 Good morning, good morning. Welcome to Women and More, the second day of the Washington, D.C. celebration of the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Security Resolution 1325. My name is Kathleen Kienist. I am the Gender Advisor at the United States Institute of Peace and Independent Nonpartisan National Institution established and funded by Congress. We're very excited to have all of you here with us today. And we really want to note that this is not only a momentous day marking the 10th anniversary of this important resolution, but really it's important because all of us are coming together. Many institutions here in D.C. working on these issues, gender, women, peace and security. Indeed, USIP has organized this event with 10 partners and three sponsors who have each publicly committed to the effort of moving this agenda forward. And so it is my pleasure to recognize the generous support that has helped us realize this three-day event. The Royal Netherlands Embassy, the United States Agency for International Development, and Creative Associates International. And a special thanks to our partners, and forgive me, but I'm going to list them all because we would not all be here without all of our help together. Women in International Security, the World Bank, the Office of Global Women's Issues at the United States Department of State, the Institute for Inclusive Security, Women for Women International, International Civil Society Action Network, Peace by Peace, the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, and the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area. Together, we have created a community of practice around these issues. And a lot of people have already asked me, okay, this is going to be a great event, but what's next? What's next is this community of practice. We are moving forward, we're looking forward to more partners, and we will keep you all in the loop as to what we are going to keep doing to keep these issues first and foremost as we move forward on looking at global security. The public response to this event has been tremendous, with over a thousand registrants for the three-day event. Today alone, we have over 400 registrants as well as those joining us via webcast, which has been underwritten, by the way, by USAID. Thank you. We have a great lineup of speakers and panelists who really have a vast pool of knowledge and experience. But frankly, you in this audience and the webcast are a part of all of this knowledge and experience. And we hope that we will have more and more dialogue throughout the day, not only among you at the tables, but also during our Q&A for most sessions. So we really encourage your active participation and moving forward after the event. We are focusing today on women in war and the UN Resolution 1325 to help improve security around the world. It is important to recognize that this resolution is not a women's issue, that this is a security issue, and that women play a critical role in creating regional and global security. Let me now turn to my colleague, Jolene Shoemaker, Executive of Women in International Security, otherwise known as WISE, who has been a terrific partner in this endeavor. She will say a few comments. Thank you, Kathleen. And I just want to reiterate the thanks to all the partners and sponsors that have been part of this event and draw particular attention as well to the government of the Netherlands for their support for this, making this happen. Just to follow up on what Kathleen has said, this is a really unprecedented opportunity for all of us. As she listed the partners, I was really struck by the combination of nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and U.S. government entities that have joined together behind this issue. And I think that we can all use this unique opportunity today to certainly network as we do so well in Washington, but to also really think about how we can each in our own positions, jobs, responsibilities here on a daily basis move this issue forward. As Kathleen has said, we've been building a community of practice on this issue, and there's been a number of events that have occurred in the last few weeks and few months looking at 1325, Resolution 1325, assessing where we are and where we need to go. And this is our opportunity in Washington to draw all of the relevant actors together to do the same thing that has been done in the past week in New York and so forth. This is not just an issue, certainly as we all know, that is relevant to U.N. actors and those in New York and other capitals. Washington, D.C. and our policy community here has a very, very critical role to play. And I think all of us in the civil society community were very, very pleased with the recent news that the U.S. government will develop a action plan on Resolution 1325. I think it's an indication of the momentum and the point we are at on this issue. I think many of us in this room have done so much work on the ground in capitals around the world these past 10 years to move this forward, engaging in research, advocacy, gathering lessons learned and really advocating on behalf of including women. But it is at this point, 10 years later, it has been slower than many of us would like. We have reached a point of momentum, I think. And I hope that each of you will leave this conference today and those of you who attended the events at the World Bank yesterday and will attend tomorrow with a renewed sense of commitment to this issue, a renewed energy to move forward and incorporate women's participation, opportunities for women's leadership into your daily policymaking activities, your daily educating activities, and your daily advocacy activities. So I thank you all for being here. I'm looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible today and I'm looking forward to the discussions and moving this issue forward. So thanks. It is now my great privilege to introduce Tara Sonenshine, Executive Vice President of the United States Institute of Peace. In addition to her broad management responsibilities at the Institute, Tara oversees public education, public outreach and programmatic activity and has been intimately involved with her activities marking the 10th anniversary of UNSCR 1325. Tara has been a tireless advocate for women's rights and issues and has been active over the years in many different levels of civil society. In fact, she is just back from a two-day conference in Denmark on the role of women in global security. Prior to Tara's time at USIP, she was Strategic Communications Advisor to many international organizations. She has also served in various White House capacities, including the Transition Director for the National Security Council. We are honored to have had her invaluable input and collaboration in this three-day event. I would like to personally thank Tara for her never-ending support. And I turn the podium over to Tara who will now introduce our first session of the day. Tara. Okay, well my first job is to raise the energy level in the room. It's a rainy Thursday. I think it's Thursday. I'm still on partly Denmark time. But I want to get you all inspired with the following couple of thoughts. First of all, we have with us today a class from the Naval Academy. And I want to welcome them and ask them to stand. We also have the heads of all kinds of organizations. This 1325 new decade of implementation is not going to happen without every single one of you. So what you really ought to be doing right now is applauding one another for the work you're about to do. In Denmark, men and women gathered from the military, the civilian sector. And we heard stories from men and women from Liberia, Afghanistan, Uganda, Iraq. We heard stories of horror, of rape, violence, marginalization, discrimination, and deprivation. We also heard stories of enormous hope of women in parliaments, of women in female engagement teams in Kandahar, of women starting businesses and banks in Uganda. We heard it all. And what it gave each of us that came back from that conference was a renewed sense of energy and passion. About taking a document and operationalizing it. It is time to take words off paper and put them into action. One of the best speakers in Denmark, truly, was our ambassador at large for women's issues. A champion who has really devoted her life's work to that. And I'm going to invite now Melanne Vavere to come up and thank her publicly for her vital voice, for vital voices that she started, for the work she does with the First Lady, did with the First Lady, and now for the Secretary of State, and for her journeying. She journeys, journeys, journeys on this issue. And she is our traveler and leader. And I hope you will join me with the warmest and most energetic welcome for Melanne Vavere. Well, we're all on that journey, aren't we? And I want to thank Tara, who has been such an extraordinary leader and a dear friend for whom I am very, very grateful for her and for all that she does. It is a real honor to be here today with so many who recognize that intrinsic link between women and global peace and security. All of you who are working so hard to implement Security Council Resolution 1325. I want to thank USIP for the extraordinary leadership that you have played in bringing us to this day, to Kathleen and all of the others, to WISE, to the sponsors and the partners, to all who have done so much. I want to recognize all of our friends from around the world who are here, our friends from the government of Netherlands, Ambassador Choudhury, who in so many ways is the godfather of 1325, to Special Representative Wallström, who will be here, and many from my government. I am particularly delighted to be able to share this morning's session with my dear friend, our Assistant Secretary in the Veterans Administration, Tammy Duckworth, who is an extraordinary public servant, just extraordinary. Admiral Mullins will be here later and so many others who are committed to our common cause. This is an important and historic conference. It is a conference that will bind us to unstinting action for women's participation, representation and involvement in all aspects of peace building. It is a conference we all hope will help us turn the page, as Tara said, from words to deeds in preventing gender-based violence against women in armed conflicts. And it is a conference that will offer us all the vision and the strategies that we need to make 1325 a powerful tool for peace and security around the world. The facts are sobering. Of the 39 conflicts that have erupted during the past decade, only eight are entirely new. Thirty-one are recurrences of conflicts that have never been fully resolved. And it is no coincidence that most of these conflicts have occurred in societies where women have had little power and were excluded from the process of negotiating and implementing the peace. As Secretary Clinton said in the Security Council last week, the only way to achieve our goals, to reduce the number of conflicts around the world, to eliminate rape as a weapon of war, to combat the culture of impunity for sexual violence, to build sustainable peace. The only way is to draw on the full contributions of both women and men in every aspect of peacekeeping, peacemaking and peacebuilding. In response to the title of this morning's session, Power and Protection, it seems clear that those who have power, only those who have power, can really protect themselves. Those who have political and economic power, the power of full participation in decision making at the highest levels, and the power to ensure that those decisions are enforced. President Obama's National Security Strategy reflects this by recognizing that countries are more peaceful and prosperous when women are recorded full and equal rights and opportunities. When those rights and opportunities lag, countries lag behind. As we mark the 10th anniversary of 1325, we also observe a decade since the Millennium Development Goals were adopted by the UN General Assembly. MDG-3, to promote gender equality and to empower women, is critical to the realization of all the other MDGs. And it is useful to note that among the indicators for MDG-3 are women's political and economic participation. Both of these are linked to 1325 as well, and it is significant to note that there have been increases in women in politics, thanks in part to quotas and other arrangements chiseled into constitutions adopted in post-conflict societies. Now, last week, the UN Security Council held that special high-level session on 1325 that all of you are more than aware of at this point, and Secretary Clinton spoke on behalf of the United States. She said, we all need to look honestly at what remains to be done to fulfill the promise made to women to be treated as agents of peace and reconciliation, not just victims of war and conflict. One week later, we are gathered here, not just to renew our commitment to the role of women in global security, but to accelerate implementation of 1325. To learn from each other, to identify obstacles, what has been working, what hasn't, what are the new ideas that need to be developed and applied, how can we coordinate better among all of our partners? Because we know that despite all the positive steps that have been taken, progress has been too slow and too uneven. And real progress has to be felt on the ground where it matters most in people's lives. Now things are slowly beginning to change in a way that I think will make progress that much more robust and real. For example, women are more directly involved in defense and security, thanks to the work of so many of you. India, Bangladesh, Namibia and Nigeria have deployed all female police contingents as part of peacekeeping operations. The women have not only contributed to stability, peace and security, but they have served as models for women in policing and inspired so many more in the host countries to become police officers themselves. The United States has embraced this as well. All female engagement teams of U.S. Marines are working with women on the ground in Afghanistan and making a difference. And when we were in Denmark a few days ago, there were several representatives of the female engagement teams who told us what a difference it was making on the ground. At the same conference in Denmark, which was sponsored by the United States Embassy in Copenhagen as well as the Foreign Ministry of Denmark, NATO Secretary General Russ Musin reported that NATO is incorporating the 1325 principles of participation, prevention and protection into its directives and is ensuring that soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan and elsewhere seek to take into account the views and needs of women. Moreover, with the creation of UN Women under the ABLE leadership of the former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, the international community will have a strong and essential partner on 1325. And the Secretary General Special Representative Margo Wallstrom is working hard and truly needs the support of all of us to implement Resolution 1888 to combat sexual violence in armed combat, in armed conflicts. I am very proud of the concrete steps that the United States has been taking. For example, in Namibia the U.S. military has helped to train nearly 600 peacekeepers on women's issues, peacekeepers who were later deployed to Chad. And as Secretary Clinton has noted, from Nepal to Uganda, USAID is promoting women's role in politics, supporting their participation in local peace committees, helping to develop plans to implement 1325. In fact, in the future, every USAID project to protect or manage conflict will study its effect on women and will include them in planning and implementation. And I think when Deputy Administrator Don Steinberg is here later today, I'm sure he will expand on that. For example, USAID has included gender analysis into its $26 million annual reconciliation program worldwide. This program supports small, innovative and state-of-the-art programming and priority conflict-affected communities. Additionally, the United States has written protection and respect for women's human rights into all of our peacekeeping training. Each of the hundreds of courses that are provided to foreign militaries include emphasis on human rights, protection of civilians, prevention of gender-based violence, prevention of sexual exploitation, prevention of trafficking in persons, and elimination of child soldiers. Working closely with the UN and donors, the United States also will continue to bolster international police peacekeeping capacity in ways that are consistent and reinforce Resolution 1325. Next year, we will partner with several police contributing countries to provide pre-deployment training and other support to those police units, effectively preparing them to fully meet the UN standards. This will build on other continuing efforts, such as the Center for Excellence in Stability Police Units, a joint U.S. Italian initiative which trains police officers from around the world for participation in peacekeeping missions. We are also committed to training national police to strengthen their ability to combat sexual and gender-based violence. For example, the U.S. and Botswana have jointly managed the International Law Enforcement Academy, a training center for police and security officials from 29 African countries. This past summer, they hosted a five-day course on policing, sexual and gender-based violence for law enforcement officials from eight countries. And in Afghanistan, our diplomatic efforts have been rooted in the notion that respect for the rights of women, as protected in the Afghan Constitution, is an essential element of democracy and stability. Secretary Clinton said last week and she could not have said it more firmly. The United States has backed women's inclusion at all levels, including in the recently formed High Peace Council, because we believe that the potential for sustainable peace will be subverted if women are silenced or marginalized. Our policy on Afghan reintegration and reconciliation is that it must be done in accordance with the Afghan Constitution and the process must not jeopardize the rights of women. Its actual implementation, this means women's equality, the right of women and girls to go to school, to participate in the economic and political lives of their country, to be free from violence, all are guaranteed in the Constitution. And Secretary Clinton has stated our position on this on many occasions, and that is that women in Afghanistan are rightly worried that in the very legitimate search for peace their rights will be sacrificed. And we will not permit that to happen because no peace, as she said, that sacrifices women's rights is a peace that we can afford to support. But despite all of these concrete steps and so many more, we know we need to accelerate the progress. Because, as she said last week, there is no starker reminder of the work that lies ahead than the horrific mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo that took place last summer and the problems that continue. Those rapes and our failure as an international community, she said, to bring that conflict to an end and to protect the women and children in the process stands as a tragic rebuke of our efforts so far. So we are committed to promoting accountability for the perpetrators of serious crimes against women by supporting international efforts to end impunity, as well as by strengthening domestic judicial systems to help ensure that those responsible for these crimes, including sexual violence, are brought to justice. And in this vein, we also recognize the essential need to strengthen the UN's capacity to combat sexual violence in conflict situations and are working closely with the UN Department of Peacekeeping operations to support more effective mission-wide strategies for the protection of civilians. Now, over the past year, the United States has explored ways to accelerate implementation of 1325. We have used a full range of diplomatic defense and development tools in doing so. We have met with members of civil society. We have mapped U.S. programs and initiatives that support the 1325 principles contained in the four pillars of participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery. The Secretary requested that all of our embassies throughout the world provide a summary of actions that they were taking. Many have been drawing attention to the importance of women in peacebuilding, promoting women's economic empowerment, protecting women refugees, and promoting their participation, women's participation, military, and peacekeeping forces. But it is also clear that we need to do more to advocate for the inclusion of women in peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction to promote the connection between economic empowerment and security, and to raise community awareness of how to respond to SGBV. The Department of Defense also completed a similar mapping of the combatant command's engagement in the promotion of 1325, and Rosa Brooks will be here later this afternoon, and she and her office have done much to bring a concerted effort and focus on these issues. This is a reflection of the intense process that led our government and its decision to develop a national action plan, which the Secretary, as you now know well, announced last week at the Security Council. And we will work to make our national action plan one that is broad, deep, and ambitious. As a first step, the Secretary announced that the United States will commit over $40 million in new resources for initiatives designed to empower women. The largest portion, about 17 million, will support civil society groups that focus on women in Afghanistan. $14 million will go to NGOs working to make clean water more available in conflict zones, because in those areas, when women and girls go looking for water, we know what happens to them in terms of their safety. Another $11 million will help expand literacy, job training, and maternal health services for refugee women and girls. We also know how indebted we are to all of you who are here today, you who represent particularly the NGOs, civil society. We want to thank those of you who participated in our consultations on a national action plan. And we thank you for your generosity in sharing your wisdom and sharing your experiences and for continuing your commitment. The Secretary also announced that in order to measure our progress, the United States will adopt the indicators laid out in the Secretary General's report. We will measure whether women are effectively represented in the full range of peace building and reconstruction efforts, whether they're protected against sexual violence, and whether they are the focus of conflict prevention, relief, and reconciliation efforts. Because measuring our progress will help us to be held accountable and identify those areas where we need to do more. And we must not look at women as victims, but we must look at them as leaders. And I am haunted by a statement that a woman in Afghanistan made to me on one of my last trips there. I mentioned this earlier because it stays with me. She said, please do not look at us as victims. Look at us as the leaders that we are. Because when we are looked at as victims, we are not seen for the potential, for the effectiveness, for the abilities, for the experiences that we bring to the table. We are marginalized in the process. We must look at women's participation not as a favor to women, but as an ingredient that is absolutely essential to peace and security. Make no mistake, the structural marginalization of women we witness around the globe does not amount to a soft issue that we can afford to put aside while all the other so-called hard issues are being solved. The hard issue we are gathered here to address is precisely this. International peace and security depend on women as much as on men. And international economic growth and prosperity depend as much on women as it does on men. What we actually do, what we do today, tomorrow, next week and the days ahead to change women's role in the world will change the world itself. And I have no doubt that that will be a good outcome. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Ambassador. We are now going to move to our second speaker and then open it up to all of you. Many of you first heard about Tammy Duckworth reading in the press about her mission in Iraq where her Black Hawk helicopter that she was co-piloting went down and she suffered unthinkable injuries. Many of us then listened to Tammy Duckworth during the Obama campaign when she gave her voice and spirit to the call for more assistance and help for our veterans. And today we are all very fortunate that she is part of the Veterans Affairs Administration and bringing those insights, those experiences, and those great ideas to the work of securing and protecting America's women and men veterans. Would you join me in the warmest of welcomes for Tammy Duckworth? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ambassador Bevere. It's really an honor to be sharing the stage with you today. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Well, thank you to the United States Institute for Peace, Women in International Securities, and all the partners who have allowed me to be here today and for putting together this amazing event. I'm really delighted to be here to speak to all of you. I was asked to come today to speak about my experiences as a female leader from the military and now at the Department of Veterans Affairs. But I thought instead that I would like to speak to you about strength and what exactly do we mean by strength? Having served in the military, I served in an organization whose measure of strength is very clear, tanks and guns and helicopters, the steel of our weapons. But I do think that strength is not just the strength of tanks and guns and helicopters, especially to a nation. The greatest privilege I've ever had has been, yes, flying helicopters was a lot of fun, but really serving next to some of the most amazing men and women I've ever had the privilege to serve next to. And really, the most that I learned in the military was the strength of my own character, the strength of determination, the strength of resolve, and the strength that America presented to the world. And that strength, oftentimes we do rely on our tanks and guns and helicopters, but really the strength of our military, the military that I served, were the people. When my unit served in so many different humanitarian missions, so whenever we got out of our aircraft, whether it was in NATO exercises in Iceland or Egypt or humanitarian missions in Guyana where we built schools and hospitals in the Amazon, the strength of my unit was the diversity of our crew, and the fact that we treated each other with respect and admiration. And when you looked at the crew of a helicopter unit in my National Guard unit, and somebody would say, well, who's in charge of that crew? The men would immediately say, Tammy, she's the highest ranking officer, and they would say, that little Chinese girl? I'm from the Midwest, so all the guys in my unit were like six feet tall of Nordic origin. It's that Nordic American stock out there in northern Illinois, and there was me. I'm also two inches taller than I used to be, because when you lose both your legs, you can be any height you want. And they said, the dog said, how tall were you? I said, am I held to that? And they said, no, no. So I tried 5'10 for a while, it didn't work. I'm now 5'8, I used to be 5'6, it's great. I can look people more right in the eyes, you know? But the strength of our unit was the respect we had for one another. The fact that we had an African American crew chief, and when people wanted to tour our aircraft and they came to me thinking, you know, I was the highest ranking person asking my permission, and the guys were asking my permission to do things as I was the highest ranking officer. I would say, well, you have to talk to Sergeant Jones, because it's his aircraft. He lets me borrow it from time to time, but I promise not to break it. And he was the African American crew chief, or our Latino door gunner. That's the strength of our unit was the respect and the teamwork that we had among each other. And I'm really alive today because of the crew of my aircraft and the fact that we stuck together. And I think that's what you're doing here today, is we're sticking together to push for an ideal and push for a goal. Before I joined the military, I worked for Rotary International. Many of you may be aware of it. It's a social service network of clubs international in scope. And the last thing that I did at Rotary International before I was deployed to Iraq was I was able to help reestablish a Rotary Club in Afghanistan, the first one in Kabul since 1973. And when I was helping these Rotarians in Afghanistan establish this first club, one of the things they had to do was decide who was going to be the first club president. And they selected a woman. And we were all astonished by this. Having them having just emerged from decades of Taliban rule, women having been shut in the homes. And I asked the club members and most of the ones that we were corresponding with were men. And I said, well, why are you choosing a woman? We think it's wonderful, but we're quite surprised by this. And they said, well, you see, because the women have been shut up for decades, they're the only ones that we for sure know don't have blood on their hands and have not collaborated. And they were the only ones that we could agree on to truly be leaders. And the first female president of the Rotary Club of Kabul did an amazing job. And actually turned it into a conduit and a partner with Care International and other organizations to be the main source of aid coming into Afghanistan at that time. And I think about the strength of this woman who did not have access for so many years and for so many years continued to display compassion and determination and did everything that she could. And then when the opportunity was there, stepped forward immediately to take leadership and to move forward for her people. One of the first things that the Rotary Club of Kabul did was partner with, and I love, this is the international nature of so many not-for-profits. It was the Rotary Club in California that had the funds that worked together with the Rotary Club in Pakistan in order to get funds and expertise into Afghanistan. This very early days, this was 2003, and they decided that they wanted to build schools for girls in some of the villages in Afghanistan. And the Rotary Club of Kabul was going to be at the forefront of this. And the day came for them to do the dedication ceremony for this amazing school for girls. And you have to picture this image of villagers on a dusty mountainside, government officials there, U.S. military officials there, wealthy Rotarians from the United States, Afghani Rotarians, mostly men, a few women there, how intimidating and impressive a sight this must have been to the villagers. And they're all giving speeches about how much money was being spent and how much money had been raised and they were here to help these local people and they were going to build this school for girls. And I think about the strength that existed at that time in a local villager mother. And she was on the side, along with all the other villagers, watching this grand ceremony, and she did an amazing thing. She stepped forward, put aside one of the female Rotarians, and very quietly whispered something in her ear. And what she said was this, you can build the school, but I would never send my daughter to school here. It's not because I don't want her to go to school, but it's because we need water and it takes her three hours per round trip to go fetch water. And my family can't survive without water, so how can I send her to school if she spends at least six hours a day fetching water? What we need is a well. And I think of the strength that this Afghani mother, who faced with this assemblage of officials, stepped forward and found the one way that she could to get the message across to help her daughter, because she really wanted her daughter to go to school. And so we built a well so that the girls didn't have to walk three hours round trip each day at least to fetch water. And that is strength, because I think that is far more courage than it took me to climb into an helicopter after many years of training. I don't know that I would have had the courage in that instance of having been oppressed, having been not allowed to have a voice, and yet to still out of love for one's child step forward. So when we talk about leadership and strength, sometimes leadership comes in different ways. It's not the country with the most guns and tanks and helicopters always. And I'm not apologizing for the strength of my nation and the strength of the military. I am proud of what I did in the military and I will defend my nation. But I also think that the strength of this nation and the strength of many nations around the world is our conviction and our morality and our ideals and our belief in democracy and our belief in equality and opportunity for everyone. And that is the true strength. And that is why it is so important for everyone in this room to when you leave this conference and you go forward, continue the important work that so many of you have been doing far before I ever came on the scene. Because somewhere there's a mother in a village who just wants a better life for her child. And she may not have the steel of an M16, but she's got the steel and the courage of love for her child. And she will step forward on shaky legs and confront those in power because she will if given the opportunity and the access because she sees a female leader somewhere speak her mind so that she can get the help that she needs. And I really think that's what you're doing today. And when we talk leadership, we're not talking, at least I'm not talking about my ability to be as tough as the guys and swear like the guys and all the things that I had to do to get ahead in the military back when I, you know, being the only woman in Amio unit. Let me tell you. I've done some pretty stupid but macho things to prove that I was just as tough as the guys. And they were not always the right thing to do. Sometimes it's about making the choices that come from who you are as a person. I tell this story and it's a little bit of a funny story, but when I first became a company commander, and this is my lesson to the midshipmen, but when someday you take command, I was a very young commander in Army helicopter units, especially in the National Guard. Oftentimes the men are warren officers who have been flying for 30, 40 years. I had Vietnam veterans in my unit and I came marching on as a 28-year-old and I was going to take charge of this unit. First female, first Asian, all of that stuff. And I lived in Chicago. It's pretty cold in Chicago in the wintertime. And I decided that I was going to have hot cocoa for my men to drink before we went out on missions. And as they were preparing the aircraft and they were coming back and forth, you don't want to give them anything with caffeine because you fly in such tight formations sometimes. 20,000-pound aircraft, 30 feet between your rotor blades sometimes if you're doing extremely tight formations. We rarely did that, but if you were, you don't want the jitters. So I had hot cocoa out for my men and I was the first person to do that. And the other company commanders, of course, immediately seized on this like piranhas and started calling me the mommy company commander. And I took that remark in exactly the way that was meant as an insult and a pejorative. I didn't want to be the mommy company commander. I wanted to be the tough chick who was going to kick your ass company commander. And so I took away the hot cocoa. And you know what? My readiness rates went down. The ability of my men to perform their mission went down. And we weren't meeting our targets and our missions exactly on time. Because it was taking them that much longer to work on the aircraft because they were cold. It was taking them that much longer to hit their marks. And I realized that the hot cocoa was making my men deadlier. So out came the hot cocoa and my guys were back on track. And the heck with being called the mommy company commander. But that insight that I had, that instinct that I had to take care of my men came from me being a woman. It didn't come from me being a guy and it wasn't about who could out tough the other guy. I thought I'm cold. I could use a cup of hot cocoa. I'm sure they could too. And so in my case, the strength that I found in myself was the strength to listen to my own instincts and bring that insight forward and to use that to accomplish my mission. And that's really what I urge you to do when you're talking to other women leaders and when you're mentoring women leaders is to listen to who they are because women as leaders bring a very important insight to the table. They bring an important component of strength and wisdom to any negotiation. We are a world of men and women. We are not a world of just men or just women. We need to be working together and to bring our different instincts together to achieve the goals that we want to achieve. Just as I did not get forward in my career only based on female mentors, I would never have gotten anywhere because I was often the only woman in a unit. It was the men who mentored me, the men who had the insight and the wisdom and the compassion to reach out to a young officer and help me grow and teach me. We also need to listen to both sides and we need to not be afraid to be who we are as women and as leaders and not be afraid of the strength that we have and not be afraid to see strength in what others may view as weakness and not accept their labels for what might be weak and instead turn those weaknesses into an advantage and into the ability to be deadlier in whatever mission you choose to be. So I say again that we as a people are strong, not because of our guns and our tanks and our helicopters, but we are strong because of the steel of our determination, the steel of our ability to be compassionate when compassion is hard to find, the steel of our willingness just as that Afghani mother had to in the face of our own fears on shaking legs and with quivering voice still step forward to say what is important to us and what we see as the truth. And so I thank you for letting me be here today. I urge you to go forward with steel in your spine, steel in your heart, strength in everything that you do, and let's get this done because it's time to stop being surprised that our daughters are fully capable of doing their jobs and fighting for freedom and fighting for equality. They've been doing it, they're doing it, and they will continue to do it, and we cannot succeed without each other, men and women. Thank you for letting me be here today. Thank you. I hope this is on. Thank you very much for that wonderful talk. I would like to open the microphones that are positioned on each side of the room and encourage you to not be shy. I think we've been encouraged here to use our voices and we'll take some questions for our guests. I'm looking either for a hand or somebody at the brave soul that I see lining up. Yes, we'll start in the middle here. And if you tell us a little bit about who you are, sure. While you're making your way there, let me start. If there's a gentleman there, go ahead and then we'll take the lady in pink following you. No. Let's raise the volume on the microphone. No. Okay, David, you're going to have to shout. You talk in a little bit more depth about what the U.S. is doing and will be doing in Eastern DRC. I mentioned that briefly, but you didn't talk about it at much length. Okay, the Eastern DRC, what the U.S. is planning to do, and that question is for Ambassador Revere. Well, it's both planning to do and continuing to do. As I think many of you, if not all of you know, the secretary went to the DRC several months ago now and saw firsthand the magnitude of the catastrophe that continues there and has been working at all levels politically in terms of development and the kind of resources that can be brought to bear to those who are suffering so much, as well as in terms of trying to create a justice system that can begin to deal with the impunity, which is a huge part of the problem. None of these deeds go punished and we've got to have a system that begins to work better. So there is a process in place to explore and work through the possibilities of some sort of mixed chamber system of justice that can be brought in and based, both as something that is part of the DRC's government as well as support from the outside to begin to rectify that situation. There are ongoing efforts for better delivery of services to deal with the whole range of trauma and restorative efforts to those who are suffering. There are political efforts going on in terms of discussions with the people who have the authority both in the country and outside the country to turn things around. There are steps being taken with respect to conflict minerals as legislation becomes enforced and implemented. There are efforts being made to find a way to pay the soldiers in the DRC who don't get paid and as a result pillage and do horrific things. We've even been exploring ways through mobile banking to try to rectify that situation. So this is not a magic bullet. One thing will solve the problems there. It requires a range of actions and that is exactly what we are pursuing. Range of actions, political, judicial, supportive of the women who are suffering so much in so many ways and I must say on that score there has been a growing although still I think fledgling coming together of both the women in DRC with some who suffer through conflicts themselves to begin to create that kind of cadre of increased NGO activity and leadership. So it is a full range of efforts that's being made and hopefully we will begin one day soon to turn around this terrible armed conflict that's been going on for far too long. Thank you. Second question. Can you hear me now? Yes. I'm Etsy Wertheim. 33 years ago I was the first female political appointee at the Navy. I was deputy undersecretary and I used that as a metric for how long it takes to get the kind of change we're looking for. What it means is we have to work really hard. I mean this is two generations to get to this point. What women bring to the party is their ability to share, to collaborate and to bring other people in. If you work from the bottom up you get much quicker acceptance for the ideas of what you're wanting to do. I want to congratulate you all but I think you have to recognize we're going to have to be conscious of the emotional needs of men as women move forward and you have to take that into account in terms of how you're going to handle that. We all need to work together. We need a much stronger desire to be in charge and we have to teach them how to be more collaborative. So again, thank you all very much. I think of you as my children or my grandchildren and it's just wonderful to see where we are today. Thank you. Thank you. So in response to that I want to say that as women become leaders and take more leadership positions around the world the important thing is not to become male leaders. That you become who you are and a leader at the same time. If you become a male leader, if you take on that persona so completely then you're not bringing anything new or anything of value to the table because they're already male leaders. And so stick with who you are but be a leader in your own way. And that's not just gender but it's also cultural as well. And I find that we are all more successful when there are many different viewpoints than a single one. My question. My name is Teresa DeLanges. I just finished serving in Afghanistan for two and a half years with UNIFEM. So I really understand the importance and the moment of opportunity for a 1325 action plan for the U.S. internationally. My question though is about the use of 1325 action plans domestically and if there will be any approaches to using 1325 in the United States for things like encouraging women's political participation and their economic self-sufficiency and what role will civil society and grassroots women's organizations have in terms of feeding into that plan? Well I think one of the most important domestic considerations is how we effectively function in our own government to ensure the full range of implementation that's required. And I think in many ways it's the hardest of challenges because it requires in many ways different ways of thinking than we have in the past recognizing that there are other avenues to pursue our common cause. And we have to do a lot of work within government in an interagency way. And I think to the extent that that is something that is required of all of us, what civil society does, what our political system does to ensure that that goes forward is extremely important. So the role that we play within this own country about the role that women will have in peace and security and how we will implement that around the world is a vital link. What I'm going to suggest we do is take the final three questions in order and then get responses and closing statements so that we can stay on schedule. We have many speakers who have arrived for the next panel. So let us quickly in staccato fashion hear the three questioners and we will try to incorporate your answers in our closing thoughts. Thank you. My name is Valérie Rozou. I am a senior fellow at the USIP and thank you very much for your outstanding presentations. I'm grateful. My question goes to you Ambassador and to each of you, the three of you. Ambassador, you explicitly refer to reconciliation programs in your speech. Could you tell me what you mean by reconciliation? I guess at the political level and my question is also for each of you. What is reconciliation for you? What does it mean? Okay reconciliation we will come to. Okay now it's on. Actually I'll piggyback off of that question. I actually got back from Afghanistan a couple months ago where I was working with the force reintegration cell on reintegration and reconciliation issues there from an ISAF perspective. And I was actually confronted with the question as a young woman in a crowd of mostly Afghan civilian and military folks why are you pushing the issue of women's issues with us which was an awkward position for me to be in but I do still feel very strongly in and I agree with the sentiments you expressed earlier Ambassador but it's a question for mostly the Ambassador but if anyone else wants to comment this would be great as well. How would you respond to how can we assert that we want to put forward women's rights as an important issue while remaining culturally sensitive. I got the feedback that it seemed insulting and that we were pushing our own cultural values as opposed to just standing up for women's rights so what your feedback is on that would be wonderful to hear. Terrific and the third question. Thank you. My name is Jean Cassongo and I'm from Congo. I would be more comfortable if I speak in French because what is there need to be speaking in my own language. My question for the Ambassador. Thank you. Je ne suis pas satisfait de la réponse vous avez donné aux messieurs pour la leste du Congo. Vous avez parlé du gouvernement qui arrange les judiciaires au Congo. Au Congo il n'y a pas de justice. Au Congo il n'y a même pas des législatives. La femme au Congo est laissée par elle-même. Alors quand vous parlez de la sécurité pour le Congo il faut commencer d'abord à sécuriser. Il n'y a pas de sécurité. Au Congo nous n'avons pas l'armée républicaine. L'armée que nous avons est le mixage de rébelles et tout le monde est rébellé de toute façon. On ne sait pas ce que vous dites pour le Congo. La résolution 1325 ne concerne pas la femme comme laissée. C'est pour les femmes de partout dans le monde mais pas la femme comme laissée. So I know that in all of the United States Institute of Peace and in this room there will be somebody who is going to help us. Do you want me to translate? Yes of course. It's quite brief. There is no, it's for you ambassador. You mentioned your help and the help of the United States in the Congo but she would disagree. She would mention the fact that so far there is no justice in the Congo, there is no security at all in the Congo so what do you mean when you say that the US is going to help Congo? Okay and the resolution is not for the Congolese women but for all the other 31. But it's not for the Congolese women so far. Not for the Congolese women to what? To reconcile. So I'm going to let Tammy Duckworth respond to the reconciliation question and to her broader closing thoughts and to give the last word to Ambassador Vavir and we will try to wrap together these issues of what is reconciliation. Secondly, how do we avoid foisting or preaching what we think are equal rights or inclusion of women onto a culture if there is resistance from the women themselves in any way, shape or form. And then the final question that you raised. So let me start here. I truly believe that we need to grow leaders and female leaders around the world. If that Afghani woman in my story did not have a local Afghani female leader to turn to her voice would never have been heard. And we as nations that come with great intentions and resources into nations like Afghanistan and when you are the only woman there as a young foreign worker in that nation we have to grow those leaders, those local leaders so that we can get a more culturally sensitive nuance to what we're doing so that we understand what the true need is and also so that we can reach true reconciliation because after all many of us are leaving these nations that we are working in and it is the people there that will have to live with whatever solution that we come up with or fail at and we cannot implement these solutions without the leadership of local women who need to be part of formulating that plan and that reconciliation and so I go back to my message which is whatever we do we need to involve local leaders and we also need to provide the mentoring and the access and the recognition of the value of the voices of women in these areas to be leaders in that group. There may not be female leaders when you first get there but by encouraging and pulling some in you give them status and you give them the ability to speak up and then that status will remain after you're gone. Just to follow up on that reconciliation really has to happen at all levels and it really fundamentally has to happen at the level that Tammy spoke about because if it doesn't happen from the ground up whatever is decided at the top is not going to hold and so we have to have the kind of processes and programs at that level to bring people together to reconcile between each other and that usually happens over economic possibilities over a better life, over the things that are going to change the circumstances that will make conflict be something that's part of the past not something that's embraced as continuing into the future. So it is an important process that really has to happen at all levels but it will not hold what's decided at the negotiating table if it does not get fully implemented at that grassroots level. In terms of cultural imposition or going contrary to cultural mores I always say that what I say as a representative of the United States in Afghanistan is what I hear from Afghan women it is not something that's being imposed on them it is something that they are saying to us be there for us, stand with us do not abandon us. Our religion in many ways has been hijacked to condone taking girls out of school or to condone oppression or to condone the lack of participation that is not who we are. So it is not doing something that is contrary but doing it in a way that is sensitive but it is also focused completely on the dignity of the human being and the kind of embracing of the role that women are seeking to have not exactly in the same way that we may implement in the United States but in terms of their own worth their own dignity, their own futures in their own country. Well I want to take this opportunity to thank both of our guests today and all of you. We are going to give you I think a stretch break and then we are going to hear some international perspectives and that will lead to Admiral Mullen later this morning and again thank you to these two distinguished speakers and a wonderful beginning to this event. Thank you.