Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. My name is Heather Conley. I'm Senior Vice President here at CSIS that conducts our research for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic. We are absolutely delighted to welcome Dr. Liam Fox, member of the British Parliament for 22 years, looking after the constituents of North Somerset. Many of us know Dr. Fox as being the former Secretary of State for Defense, who was named by Prime Minister Cameron from 2010 to 2011. And CSIS claims Dr. Fox as one of our own. For coming last year for a conversation we held in Williamsburg, Virginia, on the future of Europe. And I assure you that Dr. Fox gave us a very lively and spirited debate about what the future of Europe will look like. And I'm sure some of that will be reprised for us this morning. Prior to former Secretary of State for Defense, Dr. Fox served as many shadow secretaries, while in opposition for health, for foreign secretary, as well as for Secretary of Defense. A general practitioner, Dr. Fox, can also give us some insights on health and health care issues as they relate to the United Kingdom. I'm also delighted to welcome two guests with us. We have General Brent Scowcroft with us, former U.S. National Security Advisor, and Judge William Webster, former FBI and CIA Director. We're delighted to have you both with us and Dr. Fox. I think that gives you a sense of the importance that we subscribe to this conversation and we look forward to your remarks. Dr. Fox will give us opening remarks and then we'll transition into a discussion and welcome our audience today for a lively Q&A on the future of the U.S.-U.K. special relationship. But I think we'll have a broader conversation about the variety of international challenges we face. So with that, please join me in welcoming Dr. Liam Fox. Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and it's a great pleasure to be back here at CSIS. It is not a quiet time in global events. In fact, I can never remember a more turbulent time in global events, but what a better time to talk about the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. In fact, when Winston Churchill first used the term special relationship, he did it during his speech in Fulton, Missouri, which is, of course, better remembered for his use of the phrase iron curtain for the first time. But when Churchill spoke about the special relationship, he did so as a wartime leader. And it was basically an intelligence relationship, a military relationship. Somewhat Disney-esque, gooey-eyed connotations that special relationship gained in later years are not, for me, the concrete foundations that it has. This is a relationship about our security in a dangerous world, and there are so many threats in this very interdependent world. And one of the changes that Churchill would have been astonished to see is the level of interdependency that we now have, and we have had so many warnings about just how interdependent we've become in recent years, whether it's the terrorist attack of 9-11, whether it's the natural event of SARS, whether it's the Japanese tsunami, whether it's the 2008 banking crisis. What is very clear is that contagion in one part of the global economy will very quickly spread to the rest. In fact, the whole concept of over there, I think, is a term that might become somewhat dated as we go ahead. When I was writing the book that I wrote about global security threats rising tides, it was pointed out to me that back in 1993, not exactly a very long time ago, there were 130 websites in the world. At the end of last year, there were 654 million, which is a whole change, a quantum leap in information, but it's also a lot of terrorist haystacks in which to hide terrorist needles, and that's something I want to come on to in a moment. But I wanted to set out the generic range of risks that we face before I come to some of the specifics, but I set them as failing states, the rise of religious fundamentalism, the spread of transnational terrorism, financial imbalances, competition for commodities, and that's before we even got to the state-on-state threats that we face. And I began by setting out what the risks I thought were of failing states, and the one that I actually identified was Pakistan. And I said Pakistan, not out of malign intent, but because of sheer instability. Most of us politically will be used to dealing with our opposite numbers, but in a country like Pakistan where frankly we're never really sure who's in charge, whether it's the politicians, the military, or the ISI, we have to develop a whole range of relationships. And of course, from a British perspective, I was very interested as to why after 200 years of common history, India, after partition, went on to become a relatively stable, prosperous, and increasingly middle-class economy, whereas Pakistan effectively ruled backwards from the very beginnings, perhaps it's something we can discuss. But I was interested that at partition, nobody knew what to call Pakistan, because it didn't correspond to any natural, historical, or geographical entity. So in fact, as an acronym, Pakistan was actually a made-up name, made up of the initials of the provinces of Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, and so on. And I think that it's a fair bet that if your country's name is made up, then it's not probably the most stable entity that you're likely to see. And I say that this is a worry because here in Washington, with all the focus on Iran at the present time, people seem to have forgotten that Pakistan's sitting on something like 120 nuclear warheads and has recently brought into play two new heavy water plants that will enable them to produce about 24 nuclear warheads a year from now on. It is the nuclear problem that nobody seems to want to acknowledge and talk about in detail. Then of course, we've got to the rise of transnational terrorism. It's nothing new, but it changes its manifestations. And of course, the worry that we have is that this nuclear proliferation in places like Pakistan will find its way into the terrorist game. And people say, well, if it's so easy to make a dirty bomb and there's so much fissile material out there, why have we not seen one? And yet, nobody seems to know that in 1995 in Izmailovsky Park in Moscow, the nuclear material was there, but it just wasn't attached to a bomb. Or that in Chechnya, we have had fissile material attached to mines. So the threat is there and it will increase. And we need to look at our whole issue of proliferation in light of the increased terrorist threat. We also need to understand some of the other risks that are coming from left field. And one of the ones that I constantly talk about is the risk of competition for communities, and in particular, water. And people talk about China, but they very often miss out one of the really important parts of the equation, which is that 48% of all the people alive on our planet today get their drinking water from a river that arises on the Tibetan Plateau. So why do you think China is so intent on Tibet? Is it the Dalai Lama, or is it the fact that it's the world's greatest resource in terms of fresh water? Unless we know the data, we will not make sensible interpretations of events and therefore are likely to make policy mistakes. The rise of religious fundamentalism, particularly Islamic fundamentalism, is there for us all to see. And we're facing this crisis now with ISIS, the latest manifestation of this, but I'm doubted it will be the last manifestation of it. We need to be very, very clear about the threats that Islamic State posed to us. First of all, the humanitarian threat, the immediate threat to the population that live under their control. We've seen what they're capable of, beheadings, crucifixions, setting people on fire. And for a video camera, things that we thought had been violence, we thought had been left behind in the Middle Ages. The second threat, of course, the further destabilization of the region, they would love to see a full-blown religious war. This is, in fact, part of what they're trying to achieve. And then, of course, they will be the University of Jihad if we allow them to do so. And they will export terror to Western democracies if they get the opportunity. And we've seen cases in the United Kingdom of people who've gone to fight for ISIS and then come home. Personally, I don't believe you can have a sabbatical from civilization and then come home. No Jihad gap here that you can come back and say you're very sorry that you did it. So we have to, again, think about the domestic problems. And then nuclear proliferation itself ran clearly the big issue. When Rouhani became president, there were so many in the Western Commentariat who were describing it as a breakthrough, a new moment in the relationship. Big disappointment there for the people of Iran. They've not really noticed much of a difference. The repression, the executions continue apace in Iran. And what people seemed to fail to understand was that the shots are still called by the Supreme Leader. And if you read, there's a wonderful little book by Karim Sanjapur from the Carnegie Endowment called Reading Khamenei. And he has a political consistency that most Western politicians would kill for. His belief in the purity of the Islamic revolution, his hatred for the United States, his contempt for the existence of the state of Israel, all very, very consistent over a long period. And I think it is absolutely unbelievable that people still will look at the evidence in front of them in terms of what Iran is doing in terms of its nuclear program and say, well, maybe they're not trying to achieve a nuclear weapons program. There is no possible excuse for the levels of nuclear work that they're doing and enrichment at the present time other than that they're trying to get a nuclear weapons program. The clandestine way in which Natanz and Iraq were developed says to me that this is not a country that is open about its intentions. And there is a problem here, a generic problem in the West which is that on too many occasions in recent times in foreign policy we have allowed wishful thinking to take the place of critical analysis. Because we want something to happen, we have used the data to try to make it look as though that is what's happening and it's not happening in the case of Iran. Why should we worry about a nuclear Iran? Well, first of all, it does provide an existential threat to Israel with all the implications that that has for wider policy. Secondly, I think it would mean the NPT is not worth the paper that it's written on. And if Iran gets to nuclear weapon status why should Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey not want to follow them? And that means a nuclear arms race in one of the most unstable regions of the world. And after all the work that was done particularly in the United States at the end of the Cold War to stop proliferation and to stop the former Soviet States being able to have nuclear weapons surely we want to leave something better to the next generation than a new nuclear arms race. This is a challenge for all of us. I worry about what is happening today in terms of the negotiations. Some say we need to get a deal. I actually think no deal is better than a bad deal. And what do I mean by a bad deal? I think any deal is a bad deal that allows Iran to become a threshold nuclear state because of the dangers that I've mentioned. I particularly worry about the potential of a bilateral agreement between the United States and Iran that doesn't come from the P5 plus one. We need to stand together in the face of international threat and not be divided. And I'm sure that's something we'll talk about in our wider conversation. And then on this happy list of the threats we face we didn't really think that we would be facing a state on state threat to the extent that we're facing today from Russia. And if ever there was an example of wishful thinking displacing critical analysis, it is in Putin's Russia because we have so wanted Russia to become a useful partner in the international family of nations that we have simply been turning a blind eye for too long. There are two basic principles followed by Putin which make it extremely difficult if not impossible to normalize relations with Russia. The first is that Putin still clings to the idea, the old Soviet idea of a near abroad. In other words, that he should have a veto over the policies of his immediate geographic neighbors. And we've seen what that has led to in recent times. And the second is his concept that he believes that the protection of ethnic Russians lies not with the countries or the constitutions or the systems of law under which they live but with an external power, i.e. Russia itself. And these two views are the root of many of the problems that we face and we can see the manifestations of these today in Ukraine. I do not believe that you can take Putin's word on any agreement when it comes to his borders. I think that what is happening in the Ukraine is truly shocking. The annexation by force of Crimea, the destabilization of the eastern borders of Ukraine, the fact that while NATO carries out normal military maneuvers and exercises, Russia is actually testing weapon systems live in eastern Ukraine from the book Missile System to the Strelas System. These are real time testing that Russia is actually carrying out and we are standing by and arguing about whether we should give the Ukrainians the means or not to defend their homeland. Just think about it. If we are actually saying we cannot give Ukraine the secure comms or the anti-tank capability or the UAVs for targeting and surveillance that they need because that might exacerbate the crisis. That is a bully's charter. That simply says we will never give anyone the means to defend themselves because that might make the aggressor even more angry. This is a ridiculous policy for us to hold and we need to recognize that the defense of the Baltic states, for example, begins in Ukraine and we are only one miscalculation by Putin away from potentially getting an Article 5 involvement on continental Europe and we need to waken up to it. We have been serial appeasers of Putin and it has not got us very far. When he had a cyber attack on Estonia, we did nothing. When he cut off Ukraine's gas, we did nothing. He invaded Georgia and he's still there and we did very little. We made some sanctions in response to what's happening in Ukraine and Crimea but appeasement has a bad track record. It had a bad track record before, it's got a bad track record today. So why should we in the United Kingdom still look so much to the United States in an era of all these potential problems because you are the world's biggest economy, because you are the world's biggest military budget bigger than the next 11 combined, which is very reassuring when you are a close ally of the United States but more than that, we need to have a partnership of values because in all these problems that we face in the world, we need to understand that we are who we are, not by accident. We are who we are by design and by decisions that were taken by those who went before us and we are built on the concepts, both our nations of our ability to exercise a free market, our economic liberty in a free market. We understand the value in terms of prosperity and security in free trade. We understand the need for a rule of law applied equally to the governing and the governed independently and we understand the concept of rights across race, religion, and gender. These are what make us who we are and we need to take ownership of these and we need to be expanding these in a very unstable world and to my American political colleagues, I would say this, there has never been a time when we were more able to shape the world. In the era of globalization, we need to shape it in our image and buy our own values. This is not a time for America to look inwards. This is not a time for America to become more isolationist. There has never been a time, I believe, where America was more needed on the pitch than it is today and that's probably, I think, Heather, the best place to begin our conversation. Perfect, thank you. Well, thank you, that was wonderful, a great tour de force. I think what we'll do, I'll spend a few minutes, we'll have a conversation with us and then I'll turn you over to our audience. I will warn you that CSIS audiences are very tough. They ask very tough questions so I'm a mere warmup to what you're about to experience but you gave us a broad tour de force. I think I'll focus a little bit more on Europe in our questions and let me start with Russia since that's where you concluded. The murder of Boris Nemtsov. Do you think that's a turning point? Well, we see a different environment within Russia. I think one of Nemtsov's, one of his most poignant remarks, literally days before his murder, was that he felt that there needed to be a Maidan in Russia, an awakening in Russia, which in some ways I think is the most powerful threat to Vladimir Putin than to anything. Did you see these unbelievable images from Moscow, literally steps from the Kremlin? Did you see this as potentially a turning point for Russia? It's potentially, but again, given the level of control and repression that exists there, we've had these false dawns before. Being a vocal opponent of Putin is not a safe position to be in as Litvinenko, Nemtsov, Politskaya, you name them, of the very long list, the growing list of enemies of the Russian president who have been silenced. It would be nice to think that we would get a change. Honestly, I'm just not optimistic about it. You've had some conversation as recently as yesterday on BBC One Radio talking about the level of defense spending. Very concerned about British defense spending, the lack of a commitment to 2% of gross domestic product towards defense spending. I'd like to pull you out a bit on that and really offer some reflections. Is NATO ready to confront Russia? We have seen extraordinary military mobilization, snap exercises. I saw a statistic that since David Karaman has been Prime Minister, Russia has overflown or gotten very close to air sovereignty of the UK 43 times. Are we ready to confront this challenge militarily? Well, you added the word militarily at the end. I think our biggest problem is having the will to confront. You can have as much military capability as you like. If you haven't got the political will to use it, it becomes largely redundant. And I think that is of the two elements of NATO of its political personality and its military capability. It's that political one that I worry about and I think this is where the 2% comes in because it's not just the abilities it gives us in terms of military equipment. It's about our willingness to show our longer term commitment to the alliance. And only four of the NATO allies meeting their 2%, which remember is the floor. 2% of GDP supposed to be the floor of our spending, not the ceiling of our spending on defense. And if you look at what happened, for example, in the Libyan crisis and the campaign in Libya, the European elements of NATO would not have been able to even carry that out without the United States because we simply didn't have the reconnaissance capability. We simply didn't have the air-to-air refueling capability. And the big problem with a lot of the European members of NATO is that so many of them were very quick after the Cold War in particular to get into NATO. And they all recognized what an opportunity it was for everyone to get the insurance policy, but asking just a few others to pay the premiums for us. And we are in a position where there are too many countries taking a free ride on the United States in particular, which is why I think it's very important that Britain shows the moral leadership to make that 2% commitment. We have given our word as a country that we will play our full part in the Alliance and we must do so. Last week I was in Poland and the world from Warsaw looks very different from it does from either London or Washington. And there is a palpable fear there about what is going on. And the geographic proximity of Putin is getting them to waken up. And they are of course going to increase the defense spending as our countries like Estonia, but they're coming to the threat late in the day. So we do need to get our political act together inside NATO. And there's a related issue here. And I know this is, we did talk about this at Williamsburg, but I go back to it again. Part of the problem with NATO is the European Union. And the European Union trying to take on a defense and security role, that is not what the EU is for. That is what NATO is for. And if we try to duplicate what NATO is doing inside the European Union and worse, if it ends up having the diversion of funds away from the scarce funding that we're giving NATO into duplication in the European Union, that can be of comfort only to those who are our enemies. I'm gonna turn to the EU because I definitely want to hear your thoughts on the Eurozone and immigration issues as you're seeing them. Before I leave Russia, I just, you're opening remarks and you mentioned Prime Minister Churchill. And I have to say, I struggle with this. What would Churchill say today? On the one hand, he presciently described the rise of Nazism, wartime Prime Minister to create that defense. There's no choice between war and shame. You'll have shame and then you'll have war that will come later. But he was also at Yalta and also in some ways agreed to a sphere of influence. We need a new strategic framework for this challenge that Putin is presenting the West. How do you strike that balance between the values proposition, but again, the political will to meet Mr. Putin with strength? Well, first of all, we have to provide ourselves with the capability and we need to have a better sharing of that capability, but we also need to be willing to confront him. We're necessary. We've seen his modus operandi. We need to have a stronger presence in the Baltic states in particular. And let's be very frank about what he's doing here. He's got Kaliningrad in the Baltic. He's been bullying some of the smaller Baltic states interfering politically, funding pro-Russia candidates. He's been encouraging Republic of Serbska in the Balkans to see the illegal referendum in Crimea as a precedent. He has still got forces in Georgia. He's created virtually a client state in Armenia. He's now annexed Crimea. How many lessons do we need in what is happening here? This is the ability now to cause instability at will in terms of European security. We need to counter that. We need to have a larger and permanent presence in the Baltic. We need to beef up the Baltic air patrols. We need to look at countries like Poland and see whether we need to have a greater permanent NATO presence there. We need to use the powers that we have to show that we are not going to allow this concept with sphere of influence to take hold. For example, we should be sending our naval power into the Black Sea just to show that we have every right to do that and that this is not the personal pond of Putin. So, there are things that we can do, but we have to have the will to do it and we have to have the leadership to do it. Let me turn to the European Union. In some ways, the May 7th general elections is in part not completely about the future of Great Britain in the European Union. Obviously, you've been a critic of the EU and Britain's role in there. Expand a little bit on what you've been watching for the last several years, whether it's within the Eurozone and how the 19 Eurozone members have been dealing with an ongoing economic crisis. Certainly, the last few weeks with Prime Minister Zipras has... How long have you got? Ah, well, you have a couple minutes. You can go. Well, first of all, in terms of the UK election, the Conservative Party, my party, believes that we should have a referendum because no one under about 57 years of age in the UK has ever been able to take part in a referendum about our membership. It's one of my earliest political memories as the referendum of 1975 because my parents campaigned on opposite sides. Oh. It was a tense household. It was a tense household. My parents still have the same views that they held then. But Peter Mandelson, Lord Mandelson, said in Britain that, and I quote, Europe is too important an issue to be left to the lottery of the electorate, which I think tells you all you need to know about the mindset of the bureaucracy in Brussels. And in an era where people across Western political systems seem to be losing faith in the political system itself, giving people a say on their own destiny, I think is one of the ways in which you restore faith in that system and you keep faith with the people. So that's one side of it. The Eurozone, well, a lot of our European partners are now becoming serial economic self-harmers. And the whole concept of the Euro, which of course we decided to stay out of, I think has been a disaster. I remember on the night we were voting on as in the House of Commons, John Major saying to me, who in their right minds would go into anything in life that doesn't have an exit? And we're now discovering with the Greek situation exactly what happens when you don't have an exit. The Euro was always, I think, intellectually and economically flawed. There were two basic models that the Euro could have taken. First of all, to say it is so important for this concept of ever closer union, we will do everything to make it work, right up to and including full political economic and monetary union. But they didn't do that. Or they could have said it's purely an economic project and only the countries that make the grade are allowed to join. And they didn't do that either. In fact, the wrong countries were allowed to join, countries that were never close to making the convergence criteria. And then having been allowed to join, they followed fiscal policies that made them diverge rather than converge, building instability into an already flawed architecture. And we're living with the consequences of that today because what you're getting is monetary policy effectively applied across the whole continent that suits Germany the biggest continental economy. And I'm afraid that memories are too short, are too long rather and history is too short for people to accept what they perceive as austerity being applied to them from Berlin. And the reason that I mentioned my parents' positions on the European referendum was that my father said we must join what was then the common market. He said to diminish the tensions that drove Europe to destruction twice in a century. And I worry now that what we're getting in the Euro is the recreation of those tensions economically that will lead us to many of the same disadvantageous positions that we had before. How do you go about de-risking the Euro is for me the big question. Well, you can go back to the national currencies and abandon the Euro, that's not gonna happen. You can throw out the outliers in Southern Europe in particular, that's Greece, Portugal, Spain, probably Italy, but that would undermine their drive towards ever closer union, so that's not going to happen. The third would be to throw out the biggest outlier which is Germany and clearly that's not gonna happen because Germany likes the Euro because it's a way undervalued currency for the size and strength of the German economy. And Germany's done very well out of that. And the fourth way is for the countries inside the Eurozone to move to full political, economic and monetary union. And I spoke to a senior member in Brussels recently who said, you're quite right, those are the four options and we'll take none of them. And what we will do is continue to take the risk effectively and hoping that the bomb goes off and someone else's watch. And I regard the Euro now as being the single biggest threat to global financial stability because what is happening in Greece will be replicated in the future because the basic problem is not being sorted out. And the most important issue for European politicians I think is the de-risking of the Euro. 58% of young Spaniards are unemployed. How long do you think you can tolerate those levels of unemployment being foisted upon a population for what is effectively a political project? This is not a sensible way to be running either the economics or the long-term social stability in Europe. And I wonder how many young Europeans on the current trend will be sacrificed on the altar of the single currency before European leaders waken up to the truth of what's happening. Sending aside the Eurozone, which itself has got its own rhythm at the moment, are you undervaluing, though, the incredible benefit the United Kingdom has received from being part of the single market? In fact, over the last five years, trade between the United Kingdom and the EU has increased. I mean, can this conversation about the UK's role within the European Union, are you not completely under emphasizing the great economic benefits that you enjoy as well as London as the financial center, which is benefiting from being within the European Union, but not, obviously, of the Euro? Well, we were told, of course, that if we didn't join the single currency, that would be the end of London as the economic center. Didn't quite work out that way. I take a very simplistic view of this, which is money goes to where money can be made and money can be moved. And money comes to London for both those reasons. Money can be made because of our regulatory and taxation framework, especially at the moment, and it can be moved because of our system of commercial law. So that will continue to make it attractive, whether we're inside the European Union or not, and I haven't really noticed Norway or Switzerland suffering hugely for not being members of the European Union. Of course, there are gains of being inside it. So what I would like us to have is a debate that looks at the ledger in terms of its pluses and minuses, but in a very realistic and hard-headed way. Britain would have to look to see whether we're Britain to leave the European Union, what that meant in terms of our trade. Worth pointing out, however, that the rest of our European partners export much more to us, the one country, than we export to them, the other 27. So the balance is very much in one direction. So I think that we do need to have this debate, but I really rather dislike some of those who will say, oh, we couldn't stand on our own if Britain could not exist outside the European Union, which is clearly nonsensical, given the success of some of the countries in our neighborhood geographically who are. What I would like to see is a renegotiated relationship with Europe. I'd like us to go back to the concept of a common market. I want to be able to cooperate with our European partners where it's in our mutual interest to do so, but I want to be able to keep separate the levers that Britain might need to use in Britain's national interest, where ours to differ from theirs, which they do on a whole range of issues. One political party that has benefited from the sort of anti-European Union, even anti-immigrant stance, has been the United Kingdom Independence Party, UKIP. So I'd like to turn a little bit to the domestic politics and put that crystal ball on the table for May 7th. We have the commentary class has certainly been speculating that what we are about to witness on May 7th is going to be a real mess, a hung parliament, a very difficult coalition framework where the smaller parties, particularly the Scottish National Party, perhaps UKIP on the other side may be determining what a future British government looks like, help the average American understand what's going to happen on May 7th and then what are the implications for us? Shall I also give you the lottery numbers this week? The bookies always have this right. I have to say, I followed them as much as you go, but... I tend to go with the bookies as well, rather than... I think people are more circumspect about where they put their money than where they put their opinions, but... What does look like it's happening at the moment is that the two main parties are increasing in strength again at the expense of the smaller ones, a classic squeeze as we get to an election and for all the talk of breakthroughs in a country like Britain with a first pass to post system is very, very difficult for parties to break into that. I think that... And you will say, with some justification, you would say this. As a former chairman of the Conservative Party, I believe that when you have an economy where we have created 1.85 million jobs, 1,000 jobs a day since we've been in office, with historically low interest rates and low inflation rates with people really feeling the growth in the economy now feeding through to their own pockets, I think that it's very hard to see why the public would throw out a government that's provided them with that. I happen to think that the current Labour Party leader is uniquely unqualified to lead the country in a way that I've never known them in my 23 years in Parliament, but I wouldn't intrude on their private grief any further. On that one. And I think that when it comes to the election, people will look at the economic record of the government. They will look at the fact that in David Cameron, they have an experienced Prime Minister at a time when international security is not looking great. And I think that they will decide not to make the change. I think the Conservatives will be the biggest party. I think that we'll be close to an overall majority. And I remember the first election that I was elected in 1992, the scenario was not that dissimilar to this one when in fact we were not ahead in any opinion polls. And John Major won the highest number of votes any Prime Minister won in history. So the electorate when faced with actually putting the cross, I think we'll think very hard. As a member of Parliament, you served on the Constitution Committee and had a great deal of focus on constitutional affairs. For those of us who've been watching the Scottish debate, obviously last fall's referendum, which was a bit of a heart-stopper, weren't quite sure how that would evolve. And now we see where the Scottish National Party is going to be doing, we think, very well for May 7th, which may cause Labour to not do as well. But what does this mean for the United Kingdom? Is it becoming more disunited? And will this election begin to pull at the very fabric of the United Kingdom? Well, I always thought that Tony Blair's constitutional proposals for devolution were imbalanced and would have repercussions. We argued at the time, it was my responsibility at the time in the House of Commons, and I argued that what was happening was a recipe for the rise of nationalism. I didn't think actually ever it was such a heart-stopper the referendum, and your faith in the bookies would have been well placed because they said 87% of the chance of getting a no vote on that referendum. In fact, they paid out the day before. The referendum actually took place. Some of the bookmakers, they were so certain where they are of the outcome. The trouble with it is that the pro-independent side who lost the referendum think they won and have been continuing to push more and more in that direction, and that has been a problem. It is also now very apparent that Labour Party looked like they will do very badly in Scotland, and I think that's a problem of their own making. Again, how they've approached all of this. What will it mean if there's a big SNP grouping? Well, that will depend, of course, on the wider outcome. The nightmare scenario is a Labour, for me, a Labour-SNP coalition. And the reason that that's a nightmare for me is not just that yet more money will move from my constituents up north of the border into Scotland. And Scottish voters are already at far more spending per head than the voters in England do. But the real worry is that the SNP are a unilateralist party. They believe in abandoning a nuclear deterrent. They want a nuclear-free country. And I wonder what price the Labour leader would pay to get the peas to Downing Street. That worries me more than anything else, and it should worry our American friends. Absolutely. I'm going to my last question, and then I'm going to bring our audience into it. I'm going to ask you the question that I get asked very frequently by journalists. Does the United States still have this close, exclusive relationship with the United Kingdom that it has in the past? Does the United States still consider itself a European power? Is it still engaged as it was in the transatlantic relationship, or has it decided we're going to maintain our alliance, but we're really focusing on the Asia Pacific region, India, these other great opportunities? And we just don't see those opportunities in Europe. How would you answer that question? I always thought that the whole concept of the pivot was a little bizarre. It's not as though the Atlantic was going to disappear any day soon. Clearly, the United States does have to focus on Pacific affairs. It is a Pacific power, but it's also an Atlantic power. It's not got the luxury of choosing which way to look and global security for the very reasons we were discussing because of our interdependence. It's not something that you can decide which geographical area you're now going to worry about and which area you're going to disregard. It's not like that, as events in Ukraine are showing. The US is still the global superpower, economically and militarily, with that come responsibilities. And we need the US to be in the game. So I wonder what signal Mr. Putin got that America was not going to be as focused on its transatlantic area, but was going to focus on the Pacific. I wonder what signal he took from that and whether that's actually been advantageous to wider security. Interesting. Well, thank you. OK, I've given you your warm-up. I'm ready to unleash the audience. If you could please raise your hand. We have a microphone. If you could identify yourself, please, with your name and affiliation. We have about 15 minutes. So I'd ask for the comments to be short, the questions to be very focused. With your permission, I'll bundle a few questions and then you can fire away at them. So with that, please. Sir, we have one right there in the front. And then one to the side. Thank you very much for a realist view of the world or a Tory view of the world. My question follows on Asia. I was going to ask her about the pivot. But does the UK, or EU, or NATO see Asia as sort of outside its purview? Is that something to be left to the US? How does it define your interest in East Asia and how are you pursuing those? Thank you.  We'll stick to the side for a moment. Thank you. Michael, I go with DevEx. You've spoken quite a bit about diplomacy and defense and the need to build political will in those areas. I wonder if you have any thoughts on the third D development and how the relationship between USAID and the United States and the Department for International Development in the UK has transformed, how you think it should transform in the future, and if that's a significant aspect of what you're talking about. Thanks. Great, let's take one more. We have, oh, right there, Marcy, right there to the side. And then I'll perhaps go over the corner next. Thank you. Dr. Fox, thank you for joining us today. Major Scott Smitson, United States Central Command. Real quick question. It seems like one of the emerging narratives in the debate about the future of NATO is that there are some member states that increasingly are oriented to the East, and I think Ukraine fulfills that narrative, whereas others from the Southern periphery can be concerned about instability in Libya. How did we, the United States United Kingdom, help change that narrative from an or to an and? Great, so we had Asia as that outside NATO's purview. A question of development, which the United Kingdom has played a great leadership role in development in the world, and South versus East, that's a great question. Can NATO do both? Do they have to choose? Can the alliance be united in addressing both conflicts? Well, the very first question, I think, goes to the heart of this entire discussion. I think increasingly you have to understand the implications of globalization, that we can't simply disregard other parts of the world simply because they're not close to us geographically. And I think of the 20th century as being the century of the block, which was defined by our geography. And so we cooperated with countries that were close to us in terms of physical geography, rather than countries that were like us in terms of our values or our political systems. Increasingly, the world is shrinking because of the effects of globalization. And as I said at the beginning, we can't afford to disregard risks that are rising in Asia any more than we can do risks that are rising in Europe, because they will both affect us very quickly. I think politicians have a problem with this, if I'm allowed to say that. I think that politicians on the right resent the loss of sovereignty that inevitably comes with globalization and therefore tend to not want it to happen. And politicians on the left dislike the unavoidable importation of strategic risk that comes with globalization that has to be paid for. And our systems of government also with a very neat way in which we have little silos that say that's economic policy, that's trade policy, that's foreign policy, that's security policy, fail to grasp how globalization is developing and the interdependence and the unavoidable risk that comes with that. So we do have to look up more widely at risk and emerging risk and recognize that whether we like it or not, it's going to happen. The question is how well we prepare for it. So I think if Fukuyama had called his book The End of Geography and not The End of History, he'd have been a lot closer to the mark in terms of the world that we're emerging into. In terms of, it is, you cannot choose the conflicts. This is the problem with security and saying, well, we're going to reduce our spending because we think the world is becoming a safer place. Conflicts choose you more than you get to choose the conflicts. And that's one of the lessons of history, and we have to be ready for the unexpected. And Libya showed some real shortcomings. It also showed the dislocation, I think, of our military action and our plans for longer-term political stability. In fact, really, since the Marshall plan, I can't think of an example of where we've got both the military action and the reconstruction and stabilization right. So we have a lot of thinking to do there. Where does aid come into all of this? Well, it's very useful in terms of being able to help out, I think, in the short term. And that's its main value, my own views, that if you want to alleviate global poverty, you do that through free trade. And I think capitalism has actually given a much greater step up to the world's poor than any amount of aid program can do. But I do think that specifically well-targeted aid is very useful. And I don't just mean in terms of physical or monetary poverty. I think that we should be using our aid budgets to get a change in behavior and values. In particular, I think that our taxpayers who provide this money live by certain ethical values. And I think that we should be using our aid budget more to get a change in behavior. For example, I think that countries that exhibit religious intolerance that do not give women equal rights, that don't send girls to school, we should be trying to use our aid as a lever in those cases. We should be trying to apply the values that our people live by to those countries that we give aid to. And I think that there's in the aid debate, it's been understandably focused on public health, which as a doctor, regard as hugely important, and the alleviation of poverty. But I think there are other things that our aid budget should also be involved in. And that's the promotion of our values. And I think that if you go back to what I was saying at the very beginning, that we are who we are by design and not by accident. If you believe that as I do, then I think you've got a moral responsibility to ensure that other people are able to benefit from those values too, which is what I see our aid program as being a very important part of. I just don't, however, buy this idea that you can diminish your need for hard power by having more soft power. That really is an and, not an or. One quick question, then I wanna turn to the audience again. I've been meaning to ask you this question. We follow very closely the House of Commons vote on Syria. And clearly US-Syrian policy has been a great conversation topic here, lack of thereof, or that we do have a coherent policy. Was that a real turning point in how at least democratically, the United Kingdom looked at foreign policy challenges? Or was that in some ways trying to litigate the past and past decisions about Tony Blair's decision on Iraq? It was an aberration and it was a mistake. I wouldn't take it as reading too much into how Britain sees its role. This was a House of Commons that was recalled from their summer holiday three days before they had to. People who are on their family holidays don't take very kindly to that. There wasn't a great deal of preparation done in terms of briefing members of parliament about the actual issue. A lot of it was about domestic politics and I wouldn't read too much into it. However, I think that the damage, irrespective of the reasoning of the produced the outcome of that vote has been very substantial because I think there are two things you shouldn't do in politics as in life. First of all, don't make promises you know you can't keep. And secondly, don't make threats you're not willing to carry out. And if you draw red lines and you say they will not be crossed and then they are crossed and you don't do anything about them. The one thing you can be sure of is that your next red line will be tested. And I think that it wasn't only about the specific issue. It was about how many of our allies as well as our enemies perceive our willingness to enforce the policies that we've set out for ourselves. That's a very dangerous world to get into. Absolutely, I think we have time for maybe two more questions we can get out. One there and Leo looks right there. Dot Fox, good morning. My name is Paul Tenant. I'm an exchange officer, British exchange officer working in the Pentagon. I just like to ask about information operations regarding Russia in particular. And I'd like your opinion on just how costly it was to cut the Russian speaking BBC World Service in 2011 as far as I can tell the only reasonable means of countering RT Russia today as a state sponsored information control network. And if you agree with me that it was with hindsight certainly extremely costly whether it can be reversed. Thank you. Leo Michelle National Defense University. Among the big defense issues that you cable face in 2016 will be the main gate decision on replacing the current tribe and deterrent. How strong is support within the conservative party for a like for like replacement? And very quickly, since you were defense minister at the time that you signed the two defense treaties with France in 2010, are you satisfied with the level of British-French defense cooperation? I'll add one more to that. Any predictions on the strategic defense review SDSR for this year? All right. All right, that's how you're gonna end up on a strong note, last five minutes. On the question of information, as well as forgetting about the concept of deterrence in general, we also seem to have forgotten the value of propaganda. You would think that we had entirely lost our institutional memory from the Cold War. Both of these are really important things. Russia is now becoming extremely adept as ISIS are, for example, in conducting an information war. And despite having all the technology and all the tools at our disposal, we seem to fail to understand the importance or the potential that it gives us. So I'm entirely with you on that and we need to really raise our game right across the whole information piece. In terms of nuclear deterrence, yes, there's very strong support inside the conservative party for replacement. The biggest arguments in Britain against it are that, well, why would you spend so much money on a system that you'll never use, which utterly fails to understand the concept of deterrence, which is that we're using it every day. It's a deterrent. And then when they say, you can't really afford 20 billion in terms of capital costs for the new program, I point out that we were very happy to spend nine billion for three weeks of the Olympics. But we're reticent about spending 20 billion for 35 years of protection from nuclear blackmail. It does seem to me that we want to think hard about our priorities on that one. As for the SDSR, clearly the next defense review will have to take into account that heavy initial cost in the capital program for the nuclear deterrent that I think is factored in, but it's a big cost. And I would say that the defense budget is driven by four things. There are four drivers and constraints. The first is the international security environment, which is deteriorating, which suggests you need an uplift in the budget. Secondly, it's driven by the commitments already entered into our 2% NATO commitment, our commitment to upgrade our nuclear deterrent. And it's also the gaps that we decided to take in 2010, but which we will not be able to take again. Maritime surveillance capability, for example, that's probably going to be another billion on the budget just for the one item. Then you've got the fiscal position, which is improving dramatically in the United Kingdom because of the long-term economic plan that we've put forward. And then the fourth one, I think, is your international obligations and your willingness to have a role in global affairs. And I think that we have given our words as a country as a member of the Alliance, we need to keep that word. And I think if we want to be able to propagate the values and systems that I've been talking about, we have to be willing to provide the means, if necessary, to protect them. So I can see no option, really, than a rise in the budget. I feel to see how you can actually produce what we did in Future Force 2020, set out in the 2010 defense review without increasing the budget, never mind filling in the gaps that we will have to because of a deteriorating security picture. I think it's inevitable the budget will go up. I think smart politicians would turn a necessity into a virtue. Well, Dr. Fox, it is always a great opportunity to have a great discussion with you. You've given us a lot to think about. We're gonna focus in on the outcome of May 7th and see what the future holds for British politics. But although the US-UK relationship may be complicated and evolving, it's clearly, vitally important. And we're delighted that you could spend some time with us and please join me in thanking Dr. Fox for a great discussion.


Ladies and gentlemen, please stand for the presentation of the colors by the Longmont American Legion Post-32 Honor Guard. This working, yes. Ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing if you are able and put your hand over your heart. Veterans have earned the right to render the military salute. Please join us in saying the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag. Ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the presentation of the colors by the Wind River Arapaho Northern Arapaho Warriors Color Guard. They will be presenting their colors and saying their pledge. Commander of the Wind River Arapaho Nation Color Guard, please present your colors. Ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the presentation of the Sister City colors. Please be seated. I'm sure everyone is feeling so privileged because you'll be able to hear from me again after this, but I'm gonna start by by giving a brief acknowledgement and you might be asking and I'll tell the story about how this Sister City relationship came to be in a little bit, but for now let it suffice that we acknowledge that Longmont sits on the traditional territory of the Cheyenne Arapaho you and other indigenous peoples in general as well as specifically today we honor the history and the living and spiritual connection that the first peoples have with this land that we call home. It is our commitment to face the injustices that occurred when the land was taken and to educate our communities ourselves and our children to ensure that these injustices do not happen again and the one way to make sure that happens is is an exchange of love which at least that's how I describe it I fell in love with the Northern Arapaho over the last three years so at this time I'd like to actually move on to the next part of our program the welcome where is she Courtney Michelle I'd like you to come up and give the welcome thank you welcome and thank you for joining us Yoko-so Okoshi Itadaki Arigato gozaimasu. Bienvenidos a todos gracias por estar aquí. Ene dos visite neteina nana na Courtney. Ni etajana ta anthana hana yei na usana. Now it is my pleasure to introduce Janice Reben president of Longmont sister cities to the Arapaho tribal tribal members welcome home Longmont's first sister city was created with Chino Japan in 1991 and a second relationship was formed with Ciudad Guzman Mexico in 1998 over 600 students have benefited from these two exchanges over the years these exchanges expose students to different cultures and create lasting bonds with their host families three years ago a delegation from Longmont comprised of Mayor Bagley City Council representatives city staff and sister city volunteers visited the Northern Arapaho on the Wind River Reservation on that trip we had many conversations and the idea to become sister cities was born in 2019 Longmont welcomed a student delegation from the reservation along with local students we had our first exchange with the Northern Arapaho COVID delayed our plans to formalize our relationship in 2020 however today we are celebrating the signing of a historic partnership this association between the Longmont and Northern Arapaho is unique and hopefully the first of many such partnerships between sovereign nations and local jurisdictions we have much to learn from each other and together we will build a brighter future this liaison is a step towards healing and an opportunity to create educational and cultural exchanges for both of our communities while this friendship is new already we have many close friends some we call family we have had a wonderful memories of our visits to the reservation sharing meals visiting schools attending a sweat there are so many people who have worked really hard over the past three years to make this new celebration possible we are grateful for your support understanding and commitment to this partnership while it would be impossible to name all we would like to thank my Mayor Brian Bagley for his dedication to this idea mayor would you like to speak about your experiences I know everybody here was when I left the podium you're like oh man but easy easy really coming back can't wait please let's hear more from Brian please but no so what no the just briefly I wanted to spend a few minutes that first of foremost the story I'm gonna tell is a little bit of how this came to be but the reality is what's really really cool is that I literally did nothing for today no no no I'm not you know those of you know me you're laughing because I'm lazy but but the what's really cool is this relationship is not my relationship right Steve fast horse wait Steve stand up for a sec will you this is Stephen fast horse take down your great I have to have a title to get applause and I say Steve and all of a sudden he's that cool yeah no so Steve is my I consider Steve my brother and one day I saw a YouTube video and was talking about the Lakota Sioux and and a reservation out in South Dakota and I got this idea that hey I wonder what it would be worthwhile to reach out and see if one of the tribes that used to frequent these lands would be interested in having a sister city relationship and I asked that question and everybody thought it was stupid and if you know me I don't I don't I don't really listen to people and so I was in the city office over there on 3rd and Carmen Ramirez Carmen was Carmen there she is and so Carmen Carmen was in the office and they said hey Carmen Carmen Carmen and we hadn't talked out much before then right I was just some loud mouthed guy and and Carmen I said how you doing Carmen she's good I got a question for you I got this idea and she kind of shook her head and on one hand I could tell she's like you're an idiot and on the other hand she's like but bless your heart you know and she said you know what instead of going to South Dakota you need to meet with the Arapaho the southern and the northern Arapaho are here in Boulder every year they have a group called oh my gosh rights relationships Boulder yes and so they get together about once a year and they would invite the northern Arapaho down and I was told by Carmen they're here you should go introduce yourself just just good luck with that but go so Carmen told me to go and so I took that literally and I showed up and I didn't realize that it would be a I mean imagine some guy walking in the door in the back and just coming to the stage and starting to talk with Steve right we'd be like we're having an event here and so I didn't know and so I showed up and I talked to Steve and we kept talking they kicked me out of the event because Steve and I got along so well he got my number I don't remember who called who but we started hanging out going to dinner he was on the business council he invited me up I went up again this time with staff and city management and council was wonderful I believe at that time Polly Christensen went up with me I don't know who else went up from council at that time it was a new cat was a different council Bonnie Finley went up and and so it was it was and I remember when we went up everybody I was gung-ho you know the long-lost city staff and council were kind of like well we're gung-ho and I know that the business council and your staff for a little bit like what you sure what's going on here and when we presented the idea I remember they're all quiet and they said yeah we I don't know if our elders are gonna go for this that you've got to get their permission I mean and so we're lucky enough to have I don't know what have there is Nelson Nelson white Eagle Nelson white senior who is not some man you should clap for him so the and and if the ceremonial elders hadn't trusted me and trusted us to be able to start something this would have never happened and given the history of this particular area of this nation and the multi-generational trauma that's been that's been caused by everybody in the past upon these wonderful people you know trusting me and trusting us to do something like this is a big deal and I remember the first time I remember the first time I met a ceremony leader was actually Nelson and his brother Crawford who I loved very much and their brother Herb and yeah and so and so just just so we're there for dinner in a meeting with the with the the elders of the tribe and afterwards about 11 o'clock at night and everyone's left and I think Steve and I were the last ones in the room and there is these three little old men in the back sitting down I was like oh look senior citizens too tired to go home how cute you know how cute you know and I go over there and I'm gonna go introduce myself you know not really understand and oh by the way Carmen made me go everywhere with Ray originally Ray's right there so Ray Ray Ray Ray Ray was Ray was my guide because so Ray I didn't know protocol I didn't know anything he I don't know anything about anything but Ray in this particular topic he's been a tribal CEO running running the tribal affairs he also worked with Narf the Native Americans right Native American Rights Foundation has relationships with First Nations here in Longmont and so he you know whenever I'd screw up he'd pull my my clothes that you don't say that you don't do that do this do that and he kind of trained me like a puppy but this particular day Crawford Nelson and Herb were sitting in the back and they're all veterans Crawford Nelson had on their purple hearts hats and I think they were in sunglasses at the time and I went to introduce myself and their brother Herb spoke for them and Herb said this just and I introduced myself and he says you need to have respect these these are the elders of our tribe these are our ceremonial leaders this is our pipe keeper the pipe keeper is the apex of the ceremonial leadership is there is basically their chief and so that that right there began the relationship between Longmont and the northern Arapaho leadership the both the business council and the ceremonial leaders and over that over that they I could I could tell a story that goes on for hours and hours about all the really neat relationship type stuff that we've done over the last three years and I cannot even begin to express in words the feelings and the love and the respect and appreciation that has grown between between our two or our sister res I guess you could call it because they're more than a city and I just want to publicly acknowledge and thank once more Nelson white eagle senior for letting this happen and participate in as much as you have and especially my love to your brother and I wish I miss him and I wish you were here to see this and participate and so he Crawford made this this Bolo everybody goes where'd you get this from Crawford made this when I wear it I'm thinking of him and honoring the part he played in this so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now introduce who am I introducing Lee Spoonhunter so Lee well don't clap for Lee yet I haven't said his title he's not as cool as Steve or Carmen so no just kidding you're pretty cool so Lee Lee was the chairman of the business council when we started this relationship and he's the co-chair now but him and the current he's the co-chair and the current chair they tied the vote and so he becomes the chair again in December and so we're fortunate enough to have co-chairman Spoonhunter here to sign the official documents when it's time so thank you for coming Lee and now you can clap so I'm gonna turn the time over to you Lee Mayor Bagley is a tough act to follow so first of all as an a rappel my fellow rappels here on stage and out there we are home we're here I just want to thank Mayor Bagley Janice and Courtney the city council and all the other Longmont dignitaries in County and state dignitaries that are here with us today I want to say thank you for for welcoming us yesterday I was very fortunate to be able to go to Estes Park for the first time and after 44 is it 44 years of living I finally went up to Estes Park along with with one of my best friends and as you come down as you all know usually come down the mountain into the valley it is so beautiful so beautiful and one of my co-workers was telling me that earlier this spring early summer he had done the same thing and it would be it was his first time and he's over 40 years of age also and and he sure thought with me he said now I understand why our rappel people chose this land where to live especially here in Estes Park and in Longmont in Boulder and Denver you know talking one of our elders said you know we still have our paints our cedars and our water that's who we are as rappel people you know a very humble and sincere loving and respectful people and that's who we are and that's what makes Colorado our home I just wanted to share that with you all today today you know Brian talked a little bit about human councilman fast horses meeting in Boulder that would become fate for all of us together and it is something that started out as a as a meeting between two elected leaders and then a friendship and then a bond you know and our brothers and that's how we see all of you in Longmont we see us family every time that I've come down here I always say meeting with people from the community and people from from the city government may you all are our family you all came up and seen us over three years ago at home and you learned who we are it's that and Wyoming unfortunately doesn't happen you know we have people that are non-Indian who live around us and amongst us and yet today as we've seen these past few years that unfortunately racism is alive and well here in America and that is our job and our responsibility to combat that with the love and respect that you all see here today that is how we will come back so I was I was doing my homework on sister cities and I was thinking what can I say what can I bring to the table that's going to be unique in a speech among our people today and I looked and saw that sister cities was formed under President Eisenhower if I'm correct and it was formed city by cities counties states those kind of jurisdictions but never with a tribal sovereign nation and I know Mayor Brian Bagley went to sister cities with this idea years ago and the first time they told the mayor Bagley said they told him no and look at us today the city of Longmont and a tribal sovereign nation together is building a sister cities partnership and it's going to be beautiful as you see our our future generations in front of us students from here in Longmont and students from the Winterbird Reservation you we I was asked to talk about what are the goals and what are some of the things we intend to accomplish well we are a trailblazer today each of us working together both the sister city of Longmont and the Northern Raffle tribe the sky's the limit for us we are a sovereign nation working with our sister city and we are going to blaze a trail hopefully that many other cities and counties and states and other jurisdictions will do with other tribes so that we together as working together as family as sister cities will blaze a trail and this time in America we'll get it right now now a lot of us and I'm putting him on the spot but I do think we need to recognize him and that is Councilman Steven Fasthorse his tireless work with the city of Boulder and the city of Longmont and with Colorado is why we are here today so Steve I just want you to come up and say a few words because this would be possible without you good afternoon everyone I want to say thank you to everyone that is here this is a very big moment you know and I really appreciate all of you and for for taking the time out of your day to be here for this event because again for us as a leadership you know it's our role and responsibility to try and find what it is going to be that we can produce to help our children you know our youth for those who are going to be coming after us and the way that we have always looked at it as a Rappaho is you know we always look for the generations that are to come yet you know and as part of our job and responsibility is to change that and ensure protection that those generations are able to have success have opportunity and have the things that we didn't have you know and be able to aspire and help them do the things that we wish we could have done but yet also help to encourage them to go even further and go beyond you know anything that we have ever done you know and that's probably the biggest push for this whole effort was to try and change that that path you know so that our kids can come back to our homeland that we have always so so much yearned for you know because where we are in Wyoming on the Wind River Inn and Reservation you know we were forced upon those lands and forced upon another another try to to have to accept us to be on that land and that has always been a big I guess you could say a big void you know for us as a as a people because when we sit there and try to reflect on our history to reflect on our past we can only go so far because we're on lands that we really didn't call home the lands that we originally called home are here as chairman mentioned you know Estes Park Cherry Creek all of these areas there there's a tree that is no longer it might have got burned in the Fort Collins area but it was called the the council tree it was a tree that a lot of tribes used to come to and congregate as leaders and chiefs of their tribes and have discussions together and that's along the front range here those areas are very significant to us and something that our people have never been able to do right now I believe in Boulder Colorado they're renaming a park it's called Settlers Park but they've inquired and consulted with a lot of the tribes to rename that part from Settlers Park to I believe they want to call it our people's park to represent all the nations that used to frequent this area but one thing about that part Settlers Park was originally the winter camp of one of the chiefs as you guys know it a Niawa but there is a Rappahoe word for for Niawa can somebody help me Nawa is the true way to say his name now that was his winter camp and it was very hard for us as a Rappahoe to try and participate in this this consultation because it was very significant to us as a winter camp but yet we also have to recognize all the other tribes because we weren't the only ones but again we made sure that it was mentioned that that was one of our chiefs winter camps and how that came to be you know and and so again it's things like that that I want our children to know I want our children to be here and be able to walk into the mountains and some of these trails and some of these waterways and know and understand that it was our ancestors and their mocks and footprints that are still there the ceremonies that they did and the medicines that they use are still here and so I hope one day that you all as a community along with our kids and our youth will have that opportunity to take our kids to some of these areas because they were very significant to us and the medicine that has been used for time immemorial those medicines are still within all these areas and I hope that during one of these adventures of our youth that they're able to capture that feel that and regain and help out restore I appreciate you guys all and you know I just look forward to this and I can't wait to hear good stories from the sister cities organization and I appreciate you all and I hope that one day we're all able to have a really good understanding and I hope that we can see some of your community in our community so that you guys can experience and learn the the value system that that we go by as we're Apple people as you know we're part of an international organization Longmont sister cities has been a sister city organization since it's 31 years at this point and it is my honor and pleasure to introduce Carol Lopez president of sister cities international oftentimes I'm Carol Lopez when I give speeches I say well I'm honored to be here today well I'm more than honored to be here today this is such a historical day and for me this has been such a meaningful day and I want to thank the officials of Longmont I want to thank the leaders of the Orapahoe nation that are here today and I want to specifically acknowledge all the youth that are here today and I want to apologize to the young people for the world we're leaving you we're leaving you horrible problems to solve and it's only going to be through young people working together learning together that we're going to be able to solve such issues as climate change the social injustice in this world and just talking to you some today I know you're up to the task but we need behind you supporting you every way and I can tell that the Orapahoe nation and the community of Longmont is here behind you this week sister cities international is celebrating its 65th anniversary which is exciting general Eisenhower after seeing the horrors of world war two said we have to do something we cannot resolve our conflicts through military action killing devastation and he knew that when people know each other they don't want to fight with each other because when we learn from each other we gain mutual respect and understanding and we have done this internationally we have over 2,000 partnerships around the world but in the United States we haven't found a way to find peace with each other and it's time that we find peace with each other and this sister city relationship is going to promote mutual respect and understanding and that's phenomenal because when we learn from each other we know each other we realize how much we actually have in common we all want the same things we all want to be able to have meals to eat to be able to have health care to be able to provide for our children we want the same things we want peace but i'd remiss if not saying the united states has a very troubled past we have many many things that we need to find reconciliation about that we need to come back and look back at these we can no longer just keep covering up and i think that's what's happening in the united states today and part of the reason it's happening is our young people and i think many of us have hungered for these dialogues to take place and we have to continue these dialogues if the united states of america is really going to live up to everything that we need this country to be today we saw some amazing veterans and i'm so proud of our veterans and many of you probably already notice know this but as a population group native americans serve at a higher percentage than any other group in our armed forces so when people talk about patriotism i'll tell you it's our first nations that understood patriotism more than any other group but together we can do so much so today we're having this signing and i know president eisenhower is looking down at us and he is saying great it's about time to have this signing today to bring communities together i can tell you that the sister cities website has this whole event on it and i was in washington last week and we were committed to creating more of these partnerships and it's because of the courage of mayor bagley the longmont city council and the rapaho nation to come together and say we need a new way we need a way to bring ourselves together and learn from each other this is what will strengthen the united states so i've said enough it's such a joy to be here today i do believe our creator puts us in the right place at the right time and when i got this invitation i i responded maybe but i immediately went to work to figure out how i could be here today so thank you for having me i wish you all the best and to our young people be brave i'd like to welcome to the stage our youth representatives from both communities so i'd like to invite karmine remiras and brendan harjoe to the stage to help us with the gift exchange the pipe out the pipekeepers asked that you accept on his behalf lee okay so karmine asked me to share with all of you these blankets were made with the northern apple symbol and the sister city symbol and this blanket here is being presented to our pipekeeper mr. nelson white senior yeah he is an avid damper bronco fan so he's gonna love that bag one of the cool things that i've learned or and observed from uh the tribe is that every time they have a get-together they do a giveaway and so uh congratulations jump circle we're saying thank you we had blankets made for the drum circle as well for coming down and playing for us and then the next set of gifts is for the honor garbage who are willing to come down and present colors for us those those three from the northern arapahoe nation could i have the northern arapahoe business council come on up so we've created a commemorative poster of this event which we will have chairman uh co-chairman spoon hunter and mayor bagley sign but i will show it what it looks like and the northern arapahoe business council will each receive one of these posters can i have the members of my planning committee come up um courtney sherry sam jenny patricio sue bolton come on up sue so uh janice and court and courtney right brendan uh we have special gifts for you for being uh the leaders of helping all of this we had shawls made by one of our tribal members and so brendan is going to show you it and then we want you to put it on janice courtney also the boys are going to go grab it because it's heavy but mayor brian bagley and if the city council will come forward we have a gift for you all from the northern arapahoe tribe and i just want to i just want to recognize as they're coming up they're all here we've got susie doggo farang we've got jone pack poly christiansen martin martin and dr tim waters okay so we should have the gift coming out here and what i'm gonna do while uh we get it out here to present is i'm gonna i'm gonna explain what it what it means here and this is something that we hope you guys will enjoy and uh have in your your hall or in your administration building the rapahoe flag was created in 1936 as a sign of respect and remembrance for the rapahoe war veterans the three colors used each have a different meaning and symbolism red is for the people black so the people will be strong and unfairing of death white represents knowledge to be passed onto the young the seven stripes each represent one of the seven medicines of life the white triangle signifies the way one begins a prayer great spirit that's the way i want it the circle in the exact center of the triangle is black on the left because that's where the heart is the right side of the circle is red representing the human side for our happiness strength and sorrowful ways the white line dividing the two spheres represents the great spirit so we will not forget who created us the entire circle represents the world the center of our lives the rapho people approved and adopted the flag in 1956 oh thank you everyone and thank you council members we appreciate you guys and again i know we've also gifted you guys a star quilt that was made by another one of our tribal members and this here has been made by one of our tribal members also and so again we thank you and hope you guys are able to find a nice place to represent our our relationship together so thank you and just just so everybody knows that star quilt he referred to hangs over in city hall in our in our primary entry way if everyone could return to their seats um this this official signing ceremony is over but it wouldn't be a celebration if we didn't have some entertainment um and first up the northern arapaho brought their drum circle we tried to think of what in longmont would be representative of our community along with the with drums and so we now have the longmont high school drum line now have the opportunity to enjoy traditional arapaho dances and the ethety eagle drum circle we're short staffed it's my honor to introduce harvey spoon hunter who is going to describe the dances for us good job as a nelson white and nothing nothing this man in that bass no i mean nothing nothing and uh band head and that's not you know but i uh need be here so i'd like to thank before i speak i asked my older brother nelson white eagle senior and all my elders excuse me for speaking before them if i make any mistakes or say anything wrong it's just part of our tradition our respect for our elders so with that we'll along with some entertainment but uh for again again i'd like to take a mirror baglet bagley he said he was going to come and sing with us and he was going to do lip sync so if you see him really going he's seen in his heart out before we get started like which is any of our performances we have our eagle drum society it's called a eagle drum drum group and each one of these singers that you see before you they're inducted into the society we have our drumkeeper like our pipekeeper we have our drumkeeper mr michael ridgebearer mr richard richard brown mr ellison sage senior theron theron spoon hunter we have phylicia anilow hillan yellow bear carry white anilow we had one of our other drummers uh blaze yellow bear what we're going to start out with is what we call a grand entry and a grand entry is epitome of song and dance what you're going to see before you is a parade a parade of dancers with all their spectacular regalia each dancer has their own style of dance we're going to show you a different style of dancing each dancer has their own regalia there's no one regalia that's exactly a light and there's thousands and thousands Native American dancers and not one regalia is a light and a lot of these regalia that you see before you takes years and years a lot of them are handed down from generation to generation but they're very special to the dancer has a lot of meaning significance symbolism so what's that right here okay in in our Native American culture dance is a way of expression a language in itself it promotes community interaction and mediation dances tell stories they're used as a medium for prayers and each dance has its own significance meaning so our first dance we want to share with you is what we call the men and ladies traditional dance and these dances are the oldest form of dances they usually tell a story and they have the beauty of the of the eagle the men's traditional usually signified when the warriors or the hunters would come home from a hunting party or a battle or a horse raid they would come home and they would tell a story it was up to the people in the village to read their story it was usually told of an exhibition our deed in battle and with a woman's it's more of a subtle graceful type of dance and what that signifies when the ladies would raise their hand they would be watching out for their sons their husbands our brothers coming home from a battle and by raising their eagle fan they're welcome and back home why yeah here next style of dance is what we call the men's grass dance and the chicken dance grass dance is one of the oldest and most widely used dances in Native American culture it was a job of the grass dancers to flatten the grass in the arena before other important celebrations the name grass dance was actually derived from the old custom of tying braids of sweet grass to the denser belts which produced a swaying effect the grass dance was considered only a man's dance it is sought to have urgenated with the northern plains indians especially the Omaha Ponca and the Dakota Sioux tribes Native American culture is full of whole legends that connect many different rituals with stories of ancient ancestors and lived in harmony with the nature the legend of the grass dance talks about a handicapped northern plains boy who had a desire to dance after consulting the medicine man he was instructed to seek inspiration on a prairie following the advice of the medicine man he went out alone on the plains where he had a vision of himself dancing in the style of the swaying grasses this is what you'll see before you the next dance we share is what we call the women's jungle dress dance women are considered the backbone of tribal nations women's traditional dance is a very graceful dance that requires concentration and stamina with movements that are very focused it can seem as though dancers are floating along the ground is a dip and sway to the rhythm of the drum throughout the dance the women stay connected to mother earth at all times by always keeping one foot attached to her as they move in time with the drum the woman's jingle dress urgenates from the ajibwe people it is a healing dance and is considered to be based on a young ajibwe woman's dream jingle dress dances are often called upon to dance for the sick or injured in order to be a jingle dress dancer one must dream of becoming one this dress is adorned with 365 cones one to represent each day of the year and each cone contains a prayer last dance would be our next dance would be the dance fancy feather dance this dance is fast paced colorful and highly energetic the dancer needs to have a lot of stamina and strength to maintain all the extremely athletic movements for an extended period of time the dance regalia is bold and colorful add into the impact of this dance it often includes brightly colored feather bustles and headwear legans moxons fancy dancers are the most common scene in public power today and it has become a competitive sport in the inner tribal power gatherings so you notice that dance he's got stop right on time keep right in time with the drum stops right on time i used to do that but now when i when i stop my belly keeps moving the last dance we want to share with you is women's fancy shawl dance the women's fancy shawl dance is considered a fairly new dance among native american tribes the regalia worn is bright colorful well adorned with beadwork or a plate it is said that the fancy shawl dance is an adaption of the ceremonial butterfly dance native american legend associates this dance and it's regalia to young native american woman and she transitioned from a child to a young lady just like a butterfly right here i'd like to thank you for sharing our culture with you and this spiritual meaningful event at this time i i'd like uh i'd like all the dancers to i would be amiss if you didn't mention their names those and i don't know any a he be can i just say uh Dr. Teresa Spunenter i'm a professor at central wyoming college um and i'd like to say thank you to all the dancers who answered my call to come and perform hello hi um my name is Deandre Augustine hello i'm marisa gardener hello um my name sorry i could take my mask down my name is herb augustine i'm a member of the northern rapo tribe and uh half of these kids you see here are mine and uh got my son and my daughter's over here my wife thank you my name's antonia zollarzana my name is one my name is britney augustine and this is my daughter amaryllis augustine um my name is rihanna spunenter hello my name is taeus spunenter my name is aona spunenter my name is denayla augustine i'd like to thank the business council for allowing us to come share part of our culture thank you haho we have one final group that is going to perform here today um they uh are represent a special part of our community they grew up in the longmont youth center along with some of these kids down here in the front row um they uh continue to work with youth in our community um they have a special energy that is unique and a style of dance so it is uh while we're waiting for this the jingles to die down here um i do really want to thank the eagle drum group for honoring us with your performance along with all of our other performers we're really pleased that you took the time out of your life especially our youth as you've noticed we're a lot about youth in this area and um in both communities youth are really important to us so without further ado you guys ready all right i'm gonna get out of your way i don't have to um i would invite everyone to join us in the courtyard for a performance with bridget law and tiaro uh there also will be lemonade and water out there because i'm sure everybody's a little parched at this point thank you so much for coming i would be remiss if i didn't thank the longmont multicultural action committee for partially funding some of tonight's performances and hotel rooms so thank you for those representatives thank you to the american legion to our wonderful rapaho color guard the eagle drum group all of our dancers and especially all of our youth we have great faith in you thank you


Item number, SCP-418. Object Class, Safe. Special Containment Procedures SCP-418 is to be kept in a standard humanoid containment cell with category 3 surveillance. SCP-418 is to undergo weekly examinations to ensure that the removal of SCP-418-1 is not causing harm and that all portions of SCP-418 are still in place. No object with an edge capable of puncturing normal human skin, including materials such as paper or that is capable of being converted into such an object is permitted in SCP-418's containment cell. As reading is not available to SCP-418, he is provided with a library of contemporary and classical television and films stored as media files on a modified and padded laptop computer. This privilege is to be suspended if at any time SCP-418 appears to be attempting to damage said laptop to gain access to a sharp edge. SCP-418-1 is to be kept at internal body temperature in a medical containment unit in a secure location. Should SCP-418 become a security or containment threat, SCP-418-1 is to be incinerated. SCP-418 is not to be informed of its location.  His physical fitness and intelligence are above average, but not to an extraordinary degree. He possesses the capacity of autonomous anatomic separation, a trait he claims to be hereditary. SCP-418 has extensive experience as an industrial saboteur and related fields. SCP-418 was apprehended while infiltrating site under the employ of an individual currently believed to be affiliated with Marshall Carter and Dark LTD. When SCP-418 is injured in such a way that his skin is broken, the injury will near instantaneously grow in length until it severs a portion of SCP-418's body. Such injuries are uniform and clean, with no variation or resistance due to tissue type. Despite the severe appearance of these injuries, the portions of SCP-418's body will continue to function as if they were still connected to each other, even if an organ is severed. For example, blood in a blood vessel that has been severed will travel from one segment to the other instantly, as though the gap was not there. The same is true of materials taken in by the body. SCP-418 can drink and eat while his head is severed and can hear through a severed ear. If the severed portion is placed back in contact with the location from which it was severed, it reconnects with no sign of injury. SCP-418 is trained extensively with his abilities and is able to consciously control many muscle functions not normally under human control, such as peristalsis, allowing him to use his severed portions and removed organs for a variety of purposes. SCP-418-1 is SCP-418's heart, which was removed as a control on SCP-418's behavior. Interview, SCP-418-3 Interviewed, SCP-418 Interviewer, Mr. Melos, Navajo Speaker, and Dr. Lee, assigned researcher. Also present, three members of Foundation Security. This is the third attempt at an opening interview. Both previous attempts were hindered by an apparent inability by SCP-418 to speak English. SCP-418's language of communication identified as Navajo. Interview intense or as follows. 1. Gain base profile information on SCP-418. 2. Assertain the reason for SCP-418's intrusion into the Foundation. 3. Assertain a broad understanding of SCP-418's abilities to facilitate primary containment. SCP-418 was, at the time, referred to under its provisional reference code TCP, Temporary Containment Procedure, AAC-1, on all transcripts. All such references have now been edited to SCP-418. This dialogue represents conversation translated from Navajo. Site B is the housing site of SCP-418, which necessitates personnel to rotate a series of dietary supplement added to various water supplies designated A through F. Begin log. Mr. Melos. Very well, Doctor. Let's get started. Do you wish to direct the questioning or shall I? Dr. Lee. I trust you, Melos. Just get this guy to talk to me. Mr. Melos. Good day. My name is Mr. Melos. I understand you seem to only speak Navajo. I need to establish what you know about us and what will happen to you.  SCP-418. I understand you, white man. Mr. Melos. Really? Hmm. Can I offer you tea? I typically have a cup around now. I can easily have another brought in. SCP-418. Shake's head. Mr. Melos. What then? Coffee? Water? SCP-418. Water. Mr. Melos. What about you, Dr. Lee? Cup of tea? Dr. Lee. Now? Really? Oh well. Um, why not? Mr. Melos. Indicates Foundation Security Team Member. Two teas and one water. Don't forget the milk. Nothing special. Just tea. Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, who are you and why are you here? SCP-418. I am laughing badger. Mr. Melos. Indeed. And why are you here? SCP-418. Your people hold- This isn't a front to my people. Mr. Melos. I see. Ah, the tea. Doctor, it sounds like he was here for SCP- When did you first learn- Dr. Lee. Wait. Mr. Melos. I need to talk to you. Do you have the logs we pulled? Thank you. Mr. Melos. Wait here. Well, it isn't exactly a thing you have much say in, is it? Mr. Melos and Dr. Lee exit. Log suspended for 17 minutes. Dr. Lee and Mr. Melos return. Mr. Melos. We know. SCP-418. Know what, white man? Dr. Lee. Drop the act. You came here for SCP- Look. Dr. Lee holds up an image. This is a little thing called CCTV. It is a nice little image of you reacting in shock at seeing it through the observation deck window. You didn't know it was here. Mr. Melos. That struck us as odd. Then there was something you said. A front. It's just the way you said that word. Sounded a little like you were from Brooklyn. Dr. Lee. Now you haven't touched that cup of water. Probably because when you heard someone say water D, you thought it was some kind of drug. But it isn't. Mr. Melos. So we think you are stalling for time. Maybe you're expecting rescue. And I have to say, you have stone walled marvelously until this point. Dr. Lee. True enough. But now I reckon you better quit it. Or we will start with a more interesting kind of interrogation. SCP-418. Okay, okay. You caught me. So f***ing what? Why should I tell you anything anyway? Dr. Lee. Well, I'm sorry to have wasted your time, Mr. Melos. You can leave now. If he gives us more trouble, we will just have to resort to supplementary interrogation. Mr. Melos leaves. SCP-418 clearance no longer required by Melos. Revoked. Dr. Lee.   So you either tell me what I want to know or I will make you wish you had. SCP-418. So what do you want to know? Dr. Lee.  Why the f*** are you here?  SCP-418. I won't tell you my name or betray my employer. Bad for business. But if you want to know what I do... SCP-418 lunges at Dr. Lee, holding what was later identified as a 23 centimeter long section of large intestine. He throws this at Dr. Lee and brandishes a foundation combat knife at the security personnel. An altercation ensues and SCP-418 is restrained by foundation security. SCP-418 managed to incapacitate one guard and permanently blind another in this altercation. Security guards assigned to SCP-418 in future are to be issued with batons rather than edged weapons. The intestine proceeds to strangle Dr. Lee, who falls unconscious. Dr. Lee later freed and revived by security. End log. Closing statement. Dr. Lee made a full recovery. SCP-418 appeared to have stolen the knife from the security guard who brought the cup of water and used it to sever a portion of his intestine under the table. All further interviews with SCP-418 to be conducted in a minimal equipped cell. No rescue attempt was made for three months. Following the realization he had been abandoned, SCP-418 became more amenable. Stating his mission was to retrieve compromising data on Dr. Lee, he claims not to know his employer, enacted only through a third party. Such third party contact and the current role of Dr. Lee make MC&D the most likely employer. SCP-418 testing log. Test sequence. SCP-4187. Test sequence conducted on date expunged by Dr. Lee. Stimulus 1. A standard foundation combat knife applied to the wrist. Result. SCP-418's hand severed. SCP-418 reports mild discomfort and that this is a normal reaction to his abilities. Approximately 0.5 cc of blood lost due to the cut. No lasting injury of any kind. Comments. A baseline for SCP-418's abilities. The potential for the use of SCP-418 nerve tissue for data transmission to be investigated. Stimulus 2. Zinc-plated masonry nail. 60 grams. Applied with a standard maintenance hammer to SCP-418's hand. Result. Nail driven into SCP-418's hand. SCP-418's hand is divided in half laterally across the point of injury. SCP-418 reported a brief moment of extreme pain at point of injury. Comments. No lasting injury. SCP-418 requested a break in testing. Request denied. Stimulus 3. A standard maintenance hammer applied to SCP-418's left forearm. Result. SCP-418's arm broken. SCP-418 reports extreme pain. Comments. SCP-418 healed within human norms. SCP-418's arm then severed due to the action of sharp bone fragments on his own abilities. SCP-418's arm kept separated for the duration of the healing process to observe the process and to prevent it being severed by the unhealed edges of the bones. SCP-418's morale and cooperation have been significantly damaged since this test. Stimulus 4. A standard Bunsen burner applied to the back of SCP-418's left hand. Result. SCP-418's hand burned. SCP-418 reports significant pain and assaults Dr.... Comments. Injury heals within human norms. Stimulus 5. 27 bullets fired from a standard foundation assault rifle, 19 of which hit. Result. SCP-418 reports extreme pain from each of the successful hits. Each severs SCP-418 as with Stimulus 2. SCP-418 goes into shock and is reassembled, given medical treatment and returned to his containment cell. Comments. No lasting injury. SCP-4181 recovered at this point. Note. Dr.... was not permanently injured. Said doctor has been mentored on proper test planning with regards to SCP morale and cooperation. While the data is valuable, such intensive testing should be reserved for overtly hostile SCPs. Lesson complete. If you missed the previous orientation, go watch SCP-417, the Plague Tree, right now. Or for the complete course, watch this playlist.