 We've heard a lot about the challenges our country faces, and if I'd ask you to take your seats please, few people feel those challenges more acutely than the assistant to the president for national security affairs or what is known colloquially as the national security advisor. So in our next segment, we are going to hear from two such individuals, our present national security advisor and our future national security advisor. This position is one of the most challenging and difficult in government, and for many of us, another retired Lieutenant General, Brent Scowcroft, set the standard of how to perform this role. That was unable to be with us today, but we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge his enormous influence in shaping the position and defining it as national security advisor. And most of us who have held the job since have looked to him as our model. One of these people was Sandy Berger. Sandy was a friend of many of us in this room. He was both a fierce partisan and a fierce bipartisan, and he was my partner in a number of bipartisan efforts to address the foreign policy challenges facing our country. His untimely passing was an enormous loss, and we miss him. And our nation misses his ideas, his energy, and his unwavering commitment to bipartisanship and to advancing the interests of our great country. In a moment, I will ask our current national security advisor, Ambassador Susan Rice, and our future national security advisor, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, to join me on stage. Ambassador Rice will share some brief remarks, and after concluding, she and Lieutenant General Flynn will meet on this stage and exchange a handshake that symbolizes the transition of power from one administration to the next, and the shared commitment to national security that transcends party lines. Then Lieutenant General Flynn will share some thoughts of his own, looking ahead to the future, and that's this segment of the program, and let me now invite Ambassador Rice and Lieutenant General Flynn to join me on the stage. Ambassador Rice is our 24th national security advisor. She served in government during the Clinton administration, both on the National Security Council staff and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Before her current position, she was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Please welcome Ambassador Rice to the podium. Good morning, everyone. I think it's still morning. I'm at almost. Steve, thank you so much. This week, especially, it's nice to be reminded that there's life after being national security advisor. I also want to thank Nancy Lindborg and the U.S. Institute for Peace for inviting me, and more importantly, for the incredible work that you do. It's always good to see so many friends and colleagues from across government, and I want to welcome my successor, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, not only to this conference, but to his new position. Mike, I imagine why you'll soon appreciate that instead of a baton, I'd better be passing you a case of red bull. But in all seriousness, the baton metaphor is quite apt. And I want to thank Steve and the Bush 43 team again for the exemplary handoff they conducted to the Obama administration in 2008 and 2009. As President Obama says, the presidency is in fact a relay race. Each administration inherits challenges, and each bequeaths challenges, often unforeseen ones, to its successor. It's been no different for us. When President Obama took office, the global economy was in free fall. We were embroiled in two hot wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Al Qaeda had regrouped along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Allies were continuing to question the decision to invade Iraq, and Iran was on the verge of acquiring the material for a nuclear weapon. Global action on climate change had not matched the magnitude of the threat. President Obama knew that we had to laser focus on these immediate challenges, but he also always kept the long game in mind. In a rapidly changing world, we needed to position the United States to advance our core interests over the long term. That meant investing in the foundations of America's strength and influence, especially our economic strength. It meant countering threats around the globe while ensuring that the gains outweighed the costs. It meant not overextending ourselves in places less central to our long term interests, while rebalancing towards regions that are. And it meant expanding our definition of national security to include transnational security threats of an increasingly complex nature. As President Obama always says to us, are we looking around the corner? By looking around the corner, with the work of this administration and our partners, today the United States is positioned more strategically to meet the challenges ahead. That began by getting our own economic house in order, because American economic security upholds American strength. And while too many Americans are still struggling, our economy is far stronger. In 2009, unemployment was approaching 10 percent. It's now at 4.7 percent. 20 million more Americans have health insurance. We've seen the longest streak of job growth on record, 75 straight months of gains. The poverty rate has fallen at the fastest rate in almost 50 years, while median household income grew at the fastest rate on record. Meanwhile, we have wound down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a substantial extent. This is not because President Obama has been shy about using force to protect American lives and American interests. Rather, it was a recognition that our resources could best be used to prepare our military to face new challenges, to reinvest in military readiness, to build 21st century capabilities for 21st century threats, and to ensure that our military remains the finest fighting force on the face of the Earth. We averted the prospect of a dangerous and costly new war by imposing crippling sanctions on Iran, which we leverage to reach a deal cutting off every pathway to an Iranian nuclear weapon. Already, Iran has dismantled two-thirds of its installed centrifuges. They've shipped out 98 percent of their enriched uranium stockpile and filled the Iraq plutonium reactor core with concrete. Even if Iran were to walk away from this deal, their breakout time has gone from two to three months to about a year, and if they cheat, we are now certain to detect it. I know there's been a lot of debate about this deal, but it's hard to imagine that no deal or war would be preferable. We also negotiated the new START treaty to cap American and Russian nuclear weapons, and through a series of nuclear security summits, the president rallied world leaders to help secure loose nuclear material and keep it from falling into the hands of the most dangerous adversaries. At the same time, we put in place a sustainable counterterrorism strategy. Instead of risking blood and treasure by deploying large numbers of American ground forces, we centered our approach around a range of partnerships, from training and supporting local forces to working with international partners to help choke off foreign fighter flows and finances. By adhering to clear guidelines and strict oversight in our direct action, we further grew global support for our counterterrorism mission. Nuclear strategies might produce faster results, but victories would be short-lived, and we will be in this fight for the long haul. It is a fight we must wage and win. Osama bin Laden is dead, and Core Al Qaeda is a shadow of its former self. We forged a 68-member global coalition that has removed key ISIL leaders, killed thousands of fighters, and rolled back almost half its territory in Iraq and Syria. And while we've suffered horrific attacks from Boston to San Bernardino to Orlando, we've built unparalleled counterterrorism capabilities to protect our homeland from foreign terrorists and homegrown violent extremists. As we faced these near-term terrorist threats, we also strategically rebalanced so that the United States is playing a larger and long-term role in the Asia Pacific, a region that accounts for 40 percent of our global economic growth, four of our top 10 trading partners, and five of our treaty allies. By the end of this decade, a majority of our navy and air force will be based out of the Pacific. While managing our complex but increasingly durable relationship with China, we strengthened cooperation with treaty allies like Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Forged deeper partnerships with emerging powers like India and Indonesia, and intensified our support for regional institutions. I saw the potential of these new relationships during President Obama's historic visits to Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. As a key part of this rebalance, President Obama fought to set the rules of the road for trade that ensure fair competition, protect the environment, and raise labor standards. We did this through the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And if we don't define these rules of the road, others will for us. China is already pursuing its own regional trade agreement, with lower standards and fewer protections. Failure to move forward on TPP is eroding American regional leadership and credibility with China standing to gain strategically and economically. Even as we emphasize the importance of the Asia Pacific, we seized opportunities in other emerging centers of growth. For the first time in half a century, Americans are flying directly from Miami to Havana, creating new opportunities for Cubans and Americans, and bringing back the rum and the cigars that they can carry. Having that historical baggage removed an irritant that impeded cooperation and progress in the region. Thanks in part to our opening to Cuba, U.S. relations with Latin America have never been better. And with this year's peace agreement in Colombia, the longest-running war in the hemisphere came to an end. Likewise, we devoted renewed attention and resources to Africa, expanding access to electricity, bringing business leaders together to grow opportunity and supporting Africa's next generation. While reaching out to new partners, we strengthened traditional alliances and relationships. We deepened transatlantic ties working with NATO and European partners to bolster deterrence in Europe. Great terrorism encountered ISIL and imposed economic costs on Russia for its aggression in Ukraine. We concluded a $38 billion military assistance package with Israel, the single largest in American history. And we updated our military assistance relationship with Egypt. And we led at the United Nations, getting the toughest ever sanctions on North Korea and mobilizing resources and action to address the refugee crisis and make UN peacekeeping more effective. Recognizing that borderless challenges will only increase from cyber attacks to dangers arising from fragile states to climate change. We broadened our conception of national security. We strengthened cyber security and cyber norms. In the face of the biggest refugee and migrant crisis since World War II, we provided more humanitarian aid than any other country in the world. And after rigorous vetting, welcomed tens of thousands to America, not simply as charity or as an expression of our values, but as an investment in security and stability. We partnered to beat back Ebola in West Africa and invested in global health security. We elevated development as a key pillar of our foreign policy. And as a result, over 18 million children today are getting better nutrition. And nearly four times more people are receiving lifesaving HIV AIDS treatment. We've worked to shore up fragile states and prevent atrocities, reduce corruption and prevent and encourage entrepreneurship. And we've cultivated hundreds of thousands of young leaders from four continents. I'm especially proud that we put the ultimate borderless threat, the threat of climate change, front and center, rallying the world to achieve the Paris Agreement, which has the potential to put the planet on the path to a sustainable future. We've begun to integrate climate impacts into our national security planning. Thanks in part to our Clean Power Plan, the new energy efficiency standards, and unprecedented investments in clean energy, carbon emissions are down 9 percent since President Obama took office, while the U.S. economy has grown over 10 percent. As important as our strategic rebalance, we've positioned ourselves for the future by strengthening America's moral authority. That started at home when we affirmed the ban on torture and reformed our intelligence gathering. It continued as we stood strongly for the rights and dignity of all people around the world, for citizens in Myanmar to elect their leaders, for dissidents in China, journalists in Ethiopia and ladies in white in Cuba to speak or organize free from repression, for women and girls around the world to enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that are their birthright, for the rights of people everywhere to love who they love. As a result of these strategic foreign policy decisions, I do truly believe the United States is better positioned to confront the challenges that will face the new administration. These challenges are formidable. The global security landscape is as unsettled as at any time in recent memory. I could discuss this at length, but given the shortness of time, let me mention just three challenges. First, Americans face a more diverse array of threats from a more diverse range of sources than ever before. This includes everything from state actors, such as Russia and North Korea, to terrorists like ISIL, often enabled by new technologies. This includes transnational threats that can reach our shores, like climate change, pandemics or the illicit flow of drugs and weapons. Second, as a global leader and primary stakeholder, the United States faces the challenge of upholding an international order strained by rising tensions among major global and regional powers, and frankly deep governance challenges within these states. Russia continues to threaten the global order in Ukraine, in Syria, and through its efforts to interfere in democratic elections. China's assertiveness, most notably in the South China Sea, has tested whether the U.S.-China relationship will be defined by our differences or by what we can achieve cooperatively. Europe, buffeted by Brexit, economic uncertainty, a refugee and migrant crisis, and Russian aggression needs American support now more than ever. Against this backdrop, as we've seen in the horrific tragedy in Syria, the Arab world will likely continue to struggle for stability, perhaps for a generation or more. In the face of these challenges, it might be tempting to turn inward. And therein lies the United States' third strategic challenge. We must protect ourselves and the international order we help build, without subordinating our values or abandoning our alliances, partnerships, and cooperation that have yielded unprecedented global prosperity and progress. Even in these complex and often competing issues, you'll understand why Henry Kissinger once commented, and I quote, there cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full. The demands of serving as national security adviser are constant. Colin Powell described the job as being, quote, judge, traffic cop, truant officer, arbitrator, fireman, chaplain, psychiatrist, and occasional hitman. I like to think of it as being the quarterback without the glory or the high pay. No doubt, General Flynn, you will find your own analogy. But the bottom line is, in an uncertain world, you and your team will be shouldering extraordinary responsibilities for keeping America safe and strengthening a global order that has prevented a war among major powers for the last 75 years. That's why at President Obama's direction, our entire national security team has been working for months to prepare for and facilitate a smooth transition. This goes beyond party or politics. This is what the American people expect and deserve. As I noted, Steve and his team set a very high bar, which we have been committed to meeting and where possible exceeding. The NSC has produced over 100 memos covering everything from the interagency policy process to our plans and protocols to address the many nightmare scenarios that could arise. We've made our entire staff available to meet with and brief the incoming team. This handoff continues as I speak. As part of this transition, I've had constructive meetings with General Flynn, and my team has met extensively with his. The discussions we've had and the suggestions I've made I will keep between us, not least because much of it is highly classified. But I will say that I am very proud of the professional manner in which we have conducted this transition. This was a tough and hard fought election, but our national security is and must always remain above the fray. I'm also extraordinarily proud of the NSC staff we've built and that General Flynn will inherit. When I returned to the NSC in 2013, having served there in the 1990s, I was struck by how much it expanded in that period. And while I continue to believe that presidents must retain the flexibility to staff the NSC as they wish, we've worked hard to right size and reform the NSC. We've reduced the staff by over 15%. Today's NSC operates with a policy staff smaller than the staffs of USIP and many think tanks. As we've streamlined, we remain convinced that one of the NSC's greatest strengths is the career national security professionals who comprise nearly 90% of the staff. They're the brightest and hardest working staff in government. And I am extremely grateful for their service and sacrifice. But ultimately, the issue is not mainly about the size of the NSC. It's about the role of the NSC. Every president will decide that for himself or herself. I'll simply say, as others have, that departments and agencies are the ones that need to lead in formulating and implementing policy. But the NSC staff is uniquely placed to ensure that the president receives a truly integrated perspective that takes into account the president's agenda and the risks, costs, and trade-offs of any decision. So General Flynn inherits a vital job at a challenging time. And while it is no secret that this administration has profound disagreements with the next one, I intend to make myself available to him just as my predecessors have for me. We are all patriots, first and foremost. The threats to our security and democracy should be above partisanship. As President George H.W. Bush wrote to President Clinton after their own electoral battle, and quote, your success is now our country's success. I am rooting hard for you, said President Bush. General Flynn, I am rooting hard for you. In a few hours, I'll accompany President Obama to Chicago for his farewell address. And this has me counting my personal blessings. My grandfather was a janitor who emigrated from Jamaica in 1912 with my grandmother, who was a maid and a seamstress. Being here as a National Security Advisor to the President of the United States, I'm filled with gratitude for this country and the opportunities it has provided me and so many others. When I think about the difference I've been privileged to see the United States and our government make in the lives of Americans and people around the world, I'm deeply honored and humbled to have joined in this journey. I'll continue to do my part as best I can. And in the years ahead, I'm confident that patriotic Americans of talent and goodwill will ensure that this great country stays strong, secure, and prosperous, a beacon of hope for all the world. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ambassador Rice, for those remarks and for your service to this country. I would now invite Lieutenant General Flynn and Ambassador Rice to move to this side of the podium, as they have done, and to exchange the symbolic handshake representing the handoff responsibility from one administration to the other. Thank you both. Lieutenant General Michael Flynn is President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be our 25th National Security Advisor. Lieutenant General Flynn last served in government as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency after a distinguished 33-year career of military service. During that career, he held various intelligence posts and served several deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he served in these positions with great distinction. Please welcome Lieutenant General Flynn to the podium. I'm going to thank Susan again, but I would really like everybody to give her another round of applause. That was an amazing speech. It's an appropriate place, Institute of Peace, right? And I want to thank everybody for their very kind welcome, not only here last night, but really sort of back into government. I want to thank the U.S. Institute of Peace for peace, and I especially want to thank Nancy Lomborg and Steve Hadley and many of the other former National Security Advisors and other Cabinet officers for their graciousness, their time and their counsel over these past two months. With the current and former National Security Advisors and the array of current and former National Security Counsel staffers and others that are in the room here today, I mean, this really represents the collective wisdom and experience of some of America's greatest National Security thinkers, practitioners and doers. And what I'd like to do is just take a brief pause because I'm in awe of Secretary Albright who's sitting here in front today, and I'd like everybody to just give her a big round of applause for her dignity. Thank you so much. I mean, as Susan just demonstrated and as Secretary Albright has also demonstrated just a grace, a dignity, an elegance and a commitment to this country, that is, that goes beyond, you know, sort of our wildest imaginations. People outside don't realize the sacrifices that what you see in Dr. Rice, Ambassador Rice and what you see in Secretary Albright, and I think that that sort of transcends who we are. And it is Americans that are our greatest asset and our American people, the American people that we have in this country, across this country. That said, the gravity of this moment is a bit overwhelming as I step back into government for what I know is a monumental task ahead. Transitions are hard enough. They're hard enough in anything that we do, but transitions and transfers of power from one United States president to the next are historic and this one is no exception. To me, one of the most significant moments in American history was at the very beginning when President John Adams was not re-elected and had to hand the presidency over to his arch-rival, Thomas Jefferson. It could have been a constitutional crisis, but it wasn't. Why? Because we have peaceful, we have a peaceful transition of power and that is the tradition that has bound us all ever since. As for Adams and Jefferson in their final years, they became great friends and their correspondence is one of the best examples of patriotism and bipartisan sense of national purpose among all of our leaders that have ever existed. As a model to the world, as a model to the world, at least in our history, the United States has set the standard for the peaceful transition of power and it is a model that continues to be the envy of the world. We stand today on the threshold of a new era as we continue to navigate the remainder of the 21st century, a century that has already presented us with numerous unpleasant surprises. And looking ahead, this century clearly represents one with even more risk but also with many opportunities. I want to personally, again, thank Ambassador Rice and her entire team for their preparation, the transition materials as Ambassador Rice highlighted that they've provided to us, the initiation of various NSE reform measures that she has already undertaken and the time that she and her team took to help guide us and to help us be as well prepared as we can be prior to inauguration day. As I stated, these early years of the 21st century have proven to be extraordinarily challenging as old, familiar threats and challenges have reasserted themselves and new ones have emerged, lending this period of time a feeling of great uncertainty and in certain parts of the world reverberating upheaval given the hyper-accelerated nature of the time in which we live and emerging threats and active adversaries that are also moving at warp speed, these 21st century challenges are among the toughest we as a nation have faced in decades, in many decades. This is why we are absolutely committed to leading a national security council with our President-elect's vision to make America great again. That has as its primary mission, its primary mission, the safety of the American people and the security of our nation. That mission is to be supported by an overarching policy of peace through strength. As we examine and potentially re-baseline our relationships around the globe, we will keep in mind the sacrifices and deep commitments that many of our allies and our partners have made on behalf of our security and our prosperity, as well as the security and prosperity of other freedom-loving nations around the world. In fact, alliances are one of the great tools that we have, and the strength of those alliances magnify our own strengths. One of those strengths is the unapologetic defense of liberty. This is the core element of American exceptionalism and why America must and will remain a superpower. The exceptionalism that defined America from the start became the standard by which every other free people measure themselves and the standard by which we should measure ourselves. America might have its ups and downs, but the assumption has long been that American power would always be there, reliable, strong, present, and ready. We have always been the indispensable nation, and we always will be. To that end, we must consider the elements that make us indispensable, and I will touch on a few. This requires extraordinary foresight and vision that is able to transcend political ideologies, a matching long-term strategy that lays out a roadmap to keep us on track despite the massive hurdles that we may encounter along that path, the right processes to review the assumptions to determine validity and meaning that form our strategy, and lastly, some means of measuring whether it's working or not, and being honest and accountable to ourselves. During those elements, and even in extremely difficult times, we have never lost our sense of America, or what it means to be an American, and the idea of American exceptionalism. Faced with some of the darkest days of civil and foreign wars, economic depression, and many recessions that we've gone through, weak leadership at home, or hostile threats from abroad, the American people always maintain their faith in the uniqueness of our democratic experiment, which produced the greatest force of economic growth and innovation, and the greatest model for liberty the world has ever known. That has not and will not ever change. This is the essence of American leadership. Whether we like it or not, the world needs us and in fact demands it. What has changed is the nature and character of America's enemies and the new and dangerous technological environment in which they operate. That's why we are committed to having the National Security Council continue to serve as the fulcrum of national security and national security decision-making in the most effective way possible. In the National Security Council, we will serve four primary functions. We will advise the President on national security issues. We will formulate national security policy in coordination with the interagency process. We will monitor how policy is carried out. And we will also ensure that the President is properly prepared and staff for the many national security-related events that we are likely to encounter. And I would add one additional function. I want to add that President-elect Trump, we need to help him work with our partners in Congress on both sides of the aisle, despite the difficulties that we will face. Serving as a national security visor is an awesome responsibility and it gets to the very essence of protecting and defending the American people, our homeland, and our Constitution. Given those responsibilities, it is our mission to ensure that the President, the national security community, and the American people continue to be well-served. In order to achieve that, we are absolutely committed to continue carrying out those necessary reforms begun by previous administrations. All of this will be done in the spirit of working toward common national security goals, particularly protecting American values and principles. As we confront the serious threats facing us, we also recognize that what makes our country exceptional is what we are defending every day, and that's freedom. And we must never fear, we must never fear who we are or shy away from the values and the principles that America represents. Again, we have a lot of serious challenges in front of us, make no mistake about that, but we will face them. We will face these challenges, undaunted, with a re-energized sense of responsibility and purpose. Lastly, finally, I will tell you that KT McFarlane and I, we're very excited, we're ready to get started, and we're very much looking forward to working with many of you in the room today and around Washington D.C. and elsewhere throughout this great country. Thank you so much and God bless America. Thank you both for your thoughtful remarks and for that symbolic gesture that is an important hallmark of the peaceful transfer of power that makes this country so special. We're now going to take a break for lunch, and you'll notice that we do not have any programming scheduled during this time, and we would encourage you to mingle, to sit with people you've not met before, to enjoy our lovely building and each other's company. And to facilitate these conversations, we've provided tables and seatings in a variety of locations all around this building. On the third floor in the International Women's Commons, above us on the second floor in the Leland Atrium, and in all the conference rooms in the area, and behind us in the tent, which we've had coffee breaks, I've been on the board here four years. I couldn't find all of these places, but not to worry, there are staff around who will direct you to a quiet corner where you can meet and have direct conversations. So please enjoy your lunch and we'll see you back here in a little over an hour. Thanks very much.