 Good afternoon everybody. It's great to see such a healthy crowd out on a beautiful Austin afternoon. My name is Will Inboden. I'm the executive director of the Clement Center for History, Strategy and Statecraft here at UT, and we are your hosts for the day. But I want to emphasize that while the Clement Center is the sponsor of the event, we've got a broad range of cosponsors I want to acknowledge. I think this coming together, this group really shows the tremendous interest in thoughtful conversation and foreign policy here at UT. So our cosponsors include the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the Strauss Center for International Security and Law, the LBJ Future Forum, the College Republicans of Texas, the Hamilton Society, the Goldwater Society, the Federalist Society, AEI on campus. I'm only about a tenth of the way through. So anyway, AEI Enterprise Club, the Chicano and Hispanic Law Student Association, the Hispanic Leadership Initiative and the Texas Politics Project. And I want to mention those groups partly because of their support that we're able to get such a great gathering today, but also because, like I said, I think that really represents so much of the interest that Senator Rubio has captured in his years in the Senate, particularly as he has been speaking out more and more in foreign policy. So it's now my honor to introduce my dear friend, George C., who is the chairman of Anondale Capital in Dallas, a loyal Longhorn alum with two degrees from here, but most importantly, for our purposes, he's the chairman of the board for the Clements Center. And so George is going to come out and say welcome and then introduce our speaker. Thank you. Hook him. It's great to be with you all here today. Bill Clements, 40 years ago, who's the namesake of this center, that let us never send the president of the United States to the negotiating table as head of the second strongest country in the world. And thanks to the leadership we've had in this country over the last several decades, we've never had to do that. But in the 70s when he said those words, we got pretty close. And it's in that spirit that we welcome Senator Marco Rubio here today. Senator Rubio is a friend of many years of mine and he has taken a very keen interest in foreign policy, intelligence, national security, and the strength of this country. And in keeping with Reagan-esque foreign policy where American power should be projected, but from a strategic viewpoint from a Pax Americana viewpoint where we preserve the world peace, where projection of U.S. power is something that is not taken lightly and not done without a whole lot of careful thought. He is really a leading voice in foreign policy with only a few years in the United States Senate. He's become a leader immediately. And we are so pleased to have him here in Texas today. It's nice to have a voice that is not moving us towards isolation, toward withdrawal from world affairs, but strategic engagement for United States national security interests. And also with what we've seen in Crimea, in Ukraine, in Libya, and in other spots around the world, it's imperative that we stay focused on what we're doing outside of the United States, as well as all the critical elements of domestic policy we need to pay attention to as well. So without further delay, it's my privilege to introduce my friend, United States Senator Marco Rubio. Please give him a warm welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you for having me. I didn't bring the teleprompter, so I thought I'd just speak about some things that are on my mind. But no, thank you for having me. It's great to be here. It's great to be in Texas, great to be in Austin, and great to be with all of you to talk about a topic that I don't get asked about enough. People don't want to talk about this as much, although lately, I think because of events in the news, there's more and more discussion about national security, and it's linked to prosperity. And so what I wanted to do for a few moments to speak to you before I question and answer about both my interests in public and foreign affairs and where we are as a nation heading into the 21st century as we are in now the early stages of the 21st century and what it means. Let me start by a proposition that perhaps those of you, so many students that are here and others who study both history and international politics, I think would agree with. And that is that if you look at the course of human history, thousands of years of recorded history, what we know to be the affairs of man, security and prosperity have not been the natural order of things. In fact, the story of humanity has been the story of conflict, often armed and bloody and disruptive. In just the last century, twice, this nation and the world were thrown into deep global conflicts in World War I and World War II. And of course we lived through the Cold War and Korea, Vietnam, and some other engagements. But an interesting thing happened after the end of World War II. America emerged unquestionably as the most powerful nation on the earth. And it used that power and that influence to set up guidelines for international conduct. From the lessons learned in World War II, we tried to put in place, along with freedom-loving people everywhere, norms for international relationships between nations and people, in the hopes of never again having a conflict like the Second World War or the First World War before it. And the results were unquestionably positive. It wasn't an era without any sort of conflict. Certainly we lived through a cold war in which the Soviet Union and the United States came close on a couple of occasions to catastrophe. But by and large it was an era of extraordinary spread of democracy and freedom, and more importantly, of prosperity all over the world. In fact, if we look back now at the end of World War II to where we stand today, two of the most prosperous nations on earth were the nations that lost that war in Germany and in Japan. Nations like South Korea that emerged divided during the Cold War were not so long ago donor states. I'm sorry, were recipient states of aid and now have become donor states. In essence, the story of the 20th century, though not perfect, is the story of prosperity, of the spread of democracy and stability around the world. All of it the result of American leadership. Not America by itself, we certainly had participants who worked alongside us to make this possible. But since the end of the Second World War America has been the only nation with both the economy and the military power and therefore the international heft to pull together this international order and to help maintain it as the leader of the free world and a free people throughout. It wasn't a period without challenge and on a number of occasions we certainly had to examine ourselves and what we wanted to stand for in order to ensure that we confronted the challenges of our time. But as we look back at that era it is unquestionably an American Century, not just because of the example we set here at home, but because of the difference our leadership made around the world. So my point is that especially since the beginning of that era, but especially from the period that ended the Cold War until perhaps the attacks of 911, the world we knew was largely a peaceful and prosperous one. Certainly there were conflicts and humanitarian crisis and horrible crimes committed against humanity and parts of the world, but by and large the world was able to avoid wide-scale conflict. And it was an era where the multipolar world ended and in fact the United States stood unquestionably once again as the only superpower on the globe. But beginning on that September day in 2001 the world began to change and I argue began to go back to a sort of normal state of affairs if you look at it from the purpose of human, from the aspect of human history. And now as we enter the second decade of the 21st century that pace towards that trend has only accelerated. Now I'm going to describe to you the world as we wish it were. A world where every country and every leader on the world was committed to peace. Where we respected one another. Where nations that had disagreements could negotiate them at international forums and work their way through. Where all disputes could be resolved by talking rather than by conflict. Where every nation was committed to the freedom and the dignity of all human beings. This is the world we wish, this is the world as we wish it were. This is the goal, this is the world that we aspire to one day see. But still it is not the world as it is. And every single day we are reminded of that now across the planet. The world as it is is a world where in China a government systematically violates the rights of his own people. The human rights of their own people. But in addition has now expanded its territorial claims in the region. It claims that islands and rock formations and other territories in the region rightfully belong to them. And they cite historical evidence from thousands of years ago to back up their claim. But they're not just saying these words anymore. These claims have always been there. They have now increased their military capacity significantly. To the point where they are on pace to become a dominant military power in the region. And perhaps begin to act on some of these claims. The fear is that at some point the price of confronting China in any sort of conflict in the region will be so high that the countries of the region will recognize the United States will be unwilling or incapable of standing up to the security guarantees that we've made to our partners and allies in the region. And as a result these nations will be forced to accept new terms. In terms of not just territorial integrity but their own sovereignty and their relationship to China and the world. We look to Europe where at some point in the last few years Vladimir Putin has made a decision that his relationship with America and the West is a zero sum game where either he wins or we do. He has walked away from the idea that somehow we can both benefit. And despite our frequent urgings by multiple presidents and America at large he has discarded that view and has made up his mind that the only way he can succeed and restore Russia to the great power status he wants it to be is if somehow we are diminished and the West is diminished. You see him acting on this belief. In Eastern Europe he has seen it as necessary to invade Crimea and potentially right now Ukraine. In fact not potentially. In fact they are now involved in a similar operation to what you saw in Crimea as Russian agents crossed the border to agitate to provoke in the hopes of creating the stage for then in a military intervention and to delegitimize the government in Kiev. Beyond it all the you saw that just a few years ago he took the exact same action in a much more overt way in Georgia and multiple nations in Eastern Europe now feel threatened by Russian expansionism by the rhetoric that's coming from what from Moscow which by the way internally in Russia we've seen nationalism and outrageous speech that we didn't see even in the Soviet era begin to grow. It is a daunting precedent. You move further south and to the Middle East and you find extraordinarily challenging extraordinary challenges there as well. The Syrian conflict has become a proxy war between Iran Russia and Assad on the one side and everybody else on the other and tragically in addition to that vast ungoverned spaces have opened up in Syria where the government doesn't control the territory and it increasingly has become the premier operational space on the planet for radical jihadists to train and operate from. I will make a prediction to you tonight that if things continue the way they are soon we will see attacks staged against our interests and God forbid perhaps even our homeland from those ungoverned spaces in Syria. Beyond that we see Iran's nuclear ambitions destabilizing the region as well as Iran aspires towards a nuclear weapon other nations are prepared to take steps to match them and I am convinced that a nuclear Iran will quickly be followed by nuclear Saudi Arabia and one day potentially a nuclear Turkey as well. Our strongest alliances in the region feel threatened. The Jordanians extraordinary partners in safety and security feel threatened every single day not just by a million or more refugees that have crossed across the border and placed tremendous strains on their budget but by the existence of radicals just north of their border that threaten to come into Jordan and one day overthrow that government and of course Israel is insecure as they've been in a very long time everywhere they look they see insecurity Syria is insecure Egypt is going through extraordinary transition their relationships with the Turks have significantly degraded and oftentimes from Washington they feel like some of the rhetoric creates space between us and them that invites either more even more aggression on the part of their enemies not to mention an international effort to delegitimize Israel's right to exist in Latin America an area that often gets neglected not by me because I live so close to it and not by you because you care about our region but by many policymakers there is troubling trends as well Cuba has long been a dictatorship but now throughout Latin America we are seeing the spread of totalitarianism disguised as democracy you see simply having an election alone does not make you a democracy you have to govern as Democrats you have to have freedom of the press freedom of religion freedom of expression you have to have free and fair elections and a nation after nation this is eroding it's already eroded in Nicaragua and in Venezuela and Ecuador and Bolivia it threatens now to erode in places like Panama and Argentina these hard fought gains in democracy and in progress in the region now seem like perhaps they're beginning to slip away there are other parts of the world that I can point to as sources of conflict but the bottom line is that all over the world we are beginning to see the reemergence of a battle an ideological a spiritual battle between the forces of tyranny and the forces of freedom this is perhaps simplistic language to some but it is truly what it is for I ask you what democracy on the planet is creating conflict with their neighbors every single flashpoint on earth every single conflict on this planet and every place where people are suffering and dying and being invaded and imprisoned and persecuted it is a tyranny that stands behind that action in Asia it is China and North Korea that create instability in Europe it is Russia in the Middle East it is the Iranians and radical jihadists and Latin America it's the castros and Chavez and Al Maduro and Ortega and Nicaragua it isn't Switzerland it isn't Ireland or the United Kingdom it isn't the freedom loving people of the world it's the tyrannical governments that are setting the stage for this and so what is the choice before us well there seems to be two schools of thought one school of thought in American politics shared by some on both the left and right is that what we need to do now is further disengage the time has come for America to take a step back from the global stage and allow our allies and other nations on the planet to take a greater role and I would say to you that ideally that would be fantastic I would love to see NATO reinvigorated with the NATO governments of Europe spending more money in their national defense I would love to see the democracies of Latin America rally to the cause of freedom and democracy and other nations in an ideal world this is exactly what would happen but as I told you a moment ago we don't live in the ideal world those of us who make policy must live in the real world and in the real world there is only one nation on this planet still capable of rallying the free people of this world to the great causes of our time and that nation is ours that is not my opinion that is a matter of fact that is stated to me every time that I travel abroad in fact the number one question I get when I was at the United Kingdom or when I was in Japan or Korea or the Philippines or anywhere else the number one question I get it will America still be engaged will they still be our partner not just in our mutual defenses but our economic progress can we still count on American leadership or have you reached a point in your history where your people are no longer willing to do this because they're so focused on what's happening at home that they forget what's happening abroad impacts what's happening at home as well in fact that truism has never been more true the world is more interconnected than it's ever been never before have we seen events halfway around the world have as much impact on things that are happening right here right now in fact I would venture to guess that for many of you who are in business and commerce events that are happening halfway around the world sometimes have a greater impact on your bottom line than events happening halfway across town this is the world that we live in and perhaps because I and many of you grew up in a generation that was raised after Vietnam at the tail end of the Cold War in a unipolar world in a unipolar world where the United States was the only power on it perhaps the temptation exists to grow complacent to believe that all we have and all we see in the world we know today was simply the way things oh the way things always were that this is the normal and natural state of affairs it's easy to believe that when you grow up in an era of unquestioned prosperity in an era where democracy was growing and there were few challenges to our leadership but those who have been around longer and those who have taken the time to study the true lessons of history understand that that has never been the case and it will not be the case now twice in the last century this nation paid an extraordinary price for ignoring the events around us and what happens with these problems around the world is they eventually come for us there is no serious problem on this planet that will stay where it is we can ignore our enemies we can ignore our adversaries we can ignore those who wish us ill but I promise you they will not ignore us in fact I promise you that they aren't ignoring us right now that there are nations on earth that we hardly talk about whose number one priority is to diminish America's power and influence on the planet and by consequence of that diminish our way of life as well there are organizations on this planet whose number one organizing principle is to strike at the heart of our way of life of our freedoms at our prosperity and at our example and I hope this is a lesson that we don't have to be reminded of through another tragic consequence through another tragic incident or perhaps even through a conflict for we still have time to realize the world for what it truly is to take heed from the lessons that history has taught us and to do something about it and what is it that we need to do about it I think three key critical things the first is we must never forget the fundamental truth that the best way to ensure peace is through strength that the best way to avoid war is to have a military that any other potential adversary in the world knows if they go up against them they will lose America if you want peace and prosperity one of the best ways to ensure it is to have a military advantage that no one will question and no one will dare try the second is we must be engaged diplomatically everywhere in the world we must speak out on the causes of human rights and that includes not just violations of democracy but systemic violations against women and children and the poor and the defenseless violations of religious liberties in this world today there are people sitting in jails for because they converted to Christianity there are women that are forced to have abortions we should never stand by and see these as legitimate practices of another culture not in the 21st century not on our watch I hope that when people look back at our time here they will say that this generation of Americans were a clear voice against these abuses whether they were committed by friendly governments or hostile ones we should never stand by with our arms crossed and watch the rights of other people violated without saying a word and by the way when we speak on these issues the world cares and last but not least we must lead by our own example by putting in place policies that rescue the important programs that under that underpin our economy programs like social security and medicare whose runaway costs are forcing each and every day to make draconian cuts on our military expenditures and therefore our military capabilities by turning our economy around by embracing the principles of free enterprise that prove to the world what a free people can do when given the opportunity to turn their ideas into a business or to a product it is through the strength of our military the engagement of our diplomatic voice and our example is the world leading economy that we can ensure that recent prosperity spreads in the 21st century instead of erodes this is an extraordinary challenge before us but a necessary one not a unique one in fact every generation before us has had a similar challenge your great-grandparents generation fought in the first world war if they lived here it was a time of extraordinary struggle your grandparents generation endured the second world war and korea and much of the cold war a time of extraordinary loss of life and global instability your parents and maybe some of you live through the vietnam era a troubling time for our nation where thousands of our young men and some women return from service abroad and caskets covered by our flag and even now over the last decade we've seen americans pay a terrible price in order to confront terrorism and tyranny around the world now it is our time to confront the nature of our new challenges and the choice couldn't be clearer it is a choice between two very different futures one is a future where america's diminished where our voice is silenced where we exit more and more from the stage and a void is left behind a void that will be filled by governments and leaders that do not share your principles do not share your values and care little for the rights of their own people much less the rights of others if left unchallenged history teaches us that eventually they will come for us too in some form or fashion the other choice is another american century not an era where we dominate the world but surely one where we lead it through our example through our economic growth and prosperity through the way we treat our own people we inspire others to want that for themselves that other nations will look to us and say we want the freedoms and prosperity that they have in america and that's what we will aspire to create here in our own country in our own unique way a century in which it will be easier than ever to do business with people halfway around the world a century where your customers can come from anywhere where instead of having to only sell to other americans you will be able to sell to a growing middle class of millions of people that live everywhere people that can be your investors and your partners they can buy the services and goods that you provide they can travel here as tourists they can study at our universities this is the opportunity of the 21st century but it is one that must be seized it will not happen on its own it will require us to do what every generation before us has done to be real to be really understand what is before us and embrace not just a challenge as a challenge but as an opportunity so that when our time here is done we can turn to the next generation and say we left for you something better than what was left for us what we inherited was the greatest nation of the 20th century and what we will leave for you is the greatest nation of the 21st and because we do our children our grandchildren and many of us can go down in history as the freest and the most prosperous generation of americans that have ever lived that must be our goal in this century and it is achievable but we must remember that in order to do it we must embrace the greatness of our past to lead us to an even more greatness in our future so thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about these things i look forward to discussing them thank you thank you so much well to follow up on those fascinating and really stimulating remarks uh senator rubios agreed to have a little conversation here with me interview interview style so uh senator one theme i was struck by in your remarks just now and then our conversation outside is a frequent references to history and of course history is one of the animating themes of the clements center here we want to draw on the insights of history for contemporary uh national security policy and challenges are there any uh either historical eras or historical figures that have been especially influential in forming your worldview and your your approach to foreign policy i mean so there are a number i think if you look back for example at the at the during the period of world war two wincent church all thing provides extraordinary guidance for americans today he had a resolute belief in how you needed to confront and defeat tyranny at that time on the european continent and but for his extraordinary leadership it's hard to imagine what could have happened to britain during world war two a country that quite frankly had made some strategic mistakes leading up to it they so desperately wanted peace that it came at the expense of their security and uh created precedents that i think to this day provide strong historical truths for us that we should be guided by i certainly have tremendous admiration for ronald reagan and my admiration for ronald reagan is twofold one i i think we need to be reminded that in the end of the 1970s there was a prevailing school of thought among some in the media many observers including an academia that we needed to accept a new order in which the soviet union wasn't just our equal but in fact perhaps maybe have been destined to become superior to us uh you saw as it looked like communism marxism could be spreading even into our own hemisphere beyond cuba reagan never accepted that and not only did he never accepted he confronted it in fact reagan had the audacity consistently throughout his career in public service to predict that communism was doomed to failure and uh when people when he used to say that by the way people used to laugh i mean the world people knew was one in which these two superpowers were equally positioned and that they perhaps were destined to one day go to war unless this rhetoric was toned down now it is true reagan negotiated with the soviets and that was the pragmatic thing to do but he never accepted what they stood for he never accepted communism marxism and all of its elements as a legitimate way to govern and i think that's also an important lesson for us you know we will have to negotiate and interact for example with the government in china and even the government in russia but we should never accept what they stand for as legitimate we should never accept that what they what how they treat their people and others is legitimate and i think that's critically important in this new century that those lessons be applied obviously there are unique challenges in the 21st century that are different from anything we've ever seen but there are fundamental truths about human nature that you find embedded time and again in the historical record and it would not be wise to ignore that we cannot afford especially in the realm of foreign policy to be uh operating in in in theory or in wishful thinking it has to be deeply rooted in reality and in what the world is not in what we wish the world was if i can uh follow up follow up on that because particularly when you're given your tour to horizon during your during your remarks it was kind of a you know grim and sobering assessment i think a realistic one of the state of the world today uh whether resurgent jihadist groups in syria continuing mischief making by china and north korea etc and yet there's a criticism some might even call it a caricature uh among some voices calling for america to pull back from the world that anytime you highlight those challenges that you're implicitly suggesting we need a military solution in the wake of a rock in afghanistan anytime someone talks about the problems in syria or with north korea or russia that there's a call for military solution uh can you talk about what what do you think the tools of diplomacy and economic instruments of statecraft what role do those have in american leadership in the world i mean that's not ignore military capability i mean the truth is that every country gets a vote at the united nation the reason why ours matters more than other countries is because we have the world's finest and most capable military so we shouldn't ignore that we don't shouldn't say that lightly either uh one of the toughest parts of my job in the three years i've been in the senate are the letters of condolences that i sign almost weekly now to a family that's lost a lot that lost a loved one a brother a sister a husband a father a son or a daughter abroad and it's a heartbreaking and heart wrenching note to sign and you can just imagine what these families are going through so we don't take that lightly by the same token i do think that military power is a is a valid tool of statecraft primarily because the stronger you are the less likely you are to have to use it and i think that's critically important throughout the world and but no region more important than in asia where many countries there now feel potentially threatened in the short to midterm by chinese expansionism the philippines is first and foremost the chinese have made claims on the scarborough shoal on other places and uh and the filipinos feel deeply threatened by it but you're also starting to see that feeling creep into japan in fact not creeping it's been significant with the japanese and even among the south koreans so i think it's important for us to have the capability because the stronger we are in our security assurances in this part of the world and another the less likely that these countries will decide that they need a nuclear weapon or that they need to somehow increase their own military capability to the point where perhaps it could lead to miscalculation and an escalation but beyond that i would say that we need to be engaged and we need to care ukraine is a perfect example uh i think it's crystal clear at this point that what's happening in eastern ukraine is quite similar to what happened in Crimea you have these mysterious individuals showing up in unmarked uniforms with distinct russian accents who are taking over buildings and asserting themselves i don't think these people came from nowhere i think that's part of a directed effort by russia to create instability in eastern ukraine and perhaps the conditions to then go in militarily under the guise of protecting the russian speaking population i think that's christily and abundantly clear and i don't know why it's taken current policymakers so long to say we're going to impose additional sanctions continue to isolate russia diplomatically and economically but also potentially prepare or begin to prepare Crimea i'm sorry ukraine for its own defense by providing them the training and the weapons they need to protect the sovereignty of their country and i think the time has come for that sort of thing so that's another state of tool craft tool of statecraft that we have the last is our both our example in our voice you would be surprised as i travel around the world how many people want us to just speak out about what's going on they want that it gives them comfort but it also assurances and attention when america lines itself up firmly on the side of those who are fighting for liberty and freedoms i've been quite disturbed at how the american press corps and most american politicians in washington have completely ignored what's happening in venezuela in venezuela you have young people taken to the streets primarily because the government is incompetent but also because freedom has eroded there and i've expressed myself strongly on the side of those demonstrators who all they want is a free and prop prosperous country and our official response is much much more cautious and that sends a message that we just don't care that we're not engaged i think that has long-term implications for foreign policy as well so if i can follow up on this theme of of speaking out one issue that you've spoken out on quite a bit you referenced in your remarks earlier is international religious freedom why why should international religious freedom matter to american foreign policy well first because we we if you look at the founding documents of our nation it says that all people are created equal with certain unalienable rights to life to liberty and to pursue happiness it doesn't say all people born in north america doesn't say all people born in the continental united states it says all people we believe that as a defining principle of our country and as a result if we believe these principles we have to live them and to live them means to speak on behalf of those uh who we believe whose rights are being violated so if you look around the world today it's not just religious liberties there there are countries in the world where women aren't allowed to drive are we supposed to say well that's just their culture we should accept it i don't think that we should ever be on the side of saying that i also don't think we should invade you because you don't let women drive but by the same token we shouldn't stand by and say well that's just a normal way of being over there it's not a normal way of being it's not we should never accept that as normal nor should we accept that it is normal to put someone in jail because they're a christian missionary nor should we accept it's normal that tibetans are are are persecuted by the chinese government nor should we accept it's normal that these things are happening as a matter of course all over the world that christians are targeted for these trumped up charges of blasphemy in pakistan that that jews all over the world are persecuted that there's an all out international effort to delegitimize the right of a jewish state we should never accept these things as normal or acceptable and and and that includes and where it becomes difficult is when these violations are occurring on the part of governments which largely are cooperative with us and geopolitical issues i think that calls us puts us in a in a more delicate situation but one that we should be unequivocal about as well i think it is critical because otherwise if that's not the case if we are not going to speak for these principles then all we are to other people around the world is just another superpower another geopolitical power interested only in what's good for their country without any interest to what's good for others and and by the way i would make my last point countries in which there isn't that sort of discrimination countries in which people are not persecuted in this way these countries end up being more peaceful more prosperous and less less engaged in creating conflict and division great it's kind of a sort of holistic cycle of virtue and prosperity that goes together so a few specific issues might want to cover one is given your membership on the senate select committee on intelligence i'm curious what's your assessment of how severe is the damage from the edwards note and revelations the single most damaging revelation of american secrets in our history i can say to you unequivocally that there are americans whose lives are at risk because of these disclosures i can say to you unequivocally that there are things around the world that make a safer that are endangered because of these revelations and i would say to you that of this individual truly believed that he saw wrongdoing he should have reported it up the chain of command or and i'm not saying this would be right but at a minimum limit his disclosures to the programs that he had concerns about instead it's been this massive revelation of all sorts of information about the way we operate to keep american safe delivered to potential adversaries both the russians and potentially the chinese done in the most damaging way possible and sprinkled with a bunch of lies things that just fundamentally are not true and i've heard some american political voices say this that if you have a cell phone you're being monitored that is categorically false if i believe that to be true i wouldn't stand with my arm crossed and say oh that's okay that's acceptable that is categorically false that is just not true and to say that undermines our ability to gather intelligence meanwhile let there be no doubt and i hate to say this but it is absolutely true let there be no doubt that even as i speak to you today capable and well funded elements on the planet are plotting to attack americans here and around the world that is a fact that is not a theory that is not something i think that is a fundamental truth and i promise you that god forbid that were to occur the first question people are going to ask is why didn't we know about it and why couldn't we have stopped it and the voices that are trying to undermine these programs will have to answer that question and so i do think we have to protect our civil liberties i do think that as americans we have expectations of privacy that should always be respected but by the same token i think the number one obligation of the national federal government is to protect our national security and our safety and nothing is more important in my mind than that without that safety and security our civil liberties are impossible to exercise and we are under threat unlike ever before in the cyber realm which is another growing threat that no one talks about enough but you don't have to have nuclear weapons anymore to hurt a country badly we've already seen just in some of the commercial breaches how a small non-state actor can gain access to valuable commercial information well imagine if you make up one day to the news that your bank account has been cleaned out by cyber actor abroad who gained access to our financial markets and not only wiped you out but wiped millions of americans out think of the panic that would ensue this is the world that we live in today these are real threats and we need to confront them with the seriousness they deserve i would note that on the snowden case we're also honored to have with us today admiral bob inman here in the front row the former head of the national security agency who's had a similarly grim assessment about the damage from the snowden followed so thank you um senator following up on uh what you're talking just now about the cyber threat global internet freedom has also emerged as a 21st century issue it's not something we even talked about or had vocabulary for in the 20th century uh and uh you know technology can it seems you know really be too edged sword obviously a source of new new threats and perils but also new opportunities uh so especially in light of the um recent uh news about us aids uh you know twitter program in cuba and the continued firewall the cuban government has put up against any sort of uh free expression there what's your what are your observations on the the role of technology in global politics today i think the world world role of technology has the promise of fundamentally transforming the world you've already seen the leading edges of that and for example the so-called arab spring was largely led by um online efforts through social media the unrest in venezuela the protests in venezuela organized in that way what i've said about cuba is i don't if the internet were to open up and become available for every cuban the castor regime couldn't survive more than a year with people able to talk to each other and read any newspaper in the world that they want i believe internet freedom is is critical not just for political speech however i think internet freedom is it's critical because it's literally removed the barriers to entry economically today we now live in a world where you can start a business using the free wi-fi at a starbucks there are people that now operate their business completely in the digital realm if you've seen it the explosion of innovation and economic growth that has happened around the world uh the digital realm and the internet has made that possible and so protecting its freedom and its open access is critical not just to our liberal civil liberties and our political liberties it's also critical to our economic abilities as well and we would be we would be silly to ignore that there are dozens of countries around the world that now restrict access to the internet from turkey to cuba to venezuela to north korea to russia and to china these are countries that deliberately tried to limit access to the internet because they don't want people to have be able to talk to each other because they don't want people to be able to get news from anywhere that they choose to america should always be firmly on the side of internet freedom and we can actually do something about it because of the the amount of influence that we have over the multi-stakeholder process that governs the internet and i think we should be very cautious about turning that over to any forum that could potentially become controlled by governments that choose to deny access and freedom of expression on the internet there seem to be some moves in that direction recently well i think the moves in the direction you've seen recently in and of themselves are not a bad idea having a multi-stakeholder system that involves more international partners i think what's a mistake is to rush into it in some predetermined pre-ordained way i think we need to clearly understand what that new multi-stakeholder process would look like before we make that move and i would say given recent events around the world we should be cautious about how quickly you move on something like that let's shift now to iran um the clock is ticking on the six month interim agreement we have that the obama administration brokered with iran the clock is also ticking on the iranian nuclear program uh what should the us do about ron's nuclear program going forward um and if i can have even more specifically if diplomacy and economic sanctions fail would you support the use of force on the second point the the answer is yes uh i think it's that serious of a threat but in order to understand iran let's take a step back and understand it from their viewpoint this is in my it's not my opinion it's what i know to be fact the iranians have entered these negotiations because international sanctions have badly hurt their economy by the way despite these crippling international sanctions iran continues to spend millions of dollars a year supporting terrorism all over the world all over the world including in our own hemisphere despite these sanctions so what does iran want iran the mandate they've set to their negotiators is quite straightforward go out and get these sanctions lifted but do not give up and do not make any concessions that are irreversible in essence we want to keep in place our enrichment and our reprocessing capabilities because at some point in the future we want the option to ramp them up once the world's become distracted once people are worried about something else once america's gotten weaker if we can get these sanctions lifted how they view the world is if they could get these sanctions lifted they now can grow their economy which stabilizes them internally they can use more of this money to increase their asymmetrical capabilities to help these sort of terrorist activities around the world and once they've established themselves as an asymmetrical power that can threaten our interests through cyber attacks or by blowing up our embassies or by doing acts of terrorism through surrogates against our allies once they've established that leverage then they can go back to the world and say well if you want all that stuff to stop then you have to let us even further expand our nuclear programs that i think is their long-term goal we would be silly not to see it that way so our we must do everything we can to prevent iran from becoming a nuclear weapons power and that includes if all else fails taking military action to prevent them from doing so but i think the most effective way to ensure that that happens is to maintain and place these sanctions i wish i really do with all my heart that i could believe that these negotiations that are going on in janeva would would would produce an iran that would say we're going to prove to the world we're not interested in weapons we're going to give up our enrichment and reprocessing capabilities we're going to do the way most of the other nuclear energy powers do it we're going to import the enriched uranium and we're going to use we're going to import only the what we need and only at the levels that we need for medical uses and for energy but that's not what they're going to do what they want to maintain and what tragically this administration is already committed is allowing them the right to enrich and to reprocess and once you have that capability you're just a step removed from ramping that up anytime you choose to do so in the future so so i think that we should be very clear that we should not weaken what's already in place through the united nations which calls not just for the end of reprocessing and enrichment it calls for the end of their sponsorship of terrorism it calls for the end of their ballistic missiles program and we're now somehow going to agree to something that's weaker than that and i i think that would be a i think we're going to pay a terrible price for that long term well now i'd like to turn over we have a few students here who have some questions i'd like to put to senator rubio as well so captain archer leta can we call on you first this is a captain brandon archer leta at us army veteran of iraq and afghanistan a phd student here who will soon be returning to west point as an instructor so thank you for the uh the introduction restaurant modem senator rubio thank you so much for being here sir having a an understanding of your vision for american grand strategy was terrific the way you view the instruments of national power particularly diplomacy the military intelligence and economics but i wonder what role in your vision sir is therefore international institutions particularly the un nato the world bank imf how do we leverage those institutions to guarantee peace and prosperity across the world and perhaps a bit more pessimistically sir are they still relevant are they necessary uh as they were in the post world war two era well i think that's a great question i think these um these are all the potential forums for international action they're not the exclusive forum for international action so i would say to you that in ideal world as george h w bush was able to do uh use the united nations as a forum to rally the free people of the world to confront for example iraq's invasion of kuwait and that was a very useful purpose you've been able to see it also used for purposes of of imposing sanctions against north korea and to some effect against iran as well so it serves as a useful forum in which we could gather the freedom loving people on earth and take actions but it cannot be the exclusive forum for example because the result of china and russia's veto power at the security council there are issues that they refuse to confront such as syria we simply cannot uh get united nations action on syria because russia and china will block it particularly the russians and so we should not just limit ourselves to the united nations sometimes you must go outside of that forum and use the united states as a convening power to rally other interested people and nations to confront a real and immediate danger i know that people ask well what is our national interests in syria and uh as a good example i know i get the question a lot and the answer is well see what's happening now in syria our failure to engage in an appropriate way early in that conflict to identify moderate elements of the rebels and empower them created a vacuum and that vacuum has been filled by foreign fighters from europe from the middle east and even from the united states that have flowed to the region because that has now become the perennial operational space for radical jihadists many of whom most of whom aren't even syrians that is what happened as a result of the inability of more moderate elements to form to get equipped and actually occupy that space the united nations was never going to be a forum for us to be able to undertake that and as a result the us should have put that coalition together ourselves at the some extent we've done that but not as soon and not as effectively the other institutions that you mentioned i mean you're looking at the ims now and the role that it's been able to play for example in stabilizing ukraine certainly the european union has had we're not a member of the european union but it has had some utility over the last few years in terms of imposing sanctions on iran etc i think this given the recent events in eastern europe is an opportunity to reinvigorate the transatlantic alliance the the nato alliance and give it new purpose in the 21st century i felt as of nato after the end of the cold war has kind of struggled to figure out what it's going to be about i think unfortunately we've now found out what it may have to be about in the 21st century and that is preserving a europe whole and free so these are these are useful are international forums that we can engage and use our the power of our country as forums in which to rally people but they cannot be the exclusive forums from time to time they don't function a recent example is the organization of american states and it's complete unwillingness and and and in capacity to address what's happening not just in venezuela but throughout latin america as democracy is slowly but surely eroding in country after country actually nellie davis good afternoon senator good afternoon how how exactly does the u.s balance its conflicting interests with domestic concerns and global engagement i actually don't think they're i actually think they're interrelated deeply for example if you look at the entitlement programs in our country social security and medicare are going bankrupt whoever the next president of the united states is will not be able to serve two full terms without confronting and saving those programs and one of the reasons one of the impacts that that's having on us already is our inability to address the causes of our debt is forcing us to get all of our savings from the rest of our budget that increasingly means our defense capabilities so what i worry about the most is not the capabilities that this president has i worry about 10 years down the road when a future commander in chief is confronted by a challenge that we can't even imagine right now what what will be the tools at their disposal well the research and development that's going on right now is what will lead us to having those capabilities if we reduce our investment in those capabilities 10 years from now we may find that we don't have the options we wish we had or that other countries have options we don't and so that's why these domestic issues are deeply related to our issues abroad but i would also say for example i asked talked about asia a moment ago about 50 percent of the world's commerce 50 percent of the world's commerce goes through the south china sea and so do you think if somehow that now fell into the total control of china that that wouldn't have an impact on world commerce and as a result on our economy the truth is do you think that these markets that we now have deep in our economic ties with if those countries are thrown into instability if those countries are thrown into war if those countries are thrown into uncertainty that that's not going to have an impact on their economy and as a result on our economy american companies have investments abroad we have jobs in this country that service and provide goods and services to economies abroad if peace and prosperity erodes abroad it will have an impact on our economy because it will have an impact on our customers on our partners on our trade partners and so we really would make a mistake to divorce the two from each other the us is a lot of things but it is not a planet it cannot act on it is it is affected by issues that are happening everywhere else and we see that every day all right ellen shoal thank you senator for being here today um you talked about the continued threat of tyrannical governments to the international world order as well as to us interests and i was wondering you also mentioned there were some unique challenges posed in the 21st century so i was wondering if you would comment a bit on what you think those challenges might be both to the international world order and to us interest abroad so on on the the among the unique challenges are the ability of both non-state actors and small economically not powerful countries to have a disproportionate amount of influence over what's happening in the world so in the 20th century and in times before that in order to truly threaten the peace of others you had to have a big enough economy to project power you had to have a navy you had to have massive equipment to be able to get abroad and and take steps that's no longer two in the 21st century if you can acquire a nuclear weapon you provide the ultimate in regime security for example north korea why why is north korea immune to a lot of international pressure because they have a nuclear weapon and they can threaten to blow things up and kill a lot of people if somehow actions were taken against it so that's a reality that didn't exist in the 20th century where only certain countries had the capability to acquire that sort of weaponry it's become much more cost effective in the 21st century you also have the ability as I talked about in cyberspace to impact other countries you don't need to have 10 aircraft carriers if I can wipe out the your financial system electronically or I can knock your electricity system off the grid I can do tremendous damage to you even though I don't have any planes capable of reaching your shores and that's also true for non-state actors and their capability in doing that as well I also think that non-state actors these radical groups that are constantly plotting terrorist attacks against our interest and that of our partners will continue to be an ongoing threat in the 21st century except that the weapons that they use may develop into the chemical realm and potentially god forbid in the nuclear realm as well I think it's just a matter of time it is inevitable for example before some terrorist element figures out a way to threaten aviation through weapons that are undetectable by means that we now use to detect it I think it's things continue the way they are right now it may become inevitable that a terrorist group may be able to get their hands on radioactive material and use that to conduct a devastating attack at home here in the u.s or somewhere abroad these are real challenges that we didn't face in the 20th century our enemies then wore uniforms and we knew where their bases were this is a little different these are real challenges that we confront and ones that I think we're going to continue to confront in the 21st century and the final student question from mark jabeli uh senator you alluded to in your discussion the the strong relationship between economic prosperity and security yet the global commons seems to be increasingly under threat rising tensions over a thawing arctic sea lanes as well as sustained piracy and the south's trying to see what's your assessment of the security of the global commons and how can we continue to ensure that well I think what's important to remember is that much of what you describe as the global commons you know the freedom of navigation and the seas the ability to I mean again we got to go back in history a little bit and not take that for granted it really wasn't so long ago in human history where you really couldn't go anywhere you wanted I mean there were parts of the world and areas in the ocean that were controlled by either non-state actors or by governments that you had to pay tribute to if you wanted to commerce through there since the end of world war two that has not been the case one of the things that we strongly committed to in the international order order is freedom of navigation and while it's great that we've had treaties to ensure that the number one guarantor of that has been the united states navy that's why the us navy fights pirates off the horn of africa that's why the us navy has a presence in asia and in the caribbean and in the atlantic and everywhere else and that's had traumatic impact the ability to send goods abroad safely without it being hijacked or torpedoed has made a tremendous impact on global prosperity and and these things of course now and that these are all governed by a certain set of rules that in the 21st century governments like china no longer want to play by the chinese attitude towards that is those are rules you guys wrote a hundred years ago or 50 years ago and we don't we don't feel like we need to abide by them we believe in a new set of rules so they produce a map like the nine dash line which basically says the entire south china sea belongs to them and they don't intend to invade they don't that they intend to basically continue to build their military capability vis-a-vis our willingness and our capability to the point where nations in the region just realize look if we are ever attacked the us can't or won't come to our defense because it's not worth it to them as a commentator once said we're not going to go to war over a bunch of rocks talking about the scarborough shoal and at that point these countries now have to enter into some sort of agreement and acquiesce to the way china views the world and i think it's important to be wise about this the chinese view the last hundred years as an aberration they view themselves clearly as a global power but particularly a regional power where all these other nations pay tribute to greater china all these other nations were under the dominion of china and subservient to china's interest that's what they view as the normal order of things and that the last hundred years what they call a century of humiliation was just an aberration and if you go to asia the japanese the koreans and others are very clear about the direction china is headed unlike the russians i don't think the chinese are going to be invading japan or korea anytime soon but i do think that they want to continue to grow their capabilities especially their anti-access capabilities until they reach the point over the next two decades where these countries understand that the u.s security assurances are just words that were incapable or unwilling to enforce them and at that point they're gonna have to figure out an arrangement with the chinese that will be very pro-chinese uh and and so and i worry about the impact that will have on global trade and and opportunity in the in the decades to come well and uh mark i didn't even tell the senator that you're actually a member of the rotc program the navy rotc program here at ut so uh thanks for your kind words for the seven fleets so okay all right well um you know as we're wrapping up senator i'd just like to observe we talked about some very serious issues today weapons of mass destruction terrorism the rise of china continuing russian revanchism and aggression and i think we'd all agree here those are very serious issues but there's one issue more serious than all of those for us here at texas i think for some like you from florida that's college football and i'd just like to say thank you very much for uh what florida the role florida played and training up charlie strong our new head coach and i think um george we'd like to come along the way it'll stop and live on the way and uh george we'd like to help me present a special gift we've got for senator rubio here i hope you wear without a rally that's right so okay and here we go so hook them so anyway we'd love to see you wearing this on the senate floor thank you so much so that's right so thank you thank you