 Hi, I'm Murray Hebert from the Southeast Asia program. It's here at CSIS. Our guest today is Vice Admiral Manson Brown. We're delighted you joined us. My pleasure, Murray. I'd like to ask you a little bit about the role of the Coast Guard in Asia, particularly in Southeast Asia, and if you could tell us a little bit about which countries you're most active in. Well, we're the lead federal agency in the maritime environment for the United States. And so wherever there are ships under the US flag or mariners that are licensed in the US, we follow those interests throughout Asia. The bumper sticker that we use is that we protect people from the sea, we protect the nation from threats delivered by the sea, and we protect the sea itself. So we do that throughout Asia in partnership with the international community, and as an expression of our own national interests. So why is the Asia Pacific important to the Coast Guard and to the American people, you might add also? Well, it is important to the American people, as you know, much of the commerce, over 90% of the commerce to America arrives by sea. And so a lot of our trading partners are in Asia, particularly China and Japan. And so we secure those marine highways. We make sure that good things come into the nation from the sea, and we ensure that the bad things are kept up. Tell us a little bit about some of the specific activities that you do. I know you help with capacity building in other countries. You work to prevent piracy. You do disaster relief and protect fisheries and many other things. But if you could give us a little overview, that'd be helpful. Well, all of the nations in the Pacific community are interested in the same things, maritime safety, security, and environmental stewardship. So as we express our authorities throughout the Pacific, we sort of have become a big brother to some of the smaller nations, and so we teach them. I'll give you a good example. Several years ago, we launched an initiative in Oceana that we consider and we call the fight for fish. And we found that much of the US exclusive economic zone is located in the Pacific. And as a matter of fact, 85% of US exclusive economic zone is located in the Pacific. As we're expressing our interest over the sovereign territory there, we are also protecting the fish. And as we enforce fisheries in the area, we were finding that the fish know no boundaries. They would migrate to other zones, smaller nations, EEZs, and they would be overfished there. So the fight for fish is about partnership. We've signed shipwriter agreements with eight nations in Oceana because our sensors are broad enough to detect illegal fishing in their area. We can help them with detection, surveillance, and even take down of the illegal fishers. Wow. That's interesting. Well, what about you also involved in capacity building, helping the coast guards in smaller countries? Again, as we express our authorities, people want to learn from us. They want to learn about how we use ships and aircraft and how we process information, how we share information with the maritime community. And so there is a pretty strong demand signal on coast guard capability. And we generally express that through the combatant commanders, in my case, in the Pacific. That would be US Pacific Command, Admiral Willard. And he engages us through his theater security cooperation program, where we will send US Coast Guard maritime training teams to other countries to teach them about the things that they need to do the things that we do. One of the international principles that many countries have adopted is the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Unclose. The US has not passed Unclose. The Senate has not. If it were to do that, how would the United States and how would the Coast Guard benefit from us? Well, as you know, the president has taken a strong position on the ratification of the law of the sea, as has Secretary Napolitano and Admiral Papp. As Admiral Papp says it, ratification of the Law of the Sea Convention really shows the international community that we're serious. Right now, we embrace the tenets of the law of the sea convention as customary. But because we're one of the few nations that have not ratified it, there is some legitimacy that we gain from ratifying it. And as we influence other nations to be good actors in the maritime environment, that just helps us with our credibility with them. That's part A. Part B, my area also encompasses the Arctic and the vicinity of Alaska. As other nations are staking out their economic claims under the Law of the Sea Convention, we're silent because we have not formally ratified the convention. So this really helps the expression of US interests, particularly with the resources that are anticipated up in the continental shelf off of Alaska. Vice Admiral Brown, thank you very much. Thank you, Murray.