Free. This is a wonderful turnout and what promises to be a very timely event. Let me start by giving a couple of works couple of words of introduction. Hogan. Ou to senator john there are a lot of offices involved on this work. In addition to our inhouse work in terms of publications, in terms of events to be able to and representll the findings of our friends. Couple of words about the american foreignpolicy counsel. Including transnational threats and radical islam. Counterterrorism is actually broader and represented here. This is one component we do. To talk about different angles. A very complex topic that may be underserved currently. Other groups do not fall into that broad category. We also publish twice monthly global islamism. If you havent already there is a signup up sheet outside where you can sign up free of charge and it brings you that type of information every two weeks on. Extremist islamic ideology and trends in ideology but also in terms of movement, what is happening with bo boko haram and nigeria. Things that may be slightly outside of your purview. Publish digital and multimedia project. About a month from now we have our 2017 addition, which will hit the newsstands. You can already access all of the chapters online. It is the First Comprehensive study of islam is an as a political phenomenon. And alls all countries regions its impressive even though it is not completely global. Lookdea is to take a geographically and topically across various regions, across various act to these of global movements ranging from the Islamic State to al qaeda to the taliban. And to look at where these groups are active and where these groups are come a where the threat is increasing or decreasing. And in particular for policymakers, why it is increasing or decreasing. Whether we are pursuing counterterrorism policy or on the right track or on the wrong track, what can be done better . In all those various ways we try hard to inform the debate about islamic extremism. Im delighted to be able to have asked and have my offer excepted, to have my friend come brief us about a new report on the heidi movement. Zimmerman is a Research Fellow at the American Enterprise institute and the Research Manager for critical threats project. She is the Senior Analyst focusing on global Al Qaeda Networks and also covers the Broader Movement, as well as relating trends in the middle east and africa. In particular shes an expert on yemen and on the activities of al qaeda in north africa. She is also wonderful to travel with. We have the opportunity to do some field Work Together. I can tell you katie is the best of the best to come talk to us about the broad sweep of the Global Islamist Movement and how it interplays, how it works with one another and what u. S. Policymakers should be thinking as they try to navigate this topic. Im going to seize the florida katie now. We will let her give her presentation and then we look have time for we will have time for questions and answers. Ask a ask a question, question. Also identify where you are from and what organization or office you are from. Im excited to talk about the Movement Today and why we face in her with Strategic Risk why we are fighting it. I think its critical as the fight against isis begins to culminate inside iraq and syria. Isis hasust heard that lost a significant amount of terrain inside iraq and in raqqa has are 40 of been recovered and we are working on the final stage of the fight against Islamic State. We have heard all of that before. Weve heard we are in the final stage again al qaeda in iraq, afghanistan and in yemen, and yet we still face a massive threat from these groups and part of the reason is why we are missing that threat is we have missed defined what the enemy is. We define the enemy as various groups that have pointed there guns at us and we have only chosen to go after this groups which meanshe guns over time, weve looked at this and their groups that choose not to start shooting and us and i has chosenl qaeda that today which is why we are defining it as a longterm threat. I think putting off that fight places us in a position where its going to be much harder, much more difficult, and the United States is in much greater danger. The challenge is even if we go after al qaeda or if we go after Islamic State across the world, we are still going to face a threat and thats because these groups draw strongly on an and they are competing to be the vanguard for that ideological movement, and it is the movement itself which is the enemy we must fight. Thats challenging for policy makers how do you fight a movement . Theres nothing tangible except for an ideology can hit and you witht hit an ideology action. So they come back and say theres nothing to strike. There is not a leadership cell, theres not a network to disrupt, theres not to strain not terrain to take back from the movement. So i would say over the past 15 or even longer years, we have defined the enemy as groups, networks and individuals and we have confined ourselves by policy definitions such that we can go after an enemy we can find and use the policy tools to go after that enemy. When we think about that, we are not actually fighting the movement writ large. Would say its much stronger today than it has ever been and has escalated in strength in annex national fashion. It is not going to be set back by the feet of isis. It has the momentum and will continue to have that. Briefly looking at what this movement is, is not all of islam. Their sunni who are secular and are very devout and present us with no threat. Andes a sect within islam not all of them are dangerous to us. They believe they should return to the days of the prophet muhammad, to the practice of islam he espoused and pursued. End faceeve thats the to go after but not all of them pursue that to the end stage. Its largely accepted within islam. Choose to take no action. They practice devoutly. There are clinical sophists evenl salad this though their end state is contrary to what we would see as our own interest in the world, the fact they have existed for decades and have not actually gained a majority of support any of the countries where they exist, they have not been widely accepted by what we are calling mainstream sunnis today. The groups that exist in the politicalspear sphere and only gained power in one instance in egypt where the only opposition, the only counter is the Muslim Brotherhood and theres not a for what theing muslim whether it was representing. The part of the movement that becomes problematic is the part that pursues its and stayed with violence. This is the jihadi part. They believe they must pursue religiouslyate, obligated to pursue their and state through the use of violence, that jihad, that fight is required on all practicing muslims. This is going to be a global insurgency they are calling to. Granted, this has been around since it was activated during afghan soviet war and has not been a threat to the United States the way it has been today for decades. Primarily because it has been rejected and marginalized and society has isolated and imprisoned those who believe in it. Why, then do we have a problem with the movement . Why is the movement so strong . Is strong because over the course of its existence, it has sought one singular objective, which is to transform muslim society. It has focused on the people. It has used terrorism to cause the United States to retreat, it has used terrorism to weaken governments. Has used terrorism to generate a sectarian war inside iraq that creates conditions that enable people to reach out to it, but when you see in the leadership discussions are what the Popular Support base wants. Into the minds of the people and convince them this is our way . They have not done a good job of convincing them, but the requirements facing most muslims on the ground today have driven them to look for support so that the conditions on the ground, those facing brutal conditions, there are populations inside systems torequired fight with acs and enemy to their own survival. You can look in somalia, libya and elsewhere when these groups and communities have faced where they have not had access to basic services, where they require water or fuel, the groups that are providing it that are on the sidelines are al qaeda and isis. That is how these groups are moving into the population. Providing defense and fighting alongside the sunni. They are fighting alongside one of the factions in the libya civil war. They are building that time,onship and, over they are changing how society on the ground functions because of these use of force, coming in with a military use of force al qaeda brings, it has been able to secure the system of justice. We saw korea we saw sharia courts begin to appear. Syria, a secular state with a revolution that started as a secular uprising now has significant portions of opposition controlled territory under shariabased government. That is because al qaeda was able to transform that revolution. It is looking to do the same ,hing in yemen, inside somalia inside afghanistan, its doing and that is why we see this Group Strength writ large. Its not that they are actively looking for the ideology. They are accepting because of the requirements because of the protection of their livelihoods and their very lives. The United States has somewhat fallen into al qaedas trap. Isis came onto the scene, it conducted brutal, mass executions, it declared itself a caliphate, the Islamic State, and it became the number one enemy for the united take. Toer that, al qaeda was able operate under the policy radar where it was able to focus on its core objective, which was to win the hearts and minds of the so in partsas done of syria and is doing so in parts of yemen. We can keep going through this and its not attacking the United States directly. It has not conducted a directed attack against the United States since we conducted the war against isis. That is a decision. Its not because al qaeda does not have the capabilities. Al qaedas lawmakers, known for the underwear bomb and printer cartridge tom and the mastermind behind the laptop bomb isis is trying to replicate, he is alive and theres no reason to believe al qaeda does not pursue the capability to attack us. The westjet is when. And yet, the way we are fighting these groups, we are going after the groups and we are going after leadership on the ground, and that has created a huge divergence. As al qaeda is focusing on delivering protection to the people, this is very true inside of syria, inside of yemen, the United States has taken action is whats the people see that they have asked for support from the united they can we have said no. They have asked for support and al qaedas is yes. Al qaeda moves in and the United States delivers bonds and that is why there is support on the ground for al qaeda because it is the only group that has fought in their defense. It is actively transforming what is happening on the ground and it is a problem for the united they said we are not fighting governance with governance, but with guns. It is a problem for the united ontes we are only focused leadership cells because al qaeda has generated leadership. We have killed bin laden and im sure we will kill baghdad he if he is not that yet. Of a line thatge goes back to the day of the profit and if you cannot one off line, another will arise in its place. Why understanding the ideology is so working, but fighting is is that theywhere ideology provides the military doctrine that enables these groups to persist and is why if feet alt isis, if wed qaeda, we will have a group rise up because the ideology persists. We have also managed to align ourselves with partners. We have convinced ourselves that buying ourselves in is the only way and best way. In some cases it is but in some cases it is creating problems in the ground. It is one of the reasons why as we watch the fight against isis and syria, we created a de Facto Alliance with the very enemies of the sunni, the very enemies of the population in which al qaeda is recruiting. We have aligned ourselves with the assad regime, with russia and iran against isis, and we are empowering that action to seize ground inside syria, to strengthen its health against isis, but its also strengthening itself within the context of a syrian civil war. Why we talk about a clip while we talk about a solution, it willllowing what look like and it will not look like what we advocated in 2012. The sunnis cs as abandoning them. We need to be cognizant of how we are fighting this war and how we are operating on the ground, what partners we are choosing, what partners were not choosing how the enemy is spreading. Delivering goods and services is something we can do. Were not designed to do it. Usaid does not work insecure environments. We are not designed to do it militarily either. We do not understand who the conflict is and who the actors this is we could and the question not of nationbuilding because i do not think the United States should be spending its resources everywhere, but leadership. We have gotten to the point where there needs to be able toical revolution that leads a responsive governance system. That is of course aligned with our own interest and the united dates could lead others in the fight to deliver the governance, to recognize the role the conditions are playing in driving support, particularly for al qaeda, and to frankly reverse the tide we are seeing coming through. I think the United States is the only one capable of leading the fight, so i will leave it there and open to questions. Thank you. That was terrific. Ilot of food for thought and will use my prerogative as moderator to ask the first question and then we can open up. , just raisecrophone your hand and we can have someone come around with the microphone. My question goes back to your the point about scoping and need to define the adversary more broadly in order to understand what is possible and what is not possible. The Campaign Season last year and into his administration, President Trump has talked a great deal about radical islamic terrorism with actually not that much emphasis on ideology, the ideology that underpins its top at the risk of being provocative, how would you read to find that terminology to more comprehensively encompass what you are talking about . Its not just groups, is the thought processes that go into feeding support with them. I think the administration defined it as radical islamic terrorism to encompass the shia side. Uniqueiphate movement is and i think wed to split our definitions because they fight differently and they are different manifestations of an enemy where salafi jihadism has come straight to our shores and does not have a direct state sponsor. It is something that is within sunniism and has been rejected by nearly every major Sunni Institution at large. Whereas, the shia threat, the other half of the radical islamic threat, is a little bit sorted by iran as part of the export of the iranian revolution. It is very different, the support of has bought another groups, so i say we need to recognize that within islam, there are two different ways that the threat is coming to our shores and align our policy and strategy that way, rather than trying to cluster it into this idea that radical islam is the problem, and it is one of the reasons i push back hard when people talk about islam itself being a problem, because it is not all of islam. It is a very distinct, definable small minority part and has to do with the conditions on the ground. Moderator lets do a couple questions. I am with the pakistani my question is about the Salafi Movement not getting much external help. How do you know they are not getting from saudi billionaires [indiscernible] this fight has been in progress for the last 1400 or 1500 years. Why should america get involved and give precious blood and does not precious dollars because we have enough dollars that we can afford, but these people do not respect precious life. Isnt it good for america to stay out of this mess . This has been going on 14 hundred years, at least. Thanks. Ms. Zimmerman i think the u. S. Needs to get involved because it is presenting a threat for the United States command i dismissed the argument that the fight has been ongoing in the violent terms for that long. Frankly, it has not. With the salafi jihadi ideology, we can see it start to mobilize within the muslim world to the afghan, soviet jihad, and the idea that al qaeda had after the afghan jihad culminated, the idea was exporting it back to the arab world, the start of a grand fight. If you look at the 1990s, al qaeda felt miserably. You can look at the palestinianisraeli fight. It is something that did not mobilize support across the world for the palestinian cause. Nothing has mobilized people except for what is happening today. And i think that the change is dramatic enough that we need to recognize that it is the conditions. It is not just salafi jihadism that is a threat for us. The breakdown of the International State system that is ongoing, the fact that we have six of failed states at least with the muslim world, weak states like tunisia and egypt, and these are all leaning against the pillars of stable states that we had to fight, so algeria, kenya, ethiopia, saudi arabia, jordan is always at risk of falling and is under enormous pressure right now, so there is a reason beyond the salafi jihadi threat to get involved and start correcting the system to stabilize it, because it has never been this bad before. There is going to be followed for decades to come, i think. I am a former diplomat and an intelligence analyst. Small correction the first salafist government in recent times was not egypt, it was early 1990s algeria. The question that