Only solution to every crisis in the euro atlantic region. But i do believe it is part of every solution, because the alliance provides three elements that are crucial for facing modern security challenges and that are right for europes and americas defense. These are political legitimacy, tried and tested structures and military strength. Now, First Political legitimacy. The combined and voluntary will of 28 of worlds strongest sovereign democracies is an extremely powerful source of political he visit massey. Legitimacy, something that unilateral action or coalitions of the willing simply cannot enjoy. This carries over into our missions and operations. It attracts partners whose Political Support and military contributions add to our broader international legitimacy. Our isaf mission in afghanistan is a clear example. It has included 50 countries, all 28 allies and 22 partner nations. Thats onefourth of all the worlds countries. The biggest and most Effective Coalition in recent history. A coalition that only nato could have gathered and commanded. And that leads me to my second point. Nato provides tried and tested political and military structures. We have a unique Permanent Forum for political consultation where north americans and europeans meet every day to debate and decide how to insure our collective security. Just two weeks ago we met at polands request to consult within the framework of article iv of the washington treaty. This allowed us to immediately address the security concerns of one of our members and to reaffirm our solidarity. Our political and military structures also provide us with a permanent Crisis Response system so we can react quickly and effectively to any concern with political measures, with military measures or an appropriate mix of the two. We also have the permanent nato military command structure, so when we decide to take any military action, we have the right framework with the right skills and the right people already in place. We have headquarters that can be with deployed quickly to command operations and missions, we have Reaction Forces on standby, and we can bring the necessary military contributions together quickly from nato allies as well as from other 40 partner nations on fife continents five continents. Time and again when an ally has felt its security under threat, we have come together and quickly provided the necessary support. After 9 11 when we deployed surveillance planes here to the United States, during the syria crisis when we deployed patriot missiles Defense Systems to turkey and today when our surveillance our craft are monitoring our borders in eastern europe. Now, imagine that nato did not exist. Every time a crisis broke out, a political and military framework would have to be built from scratch. Political consensus would have to be forged, partners found, military plans developed and capabilities designed, delivered and deployed. Would be costly in terms of effectiveness, in terms of money and in terms of time. Indeed, once the necessary elements for the response were in place, it could be too late to the stem the crisis. So our standing structures save time, they save effort, and they save taxpayers money. They bring other advantages, too; they allow us to harmonize military requirements across the alliance, they support the equipping, training and exercising of our troops, and they have helped us to build the most capable and connected military forces in history. And this is my third point, natos unique military strength. It is a force multiplier, and it allows every ally even its most powerful one to pack a bigger punch. Let me point out a few of the ways that American Security has benefited from natos collective strength. Again, afghanistan is a good example. In 2010 as more than forces as American Forces surged, european allies surged, and partners surged too. Over the past ten years, for every two u. S. Soldiers who have served in afghanistan, one european soldier has always served with them. Some 400,000 european soldiers have rotated through afghanistan to help make sure it would never again be a launching pad for international terrorism. In libya three years ago, european allies, canada and may toe partners played a crucial role in enforcing an arms embargo maintaining a to nofly zone and protecting the people from attacks by their own leader. Today in kosovo over 31 nato, european and partner countries are keeping the peace. And off the coast of somalia, ships from four allied navies spain, turkey, italy and the netherlands are sailing with u. S. Ships, patrolling against pirates and keeping vital sea lanes safe. European nations are helping to ease americas security burden in other ways too. For example, the European Union is running its own counterpiracy operation, and several european nations have stepped up to respond to the growing instability in africa, in particular in mali and central africa. So nato makes a unique contribution to our security because only nato brings together the worlds most capable democracies in a permanent, integrated political and military structure. And only nato delivers the political legitimacy and military strength that no one nation or Ad Hoc Coalition can deliver on its own. It comes down to a simple truth shared security is better than solitary insecurity. And its cheaper too. Its why nato is a great defender of america, a great deal for america, and its why nato matters to america. That said, im the first to version that europe to stress that europe must do more. I take every opportunity to point out that there should be a fairer sharing of the costs and the responsibilities. Both between north america and europe and within europe. And developments in ukraine are a stark reminder that security in europe cannot with taken for granted and that neither europe, nor america can come up with a solution alone. Thats why i will continue to remind european nations that they these to step up they need to step up politically and militarily to hold the line on defense cuts, to increase their defense spending and to Work Together to fill key capability gaps including missile defense, Cyber Defense and joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Later this year in wales in the United Kingdom, we will hold our next nato summit. Theyre seeing a lot of colleagues and friends here. Good morning. Just for those of you who are joining the second part of our, of our conference, my name is heather conley, im senior fellow and director here at the europe program. At csis. For the last several days, we have brought together an Extraordinary Group of europeans and americans, and weve taken them to beautiful Colonial Williamsburg, virginia, for several days of very focused conversation about the future of europe. And using the american historical experience and the creation of our union, our work in progress. So as we looked at the concept of having europe become an ever closer union and the elements of that ever closer union the economic pillar, democracy, leadership how do you create a more Perfect Union . And we realize both our unions are not very perfect if many ways, but theres some endearing qualities. And so through the generosity of the Colonial Williamsburg foundation and the college of william and barry, csis joined and brought these thought leaders together. So what were going to do for the next hour and a half is give be you i wish you could have been with us for those three extraordinary days, but were going to give you a flavor for some of the themes, some of the conversation that we had about the future of the European Union. And as our first discussion with our journalist colleagues gave you a flavor for, the state of the European Union is a strong union, but its been tested severely over the last five years of the economic crisis. We had our framework for this discussion was if you think of the European Union as a house that was under, you know, half construction of an Economic Union and then the crisis thrust upon it, its been trying to to build a house, weather the storm, maybe enlarge the house if we think about ukraine and expanding european integration, but there are some real challenges before europe, and for the United States a strong europe is absolutely essential. Certainly before the crisis in ukraine, now more so than ever. And sometimes theres an well, no, not sometimes, there is a constant underappreciation in the United States for how europe is evolving and transforming but facing some severe headwinds economically, politically and democratically. So as i said, ive been in my williamsburg nirvana, and with our journalist colleagues, and you got that sense. Now we have our Foreign Policy heavy hitters and thought leaders who have really looked at the expansion of can expanse of transatlantic issues, european issues. And so let me just very briefly introduce my colleagues. Im going to let you give some of tear own reflections about the state of the European Union, perhaps reflect on the Upcoming EuropeanParliament Elections and what that means for the future of europe and then, again, we will welcome you into having some questions and some dialogue as we finish. We are very delighted and honored to have francois with us, the chairman of the council of the Geneva Center for Security Policy and also chairman of the londonbased International Institute for strategic studies. Francois has written a new book, and i hope he shares a little bit about this new book thats out about a european dream that maybe is a different dream than what you originally had. And then were going to turn to enrique [inaudible] shes based in berlin but has been a thought leader in understanding the construction of europe, and she will provide us with her perspectives. And then finishing up is my dear friend and colleague, and i would say mentor in this job, John Kornblum is a csis Senior Adviser whom i rely on greatly and heavily to help me understand europe. John is a former assistant secretary of state for european apowers, former u. S. Ambassador to berlin, to the osce. He is timeless, and he is ageless, but he has been at the, at some very critical moments in the formation of the transatlantic relationship that, again, i hope he will share some of those reflections. So with that, francois, over to you. Thank you very much, heather. Its really been great participating in these meetings. I feel a little bit like Boris Yeltsin when he was asked at a press conference in istanbul when he was president what is the situation of russia today, and Boris Yeltsin said, well, do you want the short answer first or the long answer first . Journalist says i guess the short answer first. Yeltsin says situation good. What is the long answer . Long answer is not good. [laughter] thats one way of introducing the topic. [laughter] but theres another, theres another way of introducing the topic of the state of the union. It also happens to take place in istanbul, and thats a speech which the prince of darkness, richard pearl, gave 12 or 13 years ago at a meeting organize toed by turks, the Turkish Foreign minister. And richard was going on about how hopeless, feckless, spineless the europeans were and that the European Union was a complete, you know, complete wreck. Theres nothing good to be said about it. And then he said, oh, yes, and it is unacceptable that they will not accept you, turkey, into their ranks. Then, work of course, it came my turn to speak and i said, well, you know, theres a little bit of a problem here. If were really spineless, hopeless, feckless as has been painted, it is a strange friend who would want to urge you turks to somewhere that particular to enter that particular community. So you cant have it both ways. But the fact is, first of all, weve never had a strong union, heather. We may have had a strong europe, but we never had a strong union. I mean, a strong union is the United States of america. Constitution. As any one of our participants, professor wood reminded us, European Union looks more like the u. S. At the time of the articles of confederation. That is a weak union, not a strong union. And thats not a critique, just statement of fact. And, therefore, it is not a strategic animal. This was already stated earlier on. When it does strategic stuff, it tends to do it inadvertently. And this is to a large extent whats happened in the runup to the events into [inaudible] secondly, it doesnt have a demos. It doesnt have a people whose primary identity is european. The primary seat of identity is international. Here again, this is a statement of reality, not an expression of some sort of hidden wish. Thirdly, the situation sorry, the third thing is that progress towards a closer union has not happened recently. The last time we tried to do a great big push was at the european constitution in 2005. We had a convention, and the comparison, the analogy with the u. S. Was quite deliberate at the time, have a Constitutional Convention to produce a constitution. Constitution was not passed. It wasnt so much the content per se because it actually wasnt terribly federal as a constitution, but the fact is that seem in france and the netherlands, two of the six founding states of the European Union, were not ready to go into constitutional mode. And thats, that was the situation. What ive just described describes the European Union as it was ten years ago as it does today. But in the interval, bad things have happened. Its been further weakened. First of all, the european dream has been crowded out by the night pair of the nightmare of the policies which have had to be undertaken to save the euro project. This is what my book is about. It is considered that theres a real risk that these policies are rebounding not against the euro per se. People are actually quite happy with the euro as an instrumentality. But against the European Union where the trend and the opinion polls over the last, the pew opinion polls in particular since the beginning of the crisis all going the same direction in about the same proportions in every country where the poll has been taken except in the United Kingdom where the percentages were so low that if they went any lower, they would have struck oil. [laughter] but everywhere else its opinion downwards. Everywhere else its been downwards. Secondly, we have run out of money. Notably, i will come back to that. Thirdly, we have no growth. Last can be counted in the hundreds of billions of euro if not up to a trillion euro over that period. That is a lot of money. Relations within the European Union have become worse. We have the north south divide, we have cooling of the french, german couple not to mention the cooling of significant relations between specific members of the European Union and other significant countries, the germanamerican relationship was talked about. Even worse, the four freedoms which are really the European Unions dna, the four freedoms, freedom of movement of people, of goods, freedom of movement of capital, freedom of movement of services, these are being severely challenged within the union. So all of this looks pretty bloody bad. And it looks even worse if we look at where we stood 15 years ago. Pause at the time because at the time we had the ambition of going constitutional. We were on the verge of launching the great euro project which was supposed to bring growth, stability and convergence which has done exactly the opposite. How Public Opinion is actually adverse to solutions. But for the moment, politicians know which side their bread is buttered. I know that if they come up with anything which looks like ever closer union, they will be shot here so at the oncoming European Elections, the month of may, there is an offer no overt federalist agenda. Any Political Party in any european country. That is obviously bad. And yet, lets look back again 15 years. Bob jenkins formula, and bob kagan was i can a lot more careful in talking about the title of his book which would suggest. That is a fantastic accomplishment. We have defused the sources of conflict, not simply between the western countries of the union, francogerman reconciliation and all that but also between the eastern members of the union. Think hungary and its neighbors with significant hungarian minority. Thank poland. Thank poland. This is absolutely remarkable. And this, by the way, was not backward looking. This was not the narrative of we are awful people and we have to build our own straitjacket so that were not going to get at each others throat again in the future. This is actually not the way the pacification of your occurred during the last few decades or and notably through the great wave of enlargement which make the european continent whole and free during the last 10 years, since 2004. Secondly, the Single Market, it works. Whether youre a member of the eurozone or whe