 So thank you very much. It's a great pleasure for me to be here today, and I thank the organizers for inviting the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. This gathering and presentation focuses on a topic which is of significant interest to the OSCE, and in particular to the Transnational Threats Department, which I represent today. I would start off with saying for maybe those that you don't know, what is the OSCE? For those not familiar with the OSCE, let me briefly note that it is the world's largest regional security arrangement in terms of membership under Chapter 8 of the United Nations Charter. Chapter 8 is maintaining international peace and security. It brings together 57 countries stretching from North America to Central Asia, including all member states of the European Union, NATO, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It also works with 11 countries from the Southern Mediterranean region and Asia, including Afghanistan, which have the status of OSCE partners for cooperation. The OSCE is based on a trademark concept of comprehensive and cooperative security. This concept recognizes that security is multi-dimensional and that it's political military, we call this the three dimensions in the OSCE. It's political military, economic and environmental, as well as human dimensions are closely interlinked, and probably no soar more greater than in the field of countering terrorism. And this concept also recognizes that to achieve comprehensive security, cooperation is indispensable on multiple levels between countries, within countries, and among international organizations. Most of the OSCE staff and resources are deployed in its 17 field missions in Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and in the South Caucasus, which are a distinctive operational asset and comparative advantage of the organization. All told, we have about a little over 3,000 people in the OSCE. Our mandate in counterterrorism, so what does counterterrorism mean for the collective response of a regional organization like the OSCE, for which addressing transnational threats to security ranks among the top priorities? Looking firstly at our mandate, it's worthwhile noting that this is determined through agreement by consensus of all 57 participating states. Something that is not easy to achieve but carries significant weight once reached. Back in 2003, OSCE participating states adopted a common strategy to address threats to security and stability in the 21st century. Tellingly, the strategy highlighted, and I quote, that threats of terrorism and organized crime are often interlinked. And that the cross-border movement of persons, resources, and weapons, as well as trafficking for the purpose of financing and providing logistic support, play, and increasing role for terrorist activities. So this was somewhat prescient if you look back to 2003. Following broad discussions on future European security, which were initiated by the organization in 2009, the OSCE sharpened its focus on transnational threats and, I would say, is sort of a point of note for the OSCE. We're one of the few bodies now that have adopted this term of transnational threats. We also have this in NATO. They have an emerging security challenges division. I think it recognizes the shifts from sort of a Cold War posture to the posture we're in today, which is facing many hybrid types of threats. Most significantly, OSCE participating states adopted several decisions by consensus in the last few years. In particular, I note, during the 2012 Irish OSCE chairmanship, and I am quite happy to be back in Dublin. I was here in 2012 at the ministerial for the chairmanship. These decisions on police-related activities, on the fight against terrorism, on combating the threat of illicit drugs, and on cybersecurity confidence building measures, gave the political impetus for the establishment of the OSCE transnational threats department, which brings together our expertise on anti-terrorism, policing, border security, and cyber security, and where I now have the honor to be working. Now, in light of the unrest across the Middle East, in particular the Civil War in Syria, as well as North Africa and the Sahal, the phenomena of foreign terrorist fighters has come to fore internationally, and the UN Security Council adopted a number of resolutions in this respect. Most notably, and I was discussing at lunch, it's not a quiz on knowing the numbers of UN resolutions, but the one that most of the international community is focused on right now is 2178-2178, which addresses the issue of foreign terrorist fighters coming after the rise of ISIL and Daesh. Regionally, the OSCE subsequently endorsed this resolution through a ministerial council declaration, mandating the organization to counter this phenomena using all the tools at our disposal. Our mandate was further strengthened in December last year at the ministerial council in Belgrade through our collective commitment to prevent and counter violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism, or as we say in the OSCE VERLT, I think the common term that is most used within the international academic and civil society world is CVE, countering violent extremism, but we draw a distinction with VERLT, and I'll talk about this more because we recognize because of our strong human rights approach in the OSCE, not all violent extremists are terrorists, so it's a very important distinction that we try to make. Now I'd like to talk about our activities on foreign terrorist fighters in CVE VERLT, and at the conclusion I also brought some handouts that you can take away with you if you'd like to sort of see how we put our arms around a very difficult issue. Common violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism was one of our primary focus areas for 2015, in part as a regional response to the attacks in January against the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Our first major event of 2015 to build consensus in this regard was the OSCE wide counter-terrorism expert conference which gathered over 350 experts and practitioners from OSCE participating states and partners for cooperation from international and regional organizations and I would also say from a healthy number of civil society participants. The focus of this conference was on countering the excitement and recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters and resulted in recommendations that ultimately in September contributed to the UN summit on countering violent extremism and then to the OSCE's Belgrade ministerial. Further drawing on our comprehensive tools and in response to the Charlie Hebdo attack, the Transnational Threats Department jointly with the OSCE representative on freedom of the media organized an expert workshop on media freedom and responsibilities in the context of counter-terrorism policies. We intend to follow up this event which took place in Bucharest with a set of general media guidelines, standards, or best practices and recommendations in reporting on counter-terrorism policies and terrorism related incidents. In addition, we are developing an e-learning module to provide training on countering the use of the internet for terrorist purposes because we believe it would be useful for the OSCE's 57 participating states to have some common way to look at this very difficult issue of counter-narratives and the issue of media and such as that. Throughout last year, the OSCE secretary general in Serbia's 2015 OSCE German ship, I would note that this year's chairman ship is Germany, launched an organization wide campaign with the slogan OSCE United Encountering Violent Extremism Pound United CVE. The communication campaign underscored that the OSCE stands together as one encountering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism. We saw this as an integral approach to rally the comprehensive approach of the OSCE and to support the CVE process that culminated in a UN summit in September of 2015. Our campaign culminated with the adoption of two declarations at the Ministry of Council in Belgrade on reinforcing OSCE efforts to counter terrorism in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks, as Margaret noted in the beginning. It was a very tough year last year with a lot of terrorist attacks and a second declaration, which was very comprehensive, on countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism. Now looking ahead, there are ambitious plans to further our efforts. We are, for example, developing a capacity building project for civil society called Leaders Against Intolerance and Violent Extremism. The aim is to develop training modules to build the capacity of interested youth leaders, women leaders, and religious leaders to mobilize others and speak out against violent extremism and radicalization, or CVE. This is probably the most ambitious project I've seen within the Transnational Threats Department and our Action Against Terrorism Unit. We recognize this is an issue which isn't a one-time workshop, but it's going to take a very long comprehensive approach. I'm happy to talk about that project a little later in the Q&A session. Similarly, we launched a guidebook on preventing terrorism, encountering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism. A Community Policing Approach. This provides practical guidance for policymakers and senior police professionals on the key issues that can impact the successor failure of community policing approaches in fighting terrorism. It can also serve as a useful resource for members of civil society with an interest in these issues, in particular community leaders. As I understand, it's also been used by your national police, the Angarda Siakana. Did I get that right? We now plan to organize a training program based on this guidebook. We believe very strongly in the issue of community policing. As a further follow-up, this year's Counterterrorism Conference will be held in Berlin on 31 May and 1 June. The conference intends to make use of the comprehensive OEC approach to security to discuss current issues of young people and violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism, including in relation to the phenomena of foreign terrorist fighters. Perspectives for their reintegration into society and the specific issues of radicalization and de-radicalization of young women. And of course, we try very hard that it's designed to follow up to all the work that we did last year. And I would say very openly, the IEA is welcome to attend the meeting, and I hope to see some of you there. The other area you asked me to look at is preventing the movement of foreign terrorist fighters. So turning now to the other primary work areas of the organization, enhancing border security in order to prevent the movement of foreign terrorist fighters is on the global agenda as increasingly a focus for the OSCE, a very strong focus. Regionally, we support initiatives of the Global Counterterrorism Forum. The Global Counterterrorism Forum, if you're not familiar with it, and again, I can also expand upon this a little bit. It's 30 like-minded states that have come together to launch several initiatives over the last several years to propel faster action on the international community in countering terrorism, as well as we work with the Security Council in the UN. And our focus is on three main streams in this issue of borders. The need to prevent the misuse of travel documents for foreign terrorist fighter travel. The requirement to increase the sharing of information, and the necessity of appropriate screening measures at the borders. Firstly, on travel documents, we are working with national authorities to upgrade the technological security features of travel documents, such as joining the international civil aviation authority, IKO, public key directory. In simple terms, it's when you pass your passport through that reader, it records your data, which is a much more efficient way than having the old style passports were just printed on a piece of paper, and you didn't have it tied to any electrical system, which gives added security through e-passports. I should note that one of our experts visited the passport making facility in Ireland last year to get familiar with some of the security features the Irish passports contains. We're also in the process of developing a compending of best practices regarding civil registry systems and passports so that individuals cannot use so-called breeder documents to acquire a genuine travel document on a false basis. In the most simplest of terms, breeder documents addresses if you can come with a valid looking birth certificate. Once you get over that hurdle, you then have all the gates open to get all your identity papers in line. And if the breeder document itself is not true, you have true challenge in your own internal borders and passport system. Secondly, it's clear that frontline officers require regularly updated information to conduct effective evidence-based travel risk assessment and screenings. There are existing international information exchange mechanisms that can be deployed. The challenge is to use them more effectively. That is why the OSC is working with Interpol to increase access at border control points of our participating states to Interpol databases. We are also partnering with the UN and other international organizations to enhance the use of advanced passenger information so that all officers can receive information about travelers before they begin journey. I take it everybody in here has flown at least once in their life. Advanced passenger information, as you see it on your airline ticket, when you get that information, hopefully goes to somebody else that can verify the identity of the traveler. Our third work stream in this area is increasing the capacity of border control officers to actually detect foreign terrorist fighters. For this reason, we organized national trainings on the latest passport forgery techniques, and there are also plans to develop a mobile training team to help border agencies improve their capabilities to identify and interview foreign terrorist fighters. We also have a dedicated border management staff college in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, which holds both monthly and annual staff courses and trainings for border guards, border police and customs drug control and transnational crime agencies. I would note that many of these trainings take place because of our 17 field missions, which give us a very strong comparative advantage to follow up on this. The final work area I will mention is our efforts to reinforce law enforcement capacities and to promote implementation of the international legal framework against terrorism. We encourage the implementation of key international legal conventions. With that in mind, I should point out that Ireland is a party to 13 of the 19 universal anti-terrorism convention protocols. This is roughly the average among our OEC participating states. The Transnational Threats Department through its Strategic Police Matters Unit, which is a sister team with me, contributes to support policing in all OEC participating states in line with the rule of law. Fundamental democratic principles. In that vein, we are developing a training module on counterterrorism investigations and human rights. Closely with our Human Rights Office in Warsaw, Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights are commonly referred to as ODIR. I would also point out that in this area of training, we also support the previously mentioned GCTF Global Counterterrorism Forum. And the GCTF has adopted a robot memorandum on good practices for effective counterterrorism practices in the criminal justice sector. The GCTF has adopted a lot of memorandum on best practices that we're now working to sort of share with people sort of what the baseline could be in your country based on your own national legislation and needs. Terrorism as well as organized crime investigations will often have a significant transnational and legal component. This makes the pursuit of terrorists and their criminal assets around the globe an ever more necessary requirement to integrate our efforts in the OSCE. To adequately respond, we support the OSCE field operations participating states and specialized partner organizations that are engaging in anti-terrorist and crime activities. This support includes regional training courses to provide technical assistance and help build capacity of law enforcement agencies to cooperate on combating terrorism as a crime. In closing, I'd like to highlight that security is no longer exclusively a responsibility of governments. Governments need to partner not only with other governments, but also with international regional organizations like the OSCE, civil society and quite a bit recently the private sector. I think you can see that in the news topically today, such as your well recognized think tank as well. As outlined at the beginning, the OSCE transnational threat department brings together all our expertise on anti-terrorism policing, border security and cyber security. A largely unique approach among regional organizations. The department places the OSCE in position to be a close partner with governments and other international and regional organizations to effectively develop strategies and implement projects aimed at countering such serious transnational threats as terrorism, which is clearly at the top of the international agenda among a few very other select issues. In this regard, I'm pleased to note that we are collaborating closely with all the international partners Ireland as an OSCE participating state would expect us to do, such as but not limited to the UN, NATO and the European Union. For example, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, who has a terrorism prevention branch, is our ally when addressing the legal basis to prosecute and adopt laws consistent with these threats and challenges. Both OSCE and UNODCR base in Vienna, so our cooperation is quite easy, and we collaborate closely along the lines of a joint action plan, which most recently was extended to 2017 in the areas of fighting illicit drugs, countering terrorism and international organized crime. We also maintain close contacts with our colleagues at NATO, at primarily the NATO School and the NATO Center of Excellence for Defense Against Terrorism. In fact, last year, we actively contributed to a tabletop exercise examining challenges to departing and returning foreign terrorist fighters in cooperation with the Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes, which is linked to NATO. Emerging security challenges, as I mentioned, NATO has a very similar department as the transnational threats are an area that we meet at least twice a year to discuss and joint OSCE NATO staff talks. The next tabletop exercise is actually next month in March in cooperation. Again, as I mentioned, the importance of our field missions with the OSCE field mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Similarly, we are working hand in hand with the European Union and its different structures. I've already mentioned that all member states of the European Union are also OSCE participating states and close interaction with our colleagues in Brussels is self-understood. With other structures, such as the Commonwealth of Independent States anti-terrorist structure, I can particularly report on very good collaboration and active exchange of information in the area of countering terrorism between the Secretary's Action Against Terrorism Unit. And I would say as I get ready to close my formal remarks, I see this as an almost unique manner. The OSCE is one of the main bridges between the sometimes still too apparent east-west lines drawn during and after the Cold War. I hope this brief overview of the horizontal efforts of the Transnational Threats Department and the team I'm in are highly relevant for your discourse on events which have regrettably made too many headlines in 2015. Ultimately, these broad horizontal areas are the foundation for our work on violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism and foreign terrorist fighters. I thank you all for listening and I look forward to answering all of your questions and comment.