 So welcome Excellencies and Honourables Ambassadors, admirals, generals, distinguished speakers, guests, and most importantly our very own Naval War College faculty, staff and students. To this, the ninth annual Women, Peace and Security Symposium at the Naval War College. I want to give a special shout out to those of you participating online, whether you're watching from your office or slipped out of the office or watching slipping into bunny slippers. Welcome from Spruance Auditorium here at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island in the United States. On behalf of a rear Admiral Chatfield who just arrived this morning, part of the reason I'm up here is because we thought she may not make it back from a flight so she just arrived this morning drove down from Boston and is here. Welcome back, ma'am. So on behalf of the Admiral and the entire Naval War College team, thank you very much for joining us. I'm thrilled to see so many experts, stakeholders and leaders here in the auditorium and grateful that you are willing to make the trip to Newport. We'd also like to welcome 150 or so guests who registered to attend in person, and over 250 guests online. We're joined in person by esteemed colleagues from the Department of the Navy, the State Department, the Department of Defense and their regional centers, our sister services and PME institutions from the United States and Canada, as well as from academic institutions around the country and the world, including local ones like Salve Regina and Roger Williams. Welcome to you ladies. Scholars and representatives from partner nations in Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe. I'd also like to acknowledge in attendance today our CNO distinguished fellows, typically right down here in the front row welcome admirals. And especially the deans and chairs and faculty and staff who had made this event possible. And speaking of making this event possible at this point, it's appropriate to thank our generous support of our Naval War College foundation who provides us with that margin of excellence that we all appreciate so thank you so much to everyone who planned this from Syrah and the over two dozen people that were on the team that put this together and the support from the foundation. Please join me in a quick round of applause. So I'd like to do four things this morning. First briefly remind us why we're here. Second, do a little humble brag about the Naval War College team. Third, talk about inclusion generally as a concept and the idea of meaningful participation. And then fourth, share some of my own experiences in an effort to demonstrate that more progress has been made and sometimes we give credit to, and that WPS isn't just a woman's issue or a man's issue. It's everyone's issue and most importantly, it's a leadership issue. First of all, the universe universal declaration of human rights and articles two and 23 states that there can be no discrimination basis of gender, the UN Charter also upholds the equality of men and women and all aspects of the human endeavor, and indeed the United States own classic formulation that all men are created equal, we now know means men and women. The United States strategy on women peace and security and the Women Peace and Security Act of 2017 calls upon us to recognize the diverse roles that women play as agents of change in preventing and resolving conflict, countering terrorism and violent extremism and building post conflict peace and stability. That's the law. The framework aspires to increase women's meaningful leadership and political and civic life by helping to ensure they're empowered to lead and contribute, equipped with necessary skills and support to succeed, and supported to participate through access to opportunities and resources. The Department of Defense developed its own strategy implementation with three objectives the first of which is about joint force development and employment. The second is that DOD will become a diverse organization that allows for women's meaningful participation across the development, management and employment of the joint force. So that's why we're here, not only to enact global aspirations laid down in international law, but also codified in US law and in Department of Defense policy. The terms and laws and policies tied directly to the naval war college mission, stated by our founder Admiral Stephen be loose. He envisioned this 139 years ago that the war college would be a place of original research on all questions relating to war, and to statesmanship connected with war, or the prevention of war. That's a good fit. And that's part one. We're here because nations of the world have agreed. WPS is an important topic. The US government has codified WPS in the law of the land and the Department of Defense wants us to increase women's meaningful participation and all aspects of the joint force. So for part two, the humble brag. I'm proud to share that the naval war colleges doing it shared to manifest women's meaningful participation in the national security enterprise. We become the first professional military education institution to hold a women's peace and security conference in 2012 and with few exceptions, we've continued this tradition annually. Special thanks to Mary Ram, founder of the WPS program and former chair for establishing the program in 2010 and for convening thought leaders, civilian and military practitioners and scholars over the years. Our conference this year has been organized by our very talented and hardworking team led by Dr. Sir, I mean, our current ambassador swanee hunt named chair for women, peace and security. She's done so with the support of these two dozen faculty member staff and events audio visual teams and many of them you've already met or will meet soon. I have a key number of you who will remain behind the scenes, but I'd like to congratulate everyone for your hard work and dedication to this conference and to the war college mission. We continue to be a military academic leader in the field and we dedicate ourselves to building future leaders, not as an afterthought, but as a first thought, though this symposium is our ninth. In the meantime, our in resident student body and faculty members will be fully joining us and the trail blazing speakers and participants from across the United States and around the world. If you're here in Newport, please meet our students and faculty on the margins and ask about their experience. I think you'll find it interesting and worth your while. The naval war college is ensuring WPS tenants are woven into the fabric of all the college professional military education enterprise. We have introduced in the curriculum across all of our programs the JPME program that's the joint professional military education program, a masters of arts degree flag officer development war games and programs for our allies and partners. We have organized special events to promote an increased awareness and the understanding of a WPS. The program is supported by a steering committee and general committee work closely with Dr. Yameen and myself and the president to advance these efforts. Professor Carol hot and rot the WPS steering committee lead has been instrumental in helping establish and actively contribute to this infrastructure over the past three years. Thank you Carol. I like to pause and acknowledge her with an exemplary dedication to this initiative with some applause. Thank you. We instituted the annual honorable Juliet C. MacLennan essay prize for women, peace and security, which encourages original graduate level publication quality research. In fact, one of our students was the winner last year's WPS essay prize in the national competition organized by Marine Corps University. The National War College also has a number of distinguished women serving in key roles here in Newport. Dr. Pauline shanks corn is our James B Stockdale chair of professional military ethics. Dr. Sally Payne is our William S Sims professor of history and grand strategy. Dr. Chris Demcheck is our grace hopper chair of cybersecurity. Dr. Mary Thompson Jones is our women in national security and diplomatic studies chair. And today I'm proud to publicly announce that this summer, Dr. Mary Beth Ulrich from the US Army War College will join us as our strategy and policy department chair. Finally, as I transition to the next point we recently hired Miss Adriana Gonzalez as the Naval University system first full time chief inclusion and diversity officer. And it's a good segue to the third point, which is to weigh in on the subject of meaningful participation and inclusion as a concept based in equal parts on my own military experience and academic study. So I believe there's a natural intersection between women, peace and security and the more recent and possibly more controversial idea of diversity, inclusion, equity and inclusion or DEI. I saw on YouTube at this conference a couple of years ago there was a panel of experts addressing this exact issue, this connection between WPS and DEI. I wouldn't call myself an expert and either but I have taken an interest in and in some ways been forced to take an interest in both, not only by the aforementioned WPS norms and laws and policy, but also based on 37 years of service in and out of uniform. On the topic of DEI as a 50 something year old white man who was leaving the military and trying to enter the workforce, I realized that while I was, excuse me while I was out serving society, society changed. As I began applying for jobs I was asked to provide a statement expressing my own views on DEI and how I would use it in the workforce. So I had to look it up, the DEI was in DEI at first it was GDI and there's a few other versions of the acronym. On the topic of WPS and WPS and as a military officer with nearly 20 years of service abroad I have been an active participant in the chaining international environment thanks to the UN Security Council Resolution 1325. Unanimously adopted in 2009 reinforcing resolution since then the international community has increasingly acknowledged the important role women in creating long lasting peace and security solutions. So WPS and DEI have been on my mind for a while but their intersection was recently offered up on a silver platter almost literally. It Ambassador Swanee Hunts residence in Washington DC where she hosted about 20 of our students, the Admiral and I at dinner. She gave a presentation before dinner on inclusive security. It struck me at that moment that diversity equity and inclusion dialogue which has permeated American human resource agendas as conceptually intersected with Ambassador Hunts version of WPS. In fact, I can imagine Ambassador Hunts saying that WPS really ought to be I WPS, including women in a peace and security agenda. Now perhaps some of you are growing uncomfortable in your seats or your bunny slippers, ready to point out that DEI and WPS are not the same thing provost and that's exactly what Dr. You mean has cautioned me on don't fall into the trap she said, please hear me out. I don't pretend or want to make them the same I'm simply suggesting that when it comes to military and security related workforce issues. There is an intersection, a shared space, a Venn diagram if you will, that connects WPS and DEI. This is not DEI in corporate America or higher academia writ large. We're talking about opportunities for women into defense diplomacy and development space. In that shared space I propose the operating principle is inclusion. And I think our program over the next two days will bear that out. You'll see it in the agenda for example that we'll be looking at women's roles in combat and examining gender perspectives and strategic planning processes, and that's awesome. So, including diverse perspectives in the security sector workplace is very much aligned to the notion of including women in peace and security dialogue to achieve enduring sustainable solutions we know this. Studies show this study shows, for example, that in innovation that more frequently ideas are generated in open societies where they can flow freely and many voices are included in the dialogue. In fact, somewhat obscure book that I studied Matthew evangelist's book on how innovation developed during the Cold War, and the arms race between the Soviet Union in the United States clearly demonstrates the value of open free societies. In business school or pop works like friends Johansson's book, the Medici effect, we find similar insights. He posited it advances in 15th and 16th century European Renaissance movement came from the de Medici's family sponsorship and intersection bringing them together artists, artisans, architects, stone cutters, sculptors, the original, the OG multidisciplinary undertaking. Now for the fourth and final point on this principle of inclusion, particularly the inclusion of women. Inclusion has relevance my own personal experience, and I had the good fortune to be raised inside the US military that has established policies and performed missions abroad that were more diverse and included more meaningful participation for women that maybe sometimes is given credit. So I've got a few visual aids that I hope will help us out. This picture is my very first basic training platoon where our number one graduate was Carol Jones and that was 1984. This picture a few years later, we see my first, my first company executive officer lieutenant and Forrester muska one of the first women, first classes of women to graduate from West Point. And this picture she shown my platoon star and it's okay to have a Mickey pop in the office. Oops. Here, you'll see Colonel Jan Edmonds and Colonel, then Colonel and Dunwoody, although Colonel Dunwoody peers off screen. Dunwoody went on to be America's first four star general, and Major General Edmonds is currently the chairwoman of the board of directors for the women in military service for American Memorial Foundation. That's the first female superintendent of the Naval postgraduate school rear admiral Marsha Evans awarding me my master's degree in Monterey 1995. Ten years later and fies about Afghanistan I attended this segregated school opening. It was a big event with a fair amount of tension in the air men seated and women and girls over by a stone wall. Once petty officer, Jane Pizzi and I entered the crowd the mood lightened and her presence, obviously changed the quality of the engagement for the for a time at least it also changed the quality of these people's exposure to being involved in maintaining sustainable peace and security. In my small role helping stand up the US Africa command I participated in a money exercise a money Africa and out of Subaba, Ethiopia. I observed a structure for the African standby force brigades and visited the East Brigade, the Eastern Brigade headquarters. I was surprised to learn that these brigades had military police and civilian components, and this photo clearly shows who's the boss. Joining a fellowship at Harvard, two of my fellow fellows were Nancy pull attend from the US Refugee Agency and Shadia Marhaban a member of the free Ache movements peace and negotiating team in Helsinki. And at the National War College I co taught in the Africa regional studies program with a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Africa man to Dory and Ambassador Makilah James, we took students to many places in Africa me to Rwanda, in the area of Russian Brotherhood in Ethiopia. We learned firsthand that the role that women played in understanding economic productivity and societal security, this woman in Ethiopia explained the way that the valley worked and the way that water flowed in the way that how we had gotten it wrong in the past and and working with USA ID, how it could be better. So a spot of green and a drought stricken area. to meet Rwanda Minister of Gender and Culture, Aloysia Nyumba, who took us to a village for a unique ceremony. Now the session was a takeoff on the uniquely Rwandan concept of Gachacha, where after several minutes of song and dance, the women of the village determined the fate of a young man who had been orphaned during the genocide. At the other NWC, the Naval War College, this is where I read the Sea of Sameness article by a Naval War College professor emeritus Joan Johnson-Freeze and our incoming strategy and policy department chair, Mary Beth Ulrich. I commend it to you still. And before arriving as provost, I was dean at the NATO Defense College, where I was proud that Lieutenant General Christine White Cross from Canada, the first female commandant of the NATO Defense College, called me her battle buddy, particularly as we battle to keep the college open during COVID. And of course, here at the Naval War College, I'm pleased to serve with alongside and for Admiral Shoshana Chatfield and to call her ma'am. So it continues. But now let me do a quick poll. I know Sire is going to do a poll. But let's see a show of hands. How many of you have a partner, mother, sister, daughter that has served or is serving? Awesome. My hand is up. And that's my daughter. So for this last part, let me just share that opening chapter of my favorite badass. She enlisted in the United States Army and went to basic training to become a linguist, but she ended up going to officer candidate school and then chose, excuse me, field artillery as her branch, because not all branches of the US Army were open to women at the time. She went on to be one of the first women to graduate from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, one of the few places where US officers are allowed to wear the uniform of another country. So that's her as a member of 10 platoon or I kid you not girls platoon. That's what they call themselves without any sort of problem. That picture is not very ordinary or it is very ordinary, but this picture is extraordinary. And to me, it demonstrates in a blink of an eye the unique characteristics that the role that women play in peace and security organizations. She became the first, one of the first female fire support officers in an infantry company in the fabled 82nd Air Force. She jumped out of a perfectly good airplane into West Africa into Gabon to be precise and then unexpectedly by speaking French with the non-English speaking Gabonese drop zone team and transport ship captain, led her company doing their best Captain Morgan to happier days. News traveled fast. The US ambassador caught wind of this extraordinary event and invited her to the embassy. And that was Ambassador Cynthia Aquetta. So Elena also deployed sorry to Iraq for the battle of Mosul. She was not allowed to perform her role as a fire support officer advising the Iraqi army because she was a woman. Instead, she worked in the headquarters in the ops center as a targeting and strike officer. And it turned out okay. She was able to brief Naval War College graduate Mark Milley on operations in the battle of Mosul. And most of these opportunities were available to her due to all the work that you have done in the steadily changing policies in the United States and throughout the world. Although in this last couple of examples show there's still work to be done. So WPS and DEI are not just women's issues they're leadership issues. And they're also parental issues. And so this picture is of her mother welcoming her home and this picture is of her surrounded which you cannot see in the picture by dozens of women, colleagues, military officers and senior diplomats all women over two dozen in total organized by her father. Now, the purpose of this walk down memory lane was twofold. First to explicitly state that my daughter and I have benefited from the work that many of you are involved in. I offer you my personal and heartfelt thanks. Second and more importantly is to demonstrate that the United States and its allies have made remarkable institutional progress and WPS policy and implementation. But despite the success, there's obviously more work to be done and connecting back to the very first point that's why we're here to do more work on the topic. It's my personal hope and professional expectation that as we mature and implement inclusive policies for gender perspectives during periods of relative peace that your work will prove worth, prove it's worth in periods of war and to paraphrase to our Ferenbach when we are putting our young men and women in the mud. On behalf of the Naval War College team we sincerely hope that all of you will take advantage of this opportunity at this symposium to engage in Frank and candid dialogue. Please do not shy away from uncomfortable conversations on perspectives on war fighting, crisis management and post-conflict transition. You are hereby authorized to jump in the intellectual mud. Thank you very much everyone. And at this point, I'd like to turn it back over to Dr. Sire Yamine, our woman peace and security chair.