Defense
Secretary Ash Carter was honored with the Woodrow
Wilson Award for Public Service by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars here last night.
The event also featured tributes
to the secretary from the
Wilson Center and key industry leaders.
Carter noted that the Wilson Center was
created to honor the 24th president by connecting policymakers with “actionable
ideas” to make the United States “fit and safe,” and that the concept continues
today in security and prosperity gains for the nation and around the world.
“That’s why we stand up for freedom of
the seas around the world, whether in the South China Sea or the Persian Gulf
or the Arctic,” he said. “That’s why we’re gaining momentum to defeat [Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant] barbarism in the Middle East. That’s why we are
working to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the largest trade
agreements in history, and a similar trans-Atlantic pact.”
“Unfortunately,
more and more, some are intent on eroding those values,” Carter continued. “Today,
the rules-based international order faces challenges from Russia, terror
elements, and in a very different way, China.”
Meeting those
challenges requires the right strategies, he said, by using the nation’s
history lessons, knowing which mix of foreign policy tools are best suited for any
situation, and staying focused on U.S. interests. “They are our North Star in
the Asia-Pacific, in Europe, and in the Middle East,” he said.
Asia-Pacific Rebalance
DoD is working
on the next phase of U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region by deepening
long-standing alliances and partnerships with South Korea, Japan, Australia and
India, said Carter, who leaves today for a visit to the region. “The rebalance
will diversify America’s force posture, and make new investments in “key
capabilities and platforms, and building new partnerships with countries like
Singapore and Vietnam.”
Because the
Asia-Pacific is a maritime region, Carter said, he will focus on finalizing the
Southeast Asia Maritime Security Initiative to build greater regional capacity
to address maritime challenges, and continue maritime exercises such as the
Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training exercise, which involves six Association
of Southeast Asian Nations countries.
“Many nations
in the Asia-Pacific want to work with us, and we want to work with them too,” the
secretary said.
Protecting Domains for U.S., Other
Nations
“We're also
taking a stand for freedom of navigation, one of the rules and customs that
have helped so many nations in the region rise,” Carter said. “We're making it
clear the United States continues to favor peaceful resolutions to ongoing
disputes, and that we will continue to fly, sail, and operate whenever and
wherever international law allows,” he said. “The South China Sea is not, and
will not be an exception.”
Free, fair,
and open access to shared domains also apply to air, space and cyberspace, so
all nations can rise and prosper, Carter said, adding that DoD will continue to
defend its networks from intruders and to defend the nation from cyberattacks
of significant consequence and seek to deter malicious cyber activity.
Challenges from Russia, ISIL
The nation and
its allies continue to deter Russia’s “destabilizing influence, coercion, and
aggression,” which threaten the peace, stability and rules-based order, he
said. A new playbook includes helping to strengthen NATO’s new Very High Readiness
Joint Task Force, and supporting Ukraine with security assistance and training,
he said.
“We're working
to help facilitate training and exercises, and make our forces more agile,
mobile and responsive,” Carter said, noting that the United States is
supporting NATO's Cyber Defense Center of Excellence to help nations develop
cyber strategies, critical infrastructure protection plans, and cyber defense
posture assessments.
Degrading, Defeating ISIL
Turning to the
U.S. strategy in the Middle East, the secretary emphasized that ISIL forces will
be degraded and defeated by the global coalition of 65 nations.
Coalition
airstrikes are hampering ISIL's movement and operations and are systematically
targeted the terrorist group's leadership, Carter said. “The United States and
coalition partners can enable [Iraqi and Syrian opposition forces], but not
substitute for them,” he added. “They’re the only path to ISIL’s lasting
defeat.”
The campaign
to defeat ISIL is gaining momentum by focusing on taking back Raqqa, ISIL’s
stronghold in Syria, and Ramadi, Iraq, the secretary said. The United States
also will help to support more raids to signal that “we won’t hold back from
supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL, or
conducting such missions directly as we did last week, whether by strikes from
the air or direct action on the ground,” Carter told the audience.
Preparing for Uncertainty
A new
regional, networked approach to countering terrorism and violent extremism will
be use infrastructure already established in Afghanistan, the Levant, East
Africa and Southern Europe, where local forces will provide forward presence
and allow DoD to enable partners to respond to many challenges, he said.
DoD will stay
ahead of such challenges by making aggressive investments in innovation with
Silicon Valley partners, he added.
Another U.S.
strength lies in its “unrivaled network” of longstanding, allied partners around
the world, which exists because the U.S. military is “so capable … because our
antagonists and competitors push many states toward us ... and because our
troops are great partners [who] perform and conduct themselves admirably,” the
secretary said. “They make us proud.”
(Follow Terri
Moon Cronk on Twitter: @MoonCronkDoD)