 Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We want to begin our program, and even though Representative Sam Farr isn't here yet, we know he's on route, and you know traffic in Washington is unpredictable, but I want to reward you by starting on time, or roughly on time, because you came here on time. And so we want to do that. Thank you. My name is John Hamry. I'm the president at CSIS, and I'm very grateful that we have a chance to do this. I especially want to thank Erin Williams, who's been patient with us. We've tried to schedule an event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps for a long time, and I'm glad we can do it. And thank you very much, Erin, you and your team. Let me just say, first, a couple of words of introduction. I want to thank our friends from Chevron, who are making possible our opportunity to present to the Washington policy community the crucial role that development makes. I mean, it's kind of a debate that's been lost in Washington, and it's kind of a rankerous debate in the, especially in the budget turmoil we have right now, and people are kind of not looking at the bigger picture. And this is an opportunity for us to present the bigger picture. And so I want to thank Chevron for that. Let me just share with you how personally I look at this. And that is, you know, of course it was 50 years ago when the Peace Corps was founded, and it was the height of the Cold War. Now I'm a defense guy. I spent 25 years of my professional life in the Defense Department, but I'd have to be honest to tell you, the Defense Department didn't win the Cold War. The Defense Department was an important part of our security. It was what made sure that the Communist world didn't intimidate the West into adverse political circumstances. But we won the Cold War with superior ideas. We won the Cold War with ideas that the world wanted. We won the Cold War because we became champions of a worldview that saw the potential in individuals and in countries. That's what people wanted them to be a part of this. We won the Cold War because of these ideas, and nothing is probably more at the core of that than was the Peace Corps. If you just think about it, it embraces America's highest ambitions for everyone, and especially other people. What is the possibility of human life? And our responsibility to do something about that. And that's really what the Peace Corps was all about. It also grew out of this enormous reservoir of the American spirit that feels they need to live a bigger life than just their own comfort. You put those things together, and it was a winning formula. And it created a marvelous institution. I can't tell you the number of times when I bump into people, I really highly regard, and I find out in our conversation, they were Peace Corps volunteers. It's just remarkable. It's what an incredible thing this has been for us. So we need to celebrate this. Now, why do you celebrate anniversaries? It's not to look backwards. It's to look forwards. It's to remind ourselves of what's important in our lives, what makes a difference, to bind ourselves together, and to give ourselves new vision. That's why we celebrate anniversaries. And certainly, no anniversary is more important to observe than that of the Peace Corps, a remarkable institution. Now, we have to help us do this today. We've got some remarkable individuals. Paris Wofford, who was a senator at a time, I was just a young kid starting out and working up in the Congress. And so I only saw him as this very elevated, remote figure. And now I have a chance to meet him. This is a wonderful thing for me. I'm really excited by this. And of course, he served as the deputy director of the Peace Corps for many years. And he's kept this passion in his heart for the role that the Peace Corps plays and can play to make such a difference. And so we're going to start by asking him to offer some framing observations. Then we're going to turn to two members of Congress who are, I know them both in very different ways. Tom Petrie, who is here, who's a very good friend, he's been in the Congress for 17 terms. This is a remarkable thing. And I'm one of the guys that celebrates seniority in Congress. I don't think rapid turnover is a good idea in Congress. I think we want people that know they're here and know their government and know the way the government works and know the foundations of government activities so that then they can do for us what we need to do, which is to provide really strategic guidance for the country. Not micromanagement, but strategic guidance. And I think that comes from a guy like Tom Petrie who has been a champion, especially a champion for things like the Peace Corps. He was in the Peace Corps, I believe, in Somalia. And this was before he came into the Congress and he has been a thoughtful champion throughout these years. And we're lucky to have him here. And then when Senator Sam Farr comes, and he'll join us here shortly, Congressman Farr is from California, was a Peace Corps volunteer, I believe, in Columbia. And he too has been an outspoken champion for the role that the Peace Corps plays. This positive, constructive role, America has to have this kind of a face in the world. The world is, frankly, always a little nervous about America because we're so big as an economy and we have a big military and nervous about us. But it's things like the Peace Corps that gives reassurance of the greater nature of America's character and content. And then finally, we're going to welcome Aaron Williams. And Aaron, congratulations to you. You're doing such a fine job leading the Peace Corps. Aaron has been a leader within USAID for many years. And he's now heading up the Peace Corps. And this is coming at a time when, as I said, Americans are turning inward. You know, we're turning inward. This recession is making us look inside. It's also sadly making us look small. And we have an opportunity again. Let's raise our perspective. Let's open up our horizons. This is what we did in the past. It's what we need to do in the future. So let me turn, I think Senator Wofford is going to begin the program. Senator, I welcome you to the stage. Would you all please give a big round of applause for Senator Harris-Wofford. Thank you, John. If you've got a few more decades under your belt, you'll be having somebody say that about you. He's, you know, he's still here. He's right here. Chris Matthews in shamelessly and reasonably selling his own book, Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, the elusive hero, told a story in which I was involved plus an African-American colleague, Louis Martin. And on his piece on just right after hardball with Alice Sharpton, Chris said, Louis Martin is no longer with us. And then he ended the whole thing. But Harris-Wofford's still alive. So I think, I feel lucky to you I feel lucky to you, even though the thought of the, was it 17 terms? 17 terms of Tom made me realize that Rick Santorum cut short my one term in the Senate. So it doesn't mean that I'm wishing him well right now, but we actually have worked together on Bono's aid to Africa. And he asked me to be co-chair of the Bono campaign in Pennsylvania as an odd couple. And we went around the state saying that we disagreed on 90% of the important issues, but on 10% that were important, we agreed. And when there's 10%, you ought to take, go through it. You ought to do something with it. And so in general in life, I wish him well. Now the, all right. Now I, some of you have heard me enough in the 50th anniversary. So mostly I want to use my 10 minutes to deliver a little of John Kennedy and Sergeant Shriver and what they saw as the spirit and the frame within which they saw it of the Peace Corps. By the way, John, you started with USAID's 50th anniversary here being celebrated and thought about. And our last event before this of the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps was the White House's combination of the 50th anniversary of USAID and the Peace Corps. And when we started the Peace Corps, there were many people that felt we were polar opposite to USAID and they also were worried. We were worried advice that Kennedy's brainstorming group in MIT had given him which he had initially supported President Kennedy that the Peace Corps should be a subunit of the new USAID organization about three levels down a little box underneath the people power box, people box. And Shriver did his best to say the Peace Corps needed to be autonomous and not part of that. Kennedy didn't support a powerful case that Sarge made when we were with him on the trip around the world to see if heads of state wanted to have the Peace Corps. And in New Delhi, we learned that Kennedy had upheld that recommendation and that we would be a little box underneath the USAID program. And Lyndon Johnson, thanks to Bill Moyers, who Lyndon was, Vice President was Chair of the Peace Corps New Advisory Council, went into Kennedy and said, you can't do that. You've got this wonderful new wine. You can't put it in that old bottle of the USAID program which is probably the least popular program on Capitol Hill. You'd never know what it could have done. This new wine needs to be in a new bottle. But I think it shows where the Peace Corps is now as part of America's relationship to the world related to economic development, education. As always, it has been. But the partnership between USAID and the Peace Corps is crucial right now. And the White House, the president more or less celebrated more than an affair of the Peace Corps and USAID, but a marriage not under some little box, but a marriage of two very important agencies from the United States. Now, the Peace Corps indeed was started when the Cold War was in full swing. And people have tried to put it primarily in the context of the Cold War. Kennedy did not do so. Shriver never did so. The Cold War was a fact. Shriver yearned for the day when the Peace Corps would be in China and in Russia. And that day didn't come in his time. It came in the other director's time of the Peace Corps. Ted Sarneson said that the Peace Corps was the one embodiment of the White House words that are most famous for John Kennedy. Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. He said it's the one embodiment that Kennedy brought about. But the Peace Corps, in Kennedy's view, was very much part of the other part of the inaugural address that began first proposition. The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And then he says, little further on, to those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves for whatever period is required. Not because the communists may be doing it. Not because we seek their votes, but because it is right to our sister Republic south of our border. We offer a special pledge to convert our good words into good deeds in a new alliance for progress, to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. Finally, to those who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge, but a request that both sides begin anew the quest for peace. Before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science and gulf, all humanity and planned or accidental self-destruction. And then he said, if a beachhead of cooperation we preserved. So my citizens of the world, that's not what America can will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. Now, Sergeant Shriver, I would recommend if you could get it from Amazon, Sergeant Shriver's book, The Point of the Lance, written in 1964. It's his collection of his main speeches and papers, plus additional ones that were done for that book. He said we, he was telling how in his report to the president on which the president acted, it stated the purpose. It can contribute to the development of critical countries and regions. It can promote international cooperation and goodwill. It can also contribute to the education of America and to a more intelligent American participation in the world. And he went on to say the few juicy points I wanted to read from this. He quoted Arnold Toynbee saying, here is a movement whose express purpose is to overcome the disastrous barriers that have hitherto segregated the effluent of the western minority of the human race from the majority of their fellow men and women. I believe in the Peace Corps, the non-western majority of mankind is going to meet a sample of western man at its best. He cited Dean Rusk as having said, very early in the organizing of the Peace Corps, the Peace Corps is not an instrument of foreign policy because to make it so would rob it of its contribution to foreign policy. To make some of that clear, Kennedy, very early and very strongly told this by order told the CIA to keep hands off the Peace Corps. Sergeant Shriver looking ahead, let me just say here, Sergeant Shriver, what we are seeking is not the support of the newly developing nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America, as Kennedy would say. We must be clear about our aim. What we are seeking is not the support of these nations but their success. If they succeed in their plans for economic, social and political progress, it will not matter whether they agree or disagree with us, even whether they like us. If they become a healthy democratic societies in their own right, they will not be threats to world peace. So Shriver looking ahead said some specific steps to take to fulfill the Peace Corps. We can double the size of the Peace Corps. It was then at 10,000. The 10,000 strong Peace Corps now should be doubled so that at least 20,000 American can serve overseas in this effective new grass roots way. By the way, Vice President Hubert Humphrey to the first return volunteers conference of 1,000 of the first 3,000 volunteers in 1965 announced that by 1970 the Peace Corps would be 50,000 a year. When I went off to Ethiopia as the representative of the Peace Corps in Africa and director of the large Ethiopia program on the way back into the Oval Office of the 600 on the White House lawn he was sending forth, 300 were going to Ethiopia to double the number of secondary school teachers in that country. At a time their new university needed a greatly increased flow of high school graduates to become a reality. We were leaving very shortly in the end of August, 1962. And the way back in he said, you know this will be really serious when it's 100,000 a year. And then in one decade there will be, in one decade there will be a million Americans with first hand experience in Asia, Africa and the Latin America and then for the first time we'll have a large constituency for a good foreign policy. Kennedy I submit was right and he was wrong about the Peace Corps becoming serious. He already was taking it sufficiently serious to say the, on size he said who knows how many Peace Corps volunteers can go but let's move the next step is to double it and it was by then when he left in 66, 16,000 and the next year it was to go to 25,000. So what a lost opportunity from one point of view it has been that under the pressures of the Vietnam War as resources got strained to put it mildly, the Peace Corps went back even under Johnson to maybe seven or 8,000 or maybe nine or 10,000 and under Nixon it went down to 5,000 and it's gone from 5,000 to 8,000 now over all these other years though Carter wanted to expand it when his mother was a Peace Corps volunteer. Clinton wanted to double it. The George W. Bush after 9-11 called for the doubling of the Peace Corps. That side has never been fulfilled but Kennedy was wrong. If he had been with Aaron Williams and Chick and other veterans of the Peace Corps here, if he had been with us at the last day of the 50th anniversary as five to 10,000, it's one of those things. The conservatives say it was 5,000 and I even heard a tall leader of the Peace Corps the last night say it was 10,000 that left the Arlington Cemetery. It was an endless march when you got to Lincoln Memorial across the Memorial Bridge and look back as far as you could see people still coming down the hill and across the Memorial Bridge to Lincoln Memorial. Looking at that and that march of flags, 139 countries, a couple of hundred of the Ethiopia veterans from all the decades were carrying the Ethiopian flag. Others here in the room were carrying or behind the flag of their own country. When you realize there are 200,000 stories of Americans whose lives were changed and how many hundreds of thousands or millions of people overseas whose lives were changed for the better, some of you may have heard the story of Paul Sangas, an Ethiopia volunteers in our first wave who became a US Senator and ran for president as some of you may remember. Paul tells how I think it was a house committee on African affairs he had, he was with then, Sam Farrick, glad to see you too. He, representing Congressional Committee, saw him in Gistu, the dictator, but went back to his village, Gion Wuliso in Ethiopia where he had organized the volunteer, the students he had been teaching and who were sleeping on the floor and walking from miles to school and had no electricity at night to study by. He organized a student corps to build a hostel with the help of the Swedish Building College, a wonderful hostel was built and we celebrated it and the emperor celebrated. Paul went back to his village and the revolution had been devastating. He heard of the people who had been killed, teachers and headmasters and others. He could find nobody who had been there when he was there, no trace of the hostel. Probably it had been torn down. It was just a vacant lot with trash and he went back, he said, sadder than he had ever been in his life and he's very tessiturn, strong, cool, wonderful guy and at the bottom of his depression it was a knock on the door and he opened the door in Addis Ababa and there were two of his favorite teachers and they said, we heard on the radio that you were back and we've come 200 miles to tell you you were the best thing in our lives. Now a teacher in Chicago or Washington DC or Los Angeles or you name it probably rarely gets that kind of moment. Paul said he had a bucket of tears coming out and I get close to that each time I tell the story but how many teachers in service in this country get that moment when you know that you had made a difference and I think the 200,000 volunteers and would it be 20,000 staff all told I think they had, whether they had it in the same form or not. They had that feeling that they made a difference, the Peace Corps has made a difference and we should go on for their, maybe in the discussion I'll give you a few of the things that Shriver was pointing to for what could be done as the next stage following the logic of the Peace Corps and so I'm very glad that the center is following the question where it leads, the great Socratic principle and I think together we can put those questions forward and the center can play a very valuable and respected role in taking seriously the seriousness of the Peace Corps. Thank you. Where are you? I sit here. Good morning everyone. Million dollar. Thank you so much. I'm Johanna Mendelson-Forman with the America's Program at CSIS and not a former volunteer but a dear friend of all Peace Corps volunteers who were part of a generation that certainly framed what I think we call today smart power and when I talked to Director Williams this event had to be postponed because of a vote at the end of 2011 and some of our representatives were unable to join us. I said, you know, we're actually today in 2012 starting the next 50 years and that this event in many ways and thank you Senator Wilkford is a relaunch of the Peace Corps to look forward to see what we as a nation, as an agency working together can do with an institution that has been so much a part of many generations since the age of Kennedy. So I'd like to make just one brief announcement. We are in an age of tweeting and we will be live tweeting throughout this event. And there are many of you here that do it and we'd like to be joined in the online conversation. I know our press who's in line sickles told me 500,000 volunteers just got a message and if you would like to tweet, the tweet is hashtag Peace Corps 50 and the information is also at the bottom of your handout. That'll be the end of the technological announcements but I think it's in fact. Can you hear? No. I'll try and talk louder, is that a little better? And when I fix the sound I will moderate my voice. Well as you know, on my right is Congressman Sam Spar a Peace Corps volunteer from Colombia. Director Williams, Congressman Petri who was a volunteer in Somalia and of course Senator Wilkford who was basically the heart and soul of the agency when it started. And not even a Peace Corps volunteer. I was the dirty word staff. I know, that's why I didn't want to mention that. Staff is not a nice word in Washington these days. I also wanted to acknowledge Chick Donbach a former volunteer who works with Congressman Garamande who unfortunately had a markup this morning otherwise he would have joined us but I know in spirit we have Chick here and that is excellent and so I just wanted to mention we thank him and we'll have that on another occasion. But this is an opportunity to really both look back and look forward and I have a few questions that I'd like to pose to the people who were volunteers to the members of Congress who served and that is tell us a little bit about what was it like Congressman to be in Colombia at a time where a democratic country was opening up but was still very much a land of divided by the Andes and had a large challenge of urban and rural areas. Talk a little bit about your experience. Well I don't think in 1964 we even knew what those words meant. Well that's why I'm a wonk. We had Alliance for Progress in Latin America. Kennedy was still, was right after his assassination. Harris Wofford was still very active in the Peace Corps. I was one of the first, I guess we were in Colombia 13 so it wasn't the first but when I went to training nobody had yet come back from Peace Corps experience in Latin America so nobody knew what it was really like and I think for us volunteering it was almost as if we were being treated as a very VIP service in America a very exciting new challenge. And we were taught urban community development and cross-cultural sensitivity training. Those things we'd never heard of in college and wondered why we were being trained that. But I think it was without a doubt the best foundation for learning to be a listener in a foreign language and really being able to understand what's broke the needs fixing. In a cultural sense not in an American value sense. As I remember in all this and with this is that Peace Corps kept telling us to listen to the felt needs. We were in urban community development learnings, government teaching us Saul Linsky don't teach, don't tell Newt Gingrich that. We actually use Saul Linsky as a community development training program. But. You have to let that out. There goes the appropriate. The. But what it was listening to the felt needs was I remember people wanting to I knew it was a body without water without lights without schools without everything. It was a really poor body. And they said, you know you're gonna be hung up on healthcare needs. That's what Americans are always about there. And yet when people wanted their first project of people who'd never organized never been involved in a neighborhood association was let's build the soccer field. I thought, yeah, this is great to ask a gringo doesn't never played soccer to come play a bill to soccer field. But I realized it was all about organization just getting them together to organize that kind of first meeting and get a sense of community. Once that happened, we built schools we beat sewers, we build everything we just took off. And it is taught me that if you want to change. Behavior you've got to start with the basics but you've got to start it on their terms and in their language. Thank you Congressman. What town were you in in Columbia? I was in a small town that one had ever heard of called Medellin, Columbia. Ha ha. Ha ha. That's true. Not even on the map. Very isolated. He was he was organizing that he was going to give up a good one. I'm going to get it. The maze of skewer. Very obscure place. But I'm going to get to you in a minute Director Williams because you also were a volunteer in Latin America but let me go to Congressman Petra since Africa was the other focus of President Kennedy and you served in Somalia. You had mentioned you were in a pre Peace Corps project when we were talking before. Could you tell us a little bit about your mission in your service when you were in Somalia? Yeah, I had the opportunity before being in the Peace Corps well in college to participate in something called Operation Crossroads Africa that a Reverend James Robinson started. And the concept was for groups very idealistic kinds of groups of 10 to 20 American college kids to go and work in one or another African country with a similar number of local students on projects in common. And I had the opportunity to do that in in Kenya. So I had some idea of the cultural challenges and opportunities that were presented by the by the Peace Corps. I always came back home and say that I was working on nation building in Somalia and now I'm working in the United States. I hope it turns out better. But the truth is that there are really two Somalias today. There's what was British Somalia in the north which is really realistically only three doing very well and hard gays in that area is prospering and the British legacy of the British Empire in that part of the world was actually quite positive. It was very light hand. They really were a customer for the people and many of the institutions and habits that they didn't really intend to but did inculcate carry on. And they've had elections and changed government a couple of times peacefully and so on. In the south is quite different more of an Italian colony and so you read it all of that. But I think that we sometimes don't realize and John Hanbury mentioned this, the power of ideas and how, whether you're an American foreign service officer or a Peace Corps volunteer or even a soldier, people are watching you, little kids, saying either that's neat or that's terrible. But while I was in a Peace Corps, I took my vacation in, Peace Corps vacation in Nepal and Chester Bowles was the ambassador in India at the time and I can still remember wandering through a trek. It took a 10 day trek to Ogledunga from Kampman doing back to my Peace Corps friends over there said you really haven't been to Nepal if you don't get out into the villages and across the mountains. And if you're American, you're six feet tall and the people in Nepal are about five or four, five or something and so the windows, you can walk along and the houses are short and it's like visiting hobbits kind of thing. And you could look in people's windows with, and I still remember wandering from a little village in the middle of nowhere looking in the window and there on their wall was a picture of John F. Kennedy. In the middle of nowhere. The ideas that Harrison spoke about were, had spread through modern communication and so on to the most remotest part of the world and people were so eager to have an opportunity to participate in that. In Mogadishu, some young Somalis came to see me, I was working with 50 teachers, these volunteer Somali teachers and two other Peace Corps, we were supposedly legal advisors, I finished law school at that point and a couple of young Somalis came to me and asked if they could organize a Somali American kind of friendship society. It turns out what they really wanted were American or other movies in English because they were from the British Somalans in the North and the movies that were shown in Mogadishu were all in Italian in the local movies there and they didn't understand Italian and they would say, how in the world can we solve this problem? And the answer was if they could get the Americans to help import that culture. So that's just to say that we are in some ways a vehicle, we were always taught, we were in the Peace Corps, we were representing the American people not the American government, a very important distinction. Still are. And yeah, and that we should, I think we ended up being an intermediary between the hunger that many people had and to open themselves to bigger opportunities in the world and that greater world that was on the outside. And on the other side, we of course learned a lot about the world and our own culture. So it's a huge investment, Peace Corps is a huge investment in my opinion that we're making in ourselves because we're broadening the cultural experience of a lot of young Americans which will strengthen our business, government and other institutions as well as contributing to our understanding of the challenges that we face in dealing with different parts of the world. Thank you Congressman and I couldn't have asked you to set that up better because I have a question for Director Williams and I think it comes out of the comments of Senator Woodward and John Hamery and that is the, the agency has evolved. This isn't the John Kennedy agency, the challenges of the world we're living in are much greater. The kinds of questions our own nation is facing that Dr. Hamery referred to are important. And so I hope including you're talking about your experiences in the Dominican Republic perhaps you can tell us a little bit about how you see the Peace Corps being a part of our tools of foreign policy and especially how in host nations that have our volunteers, how that helps become part of the social fabric and the relationship of the United States. Thank you Johanna and it's wonderful to be on the panel with such great distinguished congressmen and also return Peace Corps volunteers who continue to contribute to our world and for our nation. I think that like Sam said, Tom said the Peace Corps was transformational for me. It changed my entire perspective. It opened doors that I didn't even know existed. It gave me the opportunity to have a career in business government and the nonprofit sector. All of that emanated from my Peace Corps experience. I left the South Side of Chicago thinking I was gonna be a high school teacher for the rest of my life and it opened up the entire world. The Dominican Republic was an interesting place in the early, in the mid 60s because of course there had been the invasion in the Johnson administration in 65. Dominicans, a large percentage of the population was anti-American. But there was a very interesting difference between how they view Peace Corps volunteers and the rest of the American government per se. And so we benefited from that. We actually were enveloped by this, that warmth and that appreciation for Peace Corps because of volunteers that always stood with the people of the Dominican Republic. Much to the consternation of the leadership of the Peace Corps at that point in time was concerned about volunteers not towing the line and actually making sure that they did represent America. But somehow Peace Corps was able to walk that tight rope and by the time I arrived at the Dominican Republic in 67 we still enjoyed tremendous, tremendous support. And so I had an opportunity to work as a teacher trainer in the Dominican Republic. And as Tom mentioned, it was interesting because the home of every teacher that I worked with had two photographs on the wall. One was Jesus Christ and the other was John Kennedy without fail. I was also startled by that. I was like, well, how did you get this picture of John Kennedy in your house? Of course, they cut it out of magazines. And so immediately we had this connection with the average Dominican and they embraced us. They fed us, they let us come into their homes and work with them. And of course we learned 100,000 times more about ourselves and what we were gonna be able to do in the world through the learning the language and the culture connected with people at the grassroots level. We learned a lot more than we could ever have contributed. That's one of the great things today about Peace Corps that we continue to build bridges between our country and the nations around the world and developing world so that young Americans, in most cases, can develop the kind of perspective and leadership skills and understanding of the outside world because it seems to me, Johanna getting out in the 21st century, there is a tremendous need for us to do this even more than it was in the past. And the answer to your last point, I think, that the difference now between the Peace Corps volunteers of our era and what I see today is technology. They still have the same passion, the desire, they're still beloved by their host countries but the difference is technology. And they're not just using technology to Skype and tweet and text message to communicate with family and friends. They're using it in a very innovative way to improve the work we do in agriculture and education. Teaching English is the second language working on HIV, AIDS, prevention and awareness, working and trying to combat the scourge of malaria around the world and doing all of this in a very creative way. So I'm really proud of our volunteers of today as I traveled the 12 countries down the last year and a half, two years and it's been amazing to see these remarkable Americans and how much they're accomplishing and it's really, it's quite gratifying. Thank you. And you've also led into something that's very important. The Peace Corps has become an implementing partner with many government agencies, particularly USAID. And it would be interesting to have members of Congress also think about when you set priorities for foreign assistance, how the Peace Corps can figure in. You mentioned technology, literacy in the computer. These are tools that every young person around the globe needs in order to work. What are the gaps? What is needed to continue this kind of important partnership? And perhaps, Congressman, you have some more on that. No, I can speak from being on the Appropriations Committee, not the subcommittee that deals with Peace Corps budget but the big committee. And what I've seen over time is there's two things lacking. First of all, it's just the commitment to really embrace the Peace Corps financially. And everybody accepts it as a wonderful organization, no criticism, we love the Peace Corps. They love it so much that they don't help it because they don't think it needs help. The help it needs is what Harris talked about with a dream of Kennedy. And we have never had a president who has fought for the Peace Corps since Kennedy. And I was the first on my feet when George Bush said that he, George W. Bush said he was gonna double the size of the Peace Corps. We got a standing ovation in Congress. I made sure of that. And yet, not any effort to putting the money in to getting it through O and B. We have never had a president that's been able to fight for the Peace Corps budget to take that leadership, including this one that included, said he would double the size of the Peace Corps and hasn't done a damn thing to do that other than hire a good advocate in Aaron. But the other fault is the U.S. Senate. The House marks whatever the Peace Corps, we've marked it, whatever, you can go back and look over the last 10 years and whatever the House marks, the Senate cuts, regardless of whether it's Republican or Democratic, majority's over there. So we've got two problems to really get to the point of growing the Peace Corps, whether it's technologically or with inter-cooperation. We've gotta get the leadership to get some more money. It's embarrassing, embarrassing that in this era, with what's going on in the world, that the Peace Corps sits there with $375 million. The average Peace Corps volunteer makes $250 a month. It is the best investment in jobs in America. If this administration would think about putting the Peace Corps into the jobs bill, 20,000 Americans practically want to be in the Peace Corps. There are jobs for 20,000 people across. The demand is high from host country. We're invited to be there. And yet we can't, we can't appropriate enough money. It seems to me as we cut the Defense Department, we've gotta increase the Peace Corps. Thank you. I'm going to. Thank you. I applaud that. Definitely. But Congressman Petra, one thing that we discovered when we had another event here, because it's also the 50th anniversary of USA, is the kind of language that you mentioned, Congressman Farr, the consensus to increase civil participation around the world is there, and yet we can't build it. I also liked Senator Wauper to chime in as a member of the Senate who supported the Peace Corps to talk about what do you think it would take? Would it take more return volunteers becoming a lobby force? Do you need a super PAC for the Peace Corps? Are there things? I'm not kidding. Maybe we could find a way because these are investments in our future, but also in jobs, investment in youth, and also American diplomacy in the best possible way. So I'm gonna turn it over to you or the next question. My observation is a little different because I think if you turn it around and look at it from the point of view of the country, not from our point of view, but from their point of view, and what you leave behind, and whether it's foreign aid or the Peace Corps, if we don't approach it well, and it happens over and over again that people have Paul Songus's experience, which is, where is the hospital I worked on and what have we really left behind? And I may have touched two people, but have I done anything that really makes, achieves a long-term objective? So I really felt, especially with modern technology now, and I was struck two weeks ago visiting a rotary club in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. There was a young lady who just graduated from University of Chicago, and not through the Peace Corps, but on her own had gone over and taught at a school in Hargasa. And the kids there were doing very, when I was in the Peace Corps, there was a school run that a British gentleman had started called Shack, and it was on the Eaton model, and a couple of Peace Corps volunteers taught there, and then they were followed by two other Peace Corps volunteers. So I think it's important to try to realize that in a lot of these places where we're operating, there is not the government framework and all the institutions we take for granted, and so when we plunk down it, whether it's an aid project or a Peace Corps volunteer, and then they go away, it disappears because there's no sort of incentive structure in place, whether it's someone making money out of continuing to operate it or some other local institution that has some interest. So I really feel very strongly, it's important to try to partner with other local institutions or organizations that are trying to do good in a different country so that the Peace Corps comes in, but it's just one person for a two-year period, but there's another one, so it ends up being a teacher for 20 or 50 years, building institutions, and on that basis, a lot of other things will, you'll get a multiplier effect that's positive, instead of just an episodic individual experience or episodic aid that's good for some American contractor, but when I was in Peace Corps, all the programs were almost frankly laughable because they would come in and drill wells and no one had any interest in really maintaining the well, the nomadic population, no one was put in place to sell for the water and protect the well, so people would take water and then move on and they would fill it in so the next tribe wouldn't get access to it and it was really, you know, almost negative in terms of our long-term image and impact. Directly. I want to build on that idea of sustainability. I think the ultimate test of sustainability in the context of the Peace Corps is the fact that we work at the grassroots level with local organizations and that's ultimately what we can do. We're developing capacity within those organizations so that they can in fact work on their priority and continue to work on their priority and train the young people and the future leaders in any given country to sustain the development solutions that they come up. That's number one. Number two, one of my top priorities in the past few years has been to build up global partnerships with the leading international organizations that work in the field of development and also to reach out to our other sister agencies within the federal government to work on, for example, PEPFAR in terms of HIV-AIDS to work with the presidency and issue one Malaria. We're now developing a strong partnership with USAID and Feed the Future in terms of food security because I want Peace Corps volunteers to, number one, receive state-of-the-art training in the key technical areas that we need to support in terms of these initiatives. Number two, allow us to walk that last mile to strengthen the organization that we work with in the countries and to build the capacity in the countries and use that as a lever for assuring sustainability at long range because we can never assure that there's going to be another Peace Corps volunteer in the same place for the next 10, 15, 20 years. But we can assure that the people that we reach in touch receive the best possible technical training and sustainable support that we can provide by working with them and developing their own leadership. Thank you, and I wanted to turn to the senator on the issue of the problems of bipartisanship and people giving standing ovations and then not adding the funds. What is your take on that? Well, I'm reflecting on the case just made about how do you measure whether you're helping other nations succeed, which was Shriver's test of what we were doing when so many other factors, far larger than the Peace Corps, determined that. Ethiopia was an example where with 300 and in two years it went to 500 secondary teachers. We did help them take a quantum leap in secondary and higher education in Ethiopia. We actually may have had a little bit to do with a terrible revolution because one of our great boasts about Ethiopia was that as now is in another many places, Peace Corps volunteers resulting in the local nations forming their own volunteer systems. But in Ethiopia, the emperor and the head of the university said, look, if people can come from so far, foreigners from so far to help our poorest areas and our provincial areas, why shouldn't we require all university graduates in Ethiopia to do at least a year of service in the provinces in education or health? It became a requirement. Hundreds and I guess thousands of Ethiopians, young men and women went into areas that they had not been in before and saw poverty that some of them hadn't thought about before. And it radicalized many of them and they were a very, very significant factor, the university students in the military being able to take over the country and the military crazy ones, Derg, then proceeded to try to kill any number, large number of those university students who had been part of the revolution. So that's just one little country. The world is different now, as Kennedy said in the first part of the inaugural address. It's different in that there are probably not many countries left where you can talk about the Peace Corps doubling the number of secondary school teachers in the country. In a sense, it's like Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee and King Arthur's Court, the way we talked about going into the empire of Ethiopia and making such a huge difference. We were so proud of the Ethiopian requirement of service. So you have to have either a tragic or a comic view of the world to measure what will happen. But my point is that Kennedy was right that both for the educating of Americans, which Shriver kept saying is one of the things the world most needs is for Americans to understand the world better and to have a more informed world policy. In addition, for that purpose, you need large numbers and the 200,000 or the five or 10,000 that marched seem large, but when we look at the large forces in the world, Shriver said in the part I didn't quote, now we must have on a large scale a reverse Peace Corps to America where we invite, I think he said, start with 10,000 people from other countries to come in collaboration with the Peace Corps, come back here and teach in our schools on a large scale. And he did a significant part of a chapter in his book on the reverse or exchange Peace Corps. It did get started in Shriver's day. Several hundred people came and Ethiopia volunteer Neil Boyd ran it for some years. Congress got wind of it after two or three years and the debate in Congress would have embarrassed us all but both Democratic and Republicans, some of them got up saying, what do foreigners have to teach us? And then another congressman got up and said, we already have too many anarchist social workers. Why should we import more anarchist social workers? And Congress ruled that no more money could be spent with the exchange Peace Corps. But if you had Shriver today, he would say, let's do brainstorming for what a 21st century Peace Corps should be. Let's not assume that it's a monopoly of virtue. This whole gap of one year service that I keep looking at the two years plus is powerful. It's the special forces that do that much but that's a long commitment. Some of the most skilled and dedicated Americans that would relish one year service. Is it something the Peace Corps should do or is it something that should a new social invention should promote it? If we want to get to Kennedy's 100,000 a year, I don't, having the firsthand experience, I don't think it is going to all be through the Peace Corps. But volunteerism is something that was a basic pillar on which the Peace Corps was built and I don't think we've lost that in America. I think Congressman, you had your hand up for a comment. I think the best market survey on the Peace Corps is the host country demand. It's always increasing. They want more. Regardless of, and you look at the example of Columbia where we had to leave because of the violence created by the cartel. And the first thing your rebate did when things got, when pieces asked for the Peace Corps to come back. And we're in China, we're in Mexico, we're in countries you never expected us to be in. And those presidents come to this country and they're always asking our president, send us more Peace Corps. The demand out there, the interest in it, is extremely high. And I think also, I was in first time when I really got to know Dr. Hemry is when I was invited as a member of Congress to be on a panel of a committee that had been created by Congress. We have CSIS study, what can we do to stabilize country and post-conflict? And we had members of the Senate and the House and I really got active in participating on that committee and we came up with a report. And essentially the recommendations, the report, were all the things that Peace Corps ends up doing. You've got to learn the language of the host country, you've got to learn the culture, you've got to have the skill sets, you've got to be able to go in and integrate. And this is for military purposes. And for USAID and State Department, out of that we created, thanks to Jack Murtha, because the Congress and its own bureaucratic silos would not create a new department in the State Department but we appropriated the money to do it and we've got the post-conflict reconstruction made up of USAID and State Department and a lot of the people that are in there are returned Peace Corps volunteers who have those language skills and are working for these departments. I think that the world, the international community, the international development, is moving in the direction that Peace Corps has always been. And we have, in Monterey, I represent the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the Naval Postgraduate School and we have now officers in the Navy sitting down with returned Peace Corps volunteers who are getting master's degrees at the Monterey Institute and essentially what the military is asking is, how did you do it? How did you live in that village? How did you learn the language? How did you win the hearts and minds of the people? Because they know in order to have stabilization we're gonna have to do that. So I think that that's why we have to, at this time, and you know, Harris, you remember Sergeant Triver always wondering, if we had grown the Peace Corps, 100,000 volunteers a year. And at the time, the Peace Corps we started, look at the countries we were in. We were in Iran. We were in Afghanistan. If we'd had that many volunteers being in the 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s in those countries, would we still have the problems we're having with those countries today? It's a very interesting thought. Now let me just say one thing, John, regarding what Congress has said about demand. Not a month goes by when I don't receive an ambassador from a country around the world or one of the American ambassadors to any given country. And they ask me one of three questions. When can you return to my country? How can you expand the Peace Corps program in the country? Or can you come for the first time every month? So demand is unlimited. There's no doubt about that. No matter what size budget we have, we probably could never meet the demand for Peace Corps volunteers. The other thing in terms of the impact of Peace Corps in the international development community. As I travel to different capitals and meet with the embassy teams that are under any given ambassador, first of all I find that more and more these days, the ambassador is a return Peace Corps volunteer. Well certainly his or her senior staff, many, many return Peace Corps volunteers. Certainly in USAID there are many high percentage of return Peace Corps volunteers. We go out to the field to meet with the various development, to see the various development projects and you find the leading international organizations, their key people are return Peace Corps volunteers. Their senior people, senior people in the governments that they work with, their counterparts have been trained by Peace Corps volunteers in the past. It's an incredible network and incredible impact that the Peace Corps has had in Africa, Asia, Latin America, you see it every day to the extent that we never could have foreseen I think back in the beginning of the Peace Corps. Well this multiplier effect of return volunteers also has an impact here in the United States. When you look at your website and you see the honor roll of people who have served and are continuing to serve our country, it certainly is part of the larger project of trying to build a much more peaceful world. But let me go back to something that we said looking forward. There's a lot of interest in the private sector of learning from the Peace Corps as these projects in the private sector who go in in the programs of corporate responsibility and can learn from the Peace Corps. Could you describe some of the efforts that are being made to help? Because foreign direct investment is the engine of growth. It isn't our aid, our aid helps. It helps create the institution. But tell us a little bit about what lessons you think the Peace Corps has looking forward to this kind of a model. In terms of partnerships with the corporate sector. With the private sector and how one can sustain what you teach to a volunteer. I think first of all, let's start at the baseline. When you talk to corporate leaders today, any significant global corporation, they want people who have the skills that Peace Corps volunteers develop during their service. You know, there's a couple of professors, one at Rutgers who started talking about using the term which I think is really appropriate for Peace Corps and that's cultural agility. And I think Peace Corps volunteers certainly acquire cultural agility. They're able to understand the context of speak of foreign language, understand the cross-cultural impact and make a difference in very complex situations. So number one, global corporations are searching for people like that. As we are in government and in the non-profit world. We're looking to partner with corporations that are interested in working with the Peace Corps. And as a matter of fact, we're also talking to USAID about perhaps a tripartite relationship where we can support those kinds of partnerships. But I can't think of a global corporation whose leadership I've spoken to who doesn't see the value of Peace Corps volunteers who don't have many return Peace Corps volunteers in their ranks already and want to continue to support it. Thank you. Well, we are in year 51, but you've had a very busy year as we were talking before this event. You said you started last year on a plane and you've been all over the world as are many of the people sitting with me on this panel. Perhaps let's go among all of you. What are the takeaway lessons from these 50 years that you think will help not only build the support but also change some of the needs or approaches to needs that you find in the countries that you're working in? We're a small global community because of Twitter, because of Facebook. How do these new technologies leapfrog some of the changes that are needed and support that? But perhaps you could share your experience as congressman. Well, there's no business adage that says if you want to buy something all you need is money. If you want to sell something, you have to speak the language of the buyer. It seems to me if we want to sell the concepts of democracy and human rights and all the things that we so proudly support in the United States, then we better learn the language of the buyers who we're trying to sell this to. Whether, and I think that the takeaway is that there is no better method of learning languages and culture. And I don't just mean the overall culture, I mean that village culture, that village dialect. You should see the shock of cab drivers in Washington when a returned Peace Corps volunteer gets in that cab and happens to be from that country and perhaps from that village. Let me just tell you one story. I always asked cab drivers when they were coming. And I was in Virginia getting a long ride back and cab driver said he was from Ghana. And I said, do you know Ghana is the first country that Peace Corps ever went into? And he said, you know Peace Corps? And I said, yes, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Latin America. And he says, can I say something to you? And he pulls his cab over and he said, I'm here because of Peace Corps volunteer. My son, an American citizen, is graduating from the university this year. He's been accepted to medical school. But I tell him he can't go to medical school until he goes to Peace Corps. The true story, I think Peace Corps has unlimited, unlimited experiences of how do you go into the next century? You gotta learn the host country language and culture. Well, congressman, have you had a similar cab ride? No, I don't think so. I do think the opportunities and the need for developing this capability within our society for our own interest is very, very important. In that connection, I, in Bowdoin, a lot of us, we are in congress, a lot of exchanges. And I know one of the major initiatives of the current Japanese ambassador. They're turning inward too. And their ability to know English and interact in other cultures is they feel declining. So they're trying to figure out what kind of a big initiative they can do to open up a new generation of Japanese future leaders to the world. Not necessarily to help the rest of the world, but so that they can survive better. And I think there's a lesson there. I couldn't help but get a chuckle reading the paper yesterday about the new head of China in coming who's going to visit President Barack Obama and then he's going to Muscatine, Iowa. And what, to Muscatine, Iowa, to stay with a family that he lived in, their kids were off in college and this family hosted him when he was an exchange, on an exchange visit, he was a young administrator in a pig growing part of China. So they linked him up with Muscatine, Iowa where I guess there are a few pigs growing nearby and he had his first trip outside of the United States. Now he's going to be the head of China. This is a very important thing. I had the opportunity to meet Jacques Chirac, president of France. And he, oh yes, well, I still remember my wonderful summer in Cambridge, Massachusetts working for Howard Johnson, selling ice cream, 57 flavors, and he went on and on about all of this. Well, this sticks with people and it colors how they think about another country. And the Peace Corps volunteers do that in the villages that they serve and in another country, as do all of us, but it's also that we leave a big imprint of what we hope the best size of our culture with these sort of interactions and not just a tourist visit, but where it's, you're actually dealing with foreign people more on a deeper basis. You know, I'd like to call attention to those that don't know about it, to the report, Call to Peace, the Peace Corps at 50, that included a very extensive Peter Hart survey of a large sample of Peace Corps volunteers of all decades. It also included, the survey is itself interesting and it includes a whole series of potential recommendations and how you'd apply the Peace Corps experience to new steps. I think one of the things that we all agree on and that the return volunteers overwhelmingly said was that the experience of education in action through service and work, that experience, the relationship of the Peace Corps volunteer to the country is a very big lesson to figure out how to expand not only in this country, but other countries. We have a huge number of foreign students in this country. Study abroad goes both ways, but by and large, most of that study is academic, which is good. I'm not against it. Back time for it. But think of what if the same numbers or the same number of people that go to study abroad had as an integral part of the study abroad, a semester or a year of actually working and serving in the society, rather than classroom education. And I think the Peace Corps example of the power of education in action and through service is a lesson for American education, but it's a lesson for any other country. China wants just reading 10,000 more English teachers to be just a small part of the number of English teachers they need for China's desire to learn English more, whether it's the Peace Corps or China paying for them to come it themselves. Yes, but we need some Chinese to help us learn Chinese from native language speakers. And I think the Peace Corps should be in the mix of figuring out how world education can help prepare Americans to be citizens of the world. You know, John, that reminds me just quickly, I was in Tanzania to celebrate and commemorate our 50th anniversary a few months ago. Tanzania was the second country that Kennedy and Shriver sent volunteers to. So I met with the president of Tanzania. And the first thing he wanted to tell me was about his Peace Corps volunteer teacher who had taught him in high school and how important that had been to his life. And he said, that's why as we rapidly expand the number of schools in Tanzania to reach the most remote populations and make sure that children and rural areas have a chance to attain their high school diploma, we need Peace Corps volunteers today to teach math and science so they can complete their coursework and have the opportunity to go into college. This is today, 2012, in Tanzania. And with this story repeated over and over again. Paraguay stories are good ones too. That's right, yeah. President of Paraguay would. Same type of issue. But I think before we open this up, I'd like to just ask you, if there were a memo you would to write to the Congress about what the future needs where all of you have articulated different issues from English teachers to science and technology, aside from the basic resources which we've all talked about and maybe difficult, how do we use this successful model that has both promoted United States abroad in a very effective way and also taught Americans about other countries. What are the things that we need? What are the issues? Do we need, I'm a baby boomer. Do we need more of me going abroad and teaching English in retirement? Are there people that can benefit? There are a lot of lessons here. What are the things that you, on your wish list, would like to have? This is a memo to the Congress. Yes. That's good. You don't need a memo. Just pick up the phone. That's one of the beauties of a thing, Tanks. It is. That's right. It gives you the opportunity to paint on this blank canvas. My humble memo to Congress would be that we need to capture the spirit and the imagination of America. We need to capture that in terms of our young people who want to serve. They responded to President Obama's call to service both domestic and international. And we need to bring in the baby boomers and people, 50 plus as we call it, and the Peace Corps also, because they have a tremendous amount to contribute. In order to do that, we need the resources to be able to build the systems and provide the roads so that people can serve. That's what we need resources, because the American people want to serve. And we have opportunities where they can serve, and we have unlimited demand in the countries around the world. What we need to do is have the resources so we can make that connection. That would be the first paragraph of my memo. And paragraph two. Oh, I won't put you on the spot. A billion dollars. You'll write the second paragraph. Well, I think... It's serious. We have it right now. The demand is there. Just think there's 20,000 Americans applying for jobs. There's only 4,000 jobs. That's one in five that can get in. And I would submit that almost every one of them is qualified. That's just tragic. You make a promise and we can't deliver it because Congress hasn't put in enough money. So, the president hasn't asked for enough money. It goes both ways. We've got to get... We've got to drill down and we're going to get the money there to do this. And we can build all the partnerships and expand. I think the most... My codels, and I always try to meet with Peace Corps volunteers, I met with Peace Corps volunteers in Paraguay. And these young volunteers said, yeah, I was a paratrooper in Afghanistan. He said, learning and seeing the poverty in Afghanistan, he said, I realized when I got out of the military, I was going in the Peace Corps. And he said, this is better training than I got in the military. And he's a special force. So, you know, there's... I'm just frustrated that Congress hasn't lived up to it under... All the presidents have talked about growing the Peace Corps, but haven't yet put the spin on it to really get it done. Congressman, do you have any thoughts to add to this memo of the director? No, I was just saying here, actually, thinking that given the change in global technology and all that globalization, that there may be some... And it's huge demand in countries like China or Latin America or other places. China is actually an example where, as you mentioned, they probably are... I think there are a lot of young Americans. Peace Corps is a great vehicle. But basically, you can go on the internet and look, and you can probably find people looking for someone with English skills in Japan or in China or a lot of other countries in the world. And you can afford to go over there. So there may be some opportunity to do some kind of a Peace Corps Mark II. I mean, the regular full-time, full-supported volunteer, but there may be some opportunity either through Peace Corps or some other organization to help people link up on an international basis between where the demand is and where the opportunity is rather than saying, well, we need infinite resources. We're never going to... I mean, the world is such that people are always going to be competition for resources, but there may be an opportunity to close that gap or to help close that gap through making the two... the person who wants to serve and the need linked up and providing some framework, the way eBay does for people who want to sell goods and buy goods. So there may be some opportunities to help meet these needs, but doing it in a less, I shouldn't say bureaucratic, but traditional fashion. Well, we certainly could use the tools of technology somebody recently said on a trip to Southeast Asia that bad English is the language of business and it's better to have good English and to be able to have some kinds of exchanges. So if we could find a way to use volunteers and to use the technology we have, that would certainly help, but I don't think it answers the bigger question. I'd like to ask, we have about five minutes left. We have lots of return volunteers and lots of questions and I'd love to open this up to some people. So... Can I just ask a question first, Joanna? I want to find out how many return Peace Corps volunteers are here? Can you just raise your hand? Oh, boy. We loaded the deck, huh? Absolutely. And we also have a former director of the Peace Corps of Mark Schneider over there. I don't know if there's an audience for that one. Who is also a return Peace Corps volunteer. Good to see you. Thank you and thank you for your service. A lady in the back, please? Yes. And could you say your name, Sophie, and where you served if you are a return volunteer? Hi, I'm Sophie Keller and I'm a freshman at American University. And I want to know, first of all, thank you for being here. And I would like to say that I think that having the reverse Peace Corps is a really fantastic idea and giving opportunity for students to learn from other students. And I want to know what can students do and what can I do to help promote the Peace Corps and convince Congress to fund these work? I think that one thing you can do is continue to be engaged as you are today in these kinds of forums where you can learn about the outside world, the connecting points between America and the outside world and talk to your fellow students and professors about the importance of international engagement. We rely on universities as our lifeblood because the Peace Corps started at universities with Kennedy's great speech at the University of Michigan and today we have strong partnerships with the university across the country and they provide the recruits for the Peace Corps and they also provide faculty, often sometimes become staff members. So, remain engaged and make sure the international engagement, global engagement is a part of the curriculum at your university and that you try to encourage those professors that are in the forefront of that. You have a Peace Corps, you have a member of Congress representing your hometown. You go to that member of Congress and you tell them you want to be in the Peace Corps but you understand they don't have enough money to put you in. Very good. And I'm going to recognize people in a minute but you just gave me a good opening to mention that CSIS has started a very interesting series of careers and development which is part of this project that is supporting this forum, the U.S. leadership project on U.S. leadership and if Piedra Leifert raises her hand if she's down here you can sign up for this series but in addition to the Peace Corps which is a wonderful route, there are many other opportunities and we want you to know that you can come to CSIS for those courses. Let me recognize another person here. This gentleman in the second row please if we can get a microphone here. Thank you. My name is Faspai Yilma-Savo. I'm the deputy head of mission of the Ethiopian Embassy. I thank the panel and particularly Senator Wafford for bringing out the history of Peace Corps in Ethiopia. Some aspect of it was not clear to me before. So I thank you for that. Two, we have had a function at our embassy in September commemorating the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps volunteers in Ethiopia and we had a wonderful occasion at that time. The number three point is that the Peace Corps volunteers who served in Ethiopia before are the best resources of our embassy today. So they are helping us connect schools, universities and cities, twinning cities. So it's not just in Ethiopia that they were helpful but here in Ethiopia, here in the U.S. they are the best resources that we have for our embassy at least, for my line of business. And I have traced a lady who thought in my high school to Colorado, Denver, Colorado, 35 years ago and she's one of my best friends and she's helping us link universities between Ethiopia and the U.S. I thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He's Deputy Chief of Mission from Addis Ababa and his teacher years ago was a Peace Corps volunteer in one of his businesses. Can we get a microphone on the right side? And the Peace Corps volunteers in this country are one of the biggest resources that the Ethiopian Embassy has in doing that. Excuse me, I'm not asking, I'm senior advisor at CSIS but I have a question for Ms. Lee. Actually following up a bit on Congressman Petrie's points and that is how to put more Peace Corps boots on the ground in a time of wendling resources. And can you talk a little bit about the collaboration with the academic world and also with the private sector? Is there an effort underway or could there be an effort underway to basically increase the sponsorship of universities and include it in their curriculum and matriculation rules as well as sponsorship by the private sector who certainly would view a Peace Corps stent as a positive resume but can they actually sponsor Peace Corps efforts, individuals, particularly in the high tech and math and science sector which would actually increase the number of Peace Corps volunteers from the world. Thank you for that question. We have a very strong partnership with the universities across the country. We have two types of partnerships. First of all, we have something called Masters International with about 70 universities in the United States. That's where you apply to the university and the Peace Corps on parallel tracks. You admit it to both. You do your coursework in your first year for your masters then you go overseas and complete your two year Peace Corps service. Then you return, you use that service as a basis for your final thesis or a project to get your master's degree. It's a great recruitment tool for Peace Corps. We sign up a new university or college just about every month and it's a really important part of our partnership. I was just out at the University of Denver and University of Colorado last week for a Peace Corps recruitment event. As a matter of fact, the Dean of the Corbell School University of Denver is Ambassador Chris Hill who's also a returned Peace Corps volunteer. Most recently he was our ambassador in Baghdad. The second program is something called Peace Corps Fellows Program, the Coverdale Fellows Program whereby when you return from the Peace Corps about 70, again 70 universities and colleges offer fellowships to Peace Corps volunteers to get their graduate degrees there. And why is that? Well it's because if you talk to any Dean or any president of any university, returned Peace Corps volunteers are tremendous graduate students. They enrich the dialogue within their classes with their professors. They make a difference. And so that's a very, very important partnership. In terms of the private sector, we are talking to a number of global corporations about enhancement of their internships with their support of Peace Corps because they value the experience of a Peace Corps volunteer. So we're looking at ways to expand that. Thank you. Let's take a round of questions because we're running out of time and then we'll open it up to the panel. This lady in the first row, please. And then I'll take a few more and then we'll close out. Hi, I'm Liz Fanning. I'm RPCV from Morocco and I'm a Sergeant Driver of Scholarship too for graduate school when I first got back. I recently started a nonprofit called Core Africa to bring the Peace Corps experience to African countries like AmeriCorps for African countries. And I know that the African Union is also starting a, they call it an African Peace Corps. And I'm wondering if you support them in any way, see it as a true, what is it? Imitation is the biggest form of flattery if you take credit for what they're trying to do and work with them. Can you support us in any way? Thank you. Well, thank you. I had not heard about the African Union's initiative on volunteers. I like to learn more about it. Maybe we can talk about it offline later on today. That would be very interesting. We find more and more countries around the world are interested in volunteerism and they naturally turn to our offices in the various countries where we serve to ask us about how we can support that. And it's something that we believe is important. We see it as kind of another goal of the Peace Corps to encourage and promote volunteerism in the countries where we serve. I think it's a marvelous way for young people to contribute to their societies. That core Africa that Liz Fanning is trying to move forward is one of the most creative new approaches. And I'd urge those of you who find it interesting to try to talk to Liz Fanning. She's a social innovator of the first magnitude now. That's a very astute decision. In a matter of time, we have a question here, one in the back and one over here. And a lady in the back has been very patient. Let's try and get this gentleman in the second row here. Stand up so the microphone can get it to you. Thank you very much. My name is Mark Dietz and I was a former volunteer from Armenia, now working here at CSIS. And I'm just wondering if you think the debate about what it means to be a volunteer needs to change. When I flew back from Armenia to Chicago, I was waiting in line to check my passport and I saw in flashing lights an expedited line for servicemen which I think is certainly something of worth. But I just wonder, do you think that we can ever equal a volunteer with a soldier in terms of the national service debate? Thank you. Good question. This gentleman in the middle here and then I see another gentleman who had a question. I'm John Keaton, I was a volunteer in Thailand but I briefly want to mention two other countries. I learned today that Peace Corps is going back to Nepal. That's great. When they get there, they will find Korean volunteers. And Korea, where I was a director in the 70s, has modeled its program on the Peace Corps and there are approximately 3,000 Korean volunteers now working just like Peace Corps volunteers and they will welcome the Peace Corps back to Nepal. But in recent years I've been in Afghanistan and that's a different lesson. And I truly believe that we would be winning the war in Afghanistan if America had applied the goals of Peace Corps, the sensitivity of Peace Corps, caring, listening, learning. Our people in official capacities are fearful of Afghans. We've lost the Afghans because we did not care for them like Peace Corps volunteers would have. It's a tragedy. An AID director told me not too long ago he had been in Kabul for nine months and had never left the compound except in an ambassadorial convoy. We must overcome the conundrum of the security concerns by caring for the people. We have lost Afghanistan because we did not know the lessons of Peace Corps. By the way, thank you for that comment about Korea because they have reached out to us, the Korean Peace Corps if you will and we're engaged in conversations about some joint ventures, as a matter of fact. It's a wonderful development. As a matter of fact, the government of Korea paid for all of the return volunteers that they could find who had served in Korea to return to Korea. I can read this for instance. Pardon me. What did he say? He said he's president of the friends of the United States. I might also say that issue of the compound is happening all over the world. As I go on these codels, congressional delegations to other countries, I'm just shocked at how insular we're becoming and how we're losing that. Meaning the Bogota embassy, which is the largest in Latin America. The American employees get special housing and they're driven to work in secured vehicles. They're counterparts working in the same office, the Colombian host country nationals, right to work on a bicycle. I mean that's the image of ugly America and we have got to break that image by getting back and winning the hearts and minds, living with the people. I have one thing to underline what you said about Afghanistan and that is that I think that's actually an American cultural weakness rather than a classmate of mine in college joined the Foreign Service. His first assignment was Afghanistan and he sent pictures, which was sort of a joke, of this in the early 1960s of the Kabul country club which involved goats and rocks, but the British had organized, they put nine poles out and they'd go out and hit a ball among the goats and have a couple drinks afterward and it was something to do in Kabul at the time. I was there on one of these codels meeting a guy from our embassy and I told him that story and he said, oh it still exists. I was invited to go play golf there on Saturday by a couple of Brits. I said, well are you going? He said, no they don't let me go because of security. I said, well how can anyone tell the difference between the Brits and an American when you're at the other end of the rifle some way away? He said, no I don't know but they have a higher tolerance for risk than we do. So I don't think they would probably figure it's that sporting to shoot a couple of guys with who don't have guns but just have golf clubs in their hands and we kind of don't understand the psychology of trying to work with people and there are risks involved but you pay a price when you just isolate yourself. You may survive but you don't win the battle that you're trying to do. There was a patient lady in the back I'm looking at a letter on to the question then we have to close out this session but please go ahead. Hi, thank you. My name's Madiko Schmitz. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Vanuatu and I currently work for the Japan International Cooperation Agency which runs the Japanese volunteers. And I would like to know what recommendations you have as a government institution to leverage domestic support for foreign assistance? Well we have a number of tremendous partners domestic partners in the United States who support the Peace Corps mission help us in our recruitment especially they're helping us in terms of reaching out to the diverse population in America so that the Peace Corps can reflect the diversity and richness of America. And we want to continue to do that because it's important to have this domestic constituency if you will and it also allows Peace Corps volunteers to return from their servers and continue to serve through various and sundry means in the NGO community in America. Well we have had a wonderful conversation. Are there any other last closing words? We've had so many questions that we'd probably stay here all day but I think our room has other uses and you have another job but if you'd like to. Let me just say one final thing in terms of Peace Corps. You know as I travel around the world I see lots of different volunteer organizations. The Nordic countries have volunteer corps the Japanese have a flying corps Korea has a flying corps but nowhere do I see a volunteer corps that has the breadth and the scope of the United States Peace Corps. Today 50 years later we continue to be the gold standard for international volunteer service in terms of the breadth of our technical expertise the commitment of our volunteers the fact that they work at the very grassroots level with communities and organizations around the world. It's a great testimony to the service of so of 200,000 Americans who've gone before us the ones who are currently serving and the incredible partnership we have developed with countries around the world. It's a great testimony to Americans and the Peace Corps and the great partner countries we have. So I think that's certainly worthy of a 50 year celebration. Thank you. This is an election year and if you want you have the power of electing the next Congress and the next president of the United States and you ought not to give that vote unless they promise to double the size of the Peace Corps and you have. Well with that I think we have certainly had the most interesting of conversations to launch the next 50 years. Thank you all for coming to CSIS and joining us with Director William Congressman Barr Congressman Pete Fry, Senator Wolford please give them a hand for their time and their dedication. Thank you very much. Tom did you have a copy of this? Jan?