Im Walter Isaacson, and im Walter Isaacson and im with the Aspen Institute here and its our pleasure at the institute to be the host and the facilitator of the franklin project. The project began when general Stan Mcchrystal was out talking about the importance of National Service two or three years ago in aspen, and everybody related to it, and one of the things we try to do here at the institute is turn thought into action, so we said, well, if this is important, lets try to create a program around it. General mcchrystal agreed to chair it. He also thought to himself, im never going to raise another idea in aspen again. You get enlisted if not drafted to do something, but i think he was able to convey to us that this works on so many levels. I mean, this is an important thing that every kid in america could have the rite of passage that previous generations had. Secondly, the notion that theres an expectation and an opportunity to be able to engage in National Service. I think both are equally important. Nowadays theres just no expectation. You dont get out of your zip code, out of your comfort zone. Unless you really make the effort to. Whereas in previous generations it was just expected that you were going to serve somehow. But the other half of that equation is the opportunity. I think a lot of people, a lot of people coming out of college have been involved with teach for america and the biggest problem we have in teach for america is 60,000 applicants for 4,000 jobs. There is a demand for people who want to spend a year or two in National Service, but isnt really the pipeline or the way to do it as easily. So, i hope that through this project we can also say, we are going to find different opportunities. Were going to encourage organizations to create service slots. But maybe even create cores in which whether its a baltimore core thats already been created or through certain sectors as we talk to the financial industry and others, cores that say we are going to have a service year project. One of the things that general mcchrystal does in his team of teams book is talk about the need for coordination. I hope hell explain that today a little bit. Because just recently weve merged with a couple of organizations in really creating the whole concept of a service year. Because in this world of nonprofits and ngos as michelle knows so well, sometimes people keep replicating what other people are doing. And we have no at the Aspen Institute, no goal or mission other than to make this work. So, when we could find ways to say, why dont we join together and have, you know, other leaders of this project as well, thats good. I think its important to engage the franklin Leadership Council which is whats happening right now, engaging people on both sides of the aisle, both in Foreign Policy and the Defense Community. I think historys really big moments have been when people have stepped up. You know, you can reread the greatest generation talking about a book i did with a friend many years ago called the wise men about stepping up in the cold war. But you can go all the way through to, you know, the very beginnings when the First Continental Congress is meeting and people step up and pledge their lives, their liberties to a certain cause. Thats been lacking today. I think that undergirds all of the civility and paralysis problems we feel in the Public Sector is that people dont have the sense that theyre in service for something larger than themselves. When i look i look at any of the great people ive written about, you know, not just ben franklin but even to steve jobs, at a certain point in life do as well. And so with that i want to turn it over to tara who is at the franklin project and will help introduce todays problem. Thank you, tara. Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. Im the associate director for Strategic Communications at the franklin project. Wed like to welcome you to be on draft rethinking National Service an event cohosted with the franklin project and defense one. The genesis was our desire to talk about the intersection of National Service with National Security. Many of you have been invited here today because you hold jobs in government or previously held jobs in government in the Defense Community or have served in the military. We didnt anticipate this conversation would be taking place on the heels of a series of terrorist attacks during heightened security warnings but recent National Security developments make todays conversation even more relevant. We did think about the timing of the event and we thought the president ial election is an opportunity to amplify National Service in the national dialogue. Today we want to explore with this panel how significant expansion of National Service here at home can help strengthen our country, impact perceptions of america overseas in terms of its soft power and be an asset in our National Defense in terms of developing a Talent Pipeline and fostering bipartisanship and strengthening our leadership. In thinking about the themes of todays discussion i couldnt help think about on the train back home over the weekend to d. C. How many of our lives in this room the trajectory of our personal and professional lives were shamed by the events of september 2001, 9 11, and i couldnt help think about the calls to service and how many of us view service and think about service through that lens and the experience has been shaped through that experience. Even on our team, i served in the Intelligence Community after those events. Our director served in the military. And other friends and colleagues have served in various capacities including for other servicefocused reasons domestically in programs like teach for america or city year. While we might choose to serve for Different Reasons and different capacities, we here at the franklin project think that that Service Unites us through a common experience. And unfortunately, in the last 14 years, our commitment to service seems to have waned. Theres not a sense of shared sacrifice after multiple years of war in afghanistan and iraq and just under 1 of americans serve in the military. So the franklin project believes the time is more right than ever. We see ourselves at a crossroads here and we think that embracing National Service here at home is more needed than ever before, so is there a way for us to engrain National Service in our national dna beyond just moments of crisis . What are the benefits and challenges of doing so and what would it look like . Can it strengthen our security . How can we rethink National Service, so thats the focus of todays man. We have a great panel here today. Im so thrilled to have the three panelists and the moderator that we have here for us. If you could call come to the stage. We have kevin barron from defense one will be moderating todays panel. Kevin has worked at defense one as the executive editor, which is part of Atlantic Media and i approached kevin about partnering on this event because hes a military security analyst both at defense one covering the pentagon and also now recently at msnbc, so thanks for agreeing to do this for us. We also have the chair of the franklin project general stanley mcchrystal. Hes well known here at the Aspen Institute because his remarks at the aspen ideas festival lawn. T launched the project. Hes a former commander of the military counterterrorism force. He also is the cofounder of Mcchrystal Group and the best selling author of my share of the task and hes been chairing the franklin project and in charge of our Leadership Council and Michele Flournoy an active member of the leadership counsel. She was the principal adviser to secretary of defense in the formulation of National Security and defense policy oversight of military plans and operations and shes also the ceo of the center of a new American Security where she served as president until 2009. She also wrote a great piece for us on National Service and National Resilience which i encourage you to check out. Lastly we have congressman seth moulton serving from the sixth district of massachusetts, representative moulton served four tours in iraq as a marine corps infantry officer including two tours as a platoon commander and two tours as a special assistant to david petraeus. Hes been a great champion of service particularly for the Younger Generations of those on the hill. I turn it over to kevin and i look forward to hearing the discussion. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for coming out on the monday after thanksgiving, a rainy, cold washington monday. Im sure youre all recovered from your tryptophan comas of thanksgiving weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. What a great way to start it off with a program about service. I think, you know, when the holidays come we hear about that in the news and we see all these images of people volunteering and the president around the country for thanksgiving. As tara and walter said, they approached me and defense one where im the executive editor with an idea with this idea of putting together an event of some time about National Service. And ill quickly say why it spoke to me right away because we were speaking backstage about, you know, this idea of National Service comes up a lot and in just the promotional tweets and facebook shares youve been putting out in the last couple weeks ive gotten some pretty strong reactions. Ive been saying this all along and what a great idea, which is a good thing to hear and thats why were here i think to help coordinate and congeal this idea into a Real Movement that becomes this that becomes the reality of the vision that the Aspen Institute has here. For me before i was a journalist many moons ago and then in, like, the 90s i worked in think tanks around town as well and as the ngo boom was really happening. And at the time if you werent going to join the military and you werent going to go to the peace corps there werent a whole lot of organized option to get a young person out into the world, to see the world and become a future Global Leader or american leader. As i became a pentagon reporter it became so clear how vastly well funded the militarys recruiting organization is. And theres really nothing that even comes close. Other than the nfl i think, but when it comes to diplomacy or development or other ways of turning Young Americans into Global Leaders, educated, skilled, impassioned, for some age of American Leadership around the world that our political leaders keep telling us that were in and they want to get us into. With that, i was going to start lets start with general mcchrystal. Tell us a little bit about not just the origins of this idea of the franklin project and were here today to talk about National Service in the realm of National Security. But tara had a good point of saying how everyone if youre in the city or in this audience, youre already serving, youre already doing beyond what the general public is usually involved with when it comes to serving at least at the National Government whatever your issue is level, so im a journalist. Member of congress. Military. Civil, political appointee, dod. Why did you want to serve when you were young . Im going to do what panelists sometimes do ill cheat and go off on a tangent while you forget the question. Thats okay. I have many followups. Walter often gives me credit for, you know, resurfacing the idea. I mean, this ideas been out a long time. Its in history. What it has been its allowed to get weakened over the last few decades and so i just happened to come along at a time. And i will tell you something that its been a real honor to be a small part of this. And my wife said something to me a few months ago, we were at an event like this and we talked and afterwards she said, you know, i think if you all pull this off, this will be the best thing you are ever a part of in your life and i think shes absolutely right. And so im going to sound a little passionate today so you can discount some of that but its real. The second is the people on my left and right, the reason im honored to me up here is they are friends and theyve been friends, not only do we agree on this, but Michele Flournoy was one of those people in the pentagon that you wanted to meet with and theres not that many people you want to meet with. And she could tell you no and she could tell you in the hard truth that, one, made you understood it and, two, made you want to work together. And thats pretty magic and thats sort of at the basis of what leadership is about. This is someone that could be off doing other things and making a whole bunch of money and raising her kids a lot easier and yet shes dedicated herself. And seth moulton i met him at a dinner one site and just an extraordinarily impressive marine veteran. When i meet a marine i automatically check my wallet and things like that, but we met and heres a person who, again, has bona fides that i would kill to have on my resume but yet hes chosen to serve and he is the only politician ive ever actively supported. I actually went remember we did the peabody elks Club Campaign event when he was running for congress and thats hard work, i mean, for him, not for me. But its because this is exactly the kind of person and i didnt even ask him if he was a republican or democrat when he first said he was going to run, i said ill support. Its the person and the idea of service thats so important. So, now ill circle around, kevin, to the point, i think we are all in agreement that there is something about service thats essential to citizenship. Because citizenship is what defines a nation. You know, the lord almighty didnt draw out nations and say this is the United States of america and this is mexico, whatnot. Groups of people got together and they made a compact or a covenant between each other said and we will be a nation. And when they did that, they took on some responsibilities and they got some rights from that. They got to be defended. They got some other things that goes with being connected to other people, but you take on responsibilities and you take on responsibilities for your fellow citizens. As walter said, that last great line of the declaration of independence we pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor, and it says to each other. Thats the point. Its not to some big idea. Its not to the flag. Its not to some its to each other and that really underpins it. So, the question of citizenship and how you grow that is i think fundamental. If you go back in history in American Society or any society where there was a need for mutual defense, you had to defend the outpost or raise barns or do things that absolutely had to happen, there was this need that you were going to do things because thats just the way of life. As weve become more atomized and more anonymous in some areas i think thats been weakened. And so what has happened is with the exception of great big defining moments in the 20th century like the Second World War when everybody was asked to do something direct or indirect, you pull at people and you give them the experience which is a positive experience of serving. You know, we dont all volunteer to serve and we all arent happy about what were given to do, but how many experiences do we have in our life where afterward you go, well, you know, i probably wouldnt have done that by choice but im glad i did. And to be honest, i think we have a generation before us now that we owe an opportunity. Not to give them something they dont want to do, because actually demand shows that they do want to do it, but give them something that they can do that makes a difference that is going to give them the experience for the rest of their lives they feel invested in it. They feel ill steal this line from a panel i was on, they have an intimate relationship with their community and their nation. Its different from transactional. Youre a part of it. So when i think about giving young people the opportunity and over time i want it to be the implied responsibility to do a year of service, i think what we do is the greatest favor in the world and we do the greatest favor because i think we then produce alumni. And its not what they do during that year. That will be good work and it must be valuable, but really the benefit of this is alumni. They are going to be for the rest of their lives different citizens and theyre going to interact differently and theyre going to have different relationships between each other. And if we dont do it now, i think that we will continue to suffer from all the things that walter described. So