Aspen Strategy Group and welcome to this session on American Global leadership in the 21st century. We want to thank them for the space and particularly dan sussman of alaska, im going to introduce in just a minute. Let me tell you about our program this morning. We at the aspen Strategy Group are 35 years old. We have this radical notion that even in washington there can be an organization thats resolutely nonpartisan. We have been resolutely nonpartisan for 35 years. Bill perry, joe nye, joe showcroft. We meet in aspen and debate about American Foreign policy and leadership and each year we prepare a book based on our proceedings for publication and this years book is available today. If the book were discussing today called the world turned upsidedown, maintaining American Leadership in a dangerous age, were going to discuss the book this morning beginning with senator sullivan and then continuing with our good friend who will talk about major changes and how america looks at global trade position, with richard dansig about the impact of technology on americas Global Leadership. Well continue with a conversation that ill moderate between former secretary of defense bill cowan and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright about these issues and then well culminate in a panel at 11 30 chaired by David Ignatius of the Washington Post with dave hadley and susan rice, two former National Security advisors. Weve got a full morning. Here is whats at stake. We took on this summer in our conversation, this book focuses on probably the major question that republicans and democrats have about our future. Will the United States maintain its leadership in the world in the decades ahead . Because that leadership is being assaulted by a combination of factors. First is the rise of right wing, antidemocratic, populist movement. Even in countries poland, hungary, the Czech Republic and all members of nato, veering in an antidemocratic nation. We see the rise of marie la pens in france, alternative for deutscheland in germany. And some of these antidemocratic parties wellfinanced. Some financed by the kremlin. Some of them designed to hollow out the European Union and nato from the inside. Thats one big factor that were contending with. The second, of course, is the rise in power of the two great autocratic countries, china and russiament china following xi jinpings, and for the Asia Pacific Region in the future, china pushing out and violating the sovereignty of five other countries, in the South China Sea and challenging japanese sovereignty and the control over islands in the east china sea. And china running rough shod over International Law and making extravagant legal claims to the space in the South China Sea. The only combination of powers that can manage this, contain chinas ambitions are the United States and japan and india, all democratic countries, all increasingly aligned with others. In europe, were facing an equally tough problem, Vladimir Putin has invaded georgia and crimea and Eastern Ukraine, pressured the Baltic States all over the last nine years. The intelligence communities of the United States said publicly about a year ago that Vladimir Putin interfered in our 2016 election. Theres no question that the russian government is trying to cut the United States down to size and limit our power in the world, and thats a second factor. Were also going to examine technology because the technological military edge that weve had, the qualitative military edge is being narrowed not just by powers like china, but also by the fact that countries like north korea now have the ability through Cyber Technology to penetrate deep into the heart, say, of the sony corporation, into the data bases of the United States government. This challenge to u. S. Global leadership is also from within. There are major debates in the United States right now reflected in our conversations this summer. President trump came to office with a first point of view. Weve had five members of the Trump Administration with us at our conference this summer. H. R. Mcmaster with us and four other officials and they talked about the need for retrenchment, the need for stronger defense, more hardnosed attitudes on trade and the need to demand more of our allies. On the other side we have critics and we had both sides in aspen, in our nonpartisan basis, that President Trump is upending 60 years of american policy on trade, that the immigration and refugee issues are hurting the credibility of the United States in the crackdown on refugees, and that theres been a withdrawal of American Leadership on climate, on the trade issue, and from u. N. Agencies. We looked at both sides of the issue in our nonpartisan effort to be fair to both sides, to listen to both sides this summer, but i was struck in the Public Session that we had this summer when former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said she felt that the United States had lost its selfconfidence in the world, as the global leader. So we should look at that again this morning. Do we have Strategic Direction that most americans and both of our Political Parties can agree on . Those are the issues for this morning. Were looking forward to a good conversation and i want to start with our friend senator dan sullivan. This is a rather busy week for the senate and for the house and i want to thank senator sullivan for being with us. He spent five days with us this summer in aspen. Hes someone we know quite well, as you all know, he served as assistant secretary of state for Economic Affairs in the george w. Bush administration and he was the lead person on terrorist financing and did a great job for that administration and i had the great pleasure to work with dan during those years. Dan was also attorney general of the state of alaska, hes now senator from the state of alaska. He is a member of the Armed Services committee and plays a leading role in that committee, a recognized expert on the asianpacific region and americas global and foreign defense policy. I did not realize until i was preparing for this session, hes also a lt. Colonel in the u. S. Marine corps reserve, has spent 23 years in the marine corps reserves as hes conducted this public career at the state department and the National Security counsel for the state of alaska, and now for all of us in the u. S. Senate so i want to invite senator sullivan to take the stage and ask all of you to join me in welcoming him. [applaus [applause] all right, well, thank you, nick. And its a pleasure to be back. I want to first thank my wife julie is here and i dont you know, when youre the senator from alaska, you dont get home that much so having her in town for a couple of weeks has been a real treat for me and my staff, jason and liz are also here. And i want to thank them. You know, i hadnt been to aspen before, in terms of this summer, and nick mentioned we worked together, i worked for secretary rice both at nsc and when she was secretary of state as one of her assistant secretaries. When you get asked by Condoleezza Rice to swing by a conversation that shes cohosting, pretty much always say, yes, maam, and salute and do that, right . So shes such an incredible, incredible, important figure for our country and has done so much. But ive got to tell you, i had a wonderful time at the event and a little bit of bonding julie and i have three teenage daughters. Our youngest two are in college and youngest is in high school and she actually went with me out to aspen and we went to all the she went to all the events, which is really great and we had met, actually flew to denver together and then drove out to aspen and she, like millions of High School Kids across country, is a huge fan of hamilton, the musical. I hadnt heard much about hamilton we were listening on the drive out to aspen and on the drive back and i started to get into it. For those of you who were at the aspen meeting this summer, there was like in the meetings, there was all of these numerous, some were, i think on purpose, but others were inadvertent references to hamilton, right . So every time that happened my daughter would sit in the row there and she and i would look over and be like. [laughter] so theres the theme of the whole conference, which is the world turned upsidedown and that was one of the songs in hamilton. Another one h. R. Mcmaster and Condoleezza Rice, susan rice, hadly, all of these big shots, Madeleine Albright and someone said, this is the room where it happens, right . So, i looked over at my daughter, hey, another one. And then there was even a reference, this is like for the real hamilton geeks, somebody mentioned, i think it was about h. R. Mcmaster how he was the righthand man to somebody so we were having a lot of fun on the you probably doesnt know all of these references to hamilton were going on. So, thanks again for the invite this summer and then just to say a few words here. What i wanted to do is to try to address upfront nicks kind of opening question, which is will the u. S. Remain the predominant global power despite all the challenges that everybody in the room recognizes . My answer is that is, yes, probably, but we need to focus on some key things. And the three keys that i wanted to highlight today are returning to robust levels of Economic Growth, strengthening and deepening our network of alliances that nick talked about. And then something that ive been focused on and i have a little bit of a birds eye view on right now as a u. S. Senator is a stronger executive Legislature Cooperation in terms of Foreign Policy. So, let me hit on these each in turn and then love to take any questions or comments. First, Economic Growth. So my team has passed out a chart that hopefully youre taking a look at. This was the Biggest Surprise to me as a u. S. Senator so ive been in a little under three years and when i came here, i thought the idea of growth, maybe with the exception of National Security, that growing our economy, strong, traditional levels, robust u. S. Growth was the most important thing that congress should be focused on. So many of our challenges get better if were growing and so many of our challenges get worse if were not. And yet, my Biggest Surprise as a u. S. Senator when i came here three years ago, was nobody talked about it. Obama administration certainly didnt talk about it. Democrats in the senate didnt talk about it, but republicans didnt talk about it either to be perfectly honest. In my conversations i used to get up. Hey, how come no one is talking about growth. So i have been going on in the state with this chart and a bunch of other charts, i feel a little like ross perot because i pull out the charts and give the same speech. At least once a quarter and sometimes more often, look at this, look at this chart. Okay . This explains a lot. V from my perspective. And this is very bipartisan, democrats and republicans, we have focused our country on strong growth. The red line is 3 , which is good, not great, but its okay, its a good target to shoot for. We havent had we havent had 3 gdp growth annually in almost 13 years. 13 years, and nobody was talking about this. You know, theres a lot of discussion about making America Great, what makes America Great. This is what made America Great. Almost 4 gdp growth annually, the average with all the recessions since world war ii, since the founding of the republic, its about 4 , and then yet, we had a decade starting at the end of the bush administration, the entire Obama Administration, that never hit 3 . And nobody was talking about it. My view is, you want to understand what happened in the 2016 election . Boom. So to me, we have to, have to, have to get back to the strong levels of Economic Growth. Now, im a little biased, as nick mentioned, i was assistant secretary for the economic and energy and Business Affairs bureau at the state department under secretary rice, but i think this is even more important than the military power. Actually this underpins military power and yet, we really havent focused on it. So, what happened was, if you listen to the narrative, particularly in washington, people thought of this and theyre like, wait a minute, how do i explain that . And so, people started start making excuses, calling this the new normal. The new normal. 1 1 2 n. D. P. Growth is american hitting on all of its economic cylinders. Thats a narrative in washington. To me its one of the most dangerous narratives there is. If we think that 1 1 2, 2 is it for the country, were going to have enormous channels. And were not going to be positioned for Global Leadership. My view is different. I dont think that thats the future. I dont believe in the new normal. As a matter of fact, one of the privileges of being in the u. S. Senate, if you go reach out to smart people like many of the people in this room who have time on their hands and you say, hey, id like to talk to you about an issue, next time youre in washington. Ive reached out to dozens of people with one question. Is this the future . Do you believe in the new normal at 1 1 2 . And if not, how do we get back to robust levels of gdp growth that made this country great and our Foreign Policy strong . Nobody believes in the new normal, which is why the narrative is so dangerous. So, its the good news on that front. Were finally, i think, starting to focus on this. Were starting to focus on getting back to robust levels of growth. Democrats, republicans, the white house. I think theyre policies that you can undertake, tax reform. Remember, a lot of the ideas in our current tax reform business, you dont hear it in the press, president obama this these ideas, Chuck Schumer had these ideas, nobody and im focused on energy, energy, energy. The u. S. Is on the verge of being the Worlds Energy super power, larger producer of oil, bigger than saudi arabia. Largest producer of natural gas, bigger than russia. To me its an enormous opportunity. Grow the economy and when people talk about instrument of Foreign Policy and instrument American Power, energy is one were just scratching the surface on, its a win, win, winnen so many fronts. Foreign policy, National Security and the environment. The last administration didnt like to talk about hydrocarbons, i was in charge of hydrocarbons in alaska, we have the strongest development in the world in alaska. You dont produce it there, if you dont, you drive it to russia, or kazakhstan or brazil or iran, places that dont have nearly the focus on protecting the environment that we do. So, to me sh, this issue of strong, robust growth goes to the issue also that nick mentioned in his opening remarks. This also goes back to the issue of american confidence, which we need to regain and so many smart Foreign Policy practitioners recognize that we are best at developing confident, longterm Foreign Policy when the American People and the country feels confident and theres nothing like the confidence of a growing economy versus something thats not growing. H. R. Mcmaster focused on this last week at the Reagan Defense forum when he talked. As nick said, Condoleezza Rice talked about this after aspen. One of my mentors, someone who i think has a lot of respect in this room in terms of Foreign Policy, bob zellick when he gave his wellknown stake holder, Foreign Policy, china, look at the end of that speech he talks about american confidence and having to deal with china from a feeling and position of strength. And to me, its all about the economy. Thats one area, we have to do better. I think were getting there. The second is with regard to strengthening our position with our allies. And as all of you know here, as nick mentioned over decades americans have focused on that. To me, Even Stronger than our military, this is probabl