 Okay, we'll go ahead and get started. Okay, so welcome back. Our final session today, we're fortunate to have with us two senior-level individuals who certainly have helped shape the peace operations conversation and activities for a number of years. First, we would like to hear from Major General Retired Gordon, Senior Advisor for the Challenges Forum, and then he'll be followed up by Dr. Victoria Holt, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Department of State Bureau of International Organizational Affairs. So, Major General Gordon? I've been given six minutes to talk to you. This rapidly diminished group I see, my goodness, where is everyone? Ah, okay. To talk to you before I hand over to Tori. I just want to start again by observing the serendipity of timing of this excellent seminar coming as it does at an increasingly difficult time for UN peace operations as articulated at lunch by the Under-Secretary General Ladsous, but also right after the release of the high-level panels report. This report has tried to address some of these Ladsous challenges and has boldly laid down a gauntlet, I would suggest, for all who have an interest or a concern in wider peace operations. As an aside, I think it's probably worth remembering the difference between interest and concern by considering the standard English breakfast of bacon and egg. Now, the chicken undoubtedly has an interest in the production of this fine breakfast dish, but I would suggest that the pig has a concern. And this is my theme because I would suggest also that all practitioners in peace operations from their grand strategic formulation in New York to their operational and tactical execution in the field are in the camp of the pig. They need to be concerned, really concerned. Now, while this seminar has not been about the panel report, it is inevitable that the gauntlet of the report has laid down will resonate for the next generation of practitioners. How we react to these challenges will help define how much we have understood of the significance of the seminar. So the link between the report and how well it is strategically communicated is central to whether it will really make a difference. And I think that speaks to the truism of strategic communications. That is not so much about how we communicate our actions, but more about what our actions actually communicate. It is therefore unsurprising that the report itself has something to say on the need, as Annika has identified, for radical improvement in the UN's strategic communications. When I was actively or more actively involved in the business of strategic communication, it was drummed into me that if you have a plan or make a decision without a communication strategy, you do not really have a plan or a decision. And this speaks to the centrality of strategic communication. It is a political and operational prerequisite for success, and as such has to be embedded in all our thinking and in all our actions. As Nick said this morning, peace operations do not succeed through hard power. They succeed through soft power, which implies the primacy of the political process, a message heavily underscored by the high-level panel report, which in turn axiomatically demands good strategic communications. As Sven Erich Sörder said at the beginning, if we are not seen or heard, we do not exist. We have heard perhaps somewhat dryly that strategic communication is a variety of techniques used to explain, clarify and advocate the mission of peace operations to key target audiences. Now, we have heard and discussed today, but using different terms, the three core functions and their challenges of strategic communication in modern peace operations. And I would suggest those three core functions are firstly to inform. That's talking about shaping the narrative, to have a story, having a viable product and to tell that story in a way that the public and the target audience understands. And we've spoken at length about that. The second core factor I think is to influence how to change behavior and perceptions. Of note, the UN staff college believes that communication is strategic when it supports and promotes a key objective. The ultimate goal of communication is to facilitate the go on, a change of behavior rather than merely to disseminate information. But we know and we've heard today that this is not easy and requires really good analysis, good strategies and the effective deployment of a multiplicity of technologies. The third core function we have also identified but we didn't call it that, is to protect. Essentially the image of the mission and the image of the organization. To do this we really need to understand and listen to public perceptions, understand the need for conversations and dialogue and perhaps most of all the need for good internal communications and consistent and coherent messaging. Most of all we have to walk the talk because if we don't we'll be let down by it. I believe that these core functions are broadly understood within the UN system and those who support it but they are understood from the chicken's perspective. They are of interest. I sense that this rather theoretical senior level consent for the need can sometimes founder on the bewildering pace of change and emerging challenges inherent in the new communication and digital social media technologies. As such the default setting tends to be let's leave this to the experts or even worse let's leave this completely. There are undoubtedly issues of multiculturalism and generation driven comfort zone issues here which means that our current set of leaders with a few notable exceptions do not recognize that they must be actively concerned with these changes. I do believe however that this seminar has given us a much better handle on how UN leaders and people of influence to the UN can do better in their strategic communications for the UN. After all it has to be concerned as we heard this morning from Christina that extremist organizations such as Islamic State have demonstrated a sophistication in using the new technologies for strategic communication that makes the UN's effort look archaic. And that is our challenge. I sense that today we have set an agenda for the challenges partnership which Annika recognized and noted at the beginning of the day in that through a better understanding of the need and the techniques to communicate better we can support the implementation process of the identified changes needed to improve peace operations. And after all at the end of the day that's why we're here. Thank you very much. I hope that's done a degree of justice to all our interventions today but I'm going to hand out the toy to really put the icing on the cake. So thanks sir. If I could just take 30 seconds because I made an error and I didn't read your bio. And so I want to just take 30 seconds to be able to do that. It's all written here. It must be a long day for me. So anyways my apologies, not an excuse. So here's why you should have been paying close attention to Major General Gordon. He's had a full career in the British Army including serving as sector commander in un-performed Bosnia in 94-95 and being the British Army's director of corporate communications culminating in command of the British Army in Scotland in the north of England. He served as a force commander both in the UN mission in Ethiopia and since then has worked on projects UNDPKO UNOIOS the World Bank UNDP and the British government and others as an international lecturer, mentor and consultant on peacekeeping operations. He also co-wrote and helped develop the UN's first strategic level doctrine the capstone doctrine for peacekeeping. He's a senior advisor to Challenges Forum special advisor until 2013 to the late Pearson Peace Centre in Canada and in 2005 he helped develop the UNDPKO senior mission leadership training program and since has been the lead mentor on all 21 UN courses. So I hope you didn't need this to pay attention to his experience and what he had to say. So again, so my apologies for that. Okay, moving on. I'd like to introduce Deputy Assistant Secretary Dr. Victoria Hope. She joined the Bureau of International Organization Affairs as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in August of 2009. Her portfolio includes issues before the Security Council peace operations, sanctions and the UN political affairs. It's enough to keep you busy, I think. Prior to assuming this position she was a senior associate at the Henry L. Stimpson Centre a Washington DC based think tank where she co-directed the future of peace operations program. During her tenure at Stimpson she wrote and spoke on peace and security issues including the UN and regional peace operations, protection of civilians, targeted sanctions rule of law in US policy. She is a graduate of the Naval War College and Wesleyan University. Ms. Hope. Thanks very much. Years ago I was I just left a different administration. I left the State Department NGO asked me to travel with them to a country that was an emerging democracy. And we got briefed by the Ambassador on these immense plans and how the US was deeply engaged and how they really communicated about democracy. And so I did ask about how they were communicating with the world. And he said, well, you need to meet, I forget the guy's name, Bob. So I sat down, Bob said, Bob, how do you do this? He said, well I have fax machine. I was like okay, even then I knew that probably a fax machine alone would not be able to cover a highly populous country that was emerging from the military rule and support democracy. But I think we've come a long ways from those days. And so for many of us we may feel like we're still catching up with modern technology and trying to see how it links to peace operations and the efforts of the international community on peace and security. But we have moved forward. So I'm going to stick to my strategic message, which is two things. One, how, as Nick Burnback earlier said, we need to take back the narrative on peacekeeping. And I'm going to talk about that coming up with the events that are happening later this year. I do want a sober moment here. Between walking back and forth to the State Department, I got a little e-mail about another accusation of sexual exploitation abuse against UN peacekeepers. That cuts through all the e-mails I get. I get e-mails on everything in the world. But this is what makes headlines. Now, why is that? And why is that the story I'm getting from where I know people are risking their lives to protect civilians? It's because it is the main narrative that we unfortunately get covered. And I will come back to that. I also think at the strategic level, we actually have seen serious challenges when missions are upholding something that's politically unpopular. Governments and civilians, sometimes not civilians, but their opponents will fight back. And I remember the case in Cote d'Ivoire when we all woke up and found two people after the elections there. And the UN certified the election and said, sorry, one is a legitimate leader of this country. And we had a protracted political set of pressures while the peacekeeping mission was there to try and squeeze a process so one would depart. And as the endgame was coming closer, I remember reports that the government had put on a loop Hotel Rwanda on the national television. To communicate, do not trust the UN, they're not reliable and they will not protect you. Even this is not a new question for any of us. But as far as taking back the narrative, I can say because I travel to peacekeeping missions and so does my team, that there are too many stories that are not heard that are very positive and actually extraordinary bravery at times. I think of the civilian who stood outside the compound in Boer soon after the crisis in December 2013. And when our military came up and demanded to be let in by their political opponents, he politely pointed to a tree and said you can meet with them over there. And when they came up and threatened him, he turned around and said close the doors. And he told me, it's just me and two other guys and we were unarmed and all of them had arms. That standoff in the end saved thousands probably or at least hundreds of lives. They backed down, he had to leave the country. But many of us have never heard these stories. You can imagine what happened in Haiti after the earthquake when the very people were living with themselves injured and trying to recover as their colleagues many too many had died. Or in Syria as unarmed observers bravely went in to try and deter what we've seen since, which is extreme violence. When you hear news about Mali in a peace accord or an attack, we don't know the names of the people who are serving there or who's making the difference in the negotiations or with a local community, but they're there. This is an immensely powerful narrative. It's one that many of us know parts of. But how do we better communicate it? It's the reason why governments, NGOs, academics, and those of us engaged care about these missions. Because we know all these people. I think it's over 120 countries contribute, civilians, police, military. It's not cookie cutter. But every day I'm impressed when I go out to meet people I've never met in my life who have a Security Council resolution and they're trying to do the best they can with what they have. So how do we help lift this up? One of the great opportunities this year. One is a high level panel that's just been released which is a great opportunity. In some cases, there are things in there that have been known amongst maybe many of us. But let's lift them up and say it's not okay to have this problem set. Let's band together and say let's figure out because we want these missions to succeed how we solve some of those problems. Many of us have been going to regional conferences. They were kicked off last fall after the summit on peacekeeping and are leading up to a second summit which we're proud that President Obama will be at along with Secretary General and other governments to talk about how together countries are going to contribute more of core capacities to UN missions whether it's personnel, enablers or skills that the UN is in short supply of having access to. TPKO has already taken advantage of this. I must laugh a little bit. Strategic Force Generation and Planning Cell does not trip off the tongue. Why are we so excited about this? It's basically an office that you can call if you're interested in peacekeeping as a government and they will help solve your questions. Thank you. That's what it really is. Strategic Force Generation and Planning is really about how you get countries that may either want to expand into different areas of peacekeeping or maybe for the first time can have that conversation and say over the next two to five years this is what we're interested in. How do we go from here to there? All of these are things that I think help us have an opportunity to talk about what peacekeeping is about. Why it supports ending war and conflict. Why it supports fragile peace. Why it's made up of not just military but also police, civilians and dedicated diplomats who volunteer to go to countries they may not have seen on a map before and do their best on behalf of the international community. Finally, just on the summit our government and others are working together to try and get as many countries to come and commit something new at that event. That's not the end. I think that's the beginning of a much more robust and engaged dialogue. Doing so, all of us can help change the narrative about peacekeeping and basically validate that it matters and we're here to basically fill in those gaps rather than say, ha, too bad that mission wasn't able to do XYZ. So thank you very much to Folk Bernadette, to the Institute of Peace and obviously to the Challenges Forum for bringing us together. It's always a good opportunity to meet colleagues from across the world on the street. Thank you again. So General Gordon and Deputy Assistant Secretary Holt thanks so much for taking the time to spend with us today and thanks for sharing your insights and remarks and we look forward to hearing about the successes for the upcoming summit. It's now my privilege to once again ask Ms. Annika Hilding-Norberg to come up, the Director and Founder of Challenges Forum and to provide some thoughts on looking towards the future. Jim, and before I start I would like to say special thanks to Robert Gordon and Victoria Holt for concluding our substantive discussion here today with your very thoughtful and illuminating insightful reflections on both the issues that have been discussed and the challenges facing us ahead. We are indeed facing tremendous challenges to modern peace operations. This I think have come throughout the day. At the same time, I believe there is also a historic opportunity to make a positive difference. There is a global momentum for change generated by the various panel reports and also of course the galvanized interest in making a difference. And it is my hope that this time around, just as 15 years ago when the Brahimi report galvanized the international community to really make a difference, I hope this opportunity will find itself with us also now. The purpose of the workshop was of course to contribute to generate new ideas for strategic communications in support of UN peace operations. It was also meant to mobilize support for making that happen both to the UN headquarters but also to member states who wants to support that effort. And if I can just add something, it was mentioned earlier that there is 150 people supporting the 125,000 in terms of public affairs and public information. But this is people in the field and my intention was drawn to the fact that from a strategic point of view at the strategic level, there's actually six people supporting 125,000. And this at UN headquarters means there's one chief, one deputy, two desk officers and one project officer. There's no digital media officer in the DPKO DFS. Sometimes that those duties are undertaken by a graphic expert and a support staff. So, and I believe that is what someone called it's no way to run a railroad. I would like to say that, of course, the DPKO DFS benefits from support from the DPI, colleagues in the DPI. But in terms of having a dedicated in-house capacity in DPKO DFS to develop the strategic communication, the resources are negligible. So, despite the financial constraints, I hope when it is time for member states to decide to recruit the 125,000 one peacekeeper, I think it would be a very well-invested resource if that would be the first digital media officer in DPKO DFS. I think that's what one of the things that I'm taking out of the conversation today because they need it. They need all of our support. We have learned much from the great range of expertise and speaking to us today and which was very articulated and reflected in the presentations just made. I would like to add one particular, I think interesting issue which was not included in the presentations today. And this was the absolutely recent move by the global review of peace operations into the digital world which the CIC at the NYU in New York has been doing for a long time, but now finally it has been an enormous resource that I think very much also helped all of us develop our strategic communication capacities and I think I wanted to highlight that as a particular resource that we can all access as of last week. I'm still thinking of moving into the digital age as you see on my notes here, but focusing therefore I would like to thank all the speakers and chairs for their contributions this week. I would also like to thank the participants who have come either from far or from New York or from Washington. I think everyone bringing the different expertise and experiences and of course bringing the newfound insights back to their countries and functions and responsibilities will be very useful. I would also like to thank the partners of the challenges forum specifically because everything we do in challenges builds towards the next effort so the results coming out of this meeting I will return to very shortly but the meeting that we came to focus on here built very much on the findings of the design in madness and capabilities report and that was an effort that I would like to thank our partners from Germany, India, Nigeria, France, USA, Pakistan and partners from Canada and South Africa for having spearheaded over the past two years. Also Japan was kindly to support the launch of that event which was meant to the Secretary General. Tomorrow we will have a wrap up session with DPCO DFS identifying the key takeaways from the discussions here building on the findings of our concluding speakers. We will be back in a minute with a little bit of detail here in contact with DPCO DFS we will see what we can take further and make into practical recommendations. A summary report by the organizers will be sent to you in a few weeks time and we look forward to continue working on this subject as one of the work strands over the next year. So we invite you to stay engaged, and before closing it is my honor to extend our collective thanks to the colleagues that were not mentioned this morning but who really have made this meeting a reality. And I would like to then invite you to join me in thanking them. From the United States Institute of Peace our main hosts here I would like to extend our thanks to George Lopez and Peter Logo of course for the background paper that really I heard very clearly Robert referring to in his concluding remarks and I think for me also learning much putting things in perspective. Jeff Helsing Jim Roof of course who has been central to this process as with the Kelly major we also have a Selena canoe and Jocelyn Walker and Matt with Jamie Schillinger Steve Watson Brian Hammond remember this is recorded so if the person is not here they will still know about it. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank our colleagues at the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute which of course have been focused ever since 1997 in the challenges and there I would also like to add our thanks to Dwight Raymond Belinda Matty and of course the Piki Soy in terms that Piki Soy brought to join in they have been taking note of everything that we have been saying so thank you very much it's Jonathan McMullin Lauren Renault, Walter Stankiewicz and Mary Juggernaut also at the State Department we have Debra O'Dell who is our point of contact for all operational issues and at the Department of Defense of course Sarah Kapell is our key point of contact I would also like to thank our Swedish coordinating colleagues the armed forces here represented by Hans Grönlund and the Swedish police represented by Don Pettersson finally last but not least my colleagues in the Challenges Forum Secretariat which is Zivike Jönsson my deputy and Anna Victor Schoen who has really been central to this whole project here with the USIP and Jonny Börjeson and back home we have Andrea Robus who is engaged online as we are here and also Robert Gordon for his contributions to our ongoing efforts so finally again thank you everyone and stay tuned and warmly welcome to our annual forum Jerevan, 56th of October hope to see you there thank you very much