1 00:00:00,060 --> 00:00:05,580 Let me get to the business of the day today, if I may, because very quickly, 2 00:00:06,690 --> 00:00:18,780 Brigadier General Matthew Olsen has agreed to come from London and speak to you today about an uncommon what's new about military diplomacy, 3 00:00:18,820 --> 00:00:24,990 much neglected aspects of the change of control. Delighted that he had come to speak to us. 4 00:00:26,700 --> 00:00:30,659 If you want the full biography, I want to refer you to our websites. 5 00:00:30,660 --> 00:00:38,490 But they're all, you know, perhaps important to mention about is that this is somebody who has not only grown up experience. 6 00:00:38,700 --> 00:00:42,179 It's not as if we're having someone coming in with lots of love. 7 00:00:42,180 --> 00:00:47,220 It's a diplomatic education, actually one of the greatest universities in the north of England. 8 00:00:47,910 --> 00:00:54,000 This is somebody who has been on the ground and done this. And if you'll forgive me, I will not read through things here. 9 00:00:54,020 --> 00:00:56,250 Thank you. Experience outward. 10 00:00:56,550 --> 00:01:06,240 But it is worth pointing out, I think crucially, that the CCW programme has a long standing relationship with the Military College of Canada. 11 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:11,549 We have a memorandum of understanding that we wish to continue to build on that relationship exchange. 12 00:01:11,550 --> 00:01:15,840 We exchanged personnel and we haven't had much happy the last 12 months. 13 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:19,830 And so it's wonderful why we have, we believe, have become a force for rivalry as well. 14 00:01:20,220 --> 00:01:26,130 And we now re nourishing this relationship with Canada. And I'm delighted that you've come to the crucial. 15 00:01:28,750 --> 00:01:33,520 Thank you. Appreciate it very much. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming today. 16 00:01:33,650 --> 00:01:38,320 It's a real pleasure for me to be here, to be out of the office, to be quite frank, in doing things out in the field, as it were. 17 00:01:39,700 --> 00:01:46,659 I don't know if I should. I will. Well, the last time I spoke in front of a university audience, I was a young lieutenant one year out of college, 18 00:01:46,660 --> 00:01:52,270 myself, back talking to my peers about what my experiences were as a as a new subaltern battalion. 19 00:01:52,630 --> 00:01:56,740 And that worked out so well. Apparently, I filled my agreement for 35 years. 20 00:01:56,980 --> 00:02:01,830 We were the first ones to have the experience of being in. 21 00:02:02,980 --> 00:02:09,370 I'm very humble looking at the number of people in the quality of speaking, 22 00:02:09,820 --> 00:02:14,890 trying to talk to you might actually get up at 2:00 as well and hearing what was going on. 23 00:02:15,910 --> 00:02:25,210 Ethics in war, the law of war and how things are turning out extremely be topic in as much as it is in the battlefield where there. 24 00:02:25,950 --> 00:02:31,990 A version of lawyers, an expert in military law and humanitarian law and other aspects of the lawsuit claims. 25 00:02:32,070 --> 00:02:38,100 Military operations for may be perceived as pertaining to operations by commanders on a daily basis, 26 00:02:38,500 --> 00:02:47,070 and that extends back into the preparation for combat or some of the aspects of why nations enter into conflict when they go Cold War, 27 00:02:47,340 --> 00:02:52,520 and how the military fights can be shaped by some of the legal aspects of that. 28 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:58,740 The senior commanders of the Chiefs of Defence opening lines of their opposition to what goes on with a very active debate, 29 00:02:59,130 --> 00:03:06,060 are very contested space, a lot of points of view and continue to evolve over time to be here. 30 00:03:08,220 --> 00:03:16,520 My background, very briefly as I grew up I mentioned is that I have spent some time as an operative and that this is not my first opportunity. 31 00:03:16,530 --> 00:03:22,180 I found two of the first was as the Army advisor here in London working seven and a 32 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:26,729 half little bit like that as a precursor to the second in my experiences formally, 33 00:03:26,730 --> 00:03:34,530 which was as the defence adviser in coming in 0909 ten which was a particularly dynamic 34 00:03:34,530 --> 00:03:39,150 period of time travelling to and talking to my experiences there as a military diplomat, 35 00:03:39,270 --> 00:03:42,969 whatever that is, both at home. And I think that has changed. Over the years. 36 00:03:42,970 --> 00:03:46,450 And certainly there's an aspect of it that changed from nation to nation, 37 00:03:46,450 --> 00:03:50,529 depending on what nation you are representing and what nation you're representing, 38 00:03:50,530 --> 00:03:55,360 your nation to be quite benign, aren't quite contesting in people to go along. 39 00:03:55,420 --> 00:04:00,790 Certainly, Campbell, I think it's a very unique space for military forces to top of that. 40 00:04:01,690 --> 00:04:07,780 Some of my other experiences, I've spent a great deal of time in the human resources field infantry as a background to start with. 41 00:04:07,780 --> 00:04:14,500 And I had the pleasure of commanding battalion but have been very involved in the management and leadership of people institution as well. 42 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:18,700 So that also flavour some of my experience more to look at when I want to talk of military 43 00:04:18,700 --> 00:04:23,830 diplomacy outside the the formal agreement which I'll talk about that a little bit. 44 00:04:25,150 --> 00:04:31,959 So in getting to Afghanistan, I like pretty much every nation that found themselves there at one time or another. 45 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:39,430 There's a bit of story to how to get how you get there. And I think that's it is useful for me to run over a number of things that formed my 46 00:04:39,430 --> 00:04:46,420 experiences and shape how I view military diplomacy both as an military and not. 47 00:04:46,690 --> 00:04:55,840 So we get that. And I think that's and some of perhaps why I went from exercising my responsibilities as actually the camp in Afghanistan. 48 00:04:56,500 --> 00:04:57,940 And so we'll skip over that quickly. 49 00:04:57,940 --> 00:05:03,910 I'll talk specifically about Cyprus, where I was a young officer with a battalion in peacekeeping operations there. 50 00:05:04,300 --> 00:05:09,100 I talk about Bosnia has Herzegovina governing and the operations that I conducted 51 00:05:09,100 --> 00:05:11,920 there as a member of the European Committee Monitor mission monitoring mission. 52 00:05:12,250 --> 00:05:16,450 And and for that very briefly London the precursor of my camel experience. 53 00:05:16,570 --> 00:05:24,370 And then I count how many you've had military experience how many have been deployed operations on the same number, 54 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:28,480 how many have been in that actually before. Okay, good one. 55 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:31,780 So obviously someone can hold up a red card and say you're lying at one point or another. 56 00:05:31,780 --> 00:05:42,720 And anything I say, the the things I talk about in general that you'll see as I go through is, is really in the aspect of how you go about the people. 57 00:05:43,510 --> 00:05:48,630 A very important aspect of military life is from the perspective of perspective, 58 00:05:48,670 --> 00:05:55,070 the all arms team pulling together those people who do different things to work closely and competently to solve the issues. 59 00:05:55,110 --> 00:06:03,330 The problem mostly about the delivery of high explosive onto a particular target to eliminate its operations but covers a host of other means. 60 00:06:03,700 --> 00:06:11,200 We start talking about the strategic level, and particularly in operations which are Afghanistan, the understanding of what is the all arms team? 61 00:06:11,980 --> 00:06:19,410 I think it's still a foreign concept. Believe that we want to talk about civil military cooperation. 62 00:06:20,350 --> 00:06:29,700 Point is, I'm not sure that there is a particularly good understanding these days of what city is now compared to what it might have been, 63 00:06:29,700 --> 00:06:35,219 say, 20 years ago. And it's really a team building and the U.N. can do this. 64 00:06:35,220 --> 00:06:39,600 I've got a very small number of things to do, some pictures to keep it simple. 65 00:06:39,900 --> 00:06:45,150 And what I would do is talk with you. And so as I go along, if you've got questions about why, say, 66 00:06:45,150 --> 00:06:49,050 or you want to challenge me on the issue, please stop me and let's have a conversation about that. 67 00:06:49,380 --> 00:06:54,209 And my notes, I think, will cover about 45 minutes of me talking in the first place. 68 00:06:54,210 --> 00:06:59,580 And so we'll leave all the questions to you before there's another conversation, or we can converse all the way through. 69 00:07:00,150 --> 00:07:04,950 My preference would be to do the latter. That's fine. But that's up to you to decide how you should do it. 70 00:07:06,270 --> 00:07:09,660 So there we are. First experience Cyprus. 71 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:14,459 My particular job at that time as the second in command administration company and I was actually at 72 00:07:14,460 --> 00:07:20,490 the Nicosia Airport and had a slightly removed perspective from the day to day life on the line, 73 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:24,270 but certainly got to see a little bit of the ebb and flow of some of the larger pieces 74 00:07:24,270 --> 00:07:29,190 of Cyprus and the provisional peacekeeping operation in the classic sense of the word. 75 00:07:29,550 --> 00:07:38,520 You've got some forces by an international body that interposed between two combatants to keep the military situation stable, quiet, 76 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:45,060 to allow the political situation to go forward before the great difficulty in Cyprus when I was there in 89, 77 00:07:45,300 --> 00:07:50,040 was that the there was no political solution being solved effectively. 78 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:54,540 One side had everything that they felt they wanted. The other side was very unhappy and there was no dialogue. 79 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:59,340 So there was a real of is that I think the writing was on the wall. 80 00:08:00,450 --> 00:08:03,900 It was a bankrupt idea. It was still in force. 81 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:08,879 It was in a political situation. The military was just there filling the role of people. 82 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:13,590 Part of essentially two sides militarily didn't want to tangle with each other anymore. 83 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:22,230 There was, however, some tactical political activity going on. The fact of the matter was the populations had been separated in 72, 84 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:29,640 and that remorseless impact of the separation of populations that had been to some degree intermingled beforehand was having a chilling effect. 85 00:08:31,050 --> 00:08:38,100 Meeting of Civic Leaders. The old mayor of Cyprus, Nicosia, got together with their city councils. 86 00:08:38,460 --> 00:08:40,890 They all knew each other very well. They were in the 50 seconds, 87 00:08:41,430 --> 00:08:47,850 but they pointed out that their children and certainly their grandchildren had absolutely no idea of the reality of anyone else in Cyprus. 88 00:08:47,850 --> 00:08:53,130 Things of that is were fundamentally the landscape had been changed and there was no way to bridge that gap. 89 00:08:54,660 --> 00:09:00,989 There were some lingering hatreds and unfulfilled expectations. 90 00:09:00,990 --> 00:09:07,530 On the Greek Cypriot side, wounds brought home was a way to get around political status being orchestrated by the Greek 91 00:09:07,530 --> 00:09:12,059 Cypriot government to try and force the issue and bring the political status out of being. 92 00:09:12,060 --> 00:09:14,610 But it was a failed activity that was tactical. 93 00:09:14,940 --> 00:09:19,739 It ran afoul of the Turkish military and really didn't achieve the political engagement that they would 94 00:09:19,740 --> 00:09:26,520 like to because it couldn't cross the frontier and create the problem that from the U.N. perspective, 95 00:09:27,210 --> 00:09:32,310 very stovepipe operations, not between the various lines of U.N. organisations. 96 00:09:32,310 --> 00:09:35,400 They all had their own thing on their own. It's very typical of you in operations. 97 00:09:35,700 --> 00:09:40,830 So the military with some of the more from humanitarian aid from the high commission of their countries, 98 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:49,260 from the folks taking care of UNICEF, really, and largely everyone felt marginalised because they knew the political situation was going. 99 00:09:49,590 --> 00:09:52,830 And so there was no imperative on our part to really have any dialogue in between. 100 00:09:54,120 --> 00:10:00,870 So there is no party, not very cooperative, certainly no coherent activity on any to any one issue by the team that was there, 101 00:10:00,870 --> 00:10:04,260 U.N. or otherwise, to move things along and see something. 102 00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:09,299 So the criminal law that was my friend for six months, 103 00:10:09,300 --> 00:10:18,390 a largely ossified system that was perfect for the situation in terms of keeping it stable but not actually resolving the problem. 104 00:10:19,650 --> 00:10:24,770 The next experience I had was several years later and a rather unique experience for for a 105 00:10:24,780 --> 00:10:29,520 Canadian is that I became a member of the European Committee for longer missions in Yugoslavia, 106 00:10:30,330 --> 00:10:34,310 which had run out of the EU and was the EU. 107 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:38,250 And he sees operations in Yugoslavia back to back when the U.N. have not. 108 00:10:38,850 --> 00:10:45,690 You recall from that time when Yugoslavia started falling apart, the U.N. knew that as far away from it as it possibly could. 109 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:49,530 You decided they need to do something to exert themselves in an organisation. 110 00:10:49,530 --> 00:10:57,120 They sent in a modelling mission which from my understanding, talking to people who were there, both sides as well as the Europeans, 111 00:10:57,120 --> 00:11:04,049 was a to an extent a thinly veiled intelligence operation to find out what was actually 112 00:11:04,050 --> 00:11:08,790 in Yugoslavia more than actually trying to help resolve and mitigate the conflict. 113 00:11:10,050 --> 00:11:11,940 So that caused difficulties, as you imagine. 114 00:11:12,270 --> 00:11:20,280 And the reason I brought in Canada, because when they renewed the mandate and expanded into into a greater portion of Bosnia and in fact, 115 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:27,270 one of the speculations with some Eastern bloc countries. It's not like countries and Canada for. 116 00:11:27,690 --> 00:11:33,780 North Americans might be hoping for U.S. forces that would join the mission to bring a 117 00:11:33,780 --> 00:11:40,720 sense of equanimity to the mission and reduce the overt intelligence gathering that. 118 00:11:43,940 --> 00:11:46,969 The point at which I write fiction. 119 00:11:46,970 --> 00:11:55,970 You and I started at that point. So there was a significant U.N. peacekeeping force based in Croatia for the situation there, plus Bosnia. 120 00:11:56,540 --> 00:12:01,669 And what I saw was a fairly dynamic situation where militarily it had not been resolved. 121 00:12:01,670 --> 00:12:06,770 You remember through 89, 1991, 92, there was ongoing military operations by one side or the other. 122 00:12:07,400 --> 00:12:13,400 Usually regional or subregional, but certainly a very dynamic military situation going on where there's a perception of 123 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:19,340 threat for everyone to sort of work one on their plus politically humanitarian situation. 124 00:12:19,340 --> 00:12:24,710 Others all very dynamic, a lot of work being done and a lot of organisations involved making things happen. 125 00:12:25,790 --> 00:12:28,910 Principally the U.N. but there was not a chain of command. 126 00:12:29,540 --> 00:12:36,110 It was very stovepipe. While there were U.N. headquarters and representatives in the very few and organisations that were there. 127 00:12:36,740 --> 00:12:42,410 They largely operate independently, according to U.N. New York guidelines and directions from the various directorates, 128 00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:46,850 without the ability, the mechanism to coordinate to achieve that. 129 00:12:46,950 --> 00:12:51,010 Within that, the High Representative would like to see achieved in. 130 00:12:52,150 --> 00:12:56,700 Operating on its own. And essentially operations seem to just work on its own. 131 00:12:58,380 --> 00:13:03,030 Momentum and desire to connect with time without a lot of information. 132 00:13:03,390 --> 00:13:08,700 Now I say that standing outside with an easy the easy nation had its own problems in 133 00:13:08,700 --> 00:13:12,929 that leadership rotation every six months with the change of leadership of the U.S., 134 00:13:12,930 --> 00:13:18,719 which meant we had a really difficult relationship with the organisation itself and it 135 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:23,940 itself was not connected to any of the other EU sponsored organisations that were working, 136 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:32,759 for example, was as high as modern times in time doing a survey of where, particularly in terms of food aid was, 137 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:42,299 and to find out that this had already been done by the U.S. food aid agency and they were delivering food aid on a completely different 138 00:13:42,300 --> 00:13:48,900 schedule to different areas where I was operating without having consulted or discussed or even advised us this was going to happen. 139 00:13:49,620 --> 00:13:51,029 Usually embarrassing personally, 140 00:13:51,030 --> 00:13:58,170 but also an indication that BBC was not able to orchestrate what it could be that they had adopted a model that would be more effective. 141 00:13:59,550 --> 00:14:06,900 So increasingly problematic. Um, another example that I think was instructed at the time, 142 00:14:07,530 --> 00:14:13,530 certainly thought we would find out later on was where I was operating was and behalf the Western Alliance, 143 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:19,799 which became a protected area later on, which caused huge confusion to all and sundry, 144 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:24,390 including the UN agencies because no one was really sure, whatever that meant when it was home. 145 00:14:24,490 --> 00:14:32,000 Nothing was ever really adequately explained. And certainly the the challenges of the statement was exposed not by the provinces, 146 00:14:32,010 --> 00:14:42,479 but actually by the coalition forces who up until that period of time had lived in relative comfort with that region of Bosnia. 147 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:45,270 And the fact that was controlled by the Bosnian government by was Muslim them. 148 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:52,979 They took it upon themselves at the urging of their Bosnian Serb counterparts to actually advance several 149 00:14:52,980 --> 00:15:01,980 miles into into the area to avoid the reaction from anyone and feel how all kinds of the country was. 150 00:15:02,850 --> 00:15:08,120 So it certainly fits. Between contextualisation you each use. 151 00:15:08,510 --> 00:15:12,230 Sorry, I was there in 1979. I was there 93. 152 00:15:12,260 --> 00:15:14,420 So from February 93 until September. 153 00:15:15,410 --> 00:15:26,480 And it's the protected areas of declared a future incorporated largely around the areas of shooting news and from the other. 154 00:15:28,310 --> 00:15:34,879 On if you're interested. But certainly now the surprise would be introduced of that region. 155 00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:42,680 They were also included there. They were. They didn't know what it meant and they were actually quite fearful of what that meant because 156 00:15:42,790 --> 00:15:47,259 it brought them out of the shadows of living a very comfortable life out of the headlines. 157 00:15:47,260 --> 00:15:53,200 Suddenly, when they learned from you something about your experience with Cyprus. 158 00:15:53,210 --> 00:16:05,480 I was there in 1990. So as we sort of transitioned from the classic model of peacekeeping to the more dynamic of military interventions, 159 00:16:05,690 --> 00:16:07,940 interventions that were peacemaking, 160 00:16:07,940 --> 00:16:16,580 peacebuilding, were stopping, doing all sorts of terms were flying around to find exactly what was going on, since it obviously wasn't peace. 161 00:16:16,790 --> 00:16:30,730 It would not be those regimes. Lot a lot of chaos on it, but confusion and loss for a lot of independent factual operations. 162 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:38,860 My best example of that was in conversations with the battalion commander of the French battalion that was in the region, 163 00:16:39,310 --> 00:16:45,850 who, in a rather candid interview that I and my partner had on on his departure, 164 00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:52,900 pointed out that it was interesting getting directions because he would get directions from not only you, 165 00:16:53,500 --> 00:16:59,200 but he also get instructions from Paris and you get instructions from Europe directly from you headquarters. 166 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:03,999 And you do allow him great feedback because depending on what he wanted to do, 167 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,030 he can find an order from one of the three of them that would allow him to do that. 168 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:16,900 So he was a very aggressive proponent of the security of area, became essentially the guarantor of security, took his heavy armoured cars, 169 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:26,770 government positions to point towards the Bosnian Serbs to make the point that this was an issue for him to secure as opposed to anything. 170 00:17:28,110 --> 00:17:32,970 Trying to work around the Bosnian Muslims in the area, and I was very impressed with that. 171 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:39,850 It pointed out that in an operation like this, you really need to bring something along with you that was unassailable, 172 00:17:39,870 --> 00:17:44,250 that gave you a sense of power, and that you used it ruthlessly. 173 00:17:44,790 --> 00:17:55,269 He understood where his power stemmed from. It was comes ability to project force and protect strength and to to arrange for the transport 174 00:17:55,270 --> 00:17:58,770 of mines because he was the transport tonnage that was given to the combat assets in. 175 00:18:00,060 --> 00:18:03,630 I saw that exercised curiously enough by the International Committee of the Red Cross. 176 00:18:03,990 --> 00:18:12,370 He represented and be understood very, very clearly where the source of his power flowed, and that was because he was responsible for being the host. 177 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:20,100 He could turn on including. And so he used that to obtain for himself what he needed, which was access to see what was going on. 178 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:26,850 And over the course of two months and some very tough negotiations with the Bosnian Serbs that beyond to be inaccurate 179 00:18:26,850 --> 00:18:33,330 for reason he secured himself freedom of access and freedom of delivery because they were desperate to get the food. 180 00:18:34,260 --> 00:18:39,450 And really, you think that is not what the ICRC was portrayed as being at the time? 181 00:18:39,450 --> 00:18:42,479 They were seen as being a very soft, very capable organisation. 182 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:50,780 And he certainly put paid to that to a very ruthless, pragmatic, said negotiations and he was able to get things that the U.N., 183 00:18:51,270 --> 00:18:55,650 EEC and many other organisations could not because he wielded his weapon. 184 00:18:56,280 --> 00:18:59,340 A very, very effectively was an infamous one. 185 00:19:06,030 --> 00:19:13,589 Also turns that without that ability to influence situations that your credibility 186 00:19:13,590 --> 00:19:17,910 and why you were engaged by various individuals would be very tremendous. 187 00:19:20,970 --> 00:19:25,770 The U.S. didn't bring a lot to the table when compared to the U.N. and other aid agencies. 188 00:19:25,770 --> 00:19:33,929 It was very small rotation, very much monitoring. I came within three background up doing monitoring in the agricultural area, the cultural area, 189 00:19:33,930 --> 00:19:38,070 the legal area, the political area, everything but military that was covered by nobody else. 190 00:19:38,580 --> 00:19:41,879 But I didn't bring the resources with me to actually enforce change in the areas. 191 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:49,320 I could have great conversations and great situation reports, but then actually came to there's an issue here that needs addressed. 192 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:54,960 There's nothing I can do. And even when it came to brokering issues between the two forces. 193 00:19:56,480 --> 00:19:57,500 It's a question of credibility. 194 00:19:57,740 --> 00:20:04,399 And we discovered about halfway through that whether the U.N. or the U.S. or else very little credibility to be able to manage issues, 195 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:11,480 because we discovered that if the problem need to be solved and both sides agreed to be solved, they would just go on solving. 196 00:20:12,290 --> 00:20:18,290 And the classic governance was a lot of things constructed for two months between the U.N. and ourselves, 197 00:20:18,290 --> 00:20:23,420 to broker an arrangement where we would monitor the exchange of bodies because one side or the other seemed to get reticent. 198 00:20:24,650 --> 00:20:30,670 It fell apart because one side pulled out. And then we went back a week and a half later to say, okay, can we try this again? 199 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:33,770 It's all this done and nobody got sorted out. 200 00:20:33,770 --> 00:20:39,070 We just got ready to talk to each other. And it was done week a week after, about two days after it fell apart, put it together, 201 00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:44,090 made it happen, which really put us into the box of why exactly are we here, what we doing? 202 00:20:44,810 --> 00:20:52,280 And that issue of credibility and the ability to bring something to the table to resolve the situation is very important and we get that lesson 203 00:20:52,280 --> 00:21:02,030 very quickly in the theatres with all of my first opportunity to have a look at what was going on and start developing insights on this, 204 00:21:02,030 --> 00:21:09,860 not just about the military and military, they will have all sorts of international organisations working here the ICRC, UNHCR, 205 00:21:10,860 --> 00:21:15,900 the World Food Program, but also some places individuals like the International Veteran Federation, 206 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:21,320 the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, very active in the former Yugoslavia, 207 00:21:21,590 --> 00:21:25,370 which is all the National Red Cross is in their presence, acting as a group. 208 00:21:25,370 --> 00:21:30,740 Coming from an outside perspective is that some of the things the Red Cross says is incredibly confusing, 209 00:21:31,610 --> 00:21:39,890 that the Canadian from Manitoba, from Manitoba, Red Cross was acting on behalf of me and Red Cross society, working environment. 210 00:21:40,970 --> 00:21:45,320 We have no idea that that was going on. The Red Cross was even involved in region, 211 00:21:46,050 --> 00:21:54,530 so the players would show up and surprise you quite often and they might have been little to no understanding what other people are doing. 212 00:21:55,100 --> 00:22:03,950 And very good from my perspective, they don't have no way of bridging that gap to figure out how we relate to each other all. 213 00:22:05,310 --> 00:22:09,750 And then what can you do about each other's operations in terms of looking for them or 214 00:22:09,750 --> 00:22:13,260 shaping your own operations to take advantage of whatever it is that they are doing? 215 00:22:14,130 --> 00:22:26,160 That would be bad that you. So separate bought me several years later my first operational experience as a manufacturer. 216 00:22:26,170 --> 00:22:30,820 And I was actually here in London as the Army fighter, and that was from 0407. 217 00:22:32,170 --> 00:22:39,160 And I know I've seen off remember their operational intervention is from a complete perspective, 218 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:45,710 is that at a strategic level, some of the conversations that led to nations committing forces and at that time, 219 00:22:45,850 --> 00:22:46,020 you know, 220 00:22:46,030 --> 00:22:56,620 for seven is when the mission in Afghanistan really evolved quite considerably from a largely American led intervention with some U.N. presence in. 221 00:22:56,780 --> 00:23:02,919 Kevin, you report to the U.N. and the international community preparing to expand 222 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:06,670 the operation to work in greater partnership with the Americans and actually 223 00:23:06,670 --> 00:23:19,750 negotiate a transition from a national specific U.S. operation to a multinational operation and largely centred on Nico under a U.N. authority, 224 00:23:20,020 --> 00:23:26,549 although it wasn't even operation. The the interesting thing about that, 225 00:23:26,550 --> 00:23:31,620 from my perspective watching the report was that there was actually two conversations occurring at the same time. 226 00:23:31,650 --> 00:23:39,840 The first was, what do we do about Afghanistan and the large piece about country, about what is happening in Afghanistan? 227 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:49,290 And how does the international opinion on specific and the U.K. respond to the American declaration of an Article five attack five attackers 228 00:23:49,290 --> 00:23:57,150 articulated in their operations in Afghanistan to eliminate the arc of where they believe the chances of the attacks in the United Kingdom. 229 00:23:57,630 --> 00:24:03,570 How do you deal with that aspect within the neo cons about what does that mean? 230 00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:10,590 How do you make that work? How you respond? Is it right? The second thing is, is Afghanistan the right place to do it? 231 00:24:11,460 --> 00:24:19,590 The other conversation that occurred was in fact more into the needle on the future of NATO's than anything that actually was going on in Afghanistan. 232 00:24:20,250 --> 00:24:24,120 And that was the Cold War is coming to a close. 233 00:24:24,330 --> 00:24:29,160 Bosnia's we're looking for the future. Looks like what the heck is they need to do now? 234 00:24:29,340 --> 00:24:35,460 Is it purely and simply an article one organisation that guarantees collective security in Europe, 235 00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:42,899 or is it something that can now extend the Article five relationship and the security 236 00:24:42,900 --> 00:24:47,490 and the cooperation and the mutual security and interoperability and can use that, 237 00:24:47,490 --> 00:24:51,630 go beyond regional and start playing a more significant role in the global context. 238 00:24:55,820 --> 00:24:58,550 In a very difficult time to separate the two. 239 00:24:59,570 --> 00:25:04,550 My perspective on this is that while people are concerned about the Afghanistan situation, make sure we did that right. 240 00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:10,130 It wasn't so much about Afghanistan. But the concern and hopefully the place in which all the. 241 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:15,209 And I think over the course of time, if you watch some of the dialogue out there, 242 00:25:15,210 --> 00:25:21,630 it is very much about everything thought Afghanistan and everything about video collective security cooperation, 243 00:25:21,630 --> 00:25:26,520 interoperability and are we going to maintain the real naval alliance and how are we going to do that? 244 00:25:26,860 --> 00:25:30,100 And I know that the stay at home defence versus extradition, 245 00:25:30,130 --> 00:25:34,510 but still continue to play off the states as they go forward next summer and 246 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:38,850 continue to talk about what are the investments required to make that happen. 247 00:25:39,270 --> 00:25:44,530 And that was very pointed to the Afghanistan. The. 248 00:25:49,300 --> 00:25:55,930 And it was very much about how does Canada play a role and then even play a role when you have some significant interest in what's going on. 249 00:25:56,050 --> 00:26:00,310 And certainly American interest was made sure that they had their allies with them. 250 00:26:00,860 --> 00:26:04,330 They had already an Iraq that was in full swing. 251 00:26:05,050 --> 00:26:10,630 They were determined to make a better player of what was going on in Afghanistan. 252 00:26:11,050 --> 00:26:13,630 How was the UK and Canada going to relate to that? 253 00:26:13,990 --> 00:26:19,870 We had some really good discussions about how that relation works and where was this threat to come. 254 00:26:20,980 --> 00:26:28,450 And the end result for that was a Canada aside from Kandahar and a fairly significant way with the United 255 00:26:28,450 --> 00:26:35,470 Kingdom very much of the mind that in order to ensure that NATO's continue to be seen as role in the world, 256 00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,920 the U.S. is a strong leader in Afghanistan. 257 00:26:40,510 --> 00:26:44,400 So South was not a partner nation for this very much discussion. 258 00:26:44,410 --> 00:26:47,920 Let's get there. Let's make sure we're doing something really important. 259 00:26:48,790 --> 00:26:55,300 And it is as much about saving you and our relationship with our allies as back. 260 00:26:57,110 --> 00:27:05,659 So again, it goes back to that relationship is how you determine where he is and how do you then act in contact with him, make things happen. 261 00:27:05,660 --> 00:27:06,440 Are you joined up? 262 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:13,610 One of the things that wasn't discussed at that point, it all began was how did Natal relate to everybody else that was sitting there? 263 00:27:13,610 --> 00:27:16,340 And there is very much American forces, natal forces. 264 00:27:16,730 --> 00:27:22,610 But the dynamic of the political reality, the orchestration of that piece in relationship with the U.N. was there already. 265 00:27:22,850 --> 00:27:28,940 And all the agencies, all the agencies, the other pieces over there really didn't get much discussion, know, focus on the military. 266 00:27:28,940 --> 00:27:35,890 So that then set the stage for me to be in Afghanistan. 267 00:27:35,900 --> 00:27:39,680 I was there from oh 9 to 10 and. 268 00:27:42,170 --> 00:27:52,460 I had to try and figure out, what do you do? This is what I was taught to do as I actor actually in London. 269 00:27:52,910 --> 00:27:55,910 Okay. Free Internet provider is on reputation coordination, 270 00:27:55,910 --> 00:28:01,219 monitoring between a department in the armed force and the department and Armed Forces 271 00:28:01,220 --> 00:28:07,700 industry and other party agencies in the UK to support paying forces in national projects. 272 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:18,110 I provided that advice to the High Commissioner and I would do all the work between ourselves in the armed forces of the UK. 273 00:28:18,380 --> 00:28:27,920 Make sure with good, personal and professional relationships in this crucial location with that background was what set me up to go to to Afghanistan. 274 00:28:31,530 --> 00:28:40,009 There was where I have my relationships. As you can see, it's not all about the military, significant relationships and many, 275 00:28:40,010 --> 00:28:50,270 many other organisations from places like here to RUSI Ices to the Foreign Commonwealth Office to veterans organisations, 276 00:28:50,930 --> 00:28:57,110 other think tanks, you know, all over the place, local leaders, civic leaders of all candidates and armed forces. 277 00:28:57,380 --> 00:29:05,900 And here in particular, you take a lot of the history about the fact that a great deal of the history is quite literally buried in the U.K., 278 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:10,850 is that we have well over 100 memorial services that we attend, 279 00:29:11,210 --> 00:29:16,070 either through my commission staff, victims, naval officers here in the UK, from the north of Scotland, 280 00:29:16,490 --> 00:29:20,690 down through to Dover, not counting even goes on, which is not my agreement. 281 00:29:20,900 --> 00:29:23,610 And it goes on in Belgium and France that's handled by the French. 282 00:29:24,410 --> 00:29:30,500 But we have regular opportunities to interact with Britons here because they are very clear 283 00:29:30,500 --> 00:29:35,750 about what happened during two world wars and that's going to be good for years year's imagine. 284 00:29:38,030 --> 00:29:43,429 So you can see that that's a rather interesting preparation to step into an active theatre of engagement. 285 00:29:43,430 --> 00:29:49,190 I hesitate to say war, but a lot of things were going on very dynamic, kinetic environment of Kabul. 286 00:29:51,140 --> 00:29:57,500 Some of the personalities you'll recognise on the left hand side, two significant personalities, 287 00:29:57,500 --> 00:30:00,799 one of whom continues to play a fairly significant role within Afghanistan today. 288 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:10,070 The other one not so much in the centre. You have Ambassador Crosbie, who is my boss from the theatre, who spent two years in Afghanistan, 289 00:30:10,070 --> 00:30:15,590 unusually most than one year, very effective in doing what he need to do. 290 00:30:15,590 --> 00:30:23,000 And I'll talk about in the second on the right again, President Karzai and then General Petraeus and then the types of activities from, 291 00:30:23,610 --> 00:30:29,720 you know, the community interaction, the patrolling, everything in between the picture there in the centre. 292 00:30:29,750 --> 00:30:33,560 This that is partially covered is actually off of Kabul at night. 293 00:30:34,030 --> 00:30:37,900 That's a city of several millions of people, actually. 294 00:30:37,910 --> 00:30:43,550 Massive, uh, just thriving, thrumming metropolis that is unbelievably, 295 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:51,049 I'm not sure how many people have had the opportunity to go there any kind of life, but the fact that in fact, completely they've done it, not at all. 296 00:30:51,050 --> 00:30:55,850 But I would expect when you've seen the pictures and videos of what was going on in Afghanistan, 297 00:30:55,850 --> 00:30:58,510 in the rural areas, and then compare that to Kabul is just night and day. 298 00:30:58,610 --> 00:31:05,060 And even even those pictures that do come from Kabul, I don't think really convey well the nature of the city. 299 00:31:06,260 --> 00:31:16,820 Quite curious. When I arrived there, October of oh nine, it was in the aftermath of the first round of new elections that re-elected President Karzai. 300 00:31:17,810 --> 00:31:20,930 It was the most depressive. 301 00:31:22,010 --> 00:31:26,870 Depressing atmosphere to work in I have ever stepped into. 302 00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:32,240 I have coined as schizo institutional schizophrenic PTSD. 303 00:31:32,830 --> 00:31:36,750 It would be the. If. 304 00:31:38,630 --> 00:31:47,180 It was, I think, an absolute atmosphere of failure, complete and utter failure, despite the successes that had occurred at the time. 305 00:31:47,570 --> 00:32:00,080 The way in which the election panned out in terms of results and conduct while showing a great deal of increase in the democratic process, 306 00:32:01,220 --> 00:32:09,500 were so far below the unnaturally high expectations that people had allowed himself to buy in, even at the senior leadership level on the ground. 307 00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:15,890 It came as such a terrible shock and disappointment that everybody retreated into four shells. 308 00:32:16,730 --> 00:32:23,270 When I arrived there, there was no connectivity between myself, which was on the verge of a massive increase, 309 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:28,340 a tidal wave of resources that was never sure if an ISA between the end and the embassy, 310 00:32:28,490 --> 00:32:33,620 the ISAF and the UN and I completely had their reputation destroyed. 311 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:39,559 Even the limited utility they had in their rather disjointed, 312 00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:47,000 stovepiped approach being completely destroyed, and their credibility to run, monitor, advise on elections, 313 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:48,200 to see some of the excess, 314 00:32:48,830 --> 00:32:56,360 the the insult to injury was added just after I arrived in the UN House that was about a half longer away from me was attacked. 315 00:32:56,360 --> 00:33:02,569 And you recall that where the suicide bombers broke in and started trying to kill the U.N. employees were there the only 316 00:33:02,570 --> 00:33:09,200 foil because there were two security agents there who had not turned in their weapons bomb or didn't know about them. 317 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:15,530 They were able to hold off the bombers until the security forces were able to break in several hours later and killed the bombers. 318 00:33:15,980 --> 00:33:21,440 So you had a great number of people that that completely devastated the UN's confidence in itself. 319 00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:27,840 And they really had the struggle for many months thereafter to to believe in themselves and even the science regarding. 320 00:33:27,860 --> 00:33:36,530 I'll give Mr. Dean a third who became a new and briefer credit for restoring some of the confidence and some of the credibility of the U.N. 321 00:33:37,210 --> 00:33:45,060 Brokering issues for future members. It was on the verge of the impending U.S. military arrival. 322 00:33:45,210 --> 00:33:52,980 And that wasn't just the military arrival, which was overwhelming in its own right, but the billions of dollars that were devoted to aid, 323 00:33:53,460 --> 00:34:04,890 as well as massive failings of civil servants and others that showed up in concert with the military trying to completely overwhelm the area. 324 00:34:05,970 --> 00:34:11,040 It was the opinion of many, I'm sure, an embarrassment of a purchase. 325 00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:16,610 It was too much of a good thing. And really this enable the ability of. 326 00:34:18,650 --> 00:34:27,950 The organisations themselves plus the Afghan government contemplate incredibly to deal with what is going on around the real problem. 327 00:34:29,410 --> 00:34:33,620 I said no one is talking to each other. Everyone was really unhappy about where they were at. 328 00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:42,530 Dismayed with the level of attention they were getting and the the approach that was being taken by the U.S. and. 329 00:34:44,730 --> 00:34:49,350 As concerned as ever with the level of corruption that was extant within the country. 330 00:34:49,980 --> 00:34:53,910 And a number of interesting discussion about corruption, Notre Dame very involved in this big, 331 00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:56,100 of course, with the amount of money that they were controlling, 332 00:34:56,760 --> 00:35:03,080 some would say inappropriately, because they shouldn't have had control of the money being floated to aid development, 333 00:35:03,090 --> 00:35:07,890 especially the things such things as the Agriculture Ministry, the Interior Ministry, 334 00:35:08,130 --> 00:35:11,400 the Health Ministry, the Education Ministry and quality programs, 335 00:35:12,990 --> 00:35:18,330 their ability to identify appropriate uses for the money and then appropriate mechanism to make sure the money was spent there. 336 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:24,389 More military officers themselves don't have that level of experience, don't have the familiarity of some of those. 337 00:35:24,390 --> 00:35:25,410 A lot of concern about that. 338 00:35:25,860 --> 00:35:32,280 It was an environment I walked into prepared as I was with with the institutional, strategic piece of dealing with a relatively stable, 339 00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:42,570 stable ally and a strategic plan and walked in saying, okay, what does all this mean in a very confused situation, 340 00:35:42,810 --> 00:35:48,300 very depressed organisation and a lot of uncertainty about where to go next 341 00:35:48,750 --> 00:35:53,219 because there's been so much hope invested in the in the aspect of elections, 342 00:35:53,220 --> 00:36:01,320 bringing a shining light to the events and that things would start getting better rapidly because democracy would have taken hold in Afghanistan. 343 00:36:03,830 --> 00:36:06,500 There was also a great deal of confusion about who was going to lead the effort. 344 00:36:07,460 --> 00:36:12,500 My staff reorganised into the strategic headquarters, plus the Joint Force headquarters, 345 00:36:12,500 --> 00:36:15,920 which ran the military operations and then the military training. 346 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:20,990 When I knew that the establishment building within the security of the future, 347 00:36:21,470 --> 00:36:27,550 they had a weight that couldn't be ignored and money and time and effort and other people off that they could not be ignored. 348 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:31,910 They were obviously can play a very significant role, but there were other players out there as well. 349 00:36:32,180 --> 00:36:41,790 The U.N., everyone agreed morally, ethically needs to play a role, but they were bankrupted at the time and needed a chance to regroup. 350 00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:43,130 They could not provide the leadership. 351 00:36:44,310 --> 00:36:51,610 Nature was not seen as a particularly credible leader for the entire effort because of the what was perceived to be a 352 00:36:51,620 --> 00:36:59,030 particular focus on military operations and security piece and in an inappropriate for leadership role in any other name. 353 00:37:00,350 --> 00:37:05,600 If you look at the Red Cross and other aid agencies, they could possibly play a role in certain areas, 354 00:37:05,990 --> 00:37:14,750 but they were restricted because of their philosophy for certain aspects of the counterinsurgency versus a nation building exercise versus say, 355 00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:18,500 let's get rid of outside exercise, which no one was really sure which one it was, 356 00:37:18,980 --> 00:37:24,860 and even those that were sure they knew what it was that wasn't shared between everyone. 357 00:37:25,700 --> 00:37:29,740 So who was going to lead the operation? Who was going to talk with a real problem? 358 00:37:29,750 --> 00:37:37,380 What was going on? And certainly the nations, to my experience, proved to be a bit schizophrenic on this as well. 359 00:37:37,430 --> 00:37:42,410 Where they would act one way within the senior structure, NATO headquarters in Brussels. 360 00:37:43,460 --> 00:37:48,800 This seemed to play out slightly differently in the ISAF headquarters in terms of the way that the national representatives, 361 00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:50,990 whether civilian military would betray certain aspects. 362 00:37:51,500 --> 00:37:57,170 And then you have the embassies that were there as well, some of whom had a level of control over the national agents, 363 00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:01,250 various aid agencies that were nationally based and some that didn't. 364 00:38:01,730 --> 00:38:07,880 And even those embassies seemed to portray a slightly different perspective on what was being done within ISAF, within their headquarters. 365 00:38:08,900 --> 00:38:11,420 And in that regard, I would say that the United States, 366 00:38:11,420 --> 00:38:19,060 probably as much as anyone else in that they had some very significant players within country with some significant resources taking. 367 00:38:19,390 --> 00:38:24,830 And they, I think, had difficulties in tough times, making sure they had coordinated their activities, 368 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:32,020 but not because in any one case, someone was actually working against anyone else in a malicious or evil manner. 369 00:38:32,290 --> 00:38:38,080 It's because they all had their own perspective. They were all working very hard to achieve success the way they thought was necessary. 370 00:38:38,290 --> 00:38:42,010 But there was clearly a lack of coordination that you could rely upon from time to time. 371 00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:51,560 So I walk in brand new, a little bit of understanding the Afghan situation, what I do. 372 00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:57,500 I spend most of my time building bridges. And most of my counterparts do that now. 373 00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:00,470 And there were a number. I spent the time doing it. 374 00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:10,370 Theoretically, I was the senior military adviser of the nation to the ambassador, who is the senior official of Canada, 375 00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:15,590 to represent the perspective of Canada to the the Afghan government and anyone else would have to be in the area. 376 00:39:16,490 --> 00:39:21,200 The reality was that as an overall officer, I had five general officers. 377 00:39:21,260 --> 00:39:28,999 I was a colonel at the time by general officers. At least 1 to 2 ranks more senior me that were much more regularly talking to national headquarters 378 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:33,980 and operational command that generated me operations and so we were a much better place for my. 379 00:39:35,970 --> 00:39:37,200 The advice that they find. 380 00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:47,850 Exactly occasionally if after you if you think that being and in terms of the, uh, the national perspective, um, it wasn't clear. 381 00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:54,959 Either Canada went up, the ambassador had the final say because there was an independent adviser to the mission in Kandahar 382 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:59,490 who's providing political and national advice for the operations of peace forces down there, 383 00:39:59,490 --> 00:40:04,920 plus most of them that likes the Kandahar government that they work to keep on going. 384 00:40:05,220 --> 00:40:12,860 But they were two different people working two different areas with two different areas of responsibility and one at the national level and regional. 385 00:40:13,380 --> 00:40:24,840 And so we've been focussed on a structure that could be used for as much as we pointed out that the uh, the difficulties not because organisations. 386 00:40:25,770 --> 00:40:31,290 So I spent a lot of time building bridges because I was tired at that point of watching 387 00:40:31,470 --> 00:40:35,520 organisations go about doing their own business their own way without any regard anyone else. 388 00:40:36,190 --> 00:40:44,430 And I had to do that as much within the embassy where that sense of depression and despair was, was present as much as they were else. 389 00:40:45,450 --> 00:40:49,530 And I would find myself in the pre position because I was dressed mostly like this most days. 390 00:40:50,250 --> 00:40:54,840 The only way the embassy staff were able to distinguish between me and them was that I would carry a pistol and they wouldn't, 391 00:40:55,410 --> 00:40:59,399 which they found really good thing. I think I'm a very popular person actually going back and forth myself headquarters 392 00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:05,290 because I would walk and they would have to wait for an armoured car. They went with me, they could walk so I had some great. 393 00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:09,120 I use that as an opportunity to actually get to know many of the embassy staff in a way that they 394 00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:14,070 would not normally have done and use that in order to start talking about what was going on. 395 00:41:14,570 --> 00:41:18,420 I spent a lot of time with embassy staff and international relations staff who've 396 00:41:18,420 --> 00:41:21,659 never actually had a conversation with anyone military in the two years they've been 397 00:41:21,660 --> 00:41:27,330 there to explain what was going on in my staff headquarters and how they were as much 398 00:41:27,330 --> 00:41:31,770 bound by the situation that these guys were and where were the opportunities to talk. 399 00:41:32,150 --> 00:41:36,060 And by the way, you just can't ignore the elephant in the room. 400 00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:39,150 You have to you have to work around with them to be aware of. 401 00:41:39,660 --> 00:41:47,210 You cannot just go and do stuff because you will lose your effect or you'll be overlaid by something that is being done by them. 402 00:41:47,220 --> 00:41:48,330 You work across purposes. 403 00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:56,050 So for about my first six months of a ten month tour, it was building bridges and getting people talking inside the embassy essentially, 404 00:41:56,390 --> 00:42:04,530 and using exactly the same technique on the no brakes on the United States, because 99% of the headquarters of military I could walk in. 405 00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:08,190 And while they would look at me, the staff with like, what's the city doing here? 406 00:42:08,460 --> 00:42:15,930 I had access past from my Norfolk status. I was able to relatively quickly once they realised I was carrying a pistol, 407 00:42:15,950 --> 00:42:21,090 no one else did that was in civilian attire get across the bridge in military for a number of reasons. 408 00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:27,430 So I've been talking to some of those left wing folks we've been ignoring for the last four months in the building 409 00:42:27,450 --> 00:42:33,479 up and doing things that I know you're working hard to help and you're making plans and this and this and that. 410 00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:40,170 You talk with these guys because even more conservative advisors last two months, two years, 20 years, 411 00:42:40,470 --> 00:42:45,300 they have some great content and great situational awareness and they can actually tell you what's going on because they know talking to you, 412 00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:49,550 you haven't talked to the Department of Health you for doing your years, making plans for how you can help them. 413 00:42:52,250 --> 00:42:59,899 Took about six months for them to actually start having off. There was one Marine Corps officer working that I think was in their joint plans who 414 00:42:59,900 --> 00:43:05,479 absolutely from the get go thought that he was worth a thousand other people because 415 00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:09,650 he understood that concept was actually really good and talked to people who worked 416 00:43:09,650 --> 00:43:14,540 on the uniform and he became the the agent in the side on a continuous basis, 417 00:43:14,540 --> 00:43:23,120 people from this war. He was able to sell within eyesight because the idea of a weekly meeting to talk about interagency cooperation, 418 00:43:23,510 --> 00:43:30,290 where he got several of the other cells to sit down, managed to get the embassy sitting in and actually get the other agencies coming in. 419 00:43:30,320 --> 00:43:33,590 By the time I left, we had about 30 people at the table when we started with three, 420 00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:38,749 three months before that, and that actually led to a senior level conference with them. 421 00:43:38,750 --> 00:43:42,560 So they would have a room that actually built in was, you know, a conference where the ambassadors, 422 00:43:43,010 --> 00:43:48,860 the agency heads, what, six senior leaders of ICE up would sit down and share some perspectives and consult. 423 00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:50,990 Didn't always agree, 424 00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:59,360 but I did see within both the international agencies and my staff a change in some of the behaviour of the way of doing things with actually 425 00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:07,760 talking and considering that person viewpoint didn't change the objectives they had to work on and the fact that I staff largely responded. 426 00:44:09,370 --> 00:44:13,000 It's new and a good measure naturally to the US President. 427 00:44:14,110 --> 00:44:22,260 That they had their own meaning that they had me, but they certainly started changing their behaviours in the way you were doing things. 428 00:44:25,060 --> 00:44:31,530 To do that, you have to say that what happened was Afghani, of course, is the currency of Afghanistan. 429 00:44:34,670 --> 00:44:39,139 And I'll give General Christman real credit for managing that change as well, 430 00:44:39,140 --> 00:44:44,480 because he brought with it an approach that had not necessarily been well rooted prior to his arrival. 431 00:44:45,590 --> 00:44:51,010 He really came with the aspect that he was in support of the Afghan government and the Afghan military. 432 00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:55,079 And the firms and vetted that and the way he dealt with them. 433 00:44:55,080 --> 00:45:01,680 And I thought his staff, the staff who he brought in as partners to the the weekly and daily big accounts, 434 00:45:01,680 --> 00:45:04,860 has given this matters to the Afghan commander who was there with him, 435 00:45:05,250 --> 00:45:08,580 his support formations when they had the video conferencing capability with warning. 436 00:45:08,820 --> 00:45:17,500 This was that went off like a bomb inside the operations centre because they had never had an Afghan side or an Afghan connected to the environment. 437 00:45:17,510 --> 00:45:19,920 And he said, no, we're supposed this morning, 438 00:45:20,310 --> 00:45:26,430 let's get them in and talk to them about what we think we ought to do and then be clear about when we're talking to ourselves that they're included. 439 00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:32,520 It was a tremendous step forward, did engender a lot of change in the way that I sat there working, 440 00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,419 didn't make everything good, didn't get everyone on the same page. 441 00:45:36,420 --> 00:45:42,719 On whether or not they were fighting a counterinsurgency where they were doing a any and not very neat operation, 442 00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:49,170 really doing a nation building operation where they in the long term development opportunities was a large amount of very poor being there, 443 00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:53,190 but at least you had people talking about what's going on and it could be very helpful for them. 444 00:45:53,190 --> 00:45:59,909 So you didn't automatically step on each other. It was a tremendous step forward and really, really well appreciate. 445 00:45:59,910 --> 00:46:05,130 I think over the course of time, certainly I represented the minister, as I said, when he got on the ground, 446 00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:09,980 was very active in working that as well and partnering in an obvious way with 447 00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:15,120 the senior civilian representative now as well as the commander to present. 448 00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:22,630 Whenever they had big issues to talk about, the three of them would sit down with the players to do that. 449 00:46:22,720 --> 00:46:25,950 They were no longer meeting on a regular basis by themselves. 450 00:46:26,250 --> 00:46:28,490 I think it was a really important change for.