It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? Larry Lusser from the CBS television news staff and Richard Wittkin of the United Press. Our distinguished guest for this evening is his Excellency, Dr. Ting Fu-F Chiang, permanent representative from China to the United Nations. Around the head of our guest tonight, gathers one of the world's diplomatic storm clouds. The question, of course, is should his seat at the United Nations be taken by the representative of Communist China? Dr. Ting Fu-F Chiang, now that an agreement has been signed in Indochina, how secure do you think your seat is at the United Nations? The immediate effect of the agreement regarding Indochina on China's seat is very slight. The long-range effect remains to be seen. When the General Assembly released this fall, I anticipate a very hard struggle. I have no doubt that I will win. Well, Dr. Chiang, why do you think that the Chinese Communists are so anxious to get into the United Nations? There is one reason, and one reason only, for the prestige that that seat would confer on them. I see. Well, do you think there would be any use in bringing Communist China into the United Nations to show them up the way the Russians have been showed up by the use of so many vetoes and forcing them to take a stand on issues? I think there are so many other ways of showing them up. So many other ways of forcing them to take a stand on these and that question. I just mentioned the fact of prestige. I like to add, prestige not only with the Chinese people, but prestige throughout the forest. Dr. Chiang, if the question of Communist China taking a seat at the United Nations should be pressed by some of the countries which have recognized Communist China, would you automatically veto it on the Security Council or would you wait for the United States to do it? Not at all. I would immediately veto it. That is in the Security Council. I see. But how about the chances of defeating the move on other organs of the United Nations, like the General Assembly, where there is no veto? Well, we have had that battle more than 100 times already, and every time we have won, I think we will continue to win. Well, let me get this straight. In other words, you don't think the United States would ever have to use its veto on the Security Council because you automatically would veto any move by Communist China to gain a seat there? The veto is an indication of the policy of the government. It is up to the United States to decide whether she will veto or not. But that doesn't mean that my veto would make it unnecessary for the U.S. as number two to cast a veto. Well, do you mean, sir, that there's a legal problem that Nationalist China might be considered procedurally to be an interested party and therefore might not be allowed to vote on such an issue? No, that cannot be done. There's no legal point of that. But I say that veto on the part of any government, any delegate is the indication of that delegation's policy. And we do not say vote differently because all those will vote in some particular way. Well, Dr. Xiang, what makes you think that this question will be vetoable? Suppose it's regarded as a procedural question as the Security Council has agreed, as some of the great powers have agreed in the past, that it's not subject to the veto. You remember when the question came up in the Security Council at the beginning of 1950, I drew the distinction between credentials and right of representation. Credentials may be considered a procedural question. If anybody questions my credentials, that's a procedural question. And all you can do, you have to do is wire to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China and say, now, does TFCON still represent you? What is at stake? Is the right of a government to representation? That's a vetoable question because that's a question of the highest political importance. Well, Dr. Xiang, you say that you have defeated the question of Communist China's representation on the assembly and other bodies of the UN more than a hundred times. But suppose you failed to defeat it once. Now, would it be legally possible for there to be two China's at the United Nations? National China on the Security Council and Communist China in the General Assembly or some other body of the UN? I don't think that is possible. And I don't think that is desirable, either. I think it's best for the United Nations to face this issue. It must make a decision one way or the other. That's what a compromise, I don't think would get us anywhere. Well, what do you think would happen, Dr. Xiang, if, by some chance, Communist China were voted into the General Assembly, say, where there is no veto? What would happen to the United Nations? What would its future be? Well, I'm sure that many people in the world would lose faith in the United Nations. That would be a big blow to the prestige of the United Nations. Dr. Xiang, there have been people, some congressmen in the United States who have said that they think the United States should withdraw from the United Nations if Communist China were permitted to enter. Now, do you think that National China should withdraw if Communist China got a seat on any of the bodies at the UN? Well, I couldn't answer that question offhand. It depends what sort of body it is. Suppose they've got a seat in some inconsequential body, I don't think we would withdraw. I see. Well, is it possible that there is a solution to the problems of the two Chinas between the problem of the Formosa government and the Mainland government? Could there possibly be an agreement on, we'll say, a trusteeship for Formosa? That's the entire question. You know, to suggest a trusteeship for Formosa would be like, I guess, to make it good, to suggest to the people in New York that they should go back to guess-like. I see. Well, Dr. Xiang, now that we've had this settlement at Geneva of the Indo-China question, where do you think Red China will turn next? I think the world communists, including the Communists of China, will continue to exploit opportunities in Southeast Asia. That region, that Indo-China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Malaya, that seems to me to be their primary center of concentration. Do you think Formosa itself is in danger from the Mainland forces of Communist China? No, not so much. Not so much. The reason is because of the ocean between. Red China does not have a military power or a naval power to speak of. Well, Dr. Xiang, is the converse also true? Is there any possibility of Nationalist China invading the Communist China across the straits from Formosa? That's our plan. We want to do it. I cannot tell you when that will take place. I can assure you it will eventually take place. But it would demand naval forces from your allies, principally the United States, I take it. My own idea is that my government should acquire the power of independent offensive. Do you think Dr. Xiang that Red China will ever engage in open aggression, the way the North Koreans did across the 38th parallel, or do you think that their aggression will continue to be aggression by subversion, you might say? I think in Southeast Asia, the pattern they'll continue to use is the one they have used in Indochina. Well, in that case, what can the West do to prevent these more subtle forms of aggression where you don't have a clear open and shut case of aggression? Well, the Western world can do several things. One, you must give the threatened peoples positive assurance that you are behind them. Secondly, you and other free countries show those people and get their own governments, their own authorities to work a plan whereby those peoples can be convinced that human beings have better ways of achieving their better standard living than by way of communism. Dr. Xiang, as an official of the Formosa Nationalist Government of China, what is your personal opinion of the agreement that has been reached in Indochina with the Vietnamese communists and the Red Chinese communists? I myself think it is a great mistake. First of all, you have the material losses and gains to think of. Twelve million people, so much territory and coal mine, tungsten, warfram in North Vietnam. These are material gains or losses. Then on the other hand, the immaturity, the invisible losses to the free world are immense. The free world has lost the confidence to a considerable degree of all the people in that region. And the morale of all these peoples has received a very severe blow. Oh, today, when you think that Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Viet Minh, nine years ago started with almost nothing and got today half of Vietnam. Now, with half of Vietnam, how much he can do in another nine years? Dr. Xiang, the world is in a state of momentary peace right now. How long do you think that state of security can last? That's a very difficult question. The difficulty comes this way. Nowadays, it's difficult to tell whether we do or do not have peace. Take from this war in China. The American people have become aware of it in only the last two or three years. But as a matter of fact, that war has been going on for nine years, ever since Japan surrendered. That's the reason why it's very difficult to answer a question of this or of your kind. But if you should mean a big war, a third world war, I must say, I have no answer to that. I don't think anybody can answer that. Thank you very much, Dr. Xiang. It's been very interesting to hear your comments tonight. The opinions expressed on the Long Jean Chronoscope were those of the speakers. The editorial board for this edition of the Long Jean Chronoscope was Larry Le Sur and Richard Whitkin. Our distinguished guest was His Excellency Dr. Ting Fu-F Cheung, permanent representative from China to the United Nations. Long Jean, the world's most honored watch, is world renowned for technical excellence. In each Long Jean watch, the qualities of greater accuracy and long life are permanently inbuilt through scientific design and faultless workmanship. As a matter of fact, a Long Jean watch, when properly cared for, improves with use, is better after five or even ten years than it was when you. Now, the purchase of a Long Jean watch is consequently a long-term investment in satisfaction. It's because of technical excellence that Long Jean watches have won ten World's Fair Grand Prizes, twenty-eight gold medals, and so many honors for accuracy in observatory competitions, in sports, in aviation, and in science. When you buy a Long Jean watch for yourself or as an important gift, you buy one of the finest watches in all the world, and yet there are many beautiful models for ladies and gentlemen priced as low as seventy-one fifty. And remember that if you pay seventy-one fifty or more for a watch, you're paying the price of a Long Jean. So, why not insist on getting a Long Jean, the world's most honored watch, the world's most honored gift, premier product of the Long Jean Wittner Watch Company, since 1866, maker of watches of the highest character. This is Frank Knight, reminding you that Long Jean and Wittner watches are sold in service from coast to coast by more than four thousand leading jewelers who proudly display this emblem. Agency for Long Jean Wittner Watches. At Long Jean Wittner Jewelers, see Atmos, the perpetual motion clock created by Lecoultre. Atmos runs without winding, without electricity, powered only by variations in the temperature of the atmosphere. Atmos, product of Lecoultre, division of Long Jean Wittner.


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people and welcome to figments our imagination season whatever episode quite a few i think this is the 37th episode how'd you like that new graphic with the arrow on target they did that and didn't tell me about it but it's uh important because on december 6th on my figments on reality i predicted that i'm crime was the end of the pandemic guess what looks like i was right uh many are saying that i hope so let's pray for that let's pray for a real return or a real emergence from the pandemic because the norm was going to be different etc i'm very excited about today's show i've got a great friend a wonderful guy and we're both connected with an institution that we care a lot the daniel k and way asia pacific center for security studies in honolulu and now full disclosure if i could yeah i gotta show you the slide that i was actually there and i was that the director dki apc ss from 2012 to 2017 hard to believe five years ago i've got a picture here of me with somebody who's kind of important um he's now the secretary of state secretary blinken but what i want to say that i think my guests will agree with is the most important people who come through there are not the guests not the distinguished visitors they're the participants the alumni they're quite amazing hey pete guzman tout out we're admiral retired welcome to figments the power of imagination you're the director now man yes i am fig thank you so much for actually having me in your show i've always wanted to be part of this and now i'm here i've reached a big time thank you my friend i don't know if it's the big time we're not up to joe rogan or cat video numbers but um but who cares it's it's good to have the amazing friends i've had the opportunity to make over my life on and talk about what they do uh not what i did i i suspect that much of your last four years have been digging skeletons out of the closet and putting them in the ground on work from where i left them um but dki apc ss is a is a unique and remarkable institution that changes the world and that's our theme today is changing the world because they do but before we do that i've got to let our folks know you the the alumni have been through apc ss during your time and my time are no doubt connecting and i say aloha uh to all of you and mahalo for your kakua from tom patikula um but but for everybody else tell us about yourself your roots in guam um and your time in the navy let's start with guam big family kind of big family right yeah so uh thank you for that and i always start uh with looking at a person and where they were raised and how they look because really that kind of shapes their life and their thinking and uh thank you for bringing that up because i am very proud to say that i am from guam where america state begins it's born and raised there and never jumped on a plane figment till i went to the academy uh it was a panam plane do you remember panam airlines right and so you know growing up in guam was five boys my dad was in the navy so i'm second generation right and a little known fact what my father was on uss california when pro harbor was attacked and uh yes sir and so second generation five boys i was the only one of five boys to follow in his footsteps uh my brothers and i grew up in a very loving family so what you should know about me is that what centered my life growing up then that's influenced me throughout my whole life has been the emphasis by my parents of family and god and then they also took everything for what it is never taught us to judge always strive to make us do the best we can nothing is ever given to us so my dad worked his heart on the fields and our ranch taught us how to fish but also taught us how to respect and it started with the family and then the last thing that i would say about growing up in guam is uh you know my mom and dad invested on two things with us education all five boys and love and here in in this beautiful island of hawaii that's aloha taught us to be patient told us to be kind respectful all the things that you should to treat other people and and uh when i think about family i think about my own family of my wife and i and marie who you've met before of course married for over 36 years sir 36 beautiful years thanks and uh she's also from guam but i think uh her roots are deeper in the mariana's her mom is from sidepan i didn't know that roots went to sidepan i've been to sidepan and sidepan and and and her dad's from guam and uh in fact general brian fetton yeah always used to say hey p i'm an honorary sidepanese you know and what about you and and i said i can't claim that title brian yeah you can you're married to sidepanese royalty man yes and then finally about family that you should know about me is that amry and i are very blessed with two awesome kids they're no longer kids kind of the angeline was born here being in the navy we've gone so many places but she was born here and she went eighth grade to twelfth grade graduated at iolani and during that time frame is when i met you fig so if you look at time spans you know i stayed here thinking that would be my last tour but not to be but kaiser is an is an incredible iolani grad and she's doing great and we have her son peter justin who you also met yeah i played with peter yeah he's an awesome young man but those that's our family and that's what uh that's my roots sir so our our connection does go back to indopay com and we're both war fighters you were a surface warfare officer in the navy commanded at several levels um i'm gonna talk a bit about some of the recognition you got for that i was a fighter pilot and i still have something in me that's looking for a fight for my wife i'm really trying to tamp that down okay i don't it's not it's not particularly helpful in the home environment but there's something about me that makes me want to turn to the merge and go kick somebody's butt how did people like that wind up at apc ss and i really think the key is the work you do at the end of pacific command then pacific command because it's so diverse so important and gives you such an appreciation that's the breath of security it isn't just can your ship beat their ship or can my jet beat their jet and so we'll get back to that but but i remember those days and you thought you're on your last legs you're the navy career many of us knew that you weren't dan akins for example who was your boss is the j3 but we knew you and that you had a lot to offer what you offered most was heart um so as i read your biography i didn't know this and it happened before you got paycom but before we take a quick break i do want to ask about this in 2001 you received the first emerald zoom wall award for visionary leadership holy cow what's that about hey i uh look sir i am not a 10 foot john you know that if i can only five foot ten and uh i was very humbled by that sir i would i mean that was the first award of the emerald zoom wall and many other great americans have received that but that particular leadership award um comes from the deck played up in other words and i didn't even notice this this nomination occurred after i left the uss the cater uh one of the ships that i commanded it was a it was an arlie berg destroyer if you're not familiar with that name uh tdg yeah right and so when i left i was notified by the bureau that a uh my people back on the ship has saw this award uh for inspirational leadership and put my name in that hat and then the rest was history but i i take no credit for it because that success of that command was really about the shipmates and the crew and the officers and the chiefs and i was very blessed sir that's really their award not mine because they really inspired me i understand that i am as you may know i may have told you i'm writing my memoirs which is going to be a long endeavor i only have till the end of the year to get it done for a locally imposed deadline if you will here in the house um but it it has given me a lot of time to reflect on what those things mean and what those are an award like that pete correct me if i'm wrong is not a popularity contest no they're not putting it forward because you're the nicest smiley friend like you guy it's because they want to succeed as a team and you help their success that's how i see it you agree i i couldn't agree with you more and in fact a question that's asked about me you know for being in the nate for 37 years because i joined in 1976 and i wasn't enlisted because i went to naps yep the question i had last academy preparatory school for those who don't speak acronym thank you and they always asked me you know why did you stay in it was definitely not for the money right say although i know you uh i know you aviators got a bonus not like whatever whatever whatever because you had gravity on your side generally as long as you kept the wet water on the outside of the boat and for the record even though i give aviators both navy air force and anybody else that flies even army i do have a lot of respect for you i through the years and seeing what you all do up there i mean it takes a certain kind of a jib to be crazy enough to go in that cockpit and do what you guys do but i digress so back to what i was talking about you know when people talk about this leadership award i mean it makes sense across the board for anyone that stayed in the military because it is hard there's a lot of sacrifice but we stayed in i believe that i found as a unifying theme is that you know i really gravitated and i grew as a person and i was really inspired i don't know how many countless times by the spirit of team camaraderie and nobody everyone's looking after each other you know how you always talk about the sense about the military sometimes could be the social experimenting ground you know why because it's fertile to be able to accept and absorb these challenges that we have and say well i look at you as an individual but you're part of a bigger thing part of a bigger effort and value and that's where i think the uss to cater really really manifested itself in terms of leadership right when you give your people a safe environment to do their best not worry about failing as an individual but succeeding as a team my god those guys were pumped up they were they were mortared up sir they were like wow sign me up so we learned that at the tactical level pete and then got a chance to come to apc ss and see it on a truly global scale let me talk about that after a quick break so if we could let me tell you what i'm going to talk about next in two weeks on uh february 22nd 21st sorry uh same bat time same bat channel 2 p.m. why standard time later on vimeo and youtube i'm going to talk about imagining north korea's motives shooting a lot of missiles now doing a lot of north korea like stuff i'm not sure there's been a good discussion why what is the central motivation for their activities and spoiler alert here it comes i believe that the relationship with the united states is central to most things north korea does not the are okay not china not sanctions not news and i'll tell you why then hopefully i'll have my good buddy simon lee who if he's watching this show just found out i'm going to ask him to be on the dart us diplomat but i'll see you in two weeks for that show okay pete back to apc ss um it is well let me first disclose the public will be amazed by this hidden deep in the heart of wikiki and folks don't notice it but it's right at the corner of kala kala and ala moana and by the hill in the hawaiian village and and it's the most awesome location ever tell me tell me about the the the edifice the place the building a little bit how you see it i know well i'll tell you though you could answer that question better than i do since you preceded me in this awesome like most awesome job in the world as the director of this great institution but the the the center started actually not in the corner of uh of ala moana and kala kala it actually the first one was in the wikiki trade center as you know back in 1995 so this this awesome center which is a world-class institution started about 26 or 26 years ago and and it went from that idea of bringing folks together to where we're at now where we are at 2058 malohia malohia in hawaiian means a haven for peace which is perfect for this place because if you think about apc says if somebody asked me hey what is this place i'll go first of all it's a world-class institution so it is at that level and that this institution aspires a free and and and prosperous in the pacific region promoting transparency inclusiveness and just a collaborative way of approach to solving issues and somebody goes what and you go really and this is not a think tank and so i tell people yeah you take uh yes sir you it's a do tank and and uh you talk about change agents you mentioned the changing the world but changing in the world from from a really specific whole society view because here's the miss nomer about apc ss when you see the word do d on it department of defense or even when you get up to the glass door you remember that big the entrance is my bad usually worked yeah you see tourists peering in going hey what's in this building then they see it's a do d institution they almost think oh there must be soldiers airmen so marines tell fighters whatever but it's not because we bring in to understand this complex security environment we bring in a whole society group of professionals civilian military to provide their insights in this very complex world so what you're seeing is a comprehensive view a comprehensive lens of our world today and that's very important because you know some people will say well you're just a military you see things a certain way well you're absolutely right and so the only way we can solve this is pausing for a moment and go well this is what we're thinking what are you thinking and the last thing i'll say about the center it's really awesome because when i came in here they said hey sir the guiding principles about the center and what we live by and what we ask our guests to live by is transparency mutual respect and inclusion and if you think of those three words how powerful are they in in terms of what people relationships so it ain't about the each is here fig you know this there's nothing trans there's nothing trans-actional about this place in fact you don't even give a degree you get an awesome lanyard who whose idea was that the relationships liner was my idea but but you're right and i hadn't thought of it in those terms that's the beauty of it it's not transactional the us department of defense is the host for a couple reasons one connection with the command and the the convening power that it has is being related to paycom to money frankly money but it's it also is at the at the sharpest edge of security but with access to the softest softest edge and if the state department ran it me and i both you know i know we understand the value importance the power of diplomacy and some of that great diplomats but but dod is the right place for it so i i have a slide that you provided me i'm always i don't usually ask for them but i gotta give you credit pete this is this is a pretty good slide about what apc ss does so let's show that talk quickly through it you kind of have already is there anything you want to add about the educate connect and empower that apc ss does in terms of what people might take away from this session and have an attentive program right and you know we could have we could have added even more as a powerful statement of collage of interaction between people because that's what this is right this you bring these professionals together they're not new at this right so you're not looking at somebody trying to get their bachelors or even understand it yeah they're thick they're thick in the mud or they're thick in the pond and if 911 is called they are the people that will be answering the call for their respective countries of organization so what you do is you think about these guys if you want to relate it in Hawaiian terms these guys are awesome fishermen okay some are good in marlin some are good in mahi mahi some are good in paquio whatever but they come together they go hey here's my lure hey did you know that and then everybody starts to share and not just build the understanding but build the network of fishermen right fishermen to do what as i said to promote a free and prosperous and collaborative environment that is very inclusive could you imagine that and so if i can imagine i was sure i know and if if if i could share this because i know a lot of our alumni are there and i hope you're saying yeah you go p you go fig because we're talking about you and i always say to this this center is not the is not the center of gravity but it is a catalyst a change agent for practitioners to go you know what we're not alone and you know what fig when i greet you know this is pre-covid right when i greet the practitioners that come in i say to them hey look you're all accomplished you've all moved out in your in your own respective professions but just know this and you know this better than i do if you want to go somewhere fast go at a low but if you want to go far what do you do you look around you if you want to go far and make it an enduring journey do it together as a team and that's what i want to say to all the alumni that are out there it does matter to leverage the network you've established here and then there's one more thing i want to say right because there's a big so what to this this is not just coming over there and high-fiving going hey i got a lanyard and i went to apcss nope there's a big big expectation that you go out there and help realize this vision we talked about i have one anecdote and i know fig you got hundreds more than i do one person this one person came up to me and this is a non-attribution world which means we can't quote you by name by person by country or organization without your permission so i can't tell this person's name but this person came up to me right before graduation of a five week course and said director i just want to let you know totally unsolicited fig she said oops i shouldn't have said she but the person said i had a very adverse view of the united states before coming to this course very adverse and she goes but this five weeks turned my view around 180 degrees and i said really and he goes no you don't understand 180 degrees he goes i had to see that myself i had to feel that myself i thought you guys were going i was going to come here and you were going to feed me with all these policies and the us this and the us that but you actually listened to us and we all grew collectively so she goes i'm going home i'm a senior policy advisor to my president and i'm going to bring that inclusive respectful transparent attitude that you shared with me here so thank you very much so you know when you think about apcss it's transformational it is and i'm going to hijack the next two or three minutes so that we get to our 30 minute point covering what we need to and i'd like you to close with where apcss is going here in 2022 because you've been through a couple years of the old normal a couple years of pandemic abnormal and now we're moving you're moving out save that if you would beat and let me talk a little bit about what you said and what i learned in my five years there and and i got to say to our alumni if you're out there 14 000 of them 10 percent of whom became generals and admirals but half of them were civilians and they're supreme court judges and senior disaster relief officials and and they do change the world and uh you know when i had the opportunity to go through my tenure without pandemic i'd stand up at the beginning and the end of the course and say i expect you to change the world that's that's why you're here not for me not for the united states but for you and your country and they did and i could go on and on but i won't um so as we get to where you're headed let me talk about what i took away from and then if you could add that into your going forward what you've taken away so far here's what i've taken away from apcss for my five beautiful years there one the power of aloha which sounds to the steely eyed killer which i was still got that in me sounds like baloney the aloha is so powerful the idea of welcoming people into your home broadly and specifically in treating them with respect it's incredibly powerful dropping pretense it's all done out of uniform without titles that's awesome the second thing that i learned was that we have so much in common that isn't trivial it's easy to say oh we we all have a lot in common kumbaya for the security professionals who attend apcss gotta hope there are a lot of alumni watching because i got chicken skin remembering you and i'm married to one we have so much in common about doing well for our people a serious sense of responsibility to our countries to our duties and i don't care if you're a prison official in fiji or a disaster relief official and because i can name that because i'm not really naming anybody in napaul or Bangladesh or an army colonel and name a country we are the same because we've chosen to serve something bigger than ourselves and to be around that in such diversity was beautiful inspiring encouraging and this is kind of a crappy time in the world and i'm not really encouraged about a lot of stuff but i think back to that and i know you're out there and it gives me hope and the last thing i learned there that you know became my top priority peak and that is the role of women in for a variety of reasons women peace and security was my my top priority there and i'm not a politically correct guy so don't look at me like that audience this isn't about allowing something because the power comes to the whole and if you don't have half your society represented in the making and implementing a security policy guess what you're going to screw up it's not going to go well there is a very hard edge a fighter pod i like what works what doesn't work will kill you into it and involving the whole of society folks done women in my case but more generally is what matters most holy crap the engineers are telling us pete that we're almost done so i gotta i gotta go to you and apologize for going on and on but you know what a labor of passion this is um what's next for apcss we're gonna run a little over talking about csc i think yeah what's what's next is is where we've been to and and where we've come uh ain't gonna get us where we're gonna go we need to open up the aperture in terms of dialogue and all that and so we're using a lot of the hybrid version but we're also trying to bring back our main batteries to come back and so in this complex world fake we're coming up with a new course called the comprehensive security cooperation that's more adaptable and flexible versus just talking about crisis management or terrorism or maritime security or whatever i'm bringing in different disciplines of practitioners to be able to cross-pollinate give them critical think and then ask the question when they leave as a group and a network what is in the realm of possible because my last point is this okay the 20 the Indo-Pacific is coined as the region of consequence in the 21st century but that's not a given thing we can really screw this up if we don't if we don't talk about being collaborative and inclusive to include women the role women piece of security we can really screw this up right in the we're in the red zone if you ask me when i say we're in the red zone we are the generation and we are about to hand it to the the next generation to score the touchdown and what is the touchdown anything your heart desires your dreams your figments what is in the realm of possible and that's why i want to close it with this i really do want to thank everyone out there that have their oars in the water and they're rolling hard and just know you're not alone and then when you come to the center you're coming for a haven of peace to be able to build on that momentum that you are all generating and we're here for you and if you ever want to see fig come over here let me know i can get fig over here in the center how to find me yeah hey that's awesome we we could go on because uh because the center so amazing our alumni so great alumni if you want to connect connect with me find me on facebook linkedin whatever you know how to find pete through the through the apcss website and through john gastron everybody else who you remember there uh i might have you back maybe in a year or so to talk about csc and how it went and about your next figment which i know about hey folks i have to close with and thanks pete aloha brother we gotta go let me close with what would fig do fig would certainly not do anything different than be the director at apcss that day okay anyway asia pacific center for security studies for five years because i've learned so much from all of you um so what would fig do think about that look for what we have in common commit to public service and be a patriot but be a thoughtful patriot so uh aloha uh i feel good all day uh having connected with the center and with pete gument how to wear animal retired us navy on figments the power of imagination and i will see you in two weeks thanks to think tech that enables us citizen journalists to bring our message messages thoughts to you and share them so aloha see you in two weeks


Politics can be said to be holistic and complex in its very nature. As power dynamics and interdependence are in all human relations and institutions, every social interaction is potentially a political one. But until quite recently, researchers were largely uninterested in the idea of complexity. Systems that were complex were largely seen as just an extension of more basic systems. It was largely assumed that by studying more elementary organizations, we would in general know everything that we needed to know. However, through new insights over the 20th century from physics, chemistry, ecology and other areas, we've come to increasingly recognize complexity as something that is both irreducible and very fundamental to our universe. Through such insights, we're increasingly coming to recognize that as systems go from being more elementary to more complex, they change in very fundamental ways. As new features, structures and dynamics emerge, they require new categories, descriptions and methods to understand and model effectively. Political complexity then deals with the complexity of political reality. That is to say, its holistic and dynamic nature, the interconnectivity and interdependence within sociopolitical systems. Advocates of complexity theory describe it as a new scientific paradigm. Complexity theory suggests that we switch our analysis from the individual parts of a political system to the system as a whole, as a network of elements that interact and combine to produce systemic emergent behavior in a continuous evolutionary process. Such new insight helps us to better approach very complex sociopolitical phenomena without limiting ourselves to reductionist methods. Such phenomena as international politics, global civic organizations, terrorist networks, large social networks, political movements, etc. Political science is a study of political systems. Political systems are a set of social institutions through which a society makes collective decisions and implements them. Political science lives on the fault line between the two cultures in academia, the sciences and the humanities. As a science, it uses theoretical models and tries to match them to empirical data. Like social science in general, political science has progressed by adopting a variety of methods and theoretical approaches to understanding politics and methodological pluralism is a distinct feature of contemporary political science. Despite considerable research progress in the discipline based on many kinds of scholarship, it has been observed that progress towards systematic theories has been at best modest and uneven. Formal languages are largely what make a discipline scientific, but like other social sciences, political science has never managed to develop formal systems akin to the use of mathematics in the natural sciences. This is an outstanding issue with the social sciences in general that some believe complexity theory may address as it's currently being adopted. Political scientists study the many aspects to sociopolitical institutions, how they operate and how they might or should operate. Such political systems are complex and multi-dimensional in nature as the requirement for coordination and collective decision-making on issues crosses all aspects of society. Likewise, politics is inextricably intertwined with culture, social structures and economics. Politics is always fundamentally grounded in the culture of a given community. It strongly shapes social dynamics, regulates economic activity and plays a central role in managing a society's natural environment. Sociopolitical systems taken as a whole thus engender a multiplicity of questions that require some response before we can formulate any kind of a coherent theory of political dynamics. Primary and first among these are cultural and philosophical foundational questions. Normative questions about how should the system be? How should humans live together? In living together, we have to coordinate our activities. We have to come to agreements, but on what should the process through which we do that be based? Should it be based on force, based on divine revelation, on tradition, or should it be based on reason-based argument?  The question then turns to more practical matters. How do societies implement their cultural understandings within a set of social institutions? A system based upon force would naturally formulate an authoritarian hierarchical structure. One that is based on reason discourse would have an alternative structure that is better suited to that process. Such questions lead in turn to an in-depth analysis of the set of political institutions through which decisions are made and implemented. The different bodies that constitute the government, the legal structures, the bureaucratic organizations that execute on decisions, the mechanisms for enforcing the implementation of those rules, the adjudicating on cases of dispute. Political scientists likewise concern themselves with how different political organizations interact with each other, how they find common ground, their similarities and differences, and this is the area of comparative politics and international politics. Political science as a separate field is a rather late arrival in terms of the social sciences, but it emerges out of a long, rich and deep history of political philosophy. Political systems are as old as human civilization and the study of them dates back to the work of ancient Greece and before. The first great work of political philosophy in Western history is typically identified as Plato's Republic. Plato was interested in the question, what would a just society look like and what virtues must the people and the rulers have to make it just? Plato distinguished between five types of regime and held that the state should be organized in the manner of a person or organism with the higher parts ruling the lower. Notice this correlation of regimes with parts of the soul is the first example of the organic metaphor which holds that the state should be organized in the manner of a person or organism. Plato believed that there was an ideal world and the wise were capable of knowing that world that the best political system would be one that put those wise people in charge of arranging society for others in the way that the brain controls the body's arms and legs and not the other way round. Plato's greatest student Aristotle disagreed with him deeply. Aristotle formulated the first republican theory of politics. Man, he posited, is by nature a political animal. Only beasts or gods live outside the polis. Within the context of the good polity humans are the best of animals. Without law and polis they are the worst. Aristotle thought that by definition political society is self-rule among equals and self-rule requires face-to-face meeting. Thus the polis can't be too large. Citizens share in ruling and rotate through offices. Each citizen must be capable of ruling and being ruled. Despite their disagreements, Plato and Aristotle both approach politics in essentially the same way. They're seeking a polis that is both just and embodies virtue and they believe that this can come about only if some group of people in the polis are themselves virtuous, the leaders for Plato and the citizens for Aristotle. For about 1,000 years after the fall of Rome medieval Christian European society was a feudal society. There were literally no public lands, roads or institutions. Government was in the private hands of the local Lord. All people were bound to each other by a set of complex religious legal and traditional based obligations being legally unequal and political theory in such a world was of little interest. The modern revolution in political theory is part of the long breakdown of the medieval worlds brought on by a decline in the power of the landed aristocracy, the discovery of a new hemisphere in 1492, the emergence of the Protestant religion, the development of the Italian cities as centres of commerce and banking. It is in this climate that the first modern political thinker arose, that of Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli redirected political thinking from the normative and philosophical realm of what was the best form of government and how should government be realised so as to achieve certain ideals and he instead focused it upon the reality of exercising power. For Machiavelli the political world cannot be determined by ideal virtues alone. It instead requires an analysis of the real power dynamics at play and if one is to be successful in such a world one has to maintain power and control at all expense. Machiavelli merged the ideal into the real and asked about the real costs and effects of acting according to ideals. In politics what matters is the kind of state that is created and maintained. From Plato through the medievals the idea that a just society could be constructed without virtuous citizens or virtuous rulers would have been incomprehensible. But Machiavelli finds that political society often has to continue without moral virtue and find a way to be just and stable without it. Machiavelli's very modern and realistic way of looking at political theory was a somewhat radical break from tradition that came to shape all later thought but he also raised questions about the inherent morality of politics with such questions remaining with us today. Political theory then entered an intense couple of centuries of development during the 17 and 1800s as our modern understanding of politics and governance was formed. Religious and traditional foundations for governance were rejected and thinkers like Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant formulated a new philosophical foundation to political organization based upon reason and rational institutions. Political institutions that were explicitly designed according to reason and based upon the concept of the rational individual who entered into a set of agreements with others to formulate the government that would serve in the interests of all. The emphasis shifted to the mass of individuals and governments as rational instruments for achieving their well-being. Duties and ethics became formulated in abstract principles of reason and based around the individual as exemplified by Kant's categorical imperative. Such an intensely productive period of political theory fed through to an age of political revolution as the modern nation-state framework was born. Reason-based constitutional systems of government were formed with a rational set of institutions. The English, French and American Revolution created a new paradigm in governance that proved successful as others followed and we moved into the modern political era that we know so well. The idea of the nation-state would decentralize government ruling over a large geographical area with a culturally homogeneous population came to form the new architecture for governance as people around the world obtained freedom from colonialism and were encouraged to develop such political units of organization. The nation-state system became the dominant modality for governance as a spectrum of political possibilities within their architecture forms from the left to the right as the 20th century saw intense battle and divisions over how governance should be conducted within the new modern paradigm. The development of the nation-state coincided with industrialization as the two became merged, the strength of the nation became closely associated with the strength of its industrial base. However, by the latter half of the 20th century the relentless drive of technological change in the market system were becoming ever more important organizational structures within society. Eventually a revolution in information technology would unleash a powerful new force of rapidly escalating interconnectivity on all levels from the local to the global and it's within such a context that the conceptual foundations and institutional design pattern that created our modern systems of governance are becoming eroded along many dimensions. The turn of the 21st century is a time of profound sociopolitical disruption as power is shifting, it is moving upwards to a globally integrated economy and outwards to distributed peer-to-peer networks enabled by telecommunications. With the inextricable linkage between power and politics as the tectonic plates of power are shifting so too political institutions are being redefined old structures are being eroded and rendered paralyzed while with every new connection new structures are gradually being pieced together in a shifting landscape driving political disruption. The challenge that political institutions face today is that of complexity in all its shapes and forms challenges that are systemic such as inequality and environmental degradation challenges of interconnectivity such as mass migration of interdependence such as multiculturalism of rapid change such as fast-paced technological innovation Such phenomena prevalent in our world today present major challenges to the nation state calling into question their ability to handle such matters and threatening to splinter modern societies along new divides that such changes create. The rise of the liberal republican nation state as a system of political organization may have been the story of the modern era as it overcame the monarchs of medieval Europe the totalitarianism of fascism of world wars the threats of communism but whether it is designed to deal with the complexity inherent in these issues and what other alternatives might exist is very much an open debate today. As we build out this infrastructure to a network global economy the unregulated spaces of connectivity in our economies and societies expand on a daily basis and as always there will be no shortage of people eager to exploit those vacuums. The question remains though what with political institutions that are relevant for an age of connectivity and complexity actually look like? How would power be channeled and distributed out? How would we make decisions and how would they be implemented? How could we build sociopolitical institutions that would connect all the way from the local to the global? Such questions are once again open to debate and remain unanswered. Answering such questions requires in turn an evolution in our understanding of political systems and governance as traditional categorizations formed within the context of the industrial age will be of limited relevance within this new context. All organizations change in a very fundamental way as they go from relatively elementary to relatively complex. They go from being closed and well bounded to becoming open from being linear and independent to non-linear and interdependent from centralized and disconnected to distributed and interconnected from being relatively static to being inherently dynamic and this is the same for political systems their structure and behavior is always relative to the degree of complexity of the underlying social, cultural and economic system thus how we most effectively approach managing and studying them likewise changes. Political science as we know it is largely the study of closed political organizations that exercise power and how those independent organizations interact to resolve their differences. Most of political studies focuses on closed well bounded organizations that exercise power within a society most notably the formal centralized political institutions of the government. Such an approach greatly simplifies the analysis reducing it to a number of aggregate large organizations and how they interact but this study of closed aggregate formal political organizations gives us a somewhat self-limiting picture of the world. When we look at a map of the world we see it divided out into a limited number of closed political organizations defined by their boundaries. Such a model of the world of course blinds us to the true complexity of the interconnectivity between those systems the many overlapping networks that enable modern economies and societies to operate social and political organizations are always relational they are nothing more than a set of relations between people if we were to look at such a map of what one really looked like we would see a concentration of interconnectivity around certain areas such as cities a map, political reality and such a world would really be a very complex set of social and economic networks thus political complexity tries to go beyond the somewhat reductive and simplifying approach of analyzing a finite amount of closed formal organizations but instead looking more at the open and dynamically changing nature of sociopolitical networks a world characterized by open systems and defined by their dynamically changing connections this shift from a focus on closed formal political institutions and the characteristics of their members to the open connections of interdependence within social groups represents a whole new set of insights and possibilities it shifts our focus from the parts to the structure of the whole and that's a paradigm shift political analysis as we know it is very much focused on closed hierarchical organizations through which power is exercised in a downward fashion we see formal institutions as the only means for achieving order and stability within society achieving a successful economy and social system in the industrial age this is closely tied to the building of the formal institutions of the nation state through which order was maintained the mass of people largely only entered into political discourse during elections once every four years within democratic systems or once every few decades within autocratic systems when they overthrew the political regime the mass of people play a rather passive role in the system while those in the formal organizations are the ones who create the political system through which order is maintained in complexity science we do not search for order as something that is given from above but instead how order may in fact emerge out of the small distributed parts coming together to create organization we stop focusing on the center and look instead at the distributed interactions within the system and how through those interactions the parts can self-organize we have rise the emergence of organization through only local interactions thus instead of looking at the stable structures through which power is exercised in society and order is maintained we're looking instead at the dynamic process through which it is continuously created the concept of self-organization and emergence recognises the constant interplay between order and disorder in the creation of political organization political science is often understood as a study of power however such a restrictive definition offers us only partial insight power primarily exists within dynamics of conflictual agendas it tells us how one actor or organization can control the agency of another to their ends the formal structures of political organization tell us how the power is distributed out such an analysis makes certain assumptions about agents having divergent objectives and entering into conflict over those it focuses on the actors with independent agendas and how they realize those in the face of others who may have divergent objectives such an approach tells us little about how cooperation is achieved it tells us little about the networks of interdependence that foster and enable cooperation we focus on the means through which disputes are resolved but not the means through which the divergent agendas were created in the first place things become focused on the formal methods through which people can realize their agenda while we take the divergence of agendas as a given in a world of interdependence though this requires us to look outside the box asking how interconnectivity and interdependence can be used to foster an alignment of perspectives and interests before we even arrive at the formal political institutions for decision making such an analysis requires us to look not just at the formal institutions but in fact at the broader social system within which they're embedded to identify the broader social and cultural networks within society that feed into creating the context for the political system to operate to understand the outcome of the political system one has to understand the types of interdependencies within the society at large that create the inputs where do the negative interdependencies that create divisions lie where do the positive interdependencies that create alignment lie the formal political institutions of a society will only ever be able to deal with issues on a relatively superficial level while the real issues will involve a deeper set of dynamics defined by positive and negative interdependence to enable a functioning political system is required that those issues are dealt with on the appropriate social or cultural level this requires a more holistic and comprehensive analysis one that is not focused on the independent actors their agenda and the means of power through which they can use force to realize that agenda but instead an identification of the broader set of influences around the individual that shape their specific agenda which in turn are a function of the dynamics of the positive and negative interdependencies within the broader socio-cultural system in a world of independence the analysis can be on the individuals and their agenda how the parts interact to create the outcomes in a world of interdependence the focus should shift to looking at the context that creates the actors motives and how connections can be altered to change the type of interdependence between the actors from negative to positive so as to align their interests a central tool for understanding complex systems is that of network theory and in a political context this translates into the study of political organizations as a form of social network the central tool of standard political science is statistical analysis through polling, surveys and the analysis of various databases about citizens we try to make statements about the whole system through reference to the properties of its parts at a low level of connectivity within the social system this approach may give us important insight and traction on otherwise difficult questions however as we turn up the connectivity it comes to be the connections that shape outcomes more than the individual characteristics of the members in such a case making statements about the whole through statistical coarse-graining aggregates of the parts can become misleading as it blinds us to how they're interconnected as the interconnectivity proliferates individual behavior becomes more defined by one's connections within networks for example as opposed to people being defined by their specific location within a geographical area and the community based around that it instead becomes more important what social networks they're connected into their location within those networks how things flow between different networks etc as distributed interconnectivity increases and interdependencies increase systems become nonlinear and the whole becomes something different from the parts methods that focus on the parts and assume the whole to be nothing other than an aggregate of those parts become misleading most of our statistical methods in political and social sciences make this assumption in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding though it is required to switch the focus to looking at the whole system and network analysis is one such tool that lets us do that it helps us to understand processes of change through diffusion to study how things spread across the network how and where tipping points might exist how social networks grow or disintegrate over time it helps us to look outside the formal structures of political organization to look at local community peer-to-peer networks and how the flow of social capital on those networks enables the community to function without formal political organizations network analysis helps us to see a wide array of informal social patterns that fall outside of closed organizations or cuts across them such as international criminal networks, migrant networks, urban networks etc and it enables us to use formal methods to interpret their workings the complexity theory involves a set of models surrounding evolution and adaptive capacity which can be used to understand the development of political systems and how they respond to major changes the central question is how does the system adapt to the inevitable changes within its environment so as to successfully navigate change and thus be sustainable over time political organization as we know it typically takes a centralized regulatory approach of defining closed borders and uses a centralized intelligence and decision making authority to interpret the environmental changes, formulate best responses and then control the elements of the organization towards those optimal ends such centralized regulation as a means of dealing with change becomes limited in its capacity within complex systems and the emphasis shifts to the development of distributed structures that enable the process of evolution complexity theory helps us to understand the workings of this process of evolution as it takes place within social systems through the production of variety, selection and duplication in dynamic and complex environments the emphasis shifts from creating fixed projections and controlling for specific outcomes to that of enabling impersonal mechanisms of selection for developing the most appropriate response in the environment and thus ensure the system's capacity to successfully respond to change here complexity theory borrows many insights from ecology to understand the process through which ecosystems and societies alike go through the various stages of growth, maturity, collapse and regrowth in what is called the adaptive cycle political reality is certainly complex in that it pervades all aspects of social life to date we've struggled to reason about it in a scientific fashion as political analysis has been divided into either philosophy and social theory on the one hand or the limiting tools of statistics classical game theory and algebra on the other but with the increasingly coherent theoretical framework of complexity theory social scientists now have access to the kind of abstract and powerful formal tools that have to date been the purview of the physical sciences although it will certainly take time for these models for mathematics, physics and computer science to permeate into the social sciences but with such tools our understanding of sociopolitical systems can be taken to new levels of abstraction and rigor ideas that philosophers and social theoreticians have grappled with for millennia can be formalized in new ways that offer deep insight and greater structure to our reasoning existing social theory frameworks like functionalism, conflict theory, complex interdependence theory etc can be reconstructed out of more fundamental modeling frameworks and formal systems this offers exciting new possibilities within the social sciences and in this course we'll explore these opportunities that complexity theory offers for rethinking political analysis


So we brought out a Bradley out here for a static display As well as you can see the tank in my background here on the police side and we're out here making friends You know interacting with community that know they have questions for us as to why we're here And I'm over here making friends as well as you can see I got my buddy Hubert. I Just met my buddy Hubert, you know, and he's all about the Bradley. He says he wants to take it home So, you know again, it's just a part of our our mission here as well You know interacting making friends seeing who our allies and just kind of like giving them a little bit about our culture But at the same time us learning about their culture


What's up guys and welcome back to the John and Q channel in today's video I'll be going over this rifle right here the Springfield Armory St. Victor 556 Disclaimer for you guys Springfield Armory did send this rifle for me to review on the channel Springfield Armory came out with this rifle right and it's actually packed with some Magpul furniture you got the buttstock you got the grip and you got this angled for grip by Magpul This magazine is made by Magpul But this is mine and does not come with the rifle and the rail covers on the rifle are mine And do not come stock by Springfield Armory as well as a cloud defensive weapon light That's mine and it does not come with the Springfield Armory Victor the hollow Sun 510C is also mine And does not come with the rifle just want to make sure that was clear But you do get these flip-up sights both rear and the front so that's nice of them to add I'm pretty sure you can get this exact same setup stock, but a different color like black and gray This is what I would run on patrol and my range days like today Okay, let's do a quick rundown of the specs on the St. Victor. It's got a 16 inch cnv Mellonite barrel low-profile spring loaded adjustable flip-up sights the upper receiver is a forge 7075 t6 aluminum and it's type 3 hard coat anodized It's also got a Ford assist and m4 feed ramps the lower receiver is forged by 7075 t6 aluminum Same type 3 hard coat anodized and it's got an acute tight tension system The bolt carrier group is enhanced m16 with 93 10 steel bolt HPT slash MPI Mellonite the gas system is a direct impingement mid-length low-profile pinned gas block The handguard is aluminum free float with SA a locking tabs and their M lock stock is a magpul MOE SL FD E color the triggers got a nickel brown coated flat GI the muzzle device is a SA muzzle brake The receiver extension is a mill spec receiver and plate. It's a QD charging handle GI style safety switch single side So the St. Victor stock from the factory weighs at about six pounds and nine ounces and it's got an MSRP price of about $1,200 I think I've shot about 800 rounds through the St. Victor and I want to say it actually shoots very smooth And it's very light.  It doesn't have any surprises when you shoot It shoots and it shoots well and to be honest, that's what I look for in any gun, especially rifles I'm at the range from on patrol. I need this rifle to work and there's a few features. I love about this rifle See this right here. Look at the trigger on that Nice flat trigger. So the fact that sprinkled armory made the Victor with a flat trigger to me That's just a huge upgrade I don't have to buy it on the flat trigger and try to install it onto the Victor Another thing that I do like is that they include QD mounts and by that I mean like they give you a placement for a QD mount I actually installed my own QD mount up here just because I do like the way this Fits a lot better, but if you wanted to you could purchase one and install it right here with the pre-installment Already made for you. I mean that to me. That's a nice feature on it You don't see a lot of that on rifles nowadays. Let me show you this part that I actually do love the The safety switch is right here and the cool thing about the safety switch is this I want to fire I just have to engage it and it kind of shoots up about what? 30 degrees instead of the whole 90 You know how in most rifles you have to engage the entire switch and that's got to be pointing all the way up But with this this is safe fire So it's about 30 degree difference and to me that's a big deal because I want to get on target I want to shoot my target quick and I want to engage quickly so I can neutralize that target to me engage in that switch It's smooth and it's very quick. So I love that the Victor comes stock with that kind of feature That's pretty cool, and I found that as I'm shooting this rifle It doesn't have a ton of recoil and it doesn't give you a ton of bounce as I've shot other rifles Hopefully that makes sense, but there's not much of a kick once you pull that trigger So as I'm shooting the same Victor, man, I'm really liking the way it feels I love that there's not much recoil and it doesn't bump you all over the place, right? The one thing that I would change on this rifle is I'd get a radiant raptor charging handle Which I made just upgrade to that. There's no Picatinny Top rail up here, and there's no M lock. It's just a smooth surface on the top of this barrel and the actual M lock system up here, so I Mean is that such a big deterrent? I don't think it should be if anything like as I'm gripping this with my support hand It gives me a smooth grip and honestly it does have like my thumb My thumb is able to grip even more so just because there's that smooth surface and some M lock I can attach to but also these rail covers do help to mitigate kind of that You know the sharpness or hardness of the M lock for a semi-spec out rifle that you can get for less than 1200 bucks I'd pick this up man. I mean if I were you I would for sure buy it I'm not getting paid to say that. I'm just that's genuinely my opinion and before I reached out to Springfield Armory to be honest I was looking at getting this rifle So when I shoot this all the time is this gonna be my new range rifle you betcha Are you gonna pick this up? Do you think it's worth it? Do you like the features that it comes with? What would you change? Let me know down in the comments below and with that being said guys Thanks so much for watching. Please make sure to like and subscribe to the channel and as always I'll catch you in the next Johnny Q video peace. I like this rifle a lot man.  Let's shoot it