Welcome, everybody. Essencepretty much the of what the Aspen Institute has been and should always be about. , and frankly what our nation should always be about. There is a notion of really dedicated people of both parties coming together and trying to find common ground. It is under the auspices of the en strategy through strategy group. Condoleezza rice is cochair in the first year of the job. [applause] this is one of the first times four National Security advisers will be together. The current one, h. R. Mcmaster, is coming in tomorrow. You may notice that susan rice is missing. She will be here in about seven minutes. She is on her way from the airport. Just like bob gates last year, there is always someone who wants to make a dramatic entrance area entrance. [laughter] turn it over to a person everybody knows, and turns, executive director of the aspen nick burns, executive director of the Aspen Strategy Group. Tell when you first came here and why. The first time i came here was 1972. It was at the end of my sophomore year in college, and i was a student in the Aspen Music Festival school at the time. [applause] experiencing all those amazing pianists, i went back to denver and changed my major. [laughter] [applause] good afternoon, everybody. Before walter goes away, i think extraordinary leadership with the Aspen Institute over 14 years, we all ought to pay tribute to him. [applause] thank you all for being here. Im burns, director of the Aspen Strategy Group. , director of the Aspen Strategy Group. We are resolutely nonpartisan. I was at that first meeting 30 years ago with our chairman emeritus and the former secretary of defense, the founding fathers. We also have a lot of founding mothers at this institution. We believe that republicans and cancrats and independents come together on behalf of our country to think through the Biggest Challenges we face, so we are here every august for that reason. I want to pay to the to joe because he is the longestserving member of this fathertion, and a great intellectually of what we try to do, thank you. [applause] we have a lot of important people here i have to mention. Our great former secretary of state Madeleine Albright. [applause] i have to mention tom. [applause] steele,crown and bob who have led the Aspen Institute as board chair. Thanks to both of you. This year we are bringing together a lot of foreignpolicy experts, but also three elected officials who are going to talk to us sunday evening about the redblue divide, about a divided nation. We have been running this project of healing america. Mayor Mitch Landrieu of new orleans is here. We are really happy he is here today. [applause] if you have not read his speech about a very sensitive issue in his community, confederate monuments, you must read that speech. He will be joined by a good friend of ours have a senator dan solid senator dan sullivan of alaska and congressman joe kennedy to talk about how domestic politics as an impact on leadership position. What we are doing is taking on a big subject, the american liberal order of the last 72 years. , every american president from harry truman to barack obama has agreed on one engagede have to be with the rest of the world as a leader. That is why we created this set of alliances like nato and our east asian alliances. That is why we stood for free trade and trading agreements for global prosperity. It is why we have nurtured these big institutions that are not always perfect like the u. N. , the imf, the world bank, because when there is a National Disaster that hits haiti or and ebola crisis, we have to respond. If the United States is the linchpin of all this, we believe in something else, every president and every administration, both parties. We believe in democracy and human rights and a democratic order in the world. That is under challenge right now. It is another challenge by a rising china, which doesnt share some of those value. It is under challenge by a resurgent russia, which has invaded and crossed every redline by invading and crimea, harassing nato allies, causing trouble in the middle east, and a cyber attack on our election. But it is more complicated than just china and russia because this liberal order is also being this being besieged that by a lot of nongovernments like al qaeda and isis are cutting into and dividing power and our ability to achieve a peaceful and stable world. I must say this, and i will try to say it in a nonpartisan way. A lot of people are thinking that the United States is not upholding its end of the bargain. There were many great critics of president obama who thought he was too reticent in protecting the United States in some instances. There are many, many more critics of America First, of President Trump. The question i want to ask our , is that liberal order that is so important to our future being weekend, and how can President Trump and the congress and all of us strengthen its . That is the first question. The second is, what do we do about putin . You we contain him in europe and engage him in asia and the middle east . And china, the most complex of all. China is not our enemy. It is our partner on Climate Change, on Global Economic growth, but our competitor in the south and east china sea. How do you balance that . Those are three questions we got we would take a run through. Then we will turn it over to you. Please feel free to ask any question you would like to ask. Condie it is only fair, is our new cochair. We are very happy that she is succeeding. Take it away. Let the just very much to all of you for being here. What we need to do more than anything is civic and civil dialogue about a number of important issues we face. I want to pick up with your description of the liberal order. I think we have to realize that the liberal order was born, and idea designed after world war ii when people look at the world that they had inherited and said, lets not do that again. It had two important elements. Really believeey the International Economy did not have to be a zerosum game. It could be competitive, but a growing economy, and a positive sum game, so my gains are not your losses. That is why they wanted to have they set ofnd institutions to do it, and International Monetary fund, a starting as the European Bank of reconstruction and element, which would become a source of capital for countries coming out of colonialism. In some ways, the most remarkable one, the generalist agreement on tariffs and trade, rules of the road leveled level the playing fields of the International Economy could grow. Bias nature, it is supposed to get us away from conflict in the International System. They also worry there she is. Susan rice. [applause] sorry to interrupt. I call susan my little sister even though we are not related, even though our last names are rice. Fact that there was competition over resources, so they werent going to do that again. There were going to try to create the Democratic Peace were they could come as of a rebuilt germany as a democracy, japan as a democracy. It was all going to be protected by American Military power. That was the liberal order. I think it is being challenged by china, although china has one foot in and one without. One foot out. It is being challenged by russia because they dont really have a foot in the economic side, and use its military power for its respect. It is also being challenged by the four horsemen of the apocalypse opulent, nativism, isolationism, and protectionism populism, nativism, isolationism, and protectionism. It is not just transnational terrorism or cyber warfare or big powers like russia and china. How do we deal with the fact that it does seem that there are those who believe that they were left behind by the global order, and they are fighting back . They have found people who will give them an answer as to why they didnt succeed. Populists always have an answer. It is the other. The chinese, the illegal immigrants. If you are from the left, the big banks. Other thisway, the time around is not just taking your jobs. The other is dangerous. Refugees, immigrants. I think the challenge is this time not just one that we Foreign Policy people can that has tobut one go internally to these societies and see what is happening. That is why i am glad for the exit strategy that we are having this session. This is a really big challenge from the inside and out. I am worried that the liberal order might not survive it. Thank you. I think we will give susan a breather. Welcome, by the way. The question is, susan, is the liberal order weakening, and American Leadership of that order weakening . I will go to tom. Let me just put a Little English on this, America First. Part of the problem of a weakening america . It is great to be here. To reinforce one thing you said, we have in our country today deep holders asian deep polarization. Not a lot of conversations takes place across political lines and in the policy world. It does take place in the Foreign Policy and National Security arena. We are very lucky for that. This institution has been a really important part of that. You have almost two decades straight through of service on the stage here today. I think it is kind of a manifestation of something very important for us to continue in terms of our National Security. Condies description of the u. S. Led postworld war ii world happenthat this will not without the United States and not continue without the United States. We cant take it for granted. Her description of what was put in place after world war ii has led to and again, with a lot of problems and challenges and mistakes but the overall arc of the story is enormously positive for the United States with respect to prosperity and security, and positive for large parts of the world. I do think it is under pressure. I think the key element here is continued u. S. Leadership of that. The thing after world war ii, among others, was that the u. S. Did not act like a normal country. That was not the play the u. S. Ran after world war ii. It was an entirely different. Pproach we just were not a normal country. The United States engaged in a very special undertaking after world war ii. We reallys all have seen now the reemergence of great power of edition. We had an extraordinary. Period extraordinary after the fall of the great berlin wall. I think that has come to an end, particularly with respect to russia, who after the return of Vladimir Putin in 2012 decided to go in a different direction. Present a real challenge to the world order and the United States. My own view is that russia has become actively hostile to the United States. We have also seen an ideological challenge to the world order in the values the u. S. Pursued successfully. That challenge comes from in liberalism and authoritarian regimes. History is back. With a vengeance here, i think. Third, we have seen the breakdowns of the state system in the arab world. That has had enormous external impacts, including the emergence of violence to fill the vacuum like isis. , anotherd of the day challenge to this really is questions about whether or not the u. S. Is going to continue to lead this. During the course of the campaign and the First Six Months of the them an assertion, there have been real questions raised about the u. S. Commitment to the basic tillers of that world order, and terms of alliances, trade, multilateral institutions. Ishink the United States incumbent to engage in a very serious set of steps, including significant reassurance with our allies. Wenzhou and condi when joe condie and i were talking about this, we didnt want this to be a verdict about President Trump. What needs to be fixed . How should it evolve . Steve, and that respect, there area paragraph saying, here the problems of America First, but another paragraph said trump is bringing new ideas. A lot of americans are concerned that free trade has undercut them personally and their industries that they worked at. It is a very aggressive policy against the Islamic State in syria and iraq, for instance. You might be best placed as a student of this not in the administration to give a sense of how you view America First fitting into the continuum of every president since truman. Is it i get version is it a diversion . I would like to blow it up a little bigger than that. The question is, what do we do about all this . I will give you one vignette. The Brookings Institution brought together five republicans and five democrats before the election to talk about rulesbased International Order. The whole tenor of the discussion was, we got to defend it. Weve got to defend it. Then the election occurs. It was interesting to see the change of mood and dialogue within that group because what we saw with the trump election is a group of people who felt that they were victimized by globalization, threatened by immigration, ignored and excluded from the politics, and betrayed by the elites. Suddenly what this group began to say was, well maybe we have got to amend and revitalize that liberal International Order to reflect the fact that many people feel left out by it, to reflect the fact that the world has changed we now have the advantage of china and india and other new players and the fact that we do have this new ideological struggle that tom talked about. Interestingly enough, the question is, can this administration be convinced that it is in its interest to lead a process to revise and revitalize the International Order . I was in warsaw to your President Trump speak, and he talked about western civilization. Talked to some of his people afterwards and said, you know, someone needs to explain to him that this rulesbased International Order has been a framework for defending all the values of western civilization that he was talking about. He wants other countries to do more, not the United States being taken advantage of. So lets try a recast and revitalized International Order that lets other countries have a hand in trying to amend that order so that they and some sense are taking more responsibility and are more bought into it. At that point you may be able to say to President Trump, the world is stepping up the way you ask them to come of it they cant do it alone. Anted states remains indispensable party to the future. I think that is our challenge. Susan, youve heard all this. Your view on our role in the world and what has happened to it. I think our role is and remains indispensable. What we are suffering fundamentally is a view of the world and the view of our domestic politics as zerosum. Our leadership in the post world that the postwar world has never been zerosum. It has benefited from the concept that we can maximize benefits through strong principled American Leadership. We now to the extent that have gone through a phase of us , thes them domestically other, it is becoming the same in our relationships with many parts of the rest of the world. Even our closest allies are looking at the United States and questioning whether we are leading a team of principled, likeminded valuesbased entities, or whether or not we are going to stand in opposition to them, much less our own adversaries. Reform that vision of the United States leadership through a combination of reasserting and embracing the fact that americas leadership can be beneficial not only for us, but for others. That we have a system of alliances and trade that has served us very well, and it is not in our interest to see those eroded or jettisoned. That requires a whole new approach, a renewal of our relationships that we have frankly suffered from, i think, over time, but also over the last six months. I agree completely that we need to revitalize and reassure, but we need help from our allies, too. How many of us on that stage gave that 2 gdp to our nato allies and kept saying, please, cant you just carry more of the burden . We all did, and basically got nowhere. Large scheme of things, we got nowhere over a long period of time. The u. S. Has carried most of the burden. I believe great powers have to be willing to do that. But i have been saying we actually could use a little help here. Step up and it will be appreciated if we start to see greater engagement. I always felt a little bit sometimes as secretary of state that the secretary of state and matalin would notice and ineal line and madel would notice that the secretary of state is the 911. Ofhi