out our objectives and giving guidance to the heads of their departments and agencies how, how we can begin to get after this challenge in a way that advances and protects our interests, overcomes obstacles to progress and seizes on opportunities and then that guidance goes to the department to refine, to refine this guidance into an integrated strategy. So youve seen this on north korea, on south asia, in the iran strategy. On cuba, the president s cuba strategy. This goes on. These are well developed. Many of implementing now and have been in implementation for a while. And others are still in development, but with that guidance from the National Security council, the president s the president s cabinet upfront, it allows those departments to begin executing and coordinating their efforts. Great. So, general, lets Start Talking about one of those, the major first order challenges that youve described, which is iran. There was a big announcement on friday, the president s speech laying out a new comprehensive strategy and its safe to say that a lot of the discussion has telescoped down under which is the president refusing to certify on. I want to take the conversation up to a broader level. You talked about using instruments of National Power and i want to go through the theaters where iran represents a threat to the United States and our allies. What are you trying to achieve to begin with in iraq . Okay. So, in iraq, its easy to say and maybe hard to do. So, what we would like to see in iraq is a stable iraq thats not aligned with iran. And what we would like to do is to continue to assist the iraqis to do what the president has told us to work with allies and partners to do, which is to destroy isis and to not permit another group like isis, another Jihadist Group to come back by doing three fundamental things, deny safe havens and support basis, cut off their funding, and defeat the ideology and eliminate this draw of vulnerable populations into these kind of organizations. And so, the fight in iraq is relevant to that, but its also relevant to ensuring that iraq emerges from this horrible period of conflict strong, right . I mean, the United States has a strong interest in a strong iraq. I would say that others, who are operating within iraq, who are subverting iraq, and you have a weak government, the government is deliberately weakened. And so this is a model you see, sadly come any beautiful country of lebanon. It is a model i think you see in were about 80 of those that are fighting on behalf of of the brutal and murderous assad regime are iranian proxies. It is a model use attempted to be applied in iraq and its something you can see maybe trying to play out in yemen as well, trying to apply there. Its easy to say as i mentioned hard to duplicate takes a sophisticated, sustained effort but its a stable iraq and is not aligned with, of course will have a relationship with its neighbor not aligned with iran. What you say to the allegation that the president gives a speech on friday hes rolling out a comprehensive policy using all instruments of National Power to undercut iranian influence to neutralize their aggression in the region, and on monday ahead of the relentless regard core quds force shows up in kirkuk . So what you have in iraq is a greater level of complexity now associated with the codis referendum and then the actions that follow the codis referendum. And so what we want to see and iraq as an agent is a strong iraq emerge, and, of course, part of a strong iraq is a strong kurdish region where we have very long Time Partners whose partnership we value tremendously, who bore the brunt of saddam husseins brutality over many years, and we intervened on their behalf as a windows after 1991, and they use the safety and security we help provide that region to build a phenomenal communities in erbil and other places. These are some of the european thriving cities when you go to the kurdish region. What we need to do though is we have to work to mediate this conflict in a way that allows our kurdish friends to enjoy the safety and security and prosperity they built over so many years, and not regressed from that, but that also that keeps iraq on a path to strengthening after not being aligned with iran. So this has led to a