A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global security
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0:00 - 0:05I'm gonna talk a little bit about open-source security,
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0:05 - 0:07because we've got to get better at security
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0:07 - 0:09in this 21st century.
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0:09 - 0:14Let me start by saying, let's look back to the 20th century,
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0:14 - 0:18and kind of get a sense of how that style of security
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0:18 - 0:19worked for us.
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0:19 - 0:23This is Verdun, a battlefield in France
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0:23 - 0:26just north of the NATO headquarters in Belgium.
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0:26 - 0:32At Verdun, in 1916, over a 300-day period,
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0:32 - 0:36700,000 people were killed,
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0:36 - 0:38so about 2,000 a day.
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0:38 - 0:42If you roll it forward -- 20th-century security --
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0:42 - 0:45into the Second World War,
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0:45 - 0:47you see the Battle of Stalingrad,
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0:47 - 0:51300 days, 2 million people killed.
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0:51 - 0:54We go into the Cold War, and we continue
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0:54 - 0:56to try and build walls.
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0:56 - 1:01We go from the trench warfare of the First World War
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1:01 - 1:04to the Maginot Line of the Second World War,
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1:04 - 1:07and then we go into the Cold War,
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1:07 - 1:09the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall.
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1:09 - 1:12Walls don't work.
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1:12 - 1:16My thesis for us today is, instead of building walls
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1:16 - 1:20to create security, we need to build bridges.
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1:20 - 1:22This is a famous bridge in Europe.
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1:22 - 1:24It's in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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1:24 - 1:26It's the bridge over the Drina River,
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1:26 - 1:29the subject of a novel by Ivo Andrić,
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1:29 - 1:31and it talks about how,
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1:31 - 1:35in that very troubled part of Europe and the Balkans,
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1:35 - 1:39over time there's been enormous building of walls.
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1:39 - 1:42More recently, in the last decade, we begin to see
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1:42 - 1:46these communities start, hesitatingly,
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1:46 - 1:47to come together.
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1:47 - 1:52I would argue, again, open-source security
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1:52 - 1:54is about connecting the international,
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1:54 - 1:58the interagency, the private-public,
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1:58 - 2:02and lashing it together with strategic communication,
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2:02 - 2:04largely in social networks.
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2:04 - 2:09So let me talk a little bit about why we need to do that,
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2:09 - 2:13because our global commons is under attack
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2:13 - 2:14in a variety of ways,
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2:14 - 2:18and none of the sources of threat to the global commons
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2:18 - 2:21will be solved by building walls.
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2:21 - 2:23Now, I'm a sailor, obviously.
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2:23 - 2:28This is a ship, a liner, clipping through the Indian Ocean.
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2:28 - 2:31What's wrong with this picture?
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2:31 - 2:34It's got concertina wire along the sides of it.
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2:34 - 2:37That's to prevent pirates from attacking it.
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2:37 - 2:40Piracy is a very active threat today
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2:40 - 2:43around the world. This is in the Indian Ocean.
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2:43 - 2:47Piracy is also very active in the Strait of Malacca.
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2:47 - 2:49It's active in the Gulf of Guinea.
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2:49 - 2:51We see it in the Caribbean.
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2:51 - 2:54It's a $10-billion-a-year discontinuity
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2:54 - 2:57in the global transport system.
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2:57 - 3:01Last year, at this time, there were 20 vessels,
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3:01 - 3:03500 mariners held hostage.
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3:03 - 3:07This is an attack on the global commons.
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3:07 - 3:10We need to think about how to address it.
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3:10 - 3:12Let's shift to a different kind of sea,
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3:12 - 3:15the cyber sea.
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3:15 - 3:18Here are photographs of two young men.
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3:18 - 3:20At the moment, they're incarcerated.
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3:20 - 3:26They conducted a credit card fraud that netted them
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3:26 - 3:29over 10 billion dollars.
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3:29 - 3:34This is part of cybercrime which is a $2-trillion-a-year
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3:34 - 3:37discontinuity in the global economy.
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3:37 - 3:38Two trillion a year.
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3:38 - 3:42That's just under the GDP of Great Britain.
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3:42 - 3:45So this cyber sea, which we know endlessly
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3:45 - 3:49is the fundamental piece of radical openness,
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3:49 - 3:53is very much under threat as well.
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3:53 - 3:56Another thing I worry about in the global commons
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3:56 - 3:59is the threat posed by trafficking,
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3:59 - 4:04by the movement of narcotics, opium,
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4:04 - 4:07here coming out of Afghanistan through Europe
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4:07 - 4:08over to the United States.
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4:08 - 4:11We worry about cocaine
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4:11 - 4:13coming from the Andean Ridge north.
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4:13 - 4:16We worry about the movement of illegal weapons
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4:16 - 4:19and trafficking. Above all, perhaps,
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4:19 - 4:23we worry about human trafficking, and the awful cost of it.
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4:23 - 4:25Trafficking moves largely at sea
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4:25 - 4:28but in other parts of the global commons.
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4:28 - 4:32This is a photograph, and I wish I could tell you
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4:32 - 4:37that this is a very high-tech piece of US Navy gear
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4:37 - 4:40that we're using to stop the trafficking.
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4:40 - 4:42The bad news is,
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4:42 - 4:47this is a semi-submersible run by drug cartels.
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4:47 - 4:51It was built in the jungles of South America.
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4:51 - 4:56We caught it with that low-tech raft — (Laughter) —
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4:56 - 5:00and it was carrying six tons of cocaine.
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5:00 - 5:05Crew of four. Sophisticated communications sweep.
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5:05 - 5:10This kind of trafficking, in narcotics, in humans, in weapons,
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5:10 - 5:13God forbid, in weapons of mass destruction,
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5:13 - 5:16is part of the threat to the global commons.
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5:16 - 5:20And let's pull it together in Afghanistan today.
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5:20 - 5:22This is a field of poppies in Afghanistan.
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5:22 - 5:26Eighty to 90 percent of the world's poppy,
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5:26 - 5:29opium and heroin, comes out of Afghanistan.
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5:29 - 5:32We also see there, of course, terrorism.
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5:32 - 5:34This is where al Qaeda is staged from.
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5:34 - 5:39We also see a very strong insurgency embedded there.
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5:39 - 5:43So this terrorism concern is also part
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5:43 - 5:47of the global commons, and what we must address.
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5:47 - 5:50So here we are, 21st century.
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5:50 - 5:54We know our 20th-century tools are not going to work.
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5:54 - 5:56What should we do?
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5:56 - 6:01I would argue that we will not deliver security
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6:01 - 6:03solely from the barrel of a gun.
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6:03 - 6:08We will not deliver security solely from the barrel of a gun.
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6:08 - 6:10We will need the application of military force.
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6:10 - 6:14When we do it, we must do it well, and competently.
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6:14 - 6:20But my thesis is, open-source security is about international,
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6:20 - 6:24interagency, private-public connection pulled together
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6:24 - 6:31by this idea of strategic communication on the Internet.
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6:31 - 6:34Let me give you a couple of examples of how this works in a positive way.
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6:34 - 6:39This is Afghanistan. These are Afghan soldiers.
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6:39 - 6:41They are all holding books.
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6:41 - 6:46You should say, "That's odd. I thought I read that
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6:46 - 6:49this demographic, young men and women
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6:49 - 6:54in their 20s and 30s, is largely illiterate in Afghanistan."
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6:54 - 6:56You would be correct.
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6:56 - 6:58Eighty-five percent cannot read
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6:58 - 7:01when they enter the security forces of Afghanistan.
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7:01 - 7:04Why? Because the Taliban withheld education
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7:04 - 7:08during the period of time in which these men and women
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7:08 - 7:09would have learned to read.
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7:09 - 7:11So the question is, so,
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7:11 - 7:14why are they all standing there holding books?
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7:14 - 7:18The answer is, we are teaching them to read
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7:18 - 7:21in literacy courses by NATO
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7:21 - 7:25in partnership with private sector entities,
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7:25 - 7:28in partnership with development agencies.
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7:28 - 7:33We've taught well over 200,000 Afghan Security Forces
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7:33 - 7:35to read and write at a basic level.
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7:35 - 7:38When you can read and write in Afghanistan,
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7:38 - 7:41you will typically put a pen in your pocket.
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7:41 - 7:44At the ceremonies, when these young men and women
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7:44 - 7:47graduate, they take that pen with great pride,
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7:47 - 7:49and put it in their pocket.
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7:49 - 7:52This is bringing together international
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7:52 - 7:55— there are 50 nations involved in this mission —
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7:55 - 7:58interagency — these development agencies —
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7:58 - 8:02and private-public, to take on this kind of security.
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8:02 - 8:06Now, we are also teaching them combat skills, of course,
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8:06 - 8:08but I would argue, open-source security
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8:08 - 8:11means connecting in ways that create
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8:11 - 8:14longer lasting security effect.
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8:14 - 8:16Here's another example.
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8:16 - 8:20This is a US Navy warship.
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8:20 - 8:22It's called the Comfort.
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8:22 - 8:24There's a sister ship called the Mercy.
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8:24 - 8:26They are hospital ships.
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8:26 - 8:28This one, the Comfort, operates throughout
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8:28 - 8:32the Caribbean and the coast of South America
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8:32 - 8:34conducting patient treatments.
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8:34 - 8:39On a typical cruise, they'll do 400,000 patient treatments.
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8:39 - 8:43It is crewed not strictly by military
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8:43 - 8:47but by a combination of humanitarian organizations:
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8:47 - 8:50Operation Hope, Project Smile.
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8:50 - 8:53Other organizations send volunteers.
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8:53 - 8:56Interagency physicians come out.
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8:56 - 8:58They're all part of this.
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8:58 - 9:01To give you one example of the impact this can have,
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9:01 - 9:04this little boy, eight years old,
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9:04 - 9:07walked with his mother two days
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9:07 - 9:10to come to the eye clinic put on by the Comfort.
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9:10 - 9:16When he was fitted, over his extremely myopic eyes,
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9:16 - 9:19he suddenly looked up and said,
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9:19 - 9:22"Mama, veo el mundo."
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9:22 - 9:25"Mom, I see the world."
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9:25 - 9:28Multiply this by 400,000 patient treatments,
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9:28 - 9:33this private-public collaboration with security forces,
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9:33 - 9:35and you begin to see the power
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9:35 - 9:39of creating security in a very different way.
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9:39 - 9:43Here you see baseball players.
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9:43 - 9:47Can you pick out the two US Army soldiers
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9:47 - 9:49in this photograph?
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9:49 - 9:51They are the two young men on either side
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9:51 - 9:54of these young boys. This is part of a series
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9:54 - 9:58of baseball clinics, where we have explored collaboration
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9:58 - 10:00between Major League Baseball,
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10:00 - 10:01the Department of State,
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10:01 - 10:04who sets up the diplomatic piece of this,
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10:04 - 10:08military baseball players, who are real soldiers
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10:08 - 10:12with real skills but participate in this mission,
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10:12 - 10:14and they put on clinics
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10:14 - 10:16throughout Latin America and the Caribbean,
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10:16 - 10:19in Honduras, in Nicaragua,
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10:19 - 10:24in all of the Central American and Caribbean nations
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10:24 - 10:26where baseball is so popular,
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10:26 - 10:28and it creates security.
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10:28 - 10:31It shows role models to young men and women
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10:31 - 10:34about fitness and about life that I would argue
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10:34 - 10:38help create security for us.
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10:38 - 10:41Another aspect of this partnership
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10:41 - 10:43is in disaster relief.
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10:43 - 10:47This is a US Air Force helicopter participating
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10:47 - 10:54after the tsunami in 2004 which killed 250,000 people.
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10:54 - 10:58In each of these major disasters — the tsunami in 2004,
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10:58 - 11:05250,000 dead, the Kashmiri earthquake in Pakistan, 2005,
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11:05 - 11:0785,000 dead,
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11:07 - 11:12the Haitian earthquake, about 300,000 dead,
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11:12 - 11:17more recently the awful earthquake-tsunami combination
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11:17 - 11:20which struck Japan and its nuclear industry —
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11:20 - 11:23in all of these instances, we see partnerships
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11:23 - 11:26between international actors,
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11:26 - 11:30interagency, private-public working with security forces
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11:30 - 11:34to respond to this kind of natural disaster.
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11:34 - 11:38So these are examples of this idea of open-source security.
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11:38 - 11:43We tie it together, increasingly, by doing things like this.
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11:43 - 11:46Now, you're looking at this thinking, "Ah, Admiral,
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11:46 - 11:49these must be sea lanes of communication,
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11:49 - 11:52or these might be fiber optic cables."
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11:52 - 11:57No. This is a graphic of the world according to Twitter.
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11:57 - 12:04Purple are tweets. Green are geolocation.
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12:04 - 12:06White is the synthesis.
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12:06 - 12:10It's a perfect evocation of that great population survey,
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12:10 - 12:14the six largest nations in the world in descending order:
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12:14 - 12:16China, India, Facebook, the United States,
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12:16 - 12:21Twitter and Indonesia. (Laughter)
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12:21 - 12:22Why do we want to get in these nets?
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12:22 - 12:24Why do we want to be involved?
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12:24 - 12:26We talked earlier about the Arab Spring,
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12:26 - 12:28and the power of all this.
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12:28 - 12:29I'll give you another example,
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12:29 - 12:31and it's how you move this message.
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12:31 - 12:33I gave a talk like this in London a while back
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12:33 - 12:37about this point. I said, as I say to all of you,
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12:37 - 12:39I'm on Facebook. Friend me.
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12:39 - 12:41Got a little laugh from the audience.
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12:41 - 12:46There was an article which was run by AP, on the wire.
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12:46 - 12:49Got picked up in two places in the world:
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12:49 - 12:51Finland and Indonesia.
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12:51 - 12:55The headline was: NATO Admiral Needs Friends.
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12:55 - 12:57(Laughter)
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12:57 - 12:59Thank you. (Applause)
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12:59 - 13:02Which I do. (Laughter)
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13:02 - 13:04And the story was a catalyst,
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13:04 - 13:07and the next morning I had hundreds
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13:07 - 13:09of Facebook friend requests
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13:09 - 13:11from Indonesians and Finns,
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13:11 - 13:14mostly saying, "Admiral, we heard you need a friend,
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13:14 - 13:18and oh, by the way, what is NATO?" (Laughter)
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13:18 - 13:20So ... (Laughter)
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13:20 - 13:24Yeah, we laugh, but this is how we move the message,
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13:24 - 13:27and moving that message is how we connect
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13:27 - 13:29international, interagency, private-public,
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13:29 - 13:33and these social nets to help create security.
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13:33 - 13:36Now, let me hit a somber note.
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13:36 - 13:40This is a photograph of a brave British soldier.
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13:40 - 13:42He's in the Scots Guards.
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13:42 - 13:44He's standing the watch in Helmand,
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13:44 - 13:46in southern Afghanistan.
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13:46 - 13:49I put him here to remind us,
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13:49 - 13:52I would not want anyone to leave the room thinking
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13:52 - 13:56that we do not need capable, competent militaries
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13:56 - 14:00who can create real military effect.
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14:00 - 14:03That is the core of who we are and what we do,
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14:03 - 14:07and we do it to protect freedom, freedom of speech,
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14:07 - 14:10all the things we treasure in our societies.
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14:10 - 14:14But, you know, life is not an on-and-off switch.
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14:14 - 14:16You don't have to have a military that is either
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14:16 - 14:20in hard combat or is in the barracks.
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14:20 - 14:25I would argue life is a rheostat.
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14:25 - 14:28You have to dial it in,
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14:28 - 14:31and as I think about how we create security
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14:31 - 14:34in this 21st century, there will be times
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14:34 - 14:39when we will apply hard power in true war and crisis,
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14:39 - 14:41but there will be many instances,
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14:41 - 14:42as we've talked about today,
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14:42 - 14:46where our militaries can be part of creating
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14:46 - 14:5021st-century security, international,
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14:50 - 14:52interagency, private-public,
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14:52 - 14:57connected with competent communication.
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14:57 - 15:01I would close by saying that we heard earlier today
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15:01 - 15:05about Wikipedia. I use Wikipedia all the time
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15:05 - 15:08to look up facts, and as all of you appreciate,
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15:08 - 15:12Wikipedia is not created by 12 brilliant people
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15:12 - 15:15locked in a room writing articles.
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15:15 - 15:18Wikipedia, every day, is tens of thousands of people
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15:18 - 15:23inputting information, and every day millions of people
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15:23 - 15:25withdrawing that information.
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15:25 - 15:29It's a perfect image for the fundamental point
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15:29 - 15:33that no one of us is as smart as all of us thinking together.
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15:33 - 15:37No one person, no one alliance, no one nation,
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15:37 - 15:42no one of us is as smart as all of us thinking together.
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15:42 - 15:47The vision statement of Wikipedia is very simple:
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15:47 - 15:50a world in which every human being can freely share
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15:50 - 15:51in the sum of all knowledge.
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15:51 - 15:56My thesis for you is that by combining international,
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15:56 - 16:00interagency, private-public, strategic communication,
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16:00 - 16:03together, in this 21st century,
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16:03 - 16:07we can create the sum of all security.
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16:07 - 16:09Thank you. (Applause)
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16:09 - 16:13Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. (Applause)
- Title:
- A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global security
- Speaker:
- James Stavridis
- Description:
-
Imagine global security driven by collaboration -- among agencies, government, the private sector and the public. That's not just the distant hope of open-source fans, it's the vision of James Stavridis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander of the US European Command. Stavridis shares vivid moments from recent military history to explain why security of the future should be built with bridges rather than walls.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 16:43
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global security | ||
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global security | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global security | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global security | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global security | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A Navy Admiral's thoughts on global security | ||
Joseph Geni added a translation |