At the moment many are in a constant challenge to save money, reducing spend is high on family agendas, disposable incomes become less and hobbies are difficult to justify. The cost of new golf clubs can be mind blowing and off the agenda right now for many golfers. But one brand is doing its thing making the game more affordable without a compromise in quality. You see I like you love a bargain but I'm not keen on buying lesser known brands if that means sacrificing quality and the same applies when it comes to buying golf clubs. Tacomo has long been recognised for providing golfers with premium iron sets. If I'm honest I've not heard a bad word spoken about what the Finnish brand has achieved over the past few years. They have now ventured into the world of fairway woods and I want to know should they have stuck to the world of irons only or is this another move to produce a product on a budget with zero compromise on quality and performance. So by far the thing I like most about these Tacomo fairway woods is their adjustability and adjustability is well it's a thing isn't it it's everywhere but they do something just a little bit different and I'll talk about it a little bit later but essentially this back weight is the key part for me. There's three little weights that you'll get sent in a kit and interestingly enough I've got the three the five and the seven wood all with completely different weights in the back and I'll explain the reason for that a little bit later on.  So the interesting bit about this weighting system is I've got like I said three five and seven and the weight that is put in the back is each difference. I've got the 15 gram in the seven in the five wood like I said earlier is 20 gram and in the three wood I've got 25 gram. My logic for doing that is because I want more help in getting the ball airborne with a three wood. Five wood was kind of like you know just I just found a happy medium and then the seven wood was something that again I have a tendency to as it's supposed to do get that ball up a little bit high and what I was concerned about was just it becoming a little bit too spinning and a bit too high. So being able to make those adjustments yourself is a real bonus for me. Dead easy to do simple in and out and you can start to find and tweak about what suits you and it does make a difference I can assure you to the ball flight and then obviously you've got that adjustability within the hosel to start tweaking the loft as well. So a real interesting concept because I've not really seen any of the body produce anything where you have the ability to change those weight ports at the back and get something really dialed in to what fits your bag I love it. Right so what you're going to see is three different shots three different clubs and three very different ball flights which is the key part you'll see the three wood zips off low penetrating ball flight fairly low spinning what you'd want it to be then you've got the five wood happy medium between launching the ball high but still moving forward so it's still something you can play off the team get some realistic distance and then you've got the seven wood which just pops the ball up in the air is a bit of a miracle club really it should be in a lot of people's bags because not that you play from that T position but if you're coming into a green from a fair bit of distance to have that launch that descent angle that thing stopping so it's very easy to see why each of these clubs exist and why each of them can play a part in pretty much most golfers bags today's video is sponsored by our friends at hot golf the online golf retailer for all major brands and if you want new golf gear then please support us by supporting them right we'll leave it there we've all I've certainly found out you'll have to use in these for quite a few rounds to be quite honestly if you're watching the off the beaten track series these have been the clubs I've been using for five episodes and they've been really really impressive I love what Tacomo are doing but they've very much been known for what they're doing with that iron market up until now and I think what they've done in these fairway woods has been exceptional each of them has been very playable and done something that you know I struggle with to be honest with you that's a three word that I would put in the bag simply because of the ball flight characteristics which I really struggle with in strong lofted fairway woods I've been able to make some changes with the weight and with the loft to get that a very playable club in the bag I'm a big admirer of seven and five woods as you know and they would be ordinarily in my bag anyway and then they do it on a price tag which is as we've suggested a budget that is far more appealing to others but not the detriment of quality and that again is the big key for me what you don't want to do is save yourself a whole load of money but buy what is effectively a load of crap this is good quality gear that performs exceptionally well with good shafts in yes there are limitations but overall you can't really go wrong with an investment in any of the Tacomo products and for me it gets a massive thumbs up right we're done can't believe how nice of money we've had Wallacy Golf Club end of February looks incredible thanks for having us and I'll see you all soon


In this video, I'm gonna cover the top five Air Force bases in the United States, at least in my opinion. If you guys disagree, feel free to comment down below what would be your top five bases if you could choose. But I am gonna save the best for last, so you're gonna have to stick around and watch the whole video if you wanna see all five. So starting out at number five, I'm gonna say McCord Air Force Base, which is in Seattle, Washington. I've never met anyone that was from Seattle or Washington that did not want to move back there, which makes me believe that if you're gonna get stationed somewhere, that's definitely not a bad place to be stationed. Seattle's a fairly large city and has a lot of opportunities of things to do, such as pro sports, which I'm a pretty big fan of, especially hockey, and they have the Seattle Kraken now. They also have an NFL team, and they also have an MLB team. There's also a ton of tourism to go on there, and it's also a pretty big hub for cruise ships. Plus, the scenery out on the Pacific Northwest is gorgeous, so there's tons of hiking if you wanna go out of town. There's also tons of ferries that go to multiple islands right off of Seattle, plus you're right next to Canada, so if you really wanted to go check out Canada, you'd be able to do that. Now, if you're watching this video, I'm assuming you're either joining the Air Force or you're currently in, or you used to be in, and you're just curious of what my answers were for this. But either way, you probably know somebody that's joining the military in the near future, or you are yourself, and that's why I wanna tell you about today's sponsor, Sandbox. Friends and family can send you a letter from literally anywhere. All they have to do is use the Sandbox app or use the website online, type up their letter and hit send. Your loved one will get tracking. It will include the message that they wrote, a photo if they choose to include one, a piece of paper for you to write a message back, and it also includes a pre-addressed envelope. Nobody likes writing all the addresses on letters, like that is, nobody likes it. Thankfully, Sandbox eliminates that. All you have to do is add a stamp to that letter and mail it back to your loved one, and they get tracking for your letter back to them. That was literally my favorite thing about Sandbox was being able to know when a letter from McKenna was going to arrive in my mailbox. So if you haven't told your friends or family about Sandbox before you leave for basic training, you need to get on that. Be sure to use the link in the description below. All right, now let's get back to the video. All right, the fourth best base in the Air Force in the United States, in my opinion, is Andrew's Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. Now I will admit I am not a big fan of the traffic in Washington, D.C., but what I did like is that there's so much stuff to do and so much within a few hour drive. So it makes visiting multiple states really easy. You're also fairly close to the ocean. So if you want to during the summer, you can go to some of the beaches there. You're also fairly close to the Appalachian Mountains. So if you wanna go on weekend trips to go hiking, it's easily accessible. Plus it's one of the biggest tourism places in the United States being that that's our capital. So there's a ton of history and museums that you can go and check out as well. Now my third pick would be Schriever Air Force Base, which is in Colorado. Now I actually have never met anybody that's been stationed at this base, but just looking at the geographical area on a map of where this is located, I don't think you can go wrong getting stationed there. Schriever Air Force Base is right outside of Colorado Springs, which is actually where the Air Force Academy is. So there'd be a lot of cool history there and you'd be able to get access to the Air Force Academy and get to see all of that stuff. But also you're in Colorado, where all the mountains are, there's great skiing, there's tons of hiking. I'm actually building a camper van right now. So I think that would be an absolutely amazing place to be stationed and that's why it was number three on my list. The second best base to be stationed at, in my opinion, would be Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Now Lackland Air Force Base is also in San Antonio, Texas, which is where Air Force Base training is. San Antonio overall has just always been looked at as a great place to live. There's semi-affordable housing until recently as all the prices in the market have been skyrocketing. We're trying to get a house in Las Vegas right now. It's been ridiculous. And that's why Randolph is my number two pick because you get to enjoy San Antonio as a whole, but you don't have to deal with the basic training aspect of San Antonio. I'm also a fan of warm weather. So that's why this is number two over the other three that were on my list because it's in a warmer location. That leads me to my number one pick on this list of best bases in the United States, in my opinion, and that is Nellis Air Force Base, which is actually where I was stationed my last three years in the Air Force, but I have experience living in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is where Nellis Air Force Base is. It's on the northeast corner of Las Vegas, and it's only about 15, 20 minutes from the Las Vegas strip. One of the things that I love most about Las Vegas is that everything in the whole city, no matter what part of town you live on, where you're going, whatever, it takes 20 to 35 minutes at most to go anywhere. I'm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, second largest city in Iowa. There's about 150,000 people that live here, and it takes 45 minutes to drive across town because the infrastructure here is awful. Las Vegas, I became spoiled. Not only are things open almost all the time, but it's convenient to drive anywhere in Las Vegas, and that is one of the biggest things that I love about living there, especially being that McKenna and I and our marriage have traveled over 30 states together. We've never found a city that we felt was built better than Las Vegas as far as the infrastructure goes. Plus, it's super warm. There's tons of hiking. We own a house there still that we're renting out, and from that home, it's no joke, 30 minutes to go to a ski resort, and 45 minutes to get to Lake Mead, which is actually outside of Las Vegas. So I might be biased because I was stationed there for three years, so I have a lot more experience with that base over other bases. So if you guys have watched this video and you're like, no dude, you are so wrong about what you just said about the top five stateside bases. If they absolutely were terrible and you were there, let me know in the comments section down below, because I think at the end of the day, we all have our own opinions, and I think a lot of people would appreciate your feedback if you've been stationed somewhere or you've heard about people being stationed at certain bases. Which bases in your opinion would be the best? But stay tuned for our future videos because McKenna and I are both posting our top five jobs in the Air Force, our top five stateside bases in the Air Force, and our top five overseas bases in the Air Force. So you don't wanna miss those, and if we already posted them, make sure you go back and watch them because I'm sure that they're gonna be good information for you. Or at least the comment section's gonna be great because other people will hopefully comment what they think and then you can get a more well-rounded answer, rather than just our opinions. You can get dozens of people's opinions on where the best places are to be stationed or the best jobs are to have in the Air Force. And if you watched all the way to the end, be sure to comment down below that you watched it all the way to the end. I did that on a video like six years ago and to this day some people still comment, like I watched it all the way to the end. I think it's hilarious because I forget about that. So if you did watch it all the way here, comment that emoji right there.  Appreciate it. Thanks, see you guys later.


Okay I am so glad to be here at Muscle and Syracuse of Florida where it is sunshine and probably about 82 degrees right now But since I'm from Brunswick, I know this feeling this murky grizzly feeling very well And with this person I'm at Edit Nation dot com and I'm going to show you right now how to make $250 Who here could use an extra 250 bucks every time they're here? I'm going to let you back to your room here. All right, what if I told you that I was going to show you how to make $250 Not a month, not a week, not a day, not an hour 250 bucks a minute. Who in here wouldn't like to make 250 bucks a minute? And I'm going to show you. Oh, look everybody's got your hands in place. I would too. I would too I'm going to wrap my Honda fit. I've got two cars. I have a Honda and I have a Porsche. I'm not going to drive. I'm not going to wrap the Honda. I mean the Porsche, but I ain't going to wrap the Honda So I know this guy, and I said give me a price to wrap my Honda. He came back with these proof copies So I looked it over. I thought no, no, no, this is really not where I wanted to go But I had to see it first, you know how that is So I want to draw your attention to my tagline editation.com because everyone need an editor Now is this a joke?  I thought about it for a couple seconds I thought no because at this point the buck stops here And I need people to have confidence that I am a good editor and I can spot a typo at 50 paces So this was a $2,000 car app How long would it have taken that person to review his work? I calculated about eight seconds And my friends that comes out to 250 bucks One second for eight seconds They lost my business by not taking that time and proofing my work because I'll tell you what if you're going to prove anybody's work It better be an editor So what happens when you don't prove your work and you put your work online for a client and there's a screaming typo on the first page What kind of credibility does that give to your client and how that doesn't make you look? You can't trust someone think about it. Who doesn't spell? This gal isn't serious though. She claims that she's a work press advisor But if she can't spell the word advisor How much confidence do I have in her ability? Would I pay her To give me her wisdom if she can't spell the word advisor? It doesn't even put her stuff to spell check Give me a break So what I'm going to do today. I don't want to talk to you about excellence I'm not going to talk to you about perfection because this is a place where you can be perfect Just like the big guy upstairs.  We all know serena williams. She's been dominant in women's tennis for quite a while Now I'm going to ask you a question When serena williams first stepped on the tennis court, do you think she cared about the width of the court?  She was probably thinking about how to create cost and law But she didn't care about the fundamentals the foundation that creates the game of tennis Because serena williams knows that if you change one of those things You could change the width the height the width or the size you might want to be playing a game But you're not playing Tests I'm going to do this morning this afternoon is I'm going to show you the top 12 things you need to know About good writing in American English. These are the foundation foundational fundamental things Where there is no discussion I'll answer any question you ask of me except one And that is why Because there is no answer to that question But I will tell you that these are the rules of American English Right here right now in 2018 and they will be the rules for the foreseeable future So just breathe and relax and join me Because when you leave this room I guarantee I'm going to have you knowing these rules and I'm going to have you Thinking like an editor Because we're going to find out three things. We're going to find out what you know We're going to find out what you don't know And we're going to find out perhaps most important What you're not sure about that bushy middle ground You're not sure that's really what I want to find out because when you leave this room I want you to leave this room with confidence So let's take Our first paper here's what we're going to do We're going to take two self-graded quizzes There's nothing particularly strange or exotic in these rules Everybody should know them So we're going to take two quizzes The one we're going to take first is mark quiz number one It's blue 21 sentence quiz I want you to mark the correct sentences. I'm going to read the directions on what you go through The only thing about this everyone is I'm going to give you four minutes because like I said This is something you should know Four minutes four minutes does not translate into one minute per question So if you get confused or flummox, just keep moving Blow through it. I'd like to see if you can get through it, but if you can't not to worry We're going to go over the material in this quiz and then We're going to take a second quiz because studies have shown that people retain new information 87 percent more if they're retested on new information immediately following the first time they learn it So we're going to take a second quiz and I'm going to blow your hair back because you don't have a lot of time So four minutes started right now Let's take the blue quiz I think that 20 is not enough Coming up on three minutes They've heard it I'm sorry Start pulling yourself away from the quiz because we're about to start talking about it in five four three Two one. All right. If you get finished it's no big deal We're not editors most of you probably So let's get started. Let's look at question numbers. It's number one. It is. Yeah, there we go This is the number one mistake. In fact, I'm not going to mention any names, but I went to the session this morning And a fellow who was presenting that got it wrong twice So here we go. This is the number one mistake everybody names It's versus it's so you've got it possibly s versus it s We may want to tell me what it fossil gas means It is it also means it has it's a contraction So that the fault now is it s is the possessive of it boy that trips me up all the time It really does but fortunately I always do searches if I'm doing a lot of content I always do searches for both because sometimes, you know, somebody's spell check is not going to catch that It might give you blue one but it ain't going to give you red one because it's a real word So make sure that you know in your heart in your soul in your bones that this rule is very important It's the number one mistake that people make in their content it s versus it's possibly s So we look at number one. It's about social marketing lobby lobby traffic brand reputation I gotta tell you these are all wordpress sentences when I knew I was coming a whole pot of wordpress sites Tried to have all that done my information expunge, but obviously I wasn't too careful because number two Stonewall publishing consultants specializes in the rebranding of an offer to get the book That doesn't really really make sense, but they got it's wrong because it should be his or her But anyway, that's the mistake in that sense. So two down 21 to go both those sentences are about it s versus it possibly s number three In american english the noun drives the bus which means if you have a singular noun You cannot use a plural verb form or a plural pronoun. So let's look at sentence number three The noun here is site builder Site builder not site builders site builder is one. So you cannot say in their path You have to say in his or her path or the easy work around is site builders Plural site builders that's pretty easy No, it's not No, it's it's it's there's a move towards that in british english in british english is actually okay But the last time I looked I'm standing in the united states and if you want to connect the people quickly and efficiently through your writing You need to write like them. So for example, I came across a website and someone said they were We're in a gray sweater. They spelled gray g r e y I would think that the content might have been very well written in india where they practice british english But not mistakes. So if you're trying to connect with americans, definitely need to use american english Rules if you are writing for canadiens, they speak british english If you're writing for people in singapore british english for the united states It's american english. So you write and there is a movement towards that But that movement and that moment has not come It has not come yet Now weakle in this business about noun and pronoun agreement is found in sentence four I have the best and most skilled team of any hosting company They know their craft team is what's called a collective noun that refers to a group of people But it is treated as a singular noun. You are my audience An audience is refers to a group of people But you use a singular noun singular pronoun singular word for The workarounds are there if you want to find them, but you can never say the audience are You cannot say the team knows their craft a team is singular Of course because you're referring back to team Absolutely now if you said team members, you know, it really is the trust me on this 17 votes 10 of which are about american english Punctuation grammar you can trust me on this. I'm sort of swing a williams Punctuation grammar. Okay, so but yeah team is singular Now if you're a comfortable referring to a group of people as a git and I personally am very Uncomfortable referring to people as it's then the the workaround is my team members That's easy Team members This is the rule of this moment in time in america english when the new york times goes and changes its rule I might consider changing my mind, but that moment has not come number five Actually, you know something i use what i call a american academic style, which is a blend of chicago new york times and We're not princeton university style. So this is what people use in content. This is what people use in novels New york times has newspaper style and when I should write for a newspaper, you're not going to use that style chicago Chicago's getting off the rails in some respects.  So this is a blend of this american academic style And it is modern and it is current and what people need to use so you look smart You look smart. That is the purpose of life Now I have to say number five is the only sentence i'm going to talk about about commas You're looking at a woman who can do a two-hour workshop about commas that properties of commas But obviously we don't have two hours. I won't talk to you about this because almost all websites include information that's biographical in nature If you ever say that you're from boston, massachusetts You need to put a comma after massachusetts unless it ends your sentence So here surely who likes to drink wine lives in baltimore, baltimore, maryland with her husband and two dogs She's got to have a comma after maryland. It is non-negotiable Yeah, that's one after surely too, yeah No, because if that's not really parenthetical information surely it's necessary to the to the sentence So if you pulled surely out you just said it's just any old exactly as wine enthusiasts So that's a good bit. So the wine enthusiast is the introductory element, but there's not a second comma after surely It wouldn't say surely comma a wine enthusiast comma lives in baltimore, maryland. You sure could you sure could That's another glass of work around but then because If the wine enthusiast just becomes the parenthetical information that can be taken out of the sentence completely So you then you end up with surely lives in baltimore, maryland, maryland Then you put the commas around the wine enthusiast because it's it's interesting but not necessary to the sentence Not necessary to the sentence Talk to me about commas. I'll tell you what I can talk about them all day long Okay Watch your spacing. Let's look at sentences six and seven These are both incorrect. So so far you might be seeing a trend. We've not seen a single solitary sentence. That's correct We have a great lineup of speakers Line up unfortunately is a verb phrase a line up The noun is one word One word And it's number seven Duncan is one of the founders of angus night set up Angus night a set up is a noun The verb phrase to set up these two words So those are both mistakes and those are both verb phrases I see used a lot line up set up Those are verb phrases that people are using you've got to watch your spaces on both of those Here's another sentence number eight Someone's looking to get my business because they have had testimonial on their website about WordPress hosting Problem with this sentence is they put a hyphen in fully managed Never put a hyphen after an ly adverb Never and unfortunately it sounds so right. It sounds like it should be joined But you never put an ly adverb After excuse me, you never hyphenate an ly adverb So this is incorrect because of that one mark of punctuation because of that hyphen Yeah, I don't remember what the sentence five to that is so I have to go back and look But for this far purposes the problem is the the hyphen Um, excuse me. I'm so sorry The question was they've been a perfect fit So gg was asking about vague and because I don't have the proceeding sentence in there to see if she was talking about a team Or a company or whatever. We don't know whether they was used correctly. Is that that's yeah, okay. Thank you. Okay Then number nine good lord Everybody is off the rails about capitalization I have clients who wants to capitalize the word visitors. He thinks he honors visitors by capitalizing The name the word visitor to honor them and make them feel more important. All it does is make him look Illiterate because you don't capitalize something unless it's a proper noun or part of a proper phrase So why in the world would you want to say you are passionate with a capital P? Because passionate is absolutely not a proper noun cannot have that happen But then on the flip side people are capitalizing proper now I have a news for you the word dumpster is a proper noun And so is the word google because even though that might be sometimes used as a world nowadays It is still a proper noun in this particular usage of google form I would absolutely recommend if you capitalize appropriately If you are in doubt check an online dictionary to see if that word Xerox I'm going to go Xerox.  Those are both proper nouns They're a trademark noun you have to be precise the rule in this situation Absolutely shouldn't be capitalized 11 So far we haven't found anything that's correct Are we going to? 11 oh, I see this a lot EG is the problem in this particular sentence EG is always always always always followed by a comma No exceptions whatsoever ID and EG always not followed by commas now et cetera You know something we are so pressed for time. I'm not going to talk two minutes about the word et cetera Because it's it's interesting whole things interesting. So please put a comma after EG and ID All right Yes Can you tell us the difference between ID and EG? Okay, sure. Okay, I'll ask the camp. EG means for example Okay, there's a lot of praise for which is a statement right now But I always recommend because E and example start with the same same way So EG means for example and ID means for in other words So I in other words. This is how I keep them straight Okay, so those are the best of difference and they're not interchangeable. They're actually not you need to know the difference in those two terms That's well I love the sense. I'm going to read the whole thing Creating quality content that engages the customer and it's also a key word rich while portraying the branding of your company Is key to having a successful website Now I'm going to tell you who's going to hire somebody who writes this Can't spell have a can't spell successful and you know something else They didn't bother to put it in word because these are both red line red line Which means they cannot be published and yet I've often write off a word press to go for his website Would I hire that person going back to my original $250 a second Questions I would not hire that person if you can't spell you're not getting my business I'm so sorry But you know something after I told you to use word you can't trust word You can't trust word This is why the union brain will always be superior to the computer in so many respects because here we have two sentences with what are called hominems a hominem is One pair sometimes three actually that are spelled differently meaning different things, but pronounce the same Okay, so if you're thinking your words if you're not paying attention you're spelling you've got to be careful Because the first the first sentence insure I am Ensure with an eye is only into the context of insurance car insurance boat insurance motorcycle insurance You need ensure the end to make sure something to make a certain of something Well, no that doesn't really work. Think about the think about the sentence context. It's not It's not quite where it should be Ensure And then peak who knows how to spell peak the way this needs to be spelled. Yes, ma'am Exactly exactly. So this is another form of misspelling and it's another example of somebody who wasn't paying attention To his or her writing because it sounds right, but it's not All right This is a little deep dive only deep dive on the lab myself for my 40 minute boot camp Okay, I'm gonna talk about quotation marks. I've seen them all over the place today And I see them all in the place in American in wordpress sites and this is america. We've already discussed this. I'm going to look at 15 60 and 15 and 16 for now Okay, when you are in america and you are writing for americans You always need with double quotes And I'm going to tell you what there are no exceptions to this None of these things actually I'm talking about today have exceptions Or I'm going to be talking about double quotes You always skip off the double quote. So if you write something about one size fits all we leave off the single quotes You might be writing for a british audience, but you are incorrect for an american audience So you've got to have double quotes one size fits all now The other rule that I want you all to look at is number 16 in america in america When you have quotation marks, they are always placed outside periods and commas and I mean always no exception always periods and commas quotation marks are outside semi colons and colons the quotation marks are inside and question marks And exclamation points depend on the context of the sentence, but just don't worry about that right now We're only talking about periods and commas Quotation marks, double quotation marks, single quotation marks, all quotation marks outside periods and commas Now this is really interesting. Oh, yeah, I think I already said all this I don't know. You know, I do want to mention this really quick because grammarly is so well known Grammarly Anyway, grammarly is wrong on so many accounts and here's one of them Grammarly says that quotation marks always have to be impaired And if you look at that sort of superficially, you'll think, oh, yeah, of course, they have to be always in pairs No, no, no, no I want you to pull off any novel you happen to have on your show And I want you to notice that if you speak into or if you have a character who speaks into a second paragraph There is no end quote, which means they're not in pairs All right, I want to look at 17 this is something I made up I'm going to take all credit for this. I'm going to talk about the rule of pot because this tells you When you need to use quotation marks and when you use need to use italics Okay, what do you think about a pot? I want you to imagine your favorite flavor of mine happens to be key lime pot Big old pot you can slice a pot All right, when you have used to be in my time a record album Okay, but the newspaper a magazine if you can divide the pot a pot The pie itself is put into italics So the new york times isn't italics, but the pieces of the pie are in quotation marks So the article in the new york times is in quotation marks, but the new york times is in italics The article in the magazine the song title those pieces those divisions of the pie are in quotation marks But the record album title is in italics So when you say that you invented the internet It doesn't really sound like I have a lot of faith in you because how I invented the internet should be in italics italics Now 18 I want to talk about because I may have a stick on this and somehow the hyphen between 8 and 8 Did not show up, but there are two correct ways to show time in American English The first one is to use lowercase no spacing, but periods You always have your 330 space a period m period Or I don't want to use top of the hour Colon zero zero. I think that covers my pros. So I'll just say four space Lowercase p period lowercase m period. That's how you can do that one style The other way is to do uppercase with no periods But there's always going to be a space between your number and your am or p You see that mistake a lot We haven't found anything correct yet 19 Here's some sloppy writing This led to Liam Transition from a career Well, gosh, it looks like a missing word there. Uh, this led to Liam's transition From a career or maybe so Liam transitioning from a career But leah did not choose to transition from a career. You know, that's absolutely wrong and a careful edit a careful Check double check with pot that and number 20 our marketing programs are what Maybe are a re but they're not our custom tailor So so far we've gone through 20 questions. We have not found one that is correct So this is a 21 question quiz Where's our 21st question? Where's our 21st sentence? Where is it? Where is the other? What There we go. That's right those missing words Gosh darn it. They are a you know what's a fine They're so hard to see because they're not there Good discretion. So we've gone through 21 sentences and none of these were correct none of them But I told you I promised you that I would have you thinking like an editor So let's go ahead and think like an editor One thing I see is I look at this as a piece as a piece of writing. I see One sentence in here that's boldly And one of the big bug boots of writing you've got to be correct You've got to be compelling and you've got to be consistent So if this is of a piece I would expect that all Those words are going to be in the same font in the same type of font and if I saw a bold like this I'd wonder why I'd wonder why so I would consider that as an editor a mistake There's something else that's a little more profound. Maybe more subtle that I want to see maybe caught Maybe catch something else you want to tell me about There's something really stinky in this prose And if everybody says uncle I'll tell you what it is because when you see it, I guarantee you will not unsee it This is the joy of being an editor because once you see this stuff, it just comes up and slaps you outside of the head No, no, I'm sorry. There's anything up in the headline. That's my deal and it's not that Oh, that blabbers me too, but you know something ladies, that's not it. That's just me Okay, yeah, I'll tell you what I'll give you a hint 15 60 and 17 is where these mistakes are found Okay, so everybody says uncle. We've got three different kinds of quotation marks in this We've got directional two different kinds of directional and then we've got one kind of non-directional Ouch, that is not good writing.  You've got to establish a style saying this is our farm This is the way we're going to tell time and we're going to do it throughout Throughout and maybe you've changed from client to client. Maybe one client will have a preference But you must Establish style You really must otherwise your writing is going to be all over the place It's anybody in here work for a company that has a style guide You've got one man. We've got two ladies back here. We've got another gentleman and They got something Oh, okay. Well, that's that's that's dangerous place to be That's dangerous place to be so I would suggest that you all consider Tell me the powers that be at your company that your company needs to establish a style guide A style that is imposed on not only your material from your own website, but for everybody else's Correct Consistent compelling the consistency is where you find the excellence So here's a little bit closer to my Conduct it If anybody else has accomplished it in this room, I pity you because it is just like driving A tin can with a sewing machine engine. I've never driven in such a bad car But pretty soon I'm going to be driving around so sporty and serisota Looking like an editor and it's all going to be spelled correctly. Believe it. Believe it So circle back to work Please does not care About anything to do with the foundation of tents I would tell you frankly that things do change though There's always going to be a frothy leading edge to tennis and to our language for example when I began to play tennis back in the 60s We all have to wear white Now I didn't say we had to be white. I said we had to wear white Now obviously changed in tennis a lot of things have changed in tennis A lot of things have changed in English language since I was playing tennis I will tell you that what we've done today Well, we've looked at today and even though we only got from one quiz I was a little ambitious Even though they only got from one quiz what I told you are principles that you can take for the bank We can have a fist fight with your boss if you go back to the office And he or she tells you that this is not the way to go because this is where excellence lies This is where professionalism lies and I guarantee you if you post style on the content You look professional And you will make money Perhaps even 250 dollars a second Thank you all for being here I guess we probably have a couple minutes maybe Two minutes all right sir you got a question As you said earlier that through a bunch of times I'm actually speaking in Brunswick probably in May It's the 10th anniversary of my first book Which is Al Brunswick So I'll be up doing an editing workshop Their paper is terrible I know and I do find mistakes in the New York Times from time to time And I have a hotline to the senior editor We go back and forth Well Brunswick you only have to look Really? Because they're there I'm sorry and that just shows you the decline The precipitous decline of editorial standards But that's okay because we are going to raise the bar That's why I flew up here Because we are going to start to raise the bar About American English translation grammar Sir you had a question I did Yeah I'm rummaging through my recollection I had a habit of wrapping E, G and I, E in parentheses In the middle of a sentence Now you could You actually could But I wouldn't you wouldn't you're not wrapping like Parenthesis E, period G, period Parenthesis No the whole string Absolutely And that's actually the best way to do it Is the most proper way Is to put E, G and I in parentheses Because it's basically an editorial aside For example these things Yeah What I need to say is this So that's actually the most correct Yeah You're right Yes Yeah exactly Yes I On the yellow sheet We do the center round of the ready prep sentences Oh gosh Do I have to tell If you want to take your yellow sheet home and do it at your leisure Everything you covered is on the yellow sheet and And I will say It's if I force when you're You're hurting me Of yeah I'm in no correct sentences on the yellow sheet But I'm hoping that if you look at it you can know now Why the sentences aren't correct So please take that home and use it And then if I put a rat card I point it out Got it passed out That has all this stuff So it had actually passed out a cheat sheet For the entire test With that rat card But that's okay Anybody else I'll be here all day You're going to need some weird or pain question You want to ask me I'm going to add you What's the table T.T and I had that joke really Yes one more I didn't understand on sentence 16 The quotations and the commas I didn't understand what you were saying Like what is the first answer for number 16 16 Okay well 16 Oh the quotation mark should be outside the comma So it should go work for higher comma Yes yes Okay No exceptions to that rule Yeah that's an easy one Yeah it's high It's actually And it's always a double quotation Regular use of single quotation A single quotation is a quote with a quote So if I'm saying And then she said I can't believe it So I say Liz said And then she said So Liz said comma quote And then I'm going to quote somebody else Okay so I'm talking And then I'm quoting what she said I can't believe it So quote Single quote Because what you're trying to do Is you're trying to communicate to your reader Where someone is speaking Stops and someone else's starts So that way if you use single quotes You're queuing your reader That whoever's speaking is now quoting Exactly someone else That's why I need to use that So it's double quote Ba ba ba ba Single quote And quote Single quote Okay so quote And quote Double quote The blooms in this are very important I hope that I touched you through that So you've always You've got double quotes around it The larger thing and the single quotes Around the quote you can have inside Very hard to imagine right now Sorry That's a good one Yeah thank you I'm actually It's supposed to be for a song title But not It's supposed to be for a song title And then it'll be out It's supposed to be for 18 songs Okay here My favorite song on Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark is Court and Spark My favorite song on Joni Mitchell's album Court and Spark That's italicized But I just told you it's album Is the song Court and Spark So the song Court and Spark explodes But remember we're just trying to communicate With our readers We're trying to tell them what's going on Let's take the wordpress Phoenix And a big Big more of Phoenix Because they might give me two hours To do this program And not play with anyone else Yes Are you finished? Yeah Yeah Okay so our next speaker is here Are you the next speaker? All right great Thank you so much everyone


This panel is going to talk about U.S. policy toward the South China Sea. We have experts from several different countries, and so it should be an interesting discussion. The first panelist is our colleague from CSIS, Bonnie Glazer, who is a senior advisor for Asia and the Freeman Chair in Asia Studies. Bonnie. Good morning. This is a short panel, and we've only been given 10 minutes, so all of what I'll be saying today will obviously be brief, but if you are interested in reading more of the details, you can read my paper, which is essentially not so much about U.S. policy as it is U.S. strategy. I think we've heard quite a bit about U.S. policy this morning and yesterday. I think what the United States is trying to do is to lower tensions over these territorial disputes and create an environment in which the disputes can be managed peacefully and potentially be resolved over the course of time. Increasingly, there is concern about Chinese behavior, which is seen as undermining these objectives. And so I see the United States as designing a strategy that is seeking to change China's cost-benefit calculus, basically to persuade Beijing that using intimidation and coercion against its neighbors has a very high cost. This is not an easy thing to do, and it remains to be seen whether the United States is going to be successful. But what I have done in my papers essentially outline several components of this strategy, and I will just go into a few of the elements that I think are especially notable. First I would begin with a change in rhetoric, which we have seen from the United States this year. Much more clearly calling out China for its behavior. I would really trace this to, even after the implementation of the ADIZ in the East China Sea last November. But you can see this quite clearly in the Assistant Secretary Danny Russell's testimony that he gave in February in which he voiced firm opposition to the use of intimidation, coercion, or force to assert a territorial claim. And then we saw more recently, again in Assistant Secretary Russell's remarks to Congress on U.S.-China relations, where he maintained that China's actions are raising tensions and damaging China's international standing, and talked about the nine-dash line being inconsistent with international law. So we increasingly are hearing some sharp remarks pointing a finger more so than in the past at Chinese behavior. The second element that I want to highlight is the U.S. effort to mobilize support for the right of nations to use international legal dispute mechanisms that we have been hearing about as the Philippines has with this recent case. So not only has the United States itself not taken side, but strongly endorsed the right of Manila to avail itself of the mechanisms that exist under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. But the United States has encouraged other countries to do that as well. So you can see when President Obama was in Malaysia in the joint statement that was signed there was an endorsement of countries' rights to use international arbitration. At the Shangri-La Dialogue there was a trilateral statement signed by the U.S., Japan, and Australia. So actually, the first time that Australia in writing had endorsed the right of nations to use international arbitration, the G7 leader statement is yet another example, Japan and Germany have separately supported the Philippines' right to launch this case as well as the European Parliament. A third element is bolstering U.S. military presence and capabilities in the region, and there is obviously a great deal the U.S. has been doing. Now the signing of the 10-year enhanced defense cooperation agreement with the Philippines, there are steps the U.S. is taking unilaterally to bolster its presence. But one thing that is really worth highlighting here is the growing willingness of the U.S. to deploy some assets when tensions rise over a specific area. So we saw in the case of the Second Thomas Shoal, where there was a Navy P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft that was deployed. And then recently in the case of the Chinese oil rig deployed off the power cells, there are also, there is also evidence that the U.S. was flying P-3 surveillance aircraft. So I think this is signaling U.S. desire to have a peaceful resolution of disputes and to try to deter coercion. A fourth element is supporting enhancing defensive capabilities of allies and partners. This is mostly the Philippines and Vietnam, and I think we have heard a good deal about this yesterday. U.S. maritime security assistance to Southeast Asia overall will exceed 156 million in the 2014-2015 timeframe. And Secretary of Defense Hegel talked about this at length in his speech to the Shangri-La dialogue. A fifth element is backing multilateral frameworks for cooperation, risk reduction, and dispute resolution, the code of conduct, of course, being a central part of that. Encouraging Southeast Asian claimants to work together is also, I think, an increasingly important element of this strategy. So to the extent that the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia, which have already gotten together once and may get together again to coordinate some of their actions, this is something that is seen by the United States as helpful. The U.S. is also, of course, supporting models of management of disputes, such as the decision by Indonesia and the Philippines to delimitate their exclusive economic zone, and that just took place recently. So promoting examples of good behavior, good management, or even resolutions of disputes. And then, as we heard from Michael Fuchs this morning, the Deputy Assistant Secretary, this is, I see, is increasingly a new component of this U.S. strategy, putting forward very specific suggestions of confidence-building measures or conflict-avoidance measures. And this idea of freezing construction for having all the states identify what are the provocations that they don't want to be taken against them and put together a list and then all agree on them, this is essentially, I think, what Danny Russell described when he was at the ASEAN senior officials meeting in Yangon. This is something that I think is an outgrowth of growing U.S. frustration about the slow pace of China-ASEAN discussions over the Code of Conduct. So what we see is the U.S. taking a more proactive role, putting forward proposals, even though I know that Danny Russell called it informal. It's not an official proposal, and of course the United States is not a party to this dispute, but we are looking, I think, to put forward ideas that might be helpful in lower intentions. So there are a few others that I will not go into because of time, but I will close by saying that U.S. strategy towards the South China Sea and managing these disputes is continuing to evolve in response to rising tensions in these territorial disputes and particularly, as I mentioned, what is seen as unhelpful and destabilizing Chinese actions. The real goal of the strategy is to persuade China that its salami-slicing tactics, its intimidation against its neighbors, its efforts to change the status quo in the South China Sea and in its favor, are really counterproductive and self-defeating, and that they really don't serve Chinese interests over the long run. The U.S. is seeking to shape China's policy choices by increasing the cost to Beijing of using coercion against its neighbors and potentially even flouting international law. What are the possible costs for China? They include deteriorating relations with its neighbors, a tarnished image as a nation that violates international law, closer ties, including of course military cooperation between the United States and China's neighbors, and increased U.S. diplomatic, military, and security involvement in the South China Sea dispute, which I think that the U.S. hopes, which China hopes to not see. Nevertheless, changing Beijing's calculus of the cost and benefits of its strategy to advance its interest in the South China Sea is not going to be easy. Asserting Chinese claims I think is very, very popular domestically in China, and it is bolstering Chinese Communist Party legitimacy. So as my Chinese friends tell me, it may not be supported outside of Chinese borders, but it's very much supported by the Chinese people. There is a narrative in China that all other claimants have advanced their interests, they're all drilling for oil, and China is the country that was moderate, conciliatory, tried to shelve disputes and promote joint development while everybody else took advantage of that moderation. Xi Jinping I think places great emphasis on building China's maritime power. We heard this discussed yesterday, and he has repeatedly said that he will not compromise or make concessions on disputes over sovereignty and territorial integrity. And I think that the Chinese are betting that U.S. willingness to intervene in South China Sea territorial disputes will be limited, and that their neighbors will eventually accommodate to Chinese interests. So this is a strategy that the U.S. is pursuing that is not going to certainly see results overnight. It's going to take some time, and the jury is still out as to whether or not it will be successful. Thank you. Thank you very much, Bonnie. Our next speaker is Dr. Zhu Shulong, who is a professor of political science and international relations at the School of Public Policy and Management at Jinyuan University. He's also the deputy director of the Institute of International Strategic Development Studies at the same school. Okay, thank you, chair. My topic is also talking about the Chinese will, about the U.S. policy in South China Sea. Certainly I should see a lot of Chinese wills, because there are a lot of people in China. But I'll try to see the mainstream will, official will, and the mainstream academic will. And we see that U.S. policy or strategic opposition to South China Sea is not limited to the South China Sea issue. It's coming from a larger strategic thinking. Certainly a bigger country, excellent as a foreign strategic framework. And we see that U.S. strategy in South China Sea has a lot to do with the rebalancing strategy since 2010. And we see the cultural or effective release of the South China Sea situation. And the U.S. paper strategy has been a joint force. And in other words, U.S. has caused the tensions higher growing in China Sea in recent years, intentionally or not intentionally. The single factor is that tensions over South China Sea certainly become much higher in the last three or four years, since U.S. adopt paper with the strategy. Specifically, since Secretary Clinton's Hanoi speech, July 10, 2010 led the cause. So a lot of Chinese see that U.S. intended to trigger troubles in South China Sea by the paper with the strategy. And the big background of this led that I have with the bondage laser others, I have working to understand U.S. foreign policy for three decades. So I always try to compare this administration Asian policy with the previous democratic administration with Clinton, President Clinton. I remember well at the time, which is 30 or 40 years ago, American Asian strategy based on three payrolls, economic interest, democracy and human rights, and the security. But from period of the strategy of the last couple of years, we hear too much talking about security. We don't hear too much talking about democracy and human rights in Asia. Or economic development cooperation. TPP is just two years new. And to my observation, there has been little progress. So U.S. rebalancing strategy in Asia Pacific in the last three or four years, focusing too much heavily dependent on security issues. Or in other words, dependent on the troubles, problems, disputes among Asian countries. And we see that U.S. use that to maintain its leading or dominated role in Asia to maintain its alliance. So this is intentionally strategic to increase tensions, to trigger tensions in South China Sea. So U.S. is behind those disputes. It's intended to do it. Second, the Chinese view that U.S. strategy in South China Sea is unbalanced. Unbalanced is not reasonable. It's not objective. And it's a great bias. The reason we said that there is that we hear these two days. I didn't know here yesterday, today, that any American official as per the KSA anything wrong over other countries. We hear all the days, two days. Everything wrong is by Chinese. So there's only by the guy in Asia. That is China. All other good guys. So this has been years practice American Asian policy, including South China Sea policy, that when any other data something wrong or Philippines send the largest military ships to Huangyang Island, April 2012, and U.S. capital science or Vietnam policy, you know, you know, in a letter of law, China State School, or any others. We didn't know here American government to say anything. All the constructions by others on the rocks or reefs controlled by the U.N.A. or by Malaysia, by the Philippines. We do not see pictures. So here on the picture we saw that construction are Chinese. We never see here or U.S. that construction by others. So this is a great bias unreasonable, unfair treatment that China cannot accept. And here there are a lot of talking about international law. Yes, as a professor political science, I must say China is still far away from our lower country, both internal and external. So China should make a greater effort. But also think U.S. is no, is in no position to talking about international law. It's not in position to lecture others because U.S. has not a participant. A lot of international law. We said about the like the CDPT treaty, not approved like we said about international crime court. U.S. is not a part of that. We talk about the UNC convention or even some human rights international convention. U.S. is not a part of that. So U.S. is just talking about the international law to require others when it's needed and feel free when it does not need international law for itself, including Iraq war. And Bonnie talked a lot about against opposing Chinese using force or coercion. But I think U.S. did the most, including yesterday afternoon talking and the minutes ago Bonnie talking about U.S. going to deploy, already deployed a greater military force in China Sea to threaten China. So what we should call this? It's also a use of force, threaten use of force. It's also coercion. So in the past 20 years I should say that U.S. is the country used military make a most war in the world. I think U.S. used most coercion in the world, including Iraq, including a lot of other countries. Last point, I think a part of U.S. strategy Bonnie calls use of the term on South China Sea whole age about China. It's based on the misassessment about China and about Xi Jinping himself. We hear the talking yesterday, today. And I think now it's a problem for Americans, officials, and academics to see that China is increasingly become assertive, provocative, aggressive, and because of rising China, including rising China's military power spending or maritime strategy to become a maritime power. So I think China is rising, there's no doubt.  China is not just a continental country. But I'll carefully follow every speech that the President Xi Jinping gave me since he took power as a top leader of China. I found that there's nothing major new from his internal and external policies in the past half and one year, one year and a half. It's basically a continuation of previous leadership of 18-party congress, 17-party congress, those policy lines, strategic line. And the only new, something major new from him is anti-corruption efforts in China. Economic reform, external policy are basically a continuation. I think this is a matter of assessment, a matter of vision of study. As a scholar in China, watching Chinese politics from policy and reading seven Chinese newspapers every day in 20 years, they did not find major things new from Xi Jinping, from this leadership. So I think this overstatement eages a reason in the U.S. both in government and academic circle about the assessment about Chinese trends, Chinese intention.  Certainly, there are a lot of misunderstanding in China about U.S. internal and external policy. But here, from these days, last time today, and from reading American's speech, new speech, I see they are strong eages a reason about China that we do not see, like China in South China. And this is partly, I should say, as my last words, I used to talk with Brookings friends nearby and others. This is very much because that most Americans, even American experts on Chinese studies, use little Chinese to read Chinese, to understand Chinese. You basically use English. I'm not about that. Just as in China, how Chinese can really understand American society, people, culture, history, politics without using English, just using Chinese. So I think this is one of the sources of misunderstanding as a reason, bias, and others are dancing to political interests from policy interests. Let me stop here. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much, Professor Chu Shulong. Our next speaker is Vice Admiral Yoji Koda. He's a retired Vice Admiral from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces. Vice Admiral? Thank you, Chair. I'm not a professor. I'm not a PhD holder. I was just a lazy, sloppy sailor. So what I'm going to tell you now is just the simple sailor's view on South China Sea. But the important thing is many of you overlooked my point. So this is a kind of the indication and warning to you, especially the leadership in Washington, DC. You are familiar with, so this is the real complication of the South China Sea. And just the quick history, the northern part, the Paracels, the medium-sized skirmish in 1974. Since then, China has been exercising its practical control over the islands. Sorry for that mis, but this is the reality. And the southern part spread east. Before 1988, China has no footprint. But one day skirmish in 1988, China started spreading its footprint. This is the reality, or at least what we understand. So the point is 1988. And then, since the China exercise is the northern part of its practical control, I'd like to focus mainly on the southern part. There are about 40 islands to rocks and sea mountains. And among them, only 13 is good for human activities. How many? Six belongs to the Philippines. Five belongs to Vietnamese, Taiwan one and Malaysia one. The circled islands is the larger one. Larger than four football fields. Those are the only 13 islands in the area. And China exercise no practical control over all 13. And this is a breakdown. China claims all the islands, except one Vietnamese claims 12. And this is the complication. And four of them, there are small airstrips, spread east, under Vietnam, five meters, and the Philippines, a pretty long 1800 meters. And the Taiwan 1200 meters. And the swirl islands, about 1300 meters. These are the real strategic spot in the southern part. Please remember this. And one more. In the northern part, or what we call the eastern approach of the South China Sea, closer to Bashi and Luzon Strait, there are Taiwanese-controlled Platas Islands. And there are three larger reefs. But only one larger leaf under Taiwanese control, that's the Platas Islands. And there are about 1500 meters of runway. So those are the five larger islands with airstrips, good for military use. So in my definition, these are the strategic strongholds. And which China does not have any practical control. Please remember this. And then recent event, I don't cover. The Chinese Wild Attempt in May, or the Second Thomas, we've discussed a lot. And James Scholl, that harassed Malaysia, we also discussed. Please forget about that. This is really what happened. But one thing we overlooked was the Johnson South and Scarborough Scholl. We know that. But why do I say we overlooked? This is the point. Johnson South used to be under this Vietnamese control. And 1988 skirmish, this is the island where China fought against Vietnamese and seized the island, or actually the reef. And just in the end of last year, the Filipino government released the news that reclamation of the Johnson South island is ongoing. So please take some time and think about the real meaning. In the southern part, as I mentioned, I'm repeatedly mentioning that China exercised no practical control over the larger island. In the northern part, parcels, the story is different. There is larger or largest Hainan island and Udi island, famous Udi island, under the Chinese control. Very good for the strategic use. And southern part, just the Johnson reef under Chinese control, and Scarborough Scholl, that China started exercising the practical control from 2012. So this is the Udi island. In the parcels, there are 2,500 meters runway and huge area, good for the military use. This is northern part. And the Johnson South location is there. This is the tiny reef, not tiny, 4.5 kilometers north to south, 2 kilometers east to west, large. This is what happened. You know that. I'll skip. And this is the peak, okay. Pretty weak, but you see some red line on the right picture, right? That's the potential area for the reclamation of China. If this is completed, this is the Chinese conceptual art, but this is the island after completion of the reclamation. There will be another 2,500 meter long runway with parallel taxiway and several port facilities. Okay. This is the Johnson and please think about the position. That's in the middle of the splatteries, where China has no control. Then why China took the Scarborough Scholl in 2012? What was the real reason? Is it for the seabed resources? No, sea is too deep, 4,000 meters. For fishery resources, not so. The simple adventurism to expand its territory? No. Location will be the key. And the size of the show is the key. Northwest to southeast, about 15 kilometers. And the yellow part is my concept. If I were the Beijing planner, I would landfill that area and construct the 3 kilometers runway with the deep waters 10 to 20 meters depth. That accommodates all the warships. And think about the location. That's only several hundred kilometers west of Manila or the eastern part of the South China Sea. Okay. This is what I said. So the land filling after the Johnson South in this island would be the game changer for the overall strategies. Okay. And this is my last picture, but yeah. Think about the distance. Okay. Sanya to Udi Island, 700 kilometers. Udi Island to Scarborough show 650. Johnson South 900. This means if China uses those 3 islands as a stepping stone, China will be able to exercise its military control, strategic control, and economic control in this South China Sea. This is my estimate. And China is already doing the reclamation in Johnson South. And if this is successful, China will surely go to the Scarborough. This is the real reason of the Chinese strong appetite for the Scarborough. This is the strategic meaning or simple sailor's thought. But I think this is convincing. And what should we do? We should stop. There are many things, but I'd like to emphasize only one thing. This is a huge distraction of the nature, great nature. Okay.  Do we overlook? Perhaps not. What the Greenpeace is doing, they do nothing. We are ready. Thanks. Thank you very much, Vice Admiral Koda. Our next speaker is Dr. Charmaine Misaulucha, who is an assistant professor and international studies department at DeSalle University in the Philippines. She's currently a visiting research fellow at the Osaka School of International Public Policy in Osaka, Japan. Thank you very much and good morning to everybody. I'm very honored and privileged to be here today and I thank CSIS for inviting me to be part of this annual event. My task, the task that has been given to me is to identify Southeast Asian responses to U.S. policy in the South China Sea. What I do is that I put the situation into context and argue that our responses and therefore the future trajectories of the dispute are based on particular ways of understanding regional and international dynamics. As a consequence, focus is placed on great power politics at the expense of the small states of Southeast Asia. Indeed, in most of the literature, Southeast Asia is seen simply as an adjunct to great power calculations or just the sight of a likely confrontation. In this case, Southeast Asian views become nothing more but knee-jerk reactions to policies of extra-regional actors. Against this backdrop, I identify two things that are required for Southeast Asia to play a more active role in improving regional dynamics. First, we need to acknowledge that current projections, while valid, rely on assumptions that are biased towards the interactions of the United States and China. Without the active involvement of Southeast Asia, existing policies and conflict management strategies will be less effective. Second, we also need to acknowledge that the engagement policies that are in place today need adjustment. The motivations for engagement need to shift from protecting strict strategic interests, such as promoting sovereignty over islands, to protecting the global commons, such as ensuring the sustainability of the ecology and marine biosphere. In line with this, the analysis that I present here proceeds as follows. I present two scenarios that are based on current understandings of the South China Sea issue. And second, I present an alternative scenario, which is centered on a more active Southeast Asian role. So the first scenario revolves around the idea that increased tensions also means a reduction of security. In academia, this is a basic formula for the security dilemma, where the drive to security generates insecurity from other states due to uncertainty about others' motivations and the availability of imperfect information. This engenders mistrust and misperception. And in line with this logic, we seem to see that China and Southeast Asia are seeking to maximize their security. And in a situation where motivations are unclear, each side takes measures that are misperceived as offensive and that ironically generate insecurity. The mitigation of the security dilemma depends on an outside arbiter, in this case, the United States. The region supports U.S. commitment, and this is seen in a very positive light. It, after all, the presence of the U.S., after all, shifts the balance of power in the region. But at the same time, we also realize that this is costly and unsustainable. The cyclical nature of the action-reaction spiral necessitates extensive and prolonged commitments by outside powers to ensure regional security. This can prove to be too heavy a burden and can lead to overstretch. The second scenario that I present centers on the idea that the more powers there are, the more likely conflict will occur. And those of us in academia will realize that this is the embodiment or the epitome of the power transition theory, where calculations are made about the existence of a hegemon and a dissatisfied rising power that challenges the status quo. China's growth is seen as an indicator of how it will soon surpass the U.S. The mitigation of the effects of power transition include the following options, balancing, containment, or engagement, which is my focus here. The objectives of engagement include discovering preferences of the targeted state, shaping those preferences in certain directions, and creating international institutions that can benefit the parties involved. There are reasons, however, why the current engagement policies we have towards China are less than optimal. The first reason is that we often see engagement as being an end in itself. Moreover, we also see engagement more often than not as a one-way street. We seem to assume that the targeted state, in this case China, is unaware of the behavior modification strategies aimed against it. In sum, the two scenarios that I presented here are generalized versions of current understandings about China's role in the South China Sea dispute. Clearly, Southeast Asia needs to figure more prominently and be an active stakeholder in the maintenance of the regional security architecture. This therefore calls for an alternative scenario. The alternative scenario that I put forth is by no means radical. It builds on what are currently in place. I only mean to draw attention and shift attention, I mean, to the motives behind engagement instead of focusing strictly on strategic gains. This modified variant of socialization is oftentimes referred to as communicative or complex engagement. This revolves around the idea that behavior modification is a two-way process, not necessarily one-way. Recognizing this possibility allows for a more central role for Southeast Asia. Now, the question is, how do we do this? We can do this by first identifying the current sentiments of Southeast Asia. For the Philippines, we welcome the U.S. rebalance, but we hope to make the relationship with our treaty ally less one-sided. The currently signed enhanced EDCA is seen as a progress, a step in the right direction, because this features the development of the Philippines' minimum credible defense posture. Vietnam hopes to transform its relationship with the U.S. to a strategic partnership instead of only a comprehensive partnership. Malaysia and Brunei are quieter claimants in the dispute as they are more reluctant to draw attention to their own disputes. Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand are described as anxious claimants as they are all dependent on the flow of shipping through the Malacca Straits. Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos are seen to be disinterested parties, primarily because they have no direct claims, but also they are seen as, they are very close Chinese allies. ASEAN as an organization wants the U.S. involved primarily as a balancer. So in this sense, the U.S. is seen as in a positive light across the region, but, and this is the caveat, extensive prolonged and indefinite commitment on the part of the U.S. is not in the best interest of any of the parties. Also, the involvement of non-claimant extra-regional actors endangers the fragile stability in the region. Also, this defeats the empowerment of small states to manage regional powers and crises. So it is therefore imperative to infuse agency to Southeast Asia. A proactive region is needed. This is achievable by deepening the links, Southeast Asian links with each other, increasing interoperability, and being more involved in multilateral forms. This is the heart of communicative engagement. It generates common interpretations and mutual expectations and is at bottom, really, an exercise in confidence building. And I argue in my paper that forms like this help a lot in building relationships. So in conclusion, there is value in reexamining our current understandings about the South China Sea. A careful review of the foundations of states' policies reveals that the ways in which we address the crisis are biased towards the continued role of the U.S. in the region. This is costly and impractical. Hence, an alternative solution lies in a more active role by Southeast Asia. This can be achieved by modifying pre-existing policies from strategic or self-interested engagement to communicative or complex engagement. The adjusted variant values dialogue and confidence building measures more than short-term bargains. In this regard, forms such as this are critical to the creation and fostering of relationships where the exchange of ideas outside and beyond the walls of the states can flourish. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Misalucha. So we have a few minutes for questions. So please raise your hand, wait for a mic, you know, the drill, identify yourself. Please, Andre. Thank you. I'm Andre Silverjell and I am the Chief Representative in Vietnam for the Interstate Traveller Company, businessman in other words. But wonderful discussion. I guess my question is really directed to Dr. Chulam to better answer my question and that is this. Out of there a couple days of really sophisticated discussion by lawyers and it's been brought out that China has a great sophistication and understanding of some international law such as the flexibility that China showed in entering the World Trade Organization. So my question is why doesn't China display a similar flexibility and sophistication in the South China Sea? And until I hear your answer, sir, my own inductive leap, my conclusion would be that actually Admiral Kota actually gave the answer when he described this of the game changer in just simply the physical geopolitical power that China can exert over other countries. And so that's the reason that I can conclude. But what is your answer, sir? Thank you for the question. I think that most of the Chinese do not trust the international law including UNC Convention can be helpful to resolve the disputes. It's because the conventional Chinese believe that those disputes, territory or territorial waters formed in 100,000 years in history, they were not formed by law, by trade, by contracts, by agreement in modern time. So today's law might not be good to apply the issues that developed long time in the past. So let us do the general will that this law might not be helpful. Because most of the territory disputes formed involved by history, not by trade, by agreement, by contract in the past, even region country between villages. So that is the fact. And you mentioned about the animal collars, the map, and mentioned those locations that emphasize. So you mentioned how I would react to. I think it's full of imagination whether it's going to be true to China or not, I think nobody can predict. But as scientific research, we should depend on the facts on empirical. I think the empirical fact that China has been major power country in Asia for thousands of years. But China never controlled in weight most of the part of Asia. There's only one country, it's your country, in weight control, most of the part of Asia. Thank you. Please back there. Hi, I'm Ian Henry from the Australian National University. Bonnie, you mentioned that the US has used PA Poseidon aircraft to assist the Philippines. I'm just wondering if you can expand upon that a little bit more. I don't think that's ever been publicly confirmed. And also for the panel, is there a sense that perhaps Japan has drawn any conclusions from the US response to the Scarborough Shoal? Some might characterize it as a fairly tepid response in 2012. And is there a sense perhaps in the Philippines that they're being treated differently under their alliance to Japanies, where Japan's received strong statements of support affirming that disputed territories fall under Article 5 of the US Japan Mutual Defense Treaty? Thank you. I don't know if there have been any confirmations by the US of its operations. But we have certainly seen many news reports, and in fact, photographs. I know I've seen some photographs taken by Vietnamese media of US surveillance aircraft that have been flying over the rig. And also in the case of Second Thomas Shoal, I've talked with Chinese Foreign Ministry officials who have told me that US assets are being deployed in these instances. So to the best of my knowledge, there's been no Navy assets that have been deployed close. I would think that they would be fairly far over the horizon, but I would guess that they are there as well. So anybody else want to answer the second part of this question? What Japan might have concluded from the US response to Scarborough Shoal? The year 2012, still Japan and the US didn't have enough information to estimate the Chinese intent. The first time, at least based on the open sources, the reclamation of the island was well known in late last year. So then that gave some hint about Chinese intent on Scarborough Shoal. So in this context, perhaps both US and Japan lost the first opportunity to really oppose the Chinese intent or wild attempt over the Scarborough Shoal too late. But the key question is how well should we regain our naval advantage over the Chinese wild attempt in this area? Because this is once lost show with the great potential of strategic use. So if we keep on accepting, practically accepting the Chinese control over the Scarborough Shoal, the situation will get worsen and worsen for Japan and the US side. So there is the huge area for both in Japan jointly develop the new strategy how to cope with this, you know, the Chinese attempt. And this is what I think we need at the urgent level. Thank you. Richard? Thank you. I'm Richard Cronin. I direct Southeast Asia program at the Stimson Center. I have a question primarily for Dr. Misalucha, but also secondarily for Bonnie Glaser. And that is that many of us in the room and certainly US policymakers and others are very frustrated that the Senate has never ratified on clause. And it's a real sore point and it's an advantage obviously for China in any debate to point that out. And so my question is really about, I know that you're trying, Dr. Misalucha, you're trying to focus on what ASEAN should do with itself. But I'm still wondering whether it couldn't be effective for ASEAN embassies and governments to, if you will, lobby with the United States, and particularly with the Senate on ratification of one clause. And because it's something, it's not neither right nor smart for the Obama administration to be going to the Senate and saying to a relative handful of senators on the conservative Republican side who oppose this on grounds of their feelings about the United Nations, et cetera. It wouldn't be smart or I think right for the Obama administration to be emphasizing the China factor as a reason for ratification. But the other countries in the region do subscribe to the same ideas of, share the same ideas of international law and international norms. And so I wonder how effective that might be. Thank you. Thank you for that question and anything. I personally think that that's a great idea. But we should also consider that the ASEAN states are still thinking as individual states, not as a monolithic entity. And that, I think, is one hurdle for the region. As long as they still keep on thinking as individual states rather than as a region, there won't be any unified lobby to convince the United States to ratify one clause. I would just add that it was heartening to hear early on in the Obama administration when Secretary Clinton said that she was going to get this done. And now, of course, President Obama said it in the West Point speech, but I don't see any strategy to really get this done in Congress either, as I think Mr. Reichler talked about. But nevertheless, I do think that we need to recognize that even though it is important for the United States to ratify unclose, that the United States nevertheless abides by it. And so I believe that even if we ratified it today, that U.S. behavior would in no way change. And so the U.S. activities, the way that we conduct our policy is very much consistent with the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. I regret that our time is up for this panel. I know there's a lot of questions on the floor. I feel really bad about that. But please join me in thanking the panelists.