nd Libya. My question is where does this leave these other countries? Especially for me in my former capacity, I was the executive secretary of a very long named organization. This was the international conference on the Great Lakes region. This was formed out of the ashes of the Rwanda genocide. And I was appointed to pick up the pieces and have an institutional framework to see how best we can bring peace, security and stability in that region that was torn apart. Of course, with that process and institutional arrangements, we always turn to our friends. We had a group voluntarily put themselves together as group of friends of the Great Lakes region. This included of course the United States, Canada ready by Canada, the Netherlands, all the development partners. So there was a lot of momentum. This was in maybe the first, of course, initiative started in the State Council with the French in 1998. And then, of course, the U.S. by then trying to see how they can put back that beauty of our genocide and coming in the forefront to help put in place this mechanism. So I was given this very difficult task to ensure that this interest that was generated, the momentum that was generated, how can we use that energy to be able to transform the Great Lakes region from a war torn region, genocide prone region to a peace of zone, to a free and peaceful region. So this is when I turned to the Americans. One thing, which also the general, I think you mentioned, you were trying to explain about this special invoice, the invoice special representative. So my interlocutor was the special envoy of the Great Lakes region. Unfortunately, it is now dismissed, Ambassador Wolpe. So that was my connection. But as my brother, Dr. Quest said, of course, Ambassador Wolpe may God rest him in peace. He thought he knew the region more than ourselves. And those who knew him, I mean, with my size, said, Wolpe, 10 to 10, he said, yes, you have been upon this position, but listen to me. I said, can you also listen to me? I've been given this mandate, let's see how we can work together. It was not easy, but I was happy. Because this headquarters is in Wujumbura, Burundi, for those, the ambassador of the U.S., in Burundi then, was a lady, Ambassador Patricia Moran. And fortunately, she was my size. So we teamed up. We teamed up, we said, let's have this project, not die on us. And then, of course, Ambassador Wolpe, he meld in, and we came up with a program. We signed a memorandum of understandings, you know, how it sees those papers to see how we can move. But also how we can move, because with any of these security challenges, there is no country, even the U.S., can go it alone. That's why we are talking about multilateral arrangements. And it is more critical in our region, because any sustainable solution, whether it be security or defense arrangements, you cannot do it outside the regional framework. And when we were launching this initiative of the Great Lakes region, because I talk more of the Great Lakes, because that's what I know most. But also, Dr. Kwes's question that there is multiple Africa. So I'm bringing one of the multiple Africa here. So we decided that to make it easy, people to understand that when you talk of Tanzania, it is Tanzania. But it is Tanzania that its own security, stability, is predicated on the security and stability of the immediate neighbor. And unfortunately, unfortunately, a country like Tanzania, like Ghana, has been at peace with itself and with its neighbors, but surrounded by these neighbors. I don't want to mention any name. But then we thought that to be consistent and systematic, let's divide the region into what we called triangle zones. 12, we came up with 12 triangle zones. We said we have limited, maybe, resources. Our partners have their own interests. But let's give you these zones. And then you see which ones you want to engage. So the 12 zones, I want to mention because I don't think we have that time, but then they are critical zones. There's zone one, which is Uganda, Rwanda and DRC. General, place yourself in that zone. You have a bundle in Somalia. Then you have another zone, DRC, Burundi and Rwanda. What is it in your strategy? Then you have, of course, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. We are now struggling with Burundi. Then there's Central Africa Republic, Sudan. Those they cover almost the reasons. Sudan, Central Africa Republic and DRC. And then you have Sudan. This is zone four. Sudan, Uganda and DRC. And then you have Congo Republic, DRC and CAER. There we are. So now the whole point was if at all we have to engage. There's no way you can say I will deal with CAER and I have no interest in Sudan. Or I deal with DRC. I have no interest in Rwanda. Because you know the game shifts and the dynamics of the region, you cannot say I choose, select and choose. They are the ones on the soft ones. And then that you find Tanzania now being caught in between. Left to Tanzania, deal with the problem. So this is what I wanted to bring to you. That what I suffered was always this falling in love and falling out of love with these countries. But the problems remain. So now we had a crisis in Burundi. Everybody there was stampede in 2015. I remember that's when I was called from here to go back to the Islam. That I should be in charge of the ministry of foreign affairs at the time when we had the crisis of the Burundi. Because they said the Liberator, you were in charge of this region. You did maybe well but come back and deal with the Burundi. I must say when you were organizing we had about five summits maybe in three months and everybody wanted to be there.  But you should have seen the stampede outside everybody wanting to be there. But now to be honest with you, is anybody following developments in Burundi? It's forgotten. Dr. Quest mentioned about the area I said it is progress. I'm not sure about this task force what they are doing but the United States it is during my time spend so much time and resources working in partnership with Uganda with the rest of us pursuing Connie. When Connie went through these borders I don't know where he is it's now forgotten. But if there is a crisis you hear now that Connie has resurfaced you will see everybody the general will also be following pursuing pursuing Connie. So there is always this excitement of following this crisis situation. When we had a crisis in Congo during there Saint-Depin-Kunda those who remember general so-called the general I don't think if we could fight to be called a general but he was a general and the almost he was the Eastern Congo was succeeding. I could see that we are in a in a problem. I called on everybody including the second general by the Nibani community. If I could be able to be on the agenda because it was towards the general assembly if we could have this issue on the agenda they say there's no way ambassador the program is full and there's no way we can this would be a distraction that's what I was told. But when Connie started advancing everybody was in the Goma including Hillary Clinton was on them all the questioners everybody was in the Goma so maybe the best part is to create a crisis and then you get attention when there was DC I mean reports of sexual gender-based violence the UN adopted a resolution on zero tolerance to sexual gender-based violence because like Congo was called a capital city of rape even when I was asked to come and speak about always even I was here in this hall I could talk about the sexual gender-based violence what is happening in your region you sit there everybody says like you are you speaking as a victim or as an activist because everyone of us the statistics was like all who are being raped so they passed this resolution of zero tolerance but I must tell you it was zero attention it continued so I can go on and on I don't know how much time I have yeah please close now I'm closing I am closing because one with most of the ambassadors I hear and the politicians we always know where to start you don't know where to end but in conclusion because I was asked to say what the key challenge is and how to move forward my only message to you the United States is how sustained attrition sustained engagement to have sustained solution sustained peace and security thank you ambassador thank you very much for those words of wisdom especially the last ones we have about a little more than 15 minutes for questions what I'd like to do is find the first questioner and then after we've taken that if there is a second question that is like unto it we'll take that one so that we'll have the same same general themes for questions sorry the annual question once again James Carlson office name intelligence what level of interest have you seen from african countries in developing a strategic lift capability obviously from my end strategic sea lift but just in general overall airlift and a sea lift and just land sort of like our us transcom thanks is are there any other questions about military capabilities such as that is your question up there uh jason warner i'm a professor at west point and the director of the combating terrorism centers africa profile my question is really related to uh the the institutionalization of collective security mechanisms in africa more broadly of course given the highly transnational nature of the threats that states and populations on the continent face we look to institutions like the african union and the regional economic communities uh for for assistance but particularly because we've seen the institutionalization of institutions like the african standby force not quite come to fruition there have been some people who've been advocating that we should institutionalize a non institutionalized approach to security which is to say to look towards these ad hoc uh peace support operations like the mnj tf uh and like the a u led uh fight against the lord's resistance army so i'm asking sort of where do we stand from from the panel's perspective on those do we continue to really fight for the institutionalization of these regionally based collective security institutions or do we say look we've been doing this since the advent of the a u they're not coming to fruition let's think outside the box thank you thanks very much for both those questions they're both very interesting uh in fact uh on the question of strategic lift it's it's a question that arises so often in peace peace operations in which african nations have capabilities but they lack the lift and oftentimes turn to the united states or france or other outsiders or the united nations for that lift so it's interesting uh it's interesting in itself and then secondly the the question of uh of collective security mechanisms ad hoc versus the a u or rex uh is uh is worth considering i think i'd like to ask a man to lead off on the former and then perhaps quacy on the uh and the ambassador on the on the second one thank you on the uh on the lift question it is the type of capability where we've seen successful pooling arrangements in in different regions that seem like they would be a good model and african union itself has has focused on this uh seeking to to learn more about how to do it for several years now and one of the things that african has done is engage with a u in a logistics forum for several years now on an annual basis and i would say those conversations are are moving forward led led by the the a u level interest the i think we're some some ways away from having an operational capability like that just given the limited assets available to to pool and the need for for robust sustainment resources to to underpin that and and those are in places in in some countries that that have the kind of full life cycle support for their lift capabilities and others that don't so uh that that has definitely been identified as an opportunity and work is underway but i i think it is probably some years into the future in terms of coming to fruition and just i'll take a quick stab at the other one even though you didn't assign it to me to to say from a us perspective i think we're in in the midst of an all of the above type strategy when it comes to institutions or or non-institutions and so so some of that is lots of engagement with with the a u uh on and off engagement with recs depending on which ones are robust and and which ones are willing and interested in engaging with the united states and then as came up in in the earlier discussions the more ad hoc or or non-institutional if you want to call it that arrangements are some of the ones that are the most dynamic and promising and a lot of effort looking at how those could be supported yeah thank you it says um i think let me put it this way we are not short of institutionalized collective security or defense mechanisms we have plenty of those within the african union uh i can name i don't know many 10 because all coming from the african peace and security architect within it you have uh the stand by force you have um the rapid response to crisis mechanisms so they are we tell them solutions we have no problem if at all it is about the collective defense mechanism there is not of course at the level of the nato but we have it whether it's within the the institutional was leading because we have the part that includes the non-aggression and defense parts we have within sadik this is the southern african development community so we are not short of that what we are short of i mean what we have as adioc is initiatives today you hear that um they have launched this initiative for example when i was here we had a u.s african summit and there are so many things that came out of that summit this was august 2014 and one of the initiative that came out and was very exciting was this um wrong name again african peacekeeping rapid response partnership program and a lot of money was played under this program but then they selected again the selective approach six countries to start with crunning tanzania senegal and others but i don't know i've been out of government for a year i don't know where we are on this one and then you have other initiatives african combat operation training and the assistance a quarter they know you know it so we have all these initiatives i have my defense advisor listed about 12 of these operations initiatives but so fragmented this is where there is a problem but the institutions we have them but these initiatives of come and go is where the challenge is so to i don't know that i've answered your questions it's not your question of lacking the institutional are there any that you would say should be prioritized yeah yeah because depending on the context for africa of course we all look to the african union but then if you ask today the the u.s the general i'm touching on the dinner because the one i recently i was in there in the morning is whether they are working crossed with the african union because when you work with the african union then you reach all these countries all the priorities are known but then you might also if there is a problem of burundi maybe the closest organization can work with is the self and community if there is a problem in the soto the the closest at home close to home is the sade so it depends on the context but then you would like to see it is a comprehensive approach if it is within the african union because even in your reports i don't think you have anything that appears about the african union it's about countries and this original original frameworks well thank you very much jason for me i think what should be the defining question here is what are the principles and the values and the norms that underpin the institutional mechanisms and this institutional process you know because if there are no shared ideas about the principles and the norms and then it becomes a problem okay so we have all these multiple institutional frameworks some permanent some very ad hoc some driven by specific challenges and problem that they need to be really resolved to but what drives the establishment of these things okay well what is it that is shared among those who desire to resolve that problem that brings them together and i think until such a time that is those principles values and norms that drive what people do and what states do then we wouldn't get the institutional frameworks right but institutions do matter and because institutions do matter and the challenges that we face transform metamorphose and then in opportunistic forms change to threaten us even the african standby force doctrine itself must begin to change and this is where my problem with the african union has been when i served this several years ago the lack of willingness to say this has appeared on a piece of paper probably it is not the most apt framework let's have a conversation around it and then let's begin to change it because if you look at the dark trend that underpins the african standby force it's about fixed static forces very ponderous slow-moving almost non-reactive okay the challenges that we face now are highly mobile swift with a lot of speed IT savvy you know with the rhetoric that appeals to people's you know day-to-day lived experiences and challenges you know so what i'm looking for it's a framework that allows both the union and its wrecks and the collectivity of member states to be driven by particular shared values shared norms and shared principles this spaghetti idea of amanda and i being friends against george and tomorrow to be against and i'm just basically forming at-home groups that don't achieve anything simply that's not help our cause but i think you and i can have a conversation i think we already have no conversation about is it drax or something in two of our articles and i think we've challenge yeah 20 i'm a bit of a neophyte when it comes to military affairs but i do know something about education and perhaps traveling with the incomer recently has given me a little bit pause to think about this for generations african military leaders were sent to san herce on seer and other institutions for training that created networks interoperability common thinking wondering whether or not in perhaps with or without the involvement of african whether we can africa africa grow its own institution of military training maybe in south africa i mean i think it's fair to say that south africa has the most advanced thinking and sophistication in terms of military and education as leading universities is there now time for looking ahead and not just solving problems that are rising tomorrow but looking at how we can train up a force and great greater cohesion among africans in terms of military can i take it up before the the i must say it is happening if i speak for tanzania before i came to the georgia washington university i was teaching at the national defense college there's national defense college and the peacekeeping training center and they train not only the tanzanians but all the military police security from the region as far as nigeria we had the students from nigeria of course people they go to big names and he asked maybe if you have a certificate from the tanzan national defense college you know the same as was point but i couldn't see that this was very localized they have been trained to be able to cope with the terrain of our area of our region and they are these are the people some of the big generals who have retired and they come in and teach they have been in the field so what do we need and that again building that patina capacity because they're trying but then if they have to deploy that's when we come to our patinas who can be able to help us to deploy and the equipment but it is happening it's not only south africa even tanzania we have it luanda they have it and we would want you also to come and train them could i just mention that there is i think a reasonably robust two-way street when it comes to professional military education as the ambassador was was mentioning you have peer-to-peer relationships between us pme institutions and african ones that are focused on curriculum development and pedagogical technique and things like this and there's a state department program and dollars that underwrite some of those activities and then the the dod knowledge and professors but the same thing at the at the student level in in both directions and that's one of the things at war college this year that is very impressive is the number of foreign students from all across the world and then of course we send students as well so but there's always room for expansion i think well the military education is going on but i think there's we need to ask ourselves some very tough questions do we need these militaries as they were established 50 60 70 years ago what purpose and what roles should they play in a modern african state and even more importantly what are the motivations and attitudes that drive the second third generation of african militaries so i think probably there are many more questions than i can answer here right now but we can have a check after this yeah the timing deed is they're telling me that we're out of time so we'll have to close and i apologize to those who had other questions perhaps you can ask them during the cocktail hour afterwards but please join me in thanking our panelists you yep come come up i'm just wow Just don't follow me first. Perfect, perfect. We're going to continue to move on to our closing conversation and our moderator for this conversation will be Kate Almquist North, who is the Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. Kate, I'm going to turn it over to you and you have a very distinguished panel, which I will let you introduce. Thank you. Thank you, Johnny. And good afternoon to everyone. Thank you for enduring with us. We've had a very full day of conversations and touched on a number of themes. In the interest of time, I won't try and recap all of them, but I am going to try to draw a couple of threads across our closing conversation here. For this conversation, we do have a very distinguished panel that we're fortunate to have with some familiar faces and some new faces. We have Ambassador Ruben Brigady, who is now our Dean at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, but of course known to many in the room as our former U.S. Representative to the African Union, I think from 2013 to 2015. And many other positions besides that at the State Department and senior leadership as well. We're honored to have Ambassador Gendai Frazier, who is currently an adjunct senior fellow for African Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a visiting professor at Columbia University, and of course our former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 2005 to 2009. And many other distinguished positions besides that. Full bios are of course in your program. But I wanted to take a moment to introduce Mr. Victor Ochen to everyone here. Victor is the Executive Director of the African Youth Initiative Network, and he's also a United Nations Global Goals Ambassador for Peace and Justice. His organization helps thousands of victims of the Ugandan Civil War to obtain treatment and overcome the traumas of the war. He has lived some of those traumas and experiences himself personally and speaks from firsthand knowledge. And in his capacity now as Executive Director of the African Youth Initiative Network, he also organizes many other youth programs with the goals of making wars less common in Africa. For his work, he has been nominated already for the Nobel Peace Prize and was endorsed for the prize by Muhammad Ghazendi's family. He is the youngest African and first Ugandan to be nominated, so that in itself is an honor and a recognition of the experience and the perspective that he brings to our discussion here this afternoon. We've heard over the course of the day a number of important points in terms of our theme, which is U.S.-African partnerships. I want to acknowledge from the outset, and I think we've heard many of our panelists and discussants get at some of the issue of partnerships. It's a loaded word. What do we really mean by that? Is it not more of the donor-recipient relationship whose priorities and whose perspectives are driving these relationships? We also heard, I think, several pleas for sustained engagement from the United States with Africa in our relationships and to have substantive relationships, something to engage about. And we've also heard quite a bit about the broad megatrends confronting the continent. The demographic had challenged an opportunity that Africa faces as it looks forward in its future over the next five, 10, 15, 25 years. By 2050, one in four people on the planet will be African. And all the challenges that we have now and all the opportunities we have now will be magnified and compounded many, many times. And so we have the opportunity to reflect, I think, across the conversations that we've had today on economics, on governance, and on security relationships. What is the sum of that for our collective relationship with the continent recognizing it's a very diverse place with many dimensions to this discussion? So I wanted to pose an opening question. We're not going to do opening statements per se, but I hope to make it a little bit more interactive here and as well to recognize that we do have a finite amount of time for this last conversation. And just to invite first a reflection from each of our colleagues here on thinking big picture long-term for the continent. What are the key opportunities that the United States should take care not to miss as we think about our relationships on the continent and with African institutions and partners? And I also want to challenge us to think not just in terms of our normal bilateral nation-to-nation relationship construct. We've had a little bit of discussion just now about multilateral and regional approaches on the continent. Of course that looms large on the peace and security architecture side of things, but also equally important for us to think sub-national as well as sub-regional and societal as well as governmental when we think about what are these opportunities that we should be careful not to miss. So, Victor, I'm going to put you on the spot first to give us a perspective from your vantage point in Uganda in the East African region. Thank you very much, Kate, and thanks everybody. And I appreciate so much the patience for staying that late to still attend to us. In most cases, people give speeches and they go away, but we're honored that you stayed around. And I thank you very much for saying that this is an opportunity for us to reflect on how best to move on and strengthen the partnership. I must say my coming here will not be from a very strong academic point of view, but I want to bring the community perspective, you know, what we're talking about, the experience of day-to-day struggle in Africa and also working with the people that we are all seeking corporations and partnership for. Yesterday when I was boarding the plane to come to America, for once I was the most excited person to come here. I come to America often, but I was quite excited because 67 days ago, while organizing the Solidarity Summit in Kampala for refugee, I got a call from a young man from South Dan who asked me and said, are you Victor Chen? I said, yeah. I said, I want to meet you in Kampala. I met with him and he told me that I have a group of youth in South Dan who wants to meet with you. You'll meet their leaders in hundreds, but they're in thousands. And I said, where are they? Are they in Kampala? Are they in Cuba? Then they said, yes, they're in South Dan, but they're not in the city. They're in the jungle. I said, who are they? They said, these are militia youth groups, the tribal militia youth groups. They are harms, they are rebels, they are fighting, and they want to meet you. I said, okay, I don't have any military background, so what do I do? I accepted. We organized a program, so they fly to Cuba, then they travel from there. Or do I do? Then they said, it's not too close to Cuba. It would be, on a good road would be three hours drive, but on a bad road would be seven hours drive. So the best is to go through northern Uganda. And when I got to the border of Uganda, northern Uganda and South Dan, I had four motorcycles border, border. You probably know about that. All waiting for me. And I said, okay, this is interesting. On every motorcycle, there were three passengers. A cyclist and two other people, each of them carrying a gun, protection. I was put in one of the motorcycles. And they said, we could follow the main road, but it's very unsafe, but we are going to take the shortcuts. We're going to leave the motorcycles at some point, then you go and meet these guys. I looked through my phone to the pictures of my two little twin daughters. I said, I may lose them or they may lose me, because I'm going into something I don't understand, but I trust that I should go. I went. For two hours, we were in a motorcycle. We reached the point, but the road, as it was, crossed the small river, then we got to the point where they were seated. And as we got under the big tree in the forest, I saw over 80 young people armed with all sorts of weapons on them.  I want to tell that we are the representatives of over 2,000 militia groups who are fighting in South Sudan. And I asked them, are you from the same tribe or different tribes? And then they said, initially it was one tribe, but now we have so many tribes. We are actually militia groups protecting the community, not the tribe. And I said, but why did you call me? And then they said, yes, we have heard about you. We've been following you. We admired you. And they pulled a picture, a poster, of when we were launching the Sustainable Development Goal in Uganda in 2015. They pulled my picture and the global goals with my contacts and other contacts and said, we got your contact from here, but we've had so much about you. And then they asked me, why did you trust us to come? And I asked them, why did you call me? And they told me, we called you because we trust you. And I said, yes, I trusted you. And they came because I also believed that you are living the life I lived not so long ago. And then they said exactly that's why we called you because we knew you are one of us. You grew up in Northern Uganda. You grew up in the camp like we did, but you're doing some work. We want to know, how did you not fight even when you were suffering? Because we are fighting since we are suffering. I explained myself. And then shortly in the discussion, they said we cannot talk for long. We can't be here for more than three hours. We risk being bombed. And then as we were discussing, what they told me was, people don't trust us. Everybody hates us. Our government calls us rebels. They call us violent extremists. We are called terrorists. Nobody listens to us. But we are young. South Deniz, who feels rejected by society, both home and abroad. International communities brand us as terrorists. And all want us for death. They want us to kill. They want us to be. Yet we've been denied security, education, health. The guns we have is our house. It's our shelter, our government, our food, our future. All this discussion went on, but there was one young man, 19 years old, who got up. Generals made no better. He was carrying in the back a rocket propelled gun with anti-tank planted. Young as he was, he got a small megaphone we were talking using. And then he said, we have over 2,000 people not far from here who are equally armed. And this young man spoke so bitterly. He explained how he felt hated since he was born. He explained how he sees international communities coming with all the big man in the name of building South Deniz. In fact, war continues and escalates. The young man spoke for nearly five minutes, nonstop. And he started crying so bitterly, so painfully. I looked at the young man and I wondered, say, imagine if he had transferred his anger into his weapons. He was carrying a huge gun in the back and had an AK-47 here with chains of bullets wrapped around his body.  I did what I did. It was the most best-riskest decision I've ever made. Why? Because to take a move to go to the jungle, I did not go as a a delegate from UN, from government or what. I went as a private African citizen who is working to try to address a common African problem. And he said, that's why he preferred it. And then meeting with them, it was a risk. It was trust. As I talked, I said I bodied the plane up yesterday because three days ago in our discussion I told them that I understand your pain, understand your struggle. I've been through your situation. But nothing would be more tragic than the riskiest feeling that I'll lose you. If you can, you can walk away from the battlefield. You can choose peace. And three days ago I was informed over 50 out of nearly 80 young people, youth leaders I met, they have already crossed to Uganda. They're staying in the refugee camp. Because of our dialogue they walked away from the battlefield. I don't know what they did to their guns, but they walked away from their guns and down with their refugees in Uganda. And yesterday when I was coming they said 200 of their followers have also crossed. Because their leaders went and said it's okay. We're staying here, we're being supported. It's not very nice, but at least it's better than being in the bush when you're being hunted for killing. When you're being called terrorists and all that. So bringing us to all this and prolonging the discussion the question is who is a terrorist? Are we giving enough audience? What I can say, these people they don't need money, they don't need fame, but they need a voice. They need to be trusted. I think trust has been mentioned more than ever. We need to get a way of trusting one another. And if our partnership, Africa, American partnership it should focus more on trust building among Africans themselves and towards African people. This is what is important. It may not be political, but it has to be human. Giving the human face in our military intervention is what will make our work effective and sustainable. Thank you very much. Thanks Victor Yufa. I think really touched all of us with a profoundly personal story. I think it is important to make sure that the human face of many of the dynamics that we are talking about are unfolding on the continent and of course South Sudan in many respects is one of the greatest tragedies on the continent at the moment and greatly impacting Uganda and countries in the region. But reaching youth who can choose to be part of the insecurity and to find their own answers. But then what? Then they are in a refugee camp in northern Uganda and we still have this great challenge in terms of the levels of migration and displacement on the continent of course overall far far exceeding any outflows that we have off the continent. How can governments and societies and regional institutions best grapple with this and what is our role as the external actor as the United States and being a friend on a trust based relationship. So maybe Jenda you have some thoughts from your vantage point. You had asked about key opportunities and we shifted a little bit but let me just say one thank you for being here and thank you to the institutions for inviting me. I think that to my left we have just seen one of the key opportunities in fact the young people and those young people and their leadership capacity. I think really that the future of Africa the hope of Africa lies in people like Victor who it is their continent after all. The demographics are on their side age is on their side and I think the energy and innovation are also on their side. Clearly the work for instance that the Obama administration did with the YALI program and the Mandela Fellows that should be a sustainable institution. It's absolutely critical. One of the good things about U.S. Africa policy has been it's bipartisan nature and the fact that we can create institutions that persist and are sustained across administrations and I think that all of the Obama institutions I for one as an American citizen in Africa feel most proud about YALI and again the Mandela Fellows and so I think that that's absolutely one of the key opportunities. Secondly I would say that the digital economy we were hearing earlier about the digital economy, FinTech really the opportunities in Africa are vast from an economic investment and trade perspective and we need to be able to grab that the Chinese made a strategic decision to do so. It's not by chance that the Chinese are there they made a strategic decision to be there and they poured the resources behind that effort and whereas we were talking about earlier in many ways they're creating the physical infrastructure the United States actually has the advantage of the technological innovation to be a strong partner to Africa and work with young Africans who are the Savannah Valley or whatever there's the Sahara Valley that really are going to be the inventors of the types of instruments the types of products that fit the environment in Africa and that's where as a person who spends money who lives now in Kenya and you really can't get by without Impessa the United States is so backward I just hate dealing with the banking system in the United States they're charging me so much money to send money anywhere doesn't make any sense whatsoever but Kenya is way out ahead and that was the decision of people who said let us try it we're concerned but we can be engaged with that transformation of the sort of digital economy we have the United States has the advantage really with our Silicon Valley and other we've been in the lead of this and we can continue India of course is very important as well and China is on our heels and we can work closely with China we do need the physical infrastructure but we have a lot to add so I would say that's a second big picture a key opportunity that this administration can mess up or actually advance very fast second the third one that I would say is the security issues and really what I'm talking about is Africa's ownership of the security challenge on the continent you know African leaders and former leaders and young people now are mediators they are the ones who are in the forefront of trying to do the mediation between conflicting parties African forces are the major forces in peacekeeping operations on the continent as a matter of fact in 2014 they were 37% of peacekeeping forces globally and Ethiopia is one of the top four contributors globally of peacekeeping forces so they make the majority of this discussion about how can you know the AU which goes in first often is faster but can't sustain itself and then the UN rehats how can we make that a real institutional model started way back from my time with Burundi when AMEB the South Africans Mozambicans and Ethiopians went in and stabilized Burundi until the AU the UN could actually come in so how can we make that a model and just to pick up on that I'll say again this administration can make that happen or can mess it up take it backwards with the way in which the African Union has now taken on the issue of self-financing and the decision to finance 25% of an AU peace fund to be able to have those sustainable operations and to be ready to move out quickly with the SESTU 75% coming from the UN and the US in this administration's response will be very important to that ownership and how we move forward we can come back into that discussion and then I would say the fourth area of real opportunity is with our own analysis of what's going on in Africa we have the technology now to actually know in detail what's happening so we can go local instead of always going in aggregate and big pictures and the country is a unit of analysis not only is the country not the unit of analysis not even the region within the countries need be the unit of analysis we can get right down to the municipal level with data and with information and with satellite information we talk about issues of accountability we can hold individuals accountable now we don't have to do we'll take three people from this rebel group and three people from this government and then we're going to put sanctions on them and maybe we have some data about them we actually can go some of our former colleagues as an example Bobby Pittman who was a senior director at the NSC and Treasury and Ben Leo who was at the center for global development and also a treasury department at the NSC they've just created a company called Frame that has access to all the satellite data and they're doing big data analysis that can get them down as I said to the municipal level about what's going on in this region so we can make decisions based on real facts and real information and ways in which we have not been able to do in the past by leveraging this type of new technology and information that's available so I think those are probably the four big picture opportunities that I would point to okay and Ruben I'll put you on the spot and then I'm going to come back and ask the harder questions so opportunities first though what do you see well thanks very much Kate it's an honor to be on the panel here with such distinguished colleagues it's wonderful to see so many colleagues and friends and mentors here in the audience before I give you my opportunity I need to beg your forgiveness I had hoped to be here for the vast majority of the day my hometown Jacksonville Florida is as you know experiencing record level flooding we evacuated my parents and they decided to go back today so I spent a fair amount of my day helping to arrange that so I apologize the reason I apologize is because I also want to apologize in advance if I repeat anything you've been talking about all day because I wasn't present let me actually offer one big opportunity that has significance not only for our international relations our geopolitical position but also for security and it's an opportunity that is not often discussed particularly not often discussed in context of African security and US-African partnership that is one that I believe that Africa has the potential to be the largest democratic region in the world and it has that potential for a variety of reasons the first obviously is that it has the most number of sovereign countries in any other region compared to it but also more significantly if you take African pan-African documents and treaties at their word they actually call for democratic governance in support of human rights I would argue that one can find examples of so-called sort of backsliding on democracy in the last sort of four years but one could also find some frankly really quite inspiring advances on the continent in that regard which suggests that the continent I would argue is on something of a knife edge in this respect and the other reason why it's important to talk about this is that as we all know there is a live debate going on in the continent right now about how individual countries should govern themselves and whether they be individual parties or individual rulers that we could all discuss that are looking for alternative models of governance principally to our friends the Chinese but also looking to South Korea prior to the advent of democratic governance as a means on which to model themselves. The final reason why this is so significant is that I think it's for the reasons that Victor articulated and that we were seeing the demographic bubble in Africa starting to come of age and we will have to have a decision series of decisions which will form a broader mosaic about how individual countries will choose to govern themselves while this massive group of young people have more of a voice in their own governance and see an opportunity for them to come out of the bush or come from other places and to engage in their own ability to govern themselves or will they see themselves further under the thumb of more repressive governance systems which arguably I would argue would lead to more potential violence. Now here's why this matters obviously from the security perspective. We all know that there is a fair amount of literature that is much debated that democratic countries tend not to go to war with themselves and there's also another body of literature which suggests that the very act of elections tends to elicit the kinds of challenges which can lead to conflict in and of itself. In the long term, as an American I believe in democracy and the other reason why this is particularly significant in the context and why this is both an opportunity and a challenge is that if you take a look at how all of Europe ultimately became a Europe that is largely whole and free after the Cold War is that those countries that were in the east had not only a choice but frankly an opportunity to join Western Europe by adopting amongst other things democratic forms of governance because they wanted, because they had to in order to join the EU and because they wanted to do so because of the benefits of that provided there is no similar flywheel, internal flywheel as it were in the context of Africa and that is why this is such an opportunity for the United States because the United States and its other similarly situated partner nations that are also dedicated to democratic governance can serve as that sort of external flywheel to support indigenous African institutions and indigenous African commitments to advance and support democracy. The alternative and there is an alternative is that democratic space will at best always be contested if not actually violently challenged and suppressed in the decades ahead and speaking as a completely private citizen not as a representative of the government of the United States any longer for a while my frankly deep worry as a citizen is one, particularly as a citizen that is interested in Africa is the at best ambivalence of the current current administration with regard to democracy promotion broadly speaking in Africa in particular and just as Jen Dye noted a number of places where the Trump administration either could get it right or could get it really not right I would argue that how we think about supporting democracy in the context of Africa absolutely should be at the top of that list and it's one of the ones that also have implications not only for near term security but also frankly for longer term partners in the world that like us will continue to support or not democracy and democratic forms of governance. Thank you. Thanks Ruben you've actually picked up a theme that has come across some of our earlier discussions but I think it's fair to say we've had a mixed perspective on how much we should focus on democracy from the United States vis-a-vis our African partners and what our best contribution could be to the extent that it is appropriate or helpful for us to do that and I think it's helpful to hear your perspective of having sat in your seat in Addis but looking at the continent from a variety of angles for some time and I'm going to put Gendai on the spot to comment on that in terms of it's not just democracy promotion in the form of USAID programs that do supportive things around democracy and governance but it's really the sum of our policies and our assistance programs across all the sectors we've been talking about and long been a discussion for us on the inside the US government if I can speak as a former not as a current official as well in terms of the sort of hydraulics I call them across our 3Ds defense, development and diplomacy and where democracy comes out in the midst of all of that I think is still an open-ended question and one that our African counterparts feel very strongly about in terms of where we should be where we should be more back leaning what is our voice in legitimizing authoritarian regimes on the continent versus giving space to civil society to a rising generation that wants to pursue maybe new forms of governance and engagement with their governments Sure I mean it's a complicated question and and execution is even more difficult my own view of this is that ownership for everything whether it's democracy or how one governs or how one runs one economy or how one secures one population and delivers services and is accountable comes from within the country itself first and foremost you know so that's my starting point of every discussion and then the second part of that is the context of Africa's just thinking about how to govern themselves and I think we've heard some discussions about how you have two systems right you have a traditional system and then you have a modern or colonial post-colonial state that's on top of it and the interaction between those also has to be considered we tend to jump to the modern when those traditional authority relationships are extremely strong and can be leveraged positively or negatively so we can't forget that under the surface of the water there's this whole other stuff going on that is probably primary in the lives of most people on a daily basis so that said but you know these countries are about 50 60 years old from the point of view of being self-governing and over these 50 60 years they have been presented with many different models of governance and I mean external forces so right after independence you know there was an eastern or west model there was sort of a multi-party and then there was actually our development and this is sort of the debate that's going on today we need to fast track our development through one party states socialist models we need to have inclusive development that's called socialism back in the 1960s it's not today but it was then so there was this debate legitimate about what type of system are we going to actually put in place when the United States beat the Soviet Union thanks to Ronald Reagan I must say all of us but Ronald Reagan fought that war with devastating consequences in Africa let's be clear the Cold War was fought globally we talk about propping up dictators and others they've served our interests in our global struggle but in 1989 it all fell down the one party state was no longer in fashion there was no support for it because the Soviet Union wasn't giving it George H.W. Bush came in and said we have to find a way to reconcile we're going to have a rapprochement between the east and the west and we're going to do that in Africa as well but the west had essentially won the push was against towards multi-party democracy and so that's what you had up until now when China is re-emerging onto the continent in a very big way there's also the Singaporeans and others who suggest that maybe the sequencing that Africans were getting the sequencing wrong and that you needed to have a strong economy and you needed to have a middle class on which democracy could be built because actually the western experiment wasn't democracy out of the box it was a long process as well and these 60-year-old countries are going to go through a long dynamic process of developing what system of governance meets their own needs meets their own social fabric and they're not all the same we talk about the continent in a very broad fashion Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda look very different and they just went through some different types of political transitions or political contests or whatever you would like to call it so I guess I think that I'm with you Ruben that the issue of governance and accountability and democracy insofar as the citizens are sovereign and should have the say over who governs them is absolutely the principles that I support that I believe should prevail and I think are the ones that create sustainable peace and stability over the long term but how they get there I think we can be a little impatient and directive and not self-reflective about our own journey to some type of stable outcome which we're not stable yet even now we're talking about what about this electoral college it doesn't seem to be working how rich is our democracy with the questions about freedom of speech versus hate speech and what about the central government versus local governance and state rights we're going to all constantly grapple and I think we should give Africa some space to do that while still trying to in a respectful dialogue one that you know because right now they really look at us and say are you kidding me and that's what they're saying I'm there are you kidding me you're going to lecture to us right now because our congress seems broken our president is tweeting all the time and it doesn't look our democracy is looking probably from the point of view of our lecture from the point of view of our ideal of what we say it's supposed to be versus the practice and that's really the point which is we have to admit that this process of democracy and governance is messy sloppy and it's not one directional it's not going to be all good and so I think that really to me is let's be a little bit more in the context of what was said earlier while we at the same time continue to stand fast with our values Victor does it feel like we're impatient and directive coming from the United States towards Africa from your vantage point or does it feel like we're too patient and too tolerant in other respects or is it something altogether different in terms of how you see Africa I think just to add one opportunity which you were mentioning Africa is still a nuclear free continent so which you have a wrap about that what I think is necessary to understand the tribal and the political nature I mean the tribal nature of politics and conflict in Africa is something that may not be well understood outside a lot of people from within the continent how this defines their day to day governance whether politically traditionally or economically the tribal nature of conflict the tribal nature of development and tribal governance is one thing that is really complex in the continent and it has to be kind of looked down with a more give more vocal position at the local level approach to governance is key but also somewhere we either United States far ahead in terms of what language how much are we using the language of change of security of peace if you're looking at peace with the military lens all the time then we are going right we are militarizing the all concept yet you know in Africa Ambassador talked about it very well that world war took place somewhere the impact is in the continent but everyone when in Africa we manufacture weapons not as much as you know but all these 47 and everybody killing everyone so we need to be able to approach in a more friendly language if you use the word counter violent extremism the word counter is already a militant itself and then I'm talking to young people saying we are misunderstood we are politically misunderstood we want to live a free life like other citizens but it's very easy for United States when they say there's a terrorist here so this kind of things maybe we need to get the way of dealing with the terror language or how we approach it how do we address the extremism we are calling it you know and then maybe we also need to appreciate that in Africa there's a generational growing generational distress it won't take so long before maybe across the entire sub-Saharan there's a very strong standoff between the generation there's a young generation who are under pressure for change they've waited for change for too long all ups becoming up less and all ups gone but yet we have a generation that has been in power they are extremely powerful they're well connected and they are trying to do all it takes to upstrap change so these two generations won't take long before it's a very big clash probably bigger than the Arab Spring and all that so I do think what we need in Africa if United States could focus on partnership one, you should support what we consider difficult dialogue a difficult dialogue in the context that how do we engage the two generations to tell the truth aware of the tribal nature of their existence aware of the historical differences how can we tell truth to one another but tell it with respect and love as opposed to fighting because also I must say this because there's a way that the western world have a very clear special commitment towards supporting anything that supports their own government sometimes we are giving rebellion legitimacy which is not necessary because if we come into support political opposition all the time in the country we are legitimizing that for you to be supported by the west you have to rebel against your own government you have to stand against something of course we need to have the voices of independence but it's better to balance between the government and the opposition when I was in the bush people were saying also that sometimes we are told that when you start fighting against your government you're going to get foreign support Americans will come and support you you overthrow the bad government so this is the kind of information that goes to the poor people who have never even been to United States and all that and maybe lastly that I think it was mentioned in the previous session the need for homegrown diplomacy I think this is key because whether it be anti-Balakar in Central Africa or Seleka or in Congo or where some of these people have never been to school they don't understand the geopolitical system but they understand their local traditional aspect so giving space for local diplomacy local mediation scale, local and promote the spirit of tolerance something which is locally driven locally supported meaning we need to come waving our checks but know that as we're giving money we're supporting the local capacity which was really the emphasis before let's give the local diplomacy opportunity let us support they might not be educated but they are mediators in their own communities which is very very important so let us build trust let us trust people with the resources we have to support the local capacity well with that Victor we're going to take your words as our final thoughts I'm going to let Gendai and Ruben off the hook from my last question in the interest of time and I think you've given us a compelling point to end on which is the basis for trust and relationships is that we have to know to be together with each other I want to appreciate what Gendai and Ruben have done over their careers to to steward those relationships on behalf of the United States and our citizens with our African counterparts and we look forward to carrying on those opportunities and I know many of us in the room to being on the continent with African citizens at all levels as we continue to try and find solutions to take advantage of the opportunities together so thank you all for the words of wisdom and for our closing conversation here we're going to turn back to Ambassador Carson for our final closing remarks thank you Kate and your panel thank you very very much for a very stimulating discussion greatly greatly appreciate it we do have one last speaker this afternoon and it is my great pleasure to introduce the last speaker of the day and it's Sue Gordon the principal deputy director of national intelligence in the office of the director of national intelligence Sue is a career intelligence officer over 30 years of experience working in the intelligence community both at the CIA and in other areas around Washington Sue welcome and we look for your closing remarks I'm so pleased to be here today although it's a bit daunting to follow that panel but I feel better because I heard kindred spirits Victor on the issue of trust the best advice I was ever given was by a former colleague who reminded me that around the world everyone thinks they're the good guys and I've kept that in my heart when we look at intelligence and try to understand what we're seeing that's the perspective that I carry I'm a data girl I believe that the availability and ubiquitous of data made democratically available will solve so many of our problems knowledge is power and the availability of that all the way down will make the difference and then Ruben so many of the things you said but quite frankly the fact that we both have family my in-laws have been home with me and I just sent them home so you and I same place listen I'm so proud to be representing the intelligence community today so much of our work is necessarily classified it happens behind closed doors but the intelligence also intelligence community also has a responsibility for transparency and for a conversation with the American people that commitment is more than just releasing documents it's showing up and engaging in the important conversations that are shaping society and global trends you've heard from a variety of experts today I'm not one of them but you've heard from top policy makers on Africa and as an intelligence offers I can tell you that even though we are not the people who decide on the policy we do believe it's our responsibility to have the best intelligence available in order to support the act of decision making intelligence is fundamentally about advantage it's about knowing a little more a little sooner a little further a little deeper at exactly the right moment so that that decision can be made with the best perspective we are to use a word that was used on the panel definitionally bipartisan we do not have an opinion other than the best knowledge we have in order to bring it to bear our role in the intelligence community is to study the region and develop deep expertise, identify trends and threats, explain the implications for the United States and enable good decision making so what I want to talk about today are the trends that we see in Africa and why these trends matter for the United States I also want to briefly discuss and briefly is the important part I said it was daunting to follow that panel there's nothing worse than standing between you and the traffic that you're going to face on the way home but I want to discuss a minute why the community of Africa experts and practitioners are critical to support the decision making for years now we've been looking at the world's growing interconnectedness and I don't think there's any more interconnectedness than there is in Africa particularly across several trends with profound implications the first is population growth I think Kate said it by 2025 a quarter of the world's population is going to be African this presents an opportunity for the United States to attract new sources of talents build new relationships and find new technological advances at the same time that same substantial population growth poses significant challenges our global trends looks at those potential scenarios that population growth may have on the region including strains on food and water healthcare educational infrastructure and limited resources in turn force other things to happen in terms of instability and migration to the west second is the economy as you know Sub-Saharan Africa remains a critical source for commodities introducing including oil and precious minerals farmland and labor the region is a growing market for US companies with investment in sectors like agriculture technology and resource extraction and the third of the factors is political instability 18 of the top 25 countries on the fragile state index are in Africa and unless these trends reverse unstable governance political instability will produce humanitarian crises violent conflicts and terrorism that spill across borders and they frequently require intervention the United States currently provides support for 12 UN African Union and regional peacekeeping missions and as was mentioned our competitors China and Russia have recognized the same opportunities and challenges are stepping in with their interests and it's interesting for good and for difficulty they are present and they are attacking the same opportunities and moments that we see and that's an issue that we have to address and as US decision makers grapple with how to formulate policy toward Africa and meet the challenges and opportunities posed by the trends that I mentioned they rely on experts and professionals quite frankly you to generate the information they need as a leader in the intelligence community I've seen this action in action with great expertise I was the before I had this job I was lucky enough to be the deputy director of the national geospatial intelligence agency those are the people that produce satellite imagery and have a history in knowledge of the earth based on geography mapping and cartography before I arrived in 2015 I was the national crisis facing us because it was in fact a global crisis and the president said all hands on deck and reached out including the intelligence community and said what can you do and NGA kind of screwed up its courage and decided you know we have information that will be useful to help identify not only the overall trends but quite frankly the very specific activities that were on the ground where are their outbreaks where are the clinics and this is the weird part we figured out how to make that data born of a classified intelligence organization available on the world wide web not with a FOB not in a classified network heck not even in the password available openly to be used today exactly as you suggest and the best part the partnerships that we included in that did not involve just giving it to the hundred and four airborne but it actually was teaching the Liberians how they could use that data so then we have seen them take off and understand what Geospatial can do more recently I've seen expertise in the IC feed into the ongoing deliberations on South Suzanne last June the U.S. signed the 5 track engagement plan with the government of Sudan laying out a roadmap for the prevention of most sanctions in return for Sudanese progress on five criteria identified by us our analysis intelligence helped inform the administration's decision in January to suspend most of the most of the sanctions and as well as the decision in July to postpone a further decision to permanently remove the sanctions our analyst insights continue to guide the policy making process and prepare for a decision in October and again I stress we have no vested interest in the outcome our vested interest is in presenting information so the best outcome can be achieved the best part when we are on our best day in intelligence it's because we established partnerships and not just partnerships with government entities or the intelligence community or even with the military we need those traditional partnerships it is the more emergent partnerships partnerships with the institute of peace partnerships with our foreign states that are going to make the differences we go further as I say at NGA the Ebola crisis was a perfect example of that kind of partnership because it wasn't just national imagery that came from our classified sources it was a U.S. company digital globe they made its information available as well different partnerships all for the purpose of advancing national interests differently but with the same outcome in mind we will position the U.S. very well if we continue to explore them as I say the intelligence community study trends and evaluate the implications for the United States and her interests as well as for global security and in our view the activities on the African continent present potential threats but seriously possibilities for human advancement across economic development health governance and security and the consequences are profound for us and our allies in Africa we see an intersection of population growth vast economic resources political instability and great power consumption it's a combustible mix of man-made issues and mother nature that is inherently and largely unpredictable it needs all of us the United States and Africa are bound by a complex history and in this continent its people, its states its ideologies, its economies will only grow more important for us in decades to come I leave you with three messages for those of you in the room I want to remind you that while your work may sometimes get lost in the maelstrom of other national security issues it is not lost on the people who benefit from your work your diligence your expertise are critical to policy makers without you the dynamics of Africa will remain opaque and without clarity suitable policies will remain out of reach thank you so much for participating in this, thank you to USIP for hosting and for sponsoring along with the Institute for Defense Analysis the Center for African Studies the Office of National Intelligence it is my great honor I am pleased to be in your company and will spend my career working to represent our collective interests thank you so much thank you, Sue thank you very, very much for those closing remarks before I invite all of you to join us at a reception outside I want to again extend my thanks to all of our participants this afternoon and throughout the day we're extremely pleased to have had General Waldheiser here from Stuttgart we appreciated the clarity of your remarks at lunch we were also very pleased to have with us this morning Ambassador Tom Shannon the Under Secretary of Political Affairs at the State Department who in fact gave us the first real clear outline of the administration's policies towards Africa we're also pleased as well to have Ambassador Don Yamamoto the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs with us Dr. David Chu whose organization has been principally responsible for driving these sessions over the last couple of years David we certainly appreciate your commitment to this this program but we're also extremely pleased to have had all of our participants whether it is Mr. from South Africa whether it's Ambassador Mula Mula or our former Ambassador Gendai Frazier also former Assistant Secretary of State Ambassador Ruben Brigady and others who were all with us today this has been an extraordinary opportunity to hear from a lot of folks about their views on Africa today and where it should be going in the future a lot has been said today and I am not going to attempt in any way to recap it I did and did have the pleasure a year ago to do so and I'm still living from those 15 points that have continued to circulate but I will ask your indulgence really only for four last sentences the United States recognizes the growing and increasing importance of Africa not only to Africans and to the countries and continent that they occupy but the growing importance of Africa as a part of an increasingly interconnected global community where Africa's issues are our issues and our issues are frequently Africa's issues whether it involves the fight against violent extremism or whether it is the fight against an Ebola pandemic that can strike the United States as easily as it can strike Liberia Sierra Leone or Equatorial or Guinea Conakry so we have to recognize that secondly the US is committed to forging stronger partnerships with Africa because we know that it is on our interests to do so and I also believe that it is in Africa's interests to forge partnerships with the US and it desires to do so the great challenge that we all face is that we recognize and understand the challenges the partnership that we seek in a common way we have to understand what Africa seeks out of this partnership and we have to understand better what we seek out of it and the partnership that we forge must be a partnership of mutual interests based on mutual respect and mutual collaboration I'll stop right there invite everybody to come upstairs and have a refreshment of some sort here and we'll close this day again by thanking all of you for your participation thank you


Good morning, Hank, it's Tuesday, so I realize I'm a smidge biased here, but I really do think books make the best gifts, because they last.  But the books themselves often do, too. I mean, I still have the copy of Tom Sawyer mom gave to me when I was 10. But which books to give? Well, it's hard to go wrong, although not impossible. But I have some recommendations for you this holiday season. First, my favorite book of the year, Between the World and Me by Tanahasi Coates, a short, relentless, and brilliant meditation on race and history in the United States. Also in the recommended to everyone on Earth category, The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty. This book is almost 20 years old, but it's still as hilarious and frenetic and heartbreaking as ever, and I really think it should be a classic. I've never recommended it to anyone who didn't love it. Okay, moving on. For the person in your life who loves reading but thinks they hate classics, Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather and The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Both these books are captivating and page-turning and intensely moving, despite being read in schools. For graphic novels fans, Alice and Beckdell's Are You My Mother is the perfect gift for your mother, provided that you and your mother have a very, very dysfunctional relationship. And I also recommend City of Clowns, illustrated by Sheila Alvarado and written by Daniel Alrican, who beat me in 1994 in our high school's creative writing contest. He's since gone on to even greater things, including this brilliant story about a young journalist in Peru grieving his father. Then we have Eugenia Porter's book Beauty for Mashes, which I highly recommend because it is the place where I store my whiskey flask. If you have a giftee who likes quote-unquote literary fiction for quote-unquote adults, I have several recommendations beginning with Hania Yanigihara. Her first novel was a very strange book with a deeply unreliable narrator who discovers the secret to eternal life is drinking the blood of a certain kind of turtle. It's excellent, but her new book, A Little Life, is even better. I mean, if you thought The Fault in Our Stars was sad, this is sad. An older book I always like to recommend, Gilead by Marilyn Robinson, which is both an excellent novel and kind of a religious one, which is a very rare combination in my experience. And then there's A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, which is just a brilliant novel that uses an oral history format to tell this massive, sprawling story that all revolves around the shooting of Bob Marley in Jamaica in 1976. For science fiction fans, or also fans of A Brief History of Seven Killings, I recommend Nalo Hopkinson's Midnight Robber, which is set in a world colonized by Caribbean peoples. It's really stuck with me, and I've just started her book of stories, Falling in Love with Hominids, which is a great title and so far also a great book. Okay, books about art and being an artist. Sarah and I both really love The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, and we also love Just Kids by Patti Smith, which I can't find my copy of because ever since we moved my home library has been very poorly catalogued. Religion! Anyone who wants to understand Islamic history or contemporary Islamic thought and practice should really read No God But God by Reza Oslin. Over the years I've read and reviewed dozens of introductions to Islamic history, this is my favorite. History! I loved Mary Beard's recent History of Ancient Rome SPQR, although sadly it is also lost somewhere in our home library. For poetry fans, this year I read two books of poetry I absolutely loved, A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver and Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Gluck. Glick? Gluck? I don't know. Both these books are full of precise and profound poems that are moving without ever being pretentious. Young Adult Novels, I haven't read enough YA this year, but two recent books I really enjoyed first and then by Emma Mills, a.k.a. Elma Phi on YouTube, which is funny and my kind of romance-y, and The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds, which is about a young man who's worn a black suit every day since his mother died. Also, it occurs to me there may be a new generation of YA readers who haven't read a bunch of books published ten or more years ago, so I have some recommendations on that, Front Valiant, A Modern Tale of Fairy by Holly Black, Ball Don't Lie by Matt De La Peña, The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, and Speak by Lori Haltz Anderson. Those are very different books, they'd probably be called respectively a fantasy, a sports book, a romance, and a contemporary realistic book, but they all make great gifts and with book gets I'm a big fan of bundling different kinds of things together. For younger kids, say 10 to 14, I really love Jacqueline Woodson's Miracles Boys, and lastly, Henry's two favorite books this year were Last Stop on Market Street by Christian Robinson and the aforementioned Matt De La Peña, and The Adorable Boot and Shoe by Marla Frazy. You can find links to all these books in the doobadoo. Hank, full disclosure, you're getting some of these for Christmas, so get excited! I'll see you on Friday.


is we've gone through it in a historical evolution primarily three times. And this is not the first time we've had major social evolution or changes. The first time is when we went from hunting and gathering to agriculture. And what you have is a degree of specialization taking place, and it's a dramatic specialization. Unfortunately, most of those time periods are undocumented. We can look back at areas where they transcended a bench to see some friction, some conflict, but on the whole we can only kind of empathize and imagine what that conflict was like. But we do know that there was a degree of specialization taking place. The second would have been when we went from the agricultural age to the Industrial Revolution. There we do have documentation. But the issue here is that it wasn't just that we have the documentation. The documentation tells us very clearly it was single gender specialization. Men got more specialized. Men's roles have been able to provide, became further specialized. Women on a whole, their dynamic role did not change. And as we go into the information age, we now have a significant change in the fact that we now have dual sex specialization. We talk about in a very kind of overt way about society becoming more feminized. And that is very true. And that is a direct outlay of the information age. But part of that feminization is realizing we have specialized roles where women are taking, fulfilling, and actually co-sharing it. And men have not adapted very well. Our psyche of belief has not actually kept up with the times. And Darwin has taught us anything. It is the species that evolves appropriately for its time and the challenges its face that survives. And where men are failing, where men are feeling lost, they have not kept up with the times. We have not recognized that we have an increase in EQ or emotional quotient as far as what we expect in relationships and jobs and everything else. We have old school models of what it means to be a leader, to lead and to manage. It's fairly direct. They're typically as far, referring to as hard skills. Women have brought in a whole series of other skills that are highly valuable to increase effectiveness, team building, networking, socialization, consensus building, collaboration, and overall a measure of diplomacy. You know, when you take this in an appropriate context. And these skills are highly utilized in business today. All right, but we don't teach them in men in relationships. Okay, men who don't understand that, who don't learn that, who are not taught that are exposed to it, go into life at a deficit. And we need to realize we're at a disadvantage when we don't know something. And ignorance is no shelter from reality. It's a hard fact of life. You know, these sort of skills. And while we utilize them in business, really are perfect for relationships. This is where you start developing them. You know, if you don't not understand how to set a boundary, if you don't not understand collaboration building in a relationship or consensus building in a relationship, proper lead and managing and maintaining a relationship, you're sure as hell not gonna do it in business. Interestingly enough, there are men that actually do it well in business and have horrible personal lives because they don't utilize it. You know, there's a direct correlation between them. So we need to understand and recognize that the information age has brought a total transformation in our social structure. It's opening new things. And we're not gonna put this genie back in the bottle. And to be honest, I wouldn't want the genie to be back in the bottle. I love the hell out of June Cleaver, you know, leave it to Beaver, but I wouldn't wanna be married to her. You know, I think there's some amazing dynamics involved. You know, there's some things I miss and feminism has gone from one swing of the pendulum to June Cleaver to Kim Kardashian. The pendulum has gone too far to the one side. We need to take the value. Women don't have to give up everything. They don't need to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. They don't have to get rid of the domicile and the domestic aspects of being feminine and the things that naturally draw men to them. But we need to be aware of some of the issues that we're facing today is the age.