Of war inflict on so many young lives. I have said this before, we will not be able to stop every tragedy. We cannot wipe away hatred and evil from every heart in this world. But we can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives. We can reduce the impact of a terrorist attack if we are smart. If we do not act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this. Because we will be choosing to allow them to happen. We will have said, we do not care enough to do something about it. Here in orlando, we are reminded not only of our obligations as a country, to be resolute against terrorism, we are reminded not only of the need for us to implement smarter policies, to prevent mass shootings. We are also reminded of what unites us as americans. And what unites us is far stronger than the hate and target us. Tose who for so many people here, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, the pulse nightclub has always been a safe haven. A place to sing and dance, and most importantly to be who you truly are. Including for so many peopless whosemany people fromies are originally puerto rico. Sunday morning that thanks where he was violated. Whatever influences let the killer down the path of violence and terror, whatever propaganda he was consuming from isil and i and al qaeda, it was a act of terrorism and an active hate. It was an attack on the lgbt community. Americans were targeted because we are a country that has learned to welcome everyone. No matter who you are or who you love. And hatred towards people because of Sexual Orientation, regardless of where it comes from, it is a betrayal of what is best in us. Joe and i were talking on the way over here, you cannot break up the world into us and them, and denigrate, and express hatred towards groups because of the color of their skin, or their faith, or their Sexual Orientation and not feed something very dangerous in this world. So, if there was ever a moment for all of us to reflect and reaffirm our most basic beliefs, that everybody counts and everyone has dignity, now is the time. It is a good time for all of us to reflect on how we treat each other. And to insist on respect and equality for every human being. We have to end discrimination and violence against our brothers and sisters who are in the lgbt community. Here at home, and around the world, especially in countries were they are routinely prosecuted. We have to challenge the oppression of women, wherever it occurs here or overseas. There is only us, americans. Here in orlando, the men and women taken from us, those who loved them, we see some of the true character of this country, the best of humanity coming roaring back with love, compassion, and the fears resolved that will carry us not just through this atrocity, but through whatever difficult times may confront us. It is our pluralism and respect for each other, including name man whoding the young said he was superproud to be latino. The love of the country, the patriotism of an Army Reservist who is known as an amazing officer. It is our unity, the outpouring of love to so many across the country that have shown that to our fellow americans that are lgbt. The display of solidarity that might have been unimaginable even a few years ago. Out of this darkest of moments, that gives us hope. Seeing people reflect. Seeing peoples best instincts come out. Maybe in some cases minds and hearts changing. It is our strength and our resilience. The same determination from a man who died here who traveled the world, mindful of the risk as a gay man, but who spoke for all of us when he said, we cannot be afraid. We are not going to be afraid. May we all find that same strength in our own lives. May we find that same wisdom and how we treat one another. May god bless all whwe lost here in orlando. May he comfort their families. May he heal the wounded. May he bring some solace to those whose hearts have been broken. May he give us resolve to do what is necessary to reduce the hatred of this world, to curb the violence. May he watch over this country that we call home. Thank you very much, everybody. Charlie he is cochief executive officer and vice chairman of kissinger associates. He began his career as a journalist, his new book is called the seventh sense, power, fortune, and survival in the age of networks. It explores the ways our rapidly connected world exports the future. Welcome. Let me ask, why did you leave journalism . Whats wrong with you . [chuckling] i love being a journalist, i loved working for walter isaacson. I had the kind of personality i wanted to go deep. I have a little bit of maybe an academic streak in my personality. As i looked around the world and saw what was going on, i said it would be fascinating to know more about china. I moved there. I moved there. I would never havent is a paid i would fall in love with the country. I never would have anticipated i wouldve fallen in love with the country. I was very opportunistic. I was the tech editor of time. I had seen what happens when you have a giant force that emerges and changes the rules of the game. Charlie as it did in technology. Joshua i looked covering that. I loved covering that. I looked around the world and said, what other stories are like this . In 20002001, it seemed like china. It has done that. Charlie youd went over there to do what . Joshua i do i wanted to leave journalism and get into the commercial world. I also needed to learn the language. I took a year sabbatical. I didnt know what i would do at the end. I was lucky enough to get it an advisory job working for john thorton. The iconic westerner offered me a partnership in his firm. That was not anything i would say no to. Since then it has been an incredible education. Charlie how much time is spent there . Joshua it is down to 40 of the time. I still have that feeling. I never feel like i do not want to get on the plane to china. It is the most interesting place in the world. Charlie it has not changed . Joshua it is more interesting as a story now. A gets more complex and interesting. Before i moved to china, someone gave me advice they said as important as being bilingual is beingortant as bicultural. That is true. Every time i go back there, you feel you are reentering this incredible puzzle that is fascinating. The emergence of a new superpower is kind of a once every 200 or 300 years phenomenon. It is not clear how this will work out. The chance to sort of observed that from zero distance range is really very special. Charlie it is an interesting point. It is going to be disruptive, but we do not know what the ramifications are. Joshua i think we do not have an intellectual model. It is one thing to say, people compare it to the emergence of germany and britain a few years britain a few hundred years ago. The industrial world rules of power are different. We cannot compare it. There are things we can learn, but the background in which this is happening is not an environment where nothing is changing. Possibly part of the largest revolution since the industrial revolution. It has another level of complexity. Charlie one of the interesting things and you talked about the cultural differences, your closeness to kissinger, he is always in conversation with me, understanding cultural place. Political leaders come from that. Joshua i have never found someone a more acute student of psychology than henry. That was one of the things when i started working there that was most surprising. The amount of time we spend trying to understand, what is the landscape . On what is spends the historical and intellectual and Cultural Landscape in which someone operates . It is important and his diplomatic perspective. The stakes are high. It totally changes the way you look at a problem. You do not look at a commercial problem, because ours is commercial as the problem itself. You understand the concept. It turns out that happen to be a key to success for any likely to succeed commercial project in china it is better informed it has that background. Charlie what is your product . Joshua helping people navigate in china complex commercial transactions. It is, as you probably know charlie to understand dynamics. Joshua and to figure out and because it is a dynamic, rapidly changing environment. To find longterm sustainable that benefits everyone, it takes understanding of partners and environment. It takes understanding of tactical issues. It is part of the process of the chinese evolution. I do not think there is any more interesting way to kind of take the pulse of the country than doing deals there and having watched a decade and a half of the evolution of what a transaction in china looks like today, as opposed to 15 years ago. Charlie more open today . Joshua yes. In certain areas. You are seeing the emergence of chinese firms and executives who are much more capable of operators of businesses when i moved there 15 years ago. The general maturity of the system is growing. Having said that, it is in the midst of the most complicated Economic Reform Program in human history. Having lifted 400 Million People out of poverty, they have this problem of how do you get more people into the middle class . Charlie they bring demands which drives the economy. Joshua one of the interesting things about china, the minute or get out of beijing particular, you see what is going on in other parts of the country. You watch the seeds of reform trying to come out of the ground and grow. You really get a sense of both the potential, but also the incredible challenges. Charlie tell me about the seventh sense. The subtitle, power, fortune, and their survival in the age of networks. We have gone through the industrial, informational revolution, therefore it has created new shaping institutions, alliances, and relationships which have more impact some people argue than any other sort of element. Joshua i wanted to try to understand the question i was interested in is what is the scale of what we are going through . Coming from the world of journalism where we have seen the incredible upheaval in that space because of technology. You look at so many different worlds and see them being changed by connectivity. I wanted to understand what was going on inside the systems. Why was it that some people have the ability to see the dynamics . Connected system and a network of any kind is any set of connected points. It could be people, voters, citizens of new york, businesses that operate in bitcoin. We live in a world where youre seeing an explosion of these linked meshes. Charlie the mutuality of interest . Joshua the idea is you have many systems operating together. They often create surprising results. Sat here a year ago and said who is most likely to be the republican nominee. You wouldve thought the guy with two president s in the family, for decades of political experience. Charlie jeb bush. Joshua as opposed to the reality tv background guide. Backgroundity tv twitter 5 million followers. Charlie if you want to explain, you would argue from that if you want to explain Donald Trumps success in the primaries, york slain his you explain his reliance on twitter because he created his own network. Joshua not only that. We know that networks crave certain things. We are constantly checking email or facebook. If we think about financial markets, they move instantly. Charlie and what is trending today. There is a growing gap between secretary clinton and donald trump. Mean just thet internet. One of the things these Networks Want is constant updates. Trumps ability to be in the headlines always is a property of a network. Charlie weis it is interesting now because the polls in the last few days as we taped this on wednesday afternoon, it is there is a growing gap between secretary clinton and donald trump. Joshua it will make the election interesting. You start to see networks opposed to the trump network. It is a battle of networks. One of the things people say about networks, it takes one to defeat another network. One way to understand this election, almost anything these days is that of the various networks and how are they interacting . That is part of the idea of the book. Charlie i assume it is also about members. You could argue part of that network, one the ascending democratics. Latinos, women, young. She owns more than he does. Joshua you can watch, when the remarks about the judge came out, you could eat as other Network Running forming and you could see this other network forming and creating opposition. Charlie we mentioned earlier, i was at the china developer forum, and you were as well. All we wanted to know, american politics. Specifically donald trump. They created a session for me to for me to do, just to talk about donald trump. It is amazing. Joshua the first question is why does american politics matter so much . It turns out this is another network property. That is one of the things that happens in networks. There are certain systems that become essential for the operation of the network. They often have a lot of concentrated power. If you look around the world there are eight different connected systems with more than one billion users, facebook, youtube. They have a unusual property, the more successful they get, the more of a monopoly that they become in a sense. There is no secondplace to facebook or youtube. It turns out everyone thinks networks distribute power to everyone. At the same time, it creates incredible concentration. All of those platforms are american. If you begin to analyze the world in network terms, not just internet platforms, currency trade, all of these things, the u. S. Turns out to be essential for everywhere in the world. Not an industrial terms because it is the Central Network node. What the chinese understand is that importance of how the United States operates. I think there are a few reasons they are fascinated. One of them is this one, they know that so much of the International System depends upon the healthy functioning of the centralized system. The second, like everyone, they are trying to understand what is happening with u. S. Politics. Charlie it influences them. Joshua the deeper question which is in the book, what is the future of big and ive states in the International System . What is the future of the United States in the International System . Will it continue to be a superpower with a dominant position. Are we entering a time where there is a theory and International Relations where every 100 years power is handed off. So the dutch handed to the spanish. The spanish to the french. Charlie the rising power joshua that is an accurate discussion of the last 500 years. The u. S. Took over from the british. So a lot of people now wonder, who takes over for the United States . Is that china . If you look at all of human history, particularly a chinese perspective, you find countries and the systems that dominate for hundreds of years. A core question of the Chinese Philosophy is, where is the United States on that scale . Is this a declining power . Which is the rising power against the establishment. Charlie the interesting thing about this is in the last week as a commercial transaction, microsoft bought linkedin for 26. 2 billion. What does linkedin have . It has 320 Million People who are part of the network. That network. The network linkedin. These are people in business and enterprises. It is not like facebook, which is every teenager and everybody else. Joshua it also has data. That come in the future turns out to be valuable. What is the next of these billion user platforms. We know that the more people that use facebook, the better it gets. We will see that happen in the world of Artificial Intelligence as well. That is probably the next great that form. So linkedin, in that world, suddenly becomes a wonderful data mine for how people interact. Where they are going, what they think. Charlie you also say anytime you want anything into the network, you forever alter its nature. Joshua you are what you are connected to. The main example for all of us now, we see this now with this horrible domestic activated terrorism in orlando is that the minute you connect to the world, you have no idea you are connecting to. And so it brings a risk factor at the same time it brings opportunity. And youve just got to accept that as a feature. Charlie and you have no idea. I was struck by the language of the gunmen in orlando. By,an, he had been inspired he had been influenced by, he was, they use the term of he was connected to i so. yes, connected. In that is the ability to remotely my last book i began when spending time with the chief Technology Officer at hezbollah. That from alabout qaeda to isis, your mapping the technological elements. Charlie we know this because of what has happened in San Bernardino represented one of the questions, but also paris, theyre using apps that are encrypted, providing a huge new problem for law enforcement. Joshua right. Into just changes all of the technology. We are going to of issues with drones and all of these things. You thinkd that, if about the longterm position of the United States, the greatest threat is not terrorism. It will not wipe out the United States. It is psychological warfare. The only existential threat that faces the United States today is the emergence of these networks. Charlie and technological superiority. Any guarantee we can do that . Joshua it depends on the quality charlie the u. S. Has 18 of the best educational institutions. Joshua educational institutions. I think also the values of a society that encourage innovation, it is not an accident those platforms are all american. If you asked if you had to have a picture of the International System in your head in 15 or 20 years, we know it will be different because the one thing we know is today the legitimacy of every institution is collapsing. Whether it is the congress or and it is not a bad picture, it is a set of these interconnected communities. And they run on certain values. They will all have this property that he more people that use them, the better it is. Charlie i interviewed president obama not long ago. I am asking this question, do you believe the u. S. Has the best military and technology, the biggest economy down the line. What could go