>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington DC. >> Karen Lloyd: It's
my distinct pleasure to introduce you our next speaker. Admiral Stavridis is a retired Navy
Admiral who is currently the Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy at Tufts University. He has commanded at all levels of
the military to include; Commander, European Command, and as
Supreme Allied Commander Europe. I could provide you with a long
list of his military assignments, but you have probably already
looked them up on the internet. So instead I will share some nuggets
that provide a better understanding of how his career places him
at the Book Festival today. He is no stranger to books. He started his love of books
while his family was stationed in Greece in the early 60s. Because there was no Armed Forces
network television he sent his time at the post library. Now I can totally relate to this. My family was in France at that
same time and my whole family, all seven kids, were over
at the post library too. What is striking to book lovers is that throughout his Naval career
Admiral Stavridis published either articles or books at each successive
rank to include midshipman. I suggest he would tell you his
favorite assignment was command of destroyer USS Fary. [phonetic] It came about as a
result of his daily journaling, using a typewriter of all
things, during his two and a half years onboard ship. The result was a compilation of a
sense of wondering and mistakes, all of which were intended
to convey, while his time in command was successful, not every
day was fabulous and the real point of life is not what you accomplish,
but rather what you overcome. In his most recent
book, "Sea Power," Admiral Stavridis uses his Naval
experience to guide us on a journey through the seas of the world. He asks us to consider the value
and the challenge the seas, from both a personal and an
international economic system. He helps us understand
the significance of sea control and power projection. He asks that we be mindful of
the geopolitics of the ocean, while warning us not to
over imagine the importance of our own small voyages on earth. Please join me in welcoming
a great friend of the Library of Congress; Admiral
James Stavridis. [ Applause ] >> Admiral James Stavridis:
Thank you. Thank you and I very much
appreciate everybody coming out on this drizzly day. It's kind of a mariner's
day out there I would say. Normally when people hear that
marvelous biography introduction -- thank you Karen [assumed
spelling] -- the first thing they say when they
actually see me is, "You know, I thought you'd be taller
than you appear to be." [laughter] Well, what I'd like to do
today is just show you a few images, and we can go to the
first slide please. We're just going to talk about
the oceans and we're going to take about 15 minutes and kind of walk
through the oceans of the world. And then we'll consider,
in the second 15 minutes, what we ought to do about it and what are the importance
of these oceans. So let me begin with a line
the British Royal Navy uses, which is that the sea is one. The sea is one, meaning it connects. And most who don't spend a
lot of time on the oceans -- and I spent 37 years in the Navy, 11
years day for day on the deep ocean in that time -- don't consider that
70 percent of the world is water. And by the way, 70 percent of
your body is water and 70 percent of the oxygen that you breathe comes
from photosynthesis in the oceans. And -- next slide please -- 95
percent of the world's trade -- the lifeblood of the earth's economy
-- passes across those oceans. On any given day 50,000
ships at sea, three to five million
mariners at sea. This is an extraordinary,
complex ecosystem, both in the ecological sense
and the economic sense. And to give you one last image to
hold in your head about the size of the oceans, consider this;
you could take all of the land in the world and it would fit
quite nicely inside the Pacific Ocean alone. So the seas are in many ways
fundamental to the earth. Well, let's get underway. Let's start in the Pacific. This is a 1589 antiquarian
chart made by Ortelius, a Dutch cartographer. And you see the discontinuities
and the misunderstandings of the outline of the Pacific. But I'd invite you to go back 4,000
years before that chart was made, bottom right, the voyages of the
Polynesians who traversed six, seven, 8,000 nautical miles,
three, 4,000 years ago. These are ancient seas and none
is more ancient than the Pacific. In the American mental map of the Pacific this is
what we tend to see, right? It's the second World War when a vast American armada
sails across it by 1945. In this period we have more aircraft
carriers than we have ships today. The sea is covered by the
United States and we still sort of see ourselves as a
preeminent Pacific maritime power. But let's look back at
China's history in these seas. Here are two vessels. The little one on the left, you'll recall from your grade
school studies, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The little one is a
model of the Santa Maria that Christopher Columbus
sailed in 1492. That massive ship behind it, built
in roughly the same time period, was the flagship of
Chinese Admiral Jang Hi. [assumed spelling] It was, as
you can see, 10 times the size of these caravels of discovery
that sailed from European waters. China has a deep and abiding
history in the Pacific and that relationship, the maritime
reach of the United States balanced with China's ancient sense
of itself as a Pacific power, is truly the light motif that plays in the geopolitics
of the Pacific today. And we see the Chinese Navy rising. It is reaching out. It is deploying. Here's a Chinese Corvette arriving for a port call in
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. China is also brining its allies and
coalition partners into the Pacific. This is a Chinese destroyer
operating with a Russian destroyer. Now, the United States has
terrific allies in the Pacific. This is also part of
our relationship set. This is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, [assumed spelling]
a reliable partner in the Japanese Navy is incredibly
professional and capable. We also have excellent partners on
the Korean peninsula, South Korea. Together we have a challenge
that is, in many ways, maritime. It's from North Korea. This of course is Kim Jung Un, [assumed spelling]
and he is well named. He is unpredictable. He's unstable. He's not irrational. He's got a really bad haircut. [laughter] And the bad news is
he is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles. This will be, at least in part, a
maritime challenge that we will face with our allies and partners --
Japan, South Korea, and others -- in potentially a place where the
US and China could work together to solve a significant
geopolitical challenge. So I'll close on the Pacific by just
saying; North Korea -- upper left -- the rise of China -- these
are Chinese ballistic missiles submarines -- 80 percent of the
world's trade -- bottom right -- flows through that South China Sea. China's construction of artificial
islands in the Pacific today -- the Western Pacific -- we see significant
geopolitical competition. Let's keep moving. Let's go to the Atlantic,
which for centuries has been, in many ways, a transit zone. And nobody from the United States
thinks of that North Atlantic without recalling World War I and
World War II, the convoy operations. But again, if you step back
in history it's the Europeans, and particularly the
Iberian Peninsula, who has given us Christopher
Columbus, Prince Henry the Navigator. Upper left is Magellan, who
circumnavigated the world. Bottom left, one less known,
Bartolomeu Dias, the first European to sail into the Indian Ocean. These mariners from the Iberian
Peninsula launched enormous voyages of discovery. And in that Atlantic today the
geopolitical challenge comes from Russia. Vladimir Putin is increasing
the scope and scale of the Russian maritime forces and
we'll continue to see challenges across that North Atlantic
even as we do in the Pacific. Not insurmountable, not
leading to another war, but tension that will play
out in this maritime sphere as we see Russian frontline
ships operating as here in the Caribbean off our coast. Let's move on. The third largest ocean, after the
Pacific and the Atlantic, is this; the Indian Ocean, which begins
to hit the world's stage as a spice route -- bottom left. Today is increasingly a zone for
everything from piracy off the coast of East Africa, hydrocarbons,
and here we see the interplay of India -- our rising superpower
in this century -- with Pakistan. That will, over the
course of this century, drive geopolitics in
the Indian Ocean. We see it today tactically in
Yemen, in the northern reaches of the Indian Ocean, and up into
the Persian Gulf, where the overlay of Shia -- that's the Iranian
flag, upper right -- Sunni -- that's the Saudi flag,
bottom left -- plays out in the waters
around that Arabian Peninsula with our greatest ally
in the region, Israel, parked in the middle of that zone. So the geopolitical
challenges here will continue. And of course we need to recall
that Iran is an Indian Ocean power. On the right you see
the modern flag of Iran, the two on the upper
left are the battle flags of Cyrus the Magnificent [assumed
spelling] and Darius the Great. The green on the lower chart
was the Persian Empire, the Iranian Empire at
its greatest extent. Note all of the coastline here. Again, we will see
geopolitics playing out in that Indian Ocean as well. Let's go to the Mediterranean
Sea, where many of you have sailed on very benign cruises I
imagine, in the summer. My wife and I did a
wonderful one two summers ago. But let me tell you something very
somber about the Mediterranean Sea. If I could snap my fingers
[snap] and bring back to life every sunken warship
and every mariner who died in maritime combat in
the Mediterranean Sea, you could walk across that ocean. It is an enormous zone of war. A highlight battle, if you will, if
there's such a thing, was the Battle of Lepanto, the high-water mark of
Islamic drive in the seas off Italy against the Holy Roman
Empire in the 1570s. What's the situation today? It's the Eastern Mediterranean where
we see geopolitics most at play. We see great powers, the
United States and Russia, on opposite sides in
the conflicted Syria. We see enormous turbulence
throughout the Levant and it leads to this, a maritime
challenge; two million refugees over the last three years. This Eastern Mediterranean
will be a zone of challenge, if not conflict --
and also because under that Eastern Mediterranean
is an enormous treasure trove of hydrocarbons --
oil, natural gas -- disputed among the
nations in that region. So the Mediterranean will
challenge us as well. Let's come a little closer to home. The Caribbean Sea was
once the vast waterway across which the Spanish galleons
moved the treasures of the Americas. Today, bottom left, the Panama
Canal is the beating heart of the US economy as trade
goods flow back and forth. And it's challenged, it's not
geopolitical challenged -- nation on nation -- but
it's narcotics, it's gangs, it's natural disasters,
it's refugees here as well. All of it leads to
significant maritime activity by our Coastguard working together
with the Navy, law enforcement of course taking the lead. Let's go to the top of
the world; the Arctic. This is USS Jeanette, it was
the ship sent to the Arctic in the 1870s, when many
cartographers/geographers still had a theory that the top of the world
had a hidden temperate zone in it. This is just over a
hundred years ago. The Jeanette tried to
get through the ice, was frozen in place,
many of its crew died. Today the Arctic is
a little less icy. Here's a news flash;
global warming is real. [laughter] The ice is
melting and it's going to open that northern trade route,
increase geopolitical competition, uncover hydrocarbons. On one side is Russia. On the other side are
five NATO nations. The Arctic has never seen war. It will be our challenge to
ensure that we can continue to say that as the century unfolds. If we are able to say it, it will
be the result of organizations like this; the Arctic Council, which
brings together Russia and NATO, one of the few places we have a
coherent conversation at the moment. The United States needs
to up its game. I'm showing a picture of the one
operational icebreaker the US has. Denmark, a nation of five
million, operates six icebreakers. We need to improve
ourselves in this zone. So those are the oceans. And now if I could for one moment, I'll just address the
challenges broadly on all the oceans because
the sea is one. Fishing; illegal fishing. One fish in five caught on the ocean
of the world is caught illegally. Fish stocks declining; probably
50 percent over the last 40 years. This is a multi, multi-billion
dollar business and it is exacerbated by
piracy and illegality. Additionally, again global warming
is going to change the oceans and attack the ability to
conduct the photosynthesis for the oxygen we breathe. With apologies to former
Vice President Al Gore, who has often said, "The lungs of the earth are the
Amazon," they contribute. The lungs of the earth
are the oceans. So that's a quick, a very
quick, voyage around the world. And so, right about now
you ought to be saying, [laughing] "Okay, Admiral. You know, a lot of
challenges out there. What do you think? What should we do about it? What can we do about it? What are the opportunities to
engage in this maritime world?" And this is really what the
book, "Sea Power" is about. What are the strategic ideas for the
twenty first century, for our nation and for the world, in engaging? Well, let me bring you a quick
shot from "Game of Thrones." If you really want a maritime
strategist it's Euron Greyjoy, who said, "Build me a thousand ships
and I will give you this world." We do need to be capable
mariners, but how do we do that? I'm going to start with this. We've got to listen better. We've got to listen more to the
oceans themselves, to their health. We've got to listen to
our allies and partners. We've got to listen
to our opponents. This, by the way, is
not photo shopped. This is a Belgian air defense
system from about 80 years ago. It's not still in operation. He's [laughter] listening
for incoming aircraft. It's quite innovative, but I
put it here for us as metaphor. We need to listen more. We need to do exactly
what you're doing here at this marvelous book festival. Come, listen to ideas,
challenge ideas. This is the Naval War College
in Newport, Rhode Island, the center where we take a
break from the day to day, not only listening, but studying,
reading, writing, publishing. What else can we do for the oceans? We can hold on to our values. We can hold on to our values. They come to us from the
Ancient Greeks -- Socrates -- from the Ancient Eastern
Asians -- that's the Buddha -- through our founding fathers --
upper left -- the Enlightenment -- Voltaire -- to principal
leaders -- like Angela Merkel. We need to work together
with democracy, liberty, freedom of speech. Those values will help
us in the oceans. We need to work with partners. The United States should not become
the world's maritime policemen. We should be in maritime coalitions. These are French Special Forces
capturing Somali pirates. They have flown from
a Danish warship, they refueled from
an Italian frigate, they operate under the surveillance of a Portuguese maritime
patrol aircraft, US intelligence from satellites. These kind of multi-national
coalitions to create security and environmental improvement are
vital; alliances and coalitions. Our allies can help us
in things like freedom of navigation challenges. We need to do more of
this as well from the sea. As I look at the tragedy
unfolding in Houston I'm so proud of the US Navy sending
two massive ships -- a big deck amphibious carrier, a large landing ship
dock right behind, and potentially we could
send a hospital ship. When I was commander
of Southern Command, before being the NATO Commander, I deployed these hospital ships
routinely throughout the Caribbean, Latin America. My counterpart in the
Pacific does the same. This kind of humanitarian work,
from the sea, is part of our ability to leverage the strategy
of the ocean. We need new partners. I would focus in this
century on India, which will be a rising
maritime power. We have exercises every year with
India, Japan, and the United States. And we need to work jointly,
within our own military -- our Marines, our Coastguard,
our Navy working together within the context that I've
laid out here of international, interagency, private/public, all
of that allows us to interact, for example, with the International
Maritime Organization to work with private sector
maritime entities. Blue Water Metrics, a small company
that uses commercial shipping to measure the ocean's health; it's a powerful private/public
connective idea. We need conversations at all
levels about the oceans and we need to read more about the sea. And that's why I'm so happy
to see so many people turn out to a talk about the oceans. And it can be fiction. If you've never read Nicholas
Monsarrat, "The Cruel Sea," get up now, leave and go read it. It's such a fabulous book. We should understand the maritime
thinkers like Chester Nimitz. We should understand the battles,
the hinges of history, like Jutland: "The Rules of the Game," and
understand that as we look back through the history of the world,
so often big, big doors swing on small hinges and so often those
small hinges are maritime battles -- Solomos saves Greece from Persia,
Actium divides the Roman Empire, Trafalgar saves the Brits,
Lepantos stops Islam, Jutland preserves the
British fleet in World War I, Midway is the resurgence
for America. These maritime battles
matter and we need to understand their
impact on the oceans. I'll wrap up now and I'd love to
take a couple questions or comments. I've talked a lot about the
oceans and you'll also find in this book a very
personal story of my time at sea, many, many years at sea. And the seas can be terrible and
challenging and things go wrong. And over the last 60 days we've
seen two US Navy destroyers in terrible collisions,
17 sailors dead. To put that in perspective
for you, tragically we've lost in Afghanistan this
year 11 soldiers. In the last couple months we've lost
17 of our finest sailors at sea. The oceans will challenge us and
that's part of "Sea Power" as well. But I will say this; I
loved being a sailor. I loved my time on the ocean. It's the ultimate office
with a view. [laughter] I hope you take some
time to dip into "Sea Power" and learn more about the
history, the geopolitics, and what it's like
to sail these oceans. Thank you very, very much. Thank you for coming out. Thank you. [applause] Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. [ Applause ] Thanks. We'll just I think
kind of go back and forth. So we'll start over here. >> Thank you sir. My name's [inaudible] I'm actually
a Navy Federal Executive fellow this year. So I appreciate getting the chance
to hear you speak today sir. But I'm actually working on a
project on how illegal, unregulated, unreported fishing leads to regional
destabilization and eventually, potentially conflict
and radicalization. So you talked a little bit about
fishing in regards to ocean health. I wonder if you'd comment a
little bit sir on how you see -- >> I can. I have a piece
coming out in Op Ed called "The Coming War for Fish." And it sounds absurd doesn't it? That that would kind of
get in a war about fish, but as Ben [assumed spelling]
knows, the conflict is growing -- a point particularly
to the South China Sea where China had a massive
fishing fleet that is encroaching. We can look in the North Atlantic. We see partners that are
traditionally very close come to violent ends over
fishing violations. We see Indonesia blowing
up illegal fishing craft. More and more we are going
to see wars over fish, just as in the past we've seen
wars over land, water, oil. This is a war over protein and it
is increasingly the principle source of protein around the world. So think of it in the context of
oil or water or another resource. It will -- to counter it we need
international, interagency, private, public -- the things
I've talked about -- but we are going to need
robust cooperation between, not just the Navies
of the world Ben, but the Coast Guards
of the world as well. It's a big topic. Thanks for raising it. Yes sir. >> Jim Baling. [assumed spelling] I served a
couple years in the active Navy. >> Terrific. >> But what I'm wondering
about has to do with these accidents, so called. >> Sure. >> About the people getting killed
and ships getting hit in the side. I mean it doesn't seem
to me that the people who are commanding these ships
don't know what they're doing. I don't believe that. >> Yeah. >> So can you give us some idea
of why these things are happening? >> I can. First of all, Jim I
had the same reaction you did, that it just seems beyond
a possible coincidence that two Navy destroyers would
be hit and have that kind of tragic loss of life over
such a short period of time. The Navy is conducting
incredibly thorough investigations and they will look at any
possibility for a [inaudible]. I'll give you five things and
I'm going to do them fast. Bad leadership on the
individual ship; the captain might be
a terrific mariner, but he or she might be someone that
his officer of the deck is afraid to call, got a temper,
bad environment on the bridge possibility. Number two; equipment. Are those radars accurately
working, the early warning systems that are built into them? Number three; training. Are we pushing our people too
fast to hit career wickets and not giving them
enough time in the basics of seamanship and navigation? Number four; op-tempo
-- operational tempo. Were those particular
ships driven too hard? Were people not getting rest? You would never want an
airline captain driving you who had not received his or
her mandatory eight hour rest. Unfortunately I can assure you that those bridge watch
scanners are not getting that eight hours of rest. So op-tempo. And fifth and finally Jim, I would
say; number of ships in the US Navy. We need 350. Every responsible analyst
agrees on that. We have 270. Those ships are being pushed hard. It won't be any one of those, but my bet is it'll be
a combination of them. Thank you. Yes sir. >> Good afternoon. My name is Daniel Dagliono
[phonetic] and I read in your chapter on the Indian Ocean
about how you see the Middle East as a currently embroiled Cold War. So why do you consider it cold and
what would it take to turn that? [laughter] >> Yeah, I -- great question Daniel. I think -- as I was writing the book about a year ago it seemed a
little cooler than it does now. [laughter] The Cold War
analogy in the book Daniel, comes from the Shia-Sunni tension,
which is religious of course in character, under laid
by a geopolitical tension between Persian and Arab. Those of you -- most of
you -- are Christian. So we've seen this movie
before in the Christian faith. It was called "The Wars of the
Reformation: the 1500s, Catholics and Protestants with an overlay
of geopolitics, Spanish Empire, British, Netherlands
become ground zero, one third of Europe's'
population is killed." It lasted 100 to 150 years. No historical analogy is perfect,
but that one kind of rings the bell and the war is getting
hotter, not cooler. Thanks. Yes sir. >> My name's Jack. [assumed spelling] I recently
was recommended a book by a former sub Commander
in the US Navy. It's called "Blind Man's Bluff." >> Oh, yeah. Sure. >> Is -- I found it a great read. >> Yes. >> Question is; is there a
chapter still to be written under your scenario for the American
submarine forces and as a part of our triangular strategy
of national defense? >> The sub-surface world will
continue to be absolutely crucial and the tension there
is whether or not at some point there'll
be a technology that effectively renders the oceans
transparent to overhead sensors. Thus far submarines are able to
continue to be very well hidden. As long as that is the case I
think they will be, in the end, the preeminent platform of war. And that hurts me to say
that as a destroyer officer. And if I were an aviator
it would really hurt me to say it, about the carriers. But submarines, because of
their cloak of invisibility, until that is pierced they will
be at the center of our strategy. That's why it's important
that we build them, invest in those technologies,
and secondly and final point, our allies operate
submarines affectively as well as we do on diesels in close. So when you can marry
-- which we don't do -- so when you can marry up
the allied diesel capability to the US nuclear capability
that's a very potent ability to control the seas
and project power. Yes sir. >> My name is Zack. [assumed spelling] My
father is in the Army but I still appreciated
hearing you speak. [laughter] >> [laughing] Thank you. >> In a lot of what
we've been reading and hearing North Korea is said
to be an Air Force and more of a land based conflict, but you
described it as a maritime one. I was wondering if you
could expand on that. >> I can. It's particularly maritime
from the defensive perspective of the United States and our allies. As you may have just
seen over the weekend, North Korea launched
a missile over Japan. The ability to knock down
those long range missiles, which is really what we're
worried about with North Korea in the macro sense, much of it will
be based on destroyers operating at sea with the Aegis System. Secondly, if -- and I
don't advocate this. I don't think it's -- I don't think
there's a good military option against North Korea, but if
we're forced to take one, the ability to control those
ocean approaches to North Korea and to cut off their ability to come out after our aircraft
carriers will be crucial because our land-based air on the Korean Peninsula
will be highly at risk. Those aircraft carriers
can move 1,000 miles a day, operate 75 attack aircraft,
are nuclear powered, don't need to be refueled. That kind of capability
and its mobility around that peninsula
will be crucial. I don't mean to say that
the efforts of the Army and the Airforce are not
going to be critical as well. Again, big door swinging
on small hinges. I think the maritime piece of this,
both defensively and offensively from the carriers, will be crucial. Thanks Zack. Yes sir. Hey, Master and Chief. >> Yes, Dave Mattingly, and I'm a
contributor to "Strategy to Bridge" and "Divergent Options" and
I've written quite a bit on the South China Sea,
especially as it applies with the UN convention
of the law of the seas. >> Sure. >> Which, if you could touch
on the US's [inaudible]. >> I can. So -- get everyone on the
same sheet -- the South China Sea -- big body of water,
think Gulf of Mexico. China claims it as
a territorial sea. They say that "we own the
entire body of water." They show us a dashed line. "We own everything inside it. We own all the hydrocarbons. Their territorial seas so
we will control the shipping and we will simply annex it." It will be as though the United
States simply declared the Gulf of Mexico were a US Territorial Sea. It is a preposterous claim. It has gone to the
International Court. It's been soundly rejected. China continues to front this
claim and they support it by building artificial islands and
saying, "That's Chinese territory. That's Chinese territory. That's Chinese territory." They are playing a long game,
Master Chief, and their hope is that over time we'll simply
become tired of the challenge. If I were a Chinese strategist
I'd do exactly the same thing. Why? Because what China does
not have are hydrocarbons. China needs those. It's part of their long range plan. So I don't think we're going
to go to war about this. I think we're going to
challenge them on the high seas. We're going to fly our airplanes
over their artificial islands. We're going to steam our ships
through their territorial sea and we're going to continue to make
the case under international law in the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea that we are observing and enforcing
customary international law as described by the
International Courts. I think if we stay in the game and stay serious we will
avoid a real confrontation. If we back down we will regret that in the long throw
of our nation's history. Yes sir. >> Good afternoon sir. My name's Michael Minerva. [assumed spelling] >> Mike. >> It seems like, even amongst
Naval Officers, the awareness or general understanding of
sea power and Naval power comes and goes whenever a major book
is written by Mike Crotches, [assumed spelling] or Mahon,
[assumed spelling] or yourself. >> [laughing] Yeah. >> Or something tragic happens. >> Yes. >> Recently. What can we do to maintain a
common awareness consistently about sea power and its importance? That way we're constantly
developing it and the numbers of our ships aren't
rollercoastering. >> Yeah, great question from someone
named Minerva, which of course picks up on Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom. And I do want to stipulate
that Grotius -- the world's preeminent
international lawyer -- probably up here in history. Mahon, up here. The great strategist,
Stavridis, about down here. [laughter] But I'll take your
point of how do we maintain a level of knowledge and understanding? And the answer is; the old
fashioned way, which is education. It means in our ROTC
programs, at the Naval Academy, even at Officer Candidate
school where we take graduates of universities, we need to ensure that we're not only covering
administration and inspections and all the important things we
want a young officer to know, but also our history and
why strategy matters. That plug into the educational
process for a Naval Officer needs to occur really at every step
and certainly when you go through war college in
your late 30s and even in executive education programs,
like we run up at Tufts, the Fletcher School, or
over at the Kennedy School. There's no simple, easy way to
do this other than education. Yes sir. >> [inaudible] I have a PHD
from the Fletcher School of Law, a Master's so I've had
everything that was [inaudible]. >> Excellent. >> My grandfather, when the Great
War was in the US Navy as well. >> Thank you. >> And he used to say, "If you
want to fight, join the Army." [laughter] My question to you, and
this is open-source, are two points of really Chinese provocative
issues. First of all, they have built
-- again, open-source -- these kind of ports that we
see in Japan for the US fleet and they do mock attacks on
them, which kind of shades of, you know the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor. And secondly they seem to be
building ports all over the world, especially for example in Pakistan. Karachi's port is at
like 50 percent capacity. >> Right. >> Yet they're building
one right next door. And of course the Indians
are thinking from, you know the Indian Navy; this is
going to be a direct [inaudible] >> Sure. >> How do you deal with
these kinds of issues? >> And let me add one to your
litany, which is a very good one, China's also building a massive
overseas military base in Djibouti. And that second chart I
showed you, with choke points, you will find very
much this program. In fact, they are using
Mahan's [assumed spelling] right in front of us. So the answer is; when you want
to deal with the network you have to have a strong network. So we need to leverage our
strongest comparative advantage, which is our allies,
partners, and friends. This is why India -- particularly
this alignment of the United States, India and Japan --
is so very powerful. So the short answer is they're
going to build a network. We need to maintain and
strengthen our network and I would argue back to values. Our democratic alignment
with NATO, with Japan, with Australia gives
us a much bigger pool of partners than China will enjoy. Think we have time for one
more here and one more there. Sir. >> Sir, thank you very much. Sir, I'm Mick Miquen, [phonetic]
retired Airforce Officer. And I first wanted to thank you
for your amazing contribution to your service to this country. >> Thank you. >> And your comments on Maureen Joe. [assumed spelling] [laughter] >> [laughing] Sure. >> But my real question is
you served and that had to do with your perception of
strategy, vis a vi the Chinese in the South Chinese Sea. Two observations if I may sir. As an Airforce guy, the picture
just before your Naval war college photograph -- back just before
the Naval war college photograph, that was in fact the National
War College in the background? >> You know, it looks like it. It's actually not. I've done serious research on this. Go ahead and ask a question sir. [laughing] >> [inaudible] brilliance of
statement and that is that the word around town sir is that you
married about three levels above your authorized pay grade. >> Don't we all? [laughing] >> And I mention that because
your wonderful wife, Laura, [assumed spelling] taught
our children in preschool at Saint Aiden's [assumed
spelling] in the morning. So we thank Laura for that. >> Oh, that's so kind Mick. Thank you very much sir. [applause] Thank you. Young lady, you have
the last question. >> Good afternoon. I heard that you said that
NATO countries and Russia need to work together to
combat global warming, is NATO hurting us in this respect? >> I think -- that's a
terrific question, by the way -- I think that NATO is helping because
it creates an alignment of nations who share fundamental
values, as we've talked about. Secondly, NATO helps us because
the NATO nations together have 52 percent of the world's GDP. So they have enormous
economic capability to address these kinds
of challenges. Thirdly, NATO provides a forum. It's a place where these nations can
gather and discuss crucial issues to include the security
challenges that come from environmental degradation. So I would argue NATO
is a force for good. A multiplier effect would be if we could convince our Russian
counterparts, if you will, to join, at least in that conversation. We may continue to
disagree with Russia on Syria and Ukraine and Cyborg. But can we not agree
on the challenges to the environment and to the ocean? I think there's at least
a chance of that and in that sense I think NATO
is a force for good. Let me close by saying, thank
you all for coming out today, for thinking about the oceans, and for supporting this
incredible festival, the National Book Festival. It's an honor to be here. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. [applause] >> Thanks. [applause] >> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.
