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Click HERE to download a PDF version of the EUCOM 2018 Posture Statement.
March 8, 2018
Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of this committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you as the Commander of the United States European Command (USEUCOM). It is an honor to represent the more than 60,000 men and women who are forward-deployed supporting our USEUCOM mission. Our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and civilian workforce continue to demonstrate selfless service and dedication in an increasingly contested and complex security environment, both in Europe and around the globe. We greatly appreciate the continued support of this committee.
The Trans-Atlantic alliance is a keystone of our national security. USEUCOM, fully aligned with the National Defense Strategy (NDS), supports each of the President's four National Security Strategy (NSS) objectives by strengthening and safeguarding this alliance. Europe provides essential strategic access in support of U.S. global operations to protect the homeland and the ability to pursue potential threats to their source. As our most significant trading partner, Europe is vital to promoting American prosperity. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) enables us to preserve peace through strength as alliance unity fundamentally deters the aggression of potential adversaries. With shared history and values, Europe is also a critical partner in advancing American influence throughout the world.
There are real threats, however, to U.S. interests in Europe and to Israel (which also falls within the USEUCOM area of responsibility). These threats are trans-regional, multi- domain, and multi-functional. Additionally, the speed, complexity, and breadth of new threats and challenges are increasing.
USEUCOM continues to adjust to this dynamic strategic environment, aggressively adapting our thinking and approaches to meet our assigned missions. In doing so, the Command's focus has shifted from engagement and assurance to deterrence and defense.
USEUCOM has adapted its plans, posture, activities, and strategic communications to shape 1
the operational environment and prepare forces to respond to crisis at speed. In all these efforts, we are guided by Secretary Mattis's direction to sharpen our military edge, expand the competitive space with Russia, and provide a combat-credible military force to deter war and protect the security of our Nation.
Our adaptation to the new European security environment has made significant progress thanks to the resourcing provided by Congress, particularly under the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI). USEUCOM deeply appreciates Congress' support for EDI, which remains crucial to preserving peace and stability in Europe. We have accomplished much, but we have much work to do to support an increasingly lethal, agile, and resilient Joint Force in long-term, strategic competition with Russia and in combat with violent extremist organizations.
Russia continues to destabilize regional security and disregard international norms,
which have preserved the peace in Europe since 1945. Russia seeks to change the international order, fracture NATO, and undermine U.S. leadership in order to protect its regime, re-assert dominance over its neighbors, and achieve greater influence around the globe. To achieve these ends, the Kremlin is prepared to employ the full spectrum of Russia's power, to include forcefully using its increasingly capable military. Russia has demonstrated its willingness and capability to intervene in countries along its periphery and to project power -- especially in the Middle East. Additionally, Russia aggressively uses social media and other means of mass communication to push disinformation, test the resolve of the United States, and erode our credibility with European partners.
The Russian military is improving and modernizing its capabilities, enhancing its ability to
be a more agile force capable of executing operations across the entire spectrum of modern
warfare. Moscow's strategic armament program has led to increased defense spending with an estimated investment of $285 billion in modernization from 2011 through 2020. Russia continues to modernize its nuclear forces and to develop and deploy long-range, precision- guided conventional weapons systems. In the Baltic and Black Sea regions, and in the Eastern Mediterranean, Russia is expanding its anti-access area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities threatening freedom of movement to our land forces, our ships, and our aircraft. In the maritime domain, Russia is making rapid progress with its new Severodvinsk nuclear attack submarine, more capable Kilo submarines, and Kalibr cruise missiles. Russia continues to hold snap exercises and to limit transparency of planned exercises. Additionally, Russia continues to intercept our routine reconnaissance flight operations over the Baltic and Black Seas, flying dangerously close to our aircraft and occasionally causing unsafe conditions for our pilots operating in international airspace.
Along with military modernization, Russia is advancing its indirect and asymmetric capabilities in accordance with its concept of warfare, which envisions the coordinated use of military and non-military elements of national power to shape the strategic environment. Throughout Europe, Russia exercises malign influence to disrupt and attempt to fracture NATO, undermine trans-Atlantic cohesion, and erode democratic foundations. Russia interferes in the electoral process across numerous states, including supporting a plan to violently disrupt elections in Montenegro, the newest member of NATO. Russia works to influence the geopolitical environment through the use of key acquisitions, proxies, and other agents of influence. Using indirect action, particularly against countries along its periphery, Russia seeks to use information operations and cyberspace operations to manipulate and influence the information domain and to shape a narrative of its choosing.
Russia's strategy of malign influence also includes prolonging unresolved conflicts across Europe and Eurasia. In Ukraine, Russia continues to train and equip proxy forces in the east and refuses to implement its commitments to the Minsk Agreements. As part of Russia's effort to destabilize Ukraine, the Russian military launched the destructive and costly NotPetya cyber-attack in June 2017. Russia maintains its presence in Moldova, preventing a resolution of the conflict in Transnistria. Russia stations roughly 5,000 troops in Armenia and sells weapons to both Armenia and Azerbaijan despite ongoing tensions over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In Georgia, Russia maintains 7,000 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and has recognized both regions as independent states with military, economic, and social linkages to the Russian Federation, despite the fact that Georgia, supported by the international community, has opposed this recognition. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia uses relationships with the leadership of Republika Srpska to undermine the state institutions established by the Dayton Accords.
The threat from Russia is not limited to the European theater but extends all along its periphery and beyond. Russia is exerting its influence in the Middle East, where its intervention in the Syrian civil war bolstered the Assad regime, enabling the expansion of Iranian influence across the Levant. Russia is also increasing aid to Middle-East states, deepening collaboration with Iran, and extending its influence in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, and Cyprus. These efforts are changing regional dynamics, adversely affecting Israel's security, stability in Lebanon, and other U.S. interests in the region.
In the Arctic, Russia is revitalizing its northern fleet and building or renovating military bases along their Arctic coast line in anticipation of increased military and commercial activity. Russia also intends to assert sovereignty over the Northern Sea route in violation of the provisions of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Although the chances of military conflict in the Arctic are low in the near-term, Russia is increasing its qualitative advantage in Arctic operations, and its military bases will serve to reinforce Russia's position with the threat of force.
Our highest strategic priority as a Combatant Command is to deter Russia from
engaging in further aggression and exercising malign influence over our allies and partners. In accordance with the NDS, and thanks to Congressional support, we are working to create a combat-credible posture in Europe that will underpin our deterrence. We are updating our operational plans to provide military response options to defend our European allies against Russian aggression. Finally, we are increasing our efforts to counter Russia's malign influence in Europe and compete below the level of armed conflict. This includes supporting the Russian Information Group (RIG), an interagency effort to counter Russia's propaganda and misinformation campaigns.
To effectively expand our competitive space with Russia we must have a whole of government approach that employs all elements of our national power. Visible political, economic, and military commitments are critical in deterring Moscow while reassuring allies. Continued Congressional support is essential to our Nation's ability to successfully compete with Russia over the long-term, shore up the international order, and preserve European security.
Violent Extremist Organizations and Terrorism
Violent extremists remain a significant threat to our allies and partners throughout the
Euro-Atlantic. Decentralized transregional terrorist organizations thrive in the security vacuums of failed states. Additionally, violent extremists continue to pose a threat to U.S. personnel, our allies, and our infrastructure in Europe and around the globe.
As coalition actions recover ISIS-seized territory in Iraq and Syria, ISIS remains active and seeks to expand its operations across Europe. ISIS operatives and sympathizers are targeting European citizens for radicalization and recruitment. In cyberspace, ISIS reaches across geographic boundaries to entice new followers, direct acts of terrorism, and spread their extremist ideology.
USEUCOM works directly with our European partners and our Combatant Command
counterparts to identify and counter threats to the U.S. and U.S. interests. USEUCOM provides forces for military operations against ISIS, such as Operation INHERENT RESOLVE (OIR), in the Middle East. In addition, we continue to increase information and intelligence-sharing among U.S. agencies, international partners, and the private commercial sector. We also continue to pursue radicals in the digital domain where they are able to hide and recruit others. These efforts help close the seams exploited by terrorist networks and link global counterterrorism efforts to reduce the Homeland's vulnerability to terrorism emanating from Europe and to reduce the terrorist threat to our allies.
Coordination among NATO, partner nations, and international organizations such as EUROPOL and INTERPOL is central to defeating VEOs. For example, information sharing and coordination with the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) has assisted investigations in more than 80 countries to date. Our EU, NATO, and USEUCOM-shared Tri- nodal Community of Action targets existing VEO networks and facilitates expanded intelligence and law enforcement information-sharing.
European allies provide essential strategic access for U.S., allied, and coalition counter- terrorism operations in the AFRICOM and CENTCOM Areas of Responsibility (AOR). The U.S. depends on countries in the USEUCOM AOR to grant overflight and use of host-nation facilities in countries where we do not have permanent basing. U.S. facilities in the USEUCOM AOR are not sovereign U.S. territory, and therefore basing and access permissions to conduct operations from these facilities are subject to limitations in bilateral agreements with host-nations. In addition to providing critical strategic access, European allies deploy forces worldwide to support U.S.-led counter-terrorism operations, including OIR and Operation Freedom's Sentinel (OFS), as well as to conduct national counter-terrorism missions. Allies are committed to this fight, and their support is essential to our ongoing counter-terrorism efforts.
Deterring Russia and defeating violent extremist organizations constitute USEUCOM's two main priorities. Supporting these main efforts, within the NATO alliance and throughout the
AOR, we are working to strengthen strategic relationships, bolster regional security, and reinforce a free and open international order.
NATO allies are adapting to new strategic realities, recognizing their need to remain fit
for purpose. They are making significant gains in meeting their security commitments and implementing decisions made at the 2014 Wales and 2016 Warsaw Summits. Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania have joined the United States, Greece, Poland, Estonia, and the United Kingdom in meeting NATO's 2% defense spending target, and by 2024, 15 allies are expected to reach or exceed the 2% guideline. Additionally, in 2018, 22 NATO members will meet the 20% target for defense expenditures devoted to investment in major equipment and related research and development. We have now seen three consecutive years of growth among European allies and Canada, adding approximately $46 billion (USD) to defense.
Another aspect of burden sharing is contributions to operations, missions, and other activities. Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom serve as Framework Nations for NATO enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) battle groups in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia respectively. The United Kingdom, Romania, and Croatia contribute forces to the U.S.-led eFP battle group in Poland, and Italy is the Framework Nation for the 2018 NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force brigade. Allies are committing personnel to fill gaps in the Resolute Support Mission and Kosovo Forces (KFOR). Nations are also adding capabilities and skills in cyber, joint effects, and asymmetric action to remain relevant to the changing character of warfare in the new strategic environment. Allies are also working together to ensure the credibility and readiness of our nuclear deterrent, which requires continued commitment and investment.
Given the realities of this strategic environment, the alliance has undertaken a NATO Command Structure Adaptation (NCS-A) effort. The new NCS design will account for the complexity stemming from the interrelation of crises and threats, the emergence of new warfare domains, the speed and breadth of combat action, and the requirements for the timely fusion of information and decision-making from the tactical to strategic levels. Proposed changes include increased manpower at command headquarters for situational awareness, planning, and targeting capabilities, a third Joint Force Command focused on the Atlantic maritime space, and a Joint Support and Enabling Command to facilitate multi-directional force maneuver and support in conflict. Combined, the proposed organizations, enablers, and processes will improve the capability and capacity of the Alliance for vigilance in peace, responsiveness in crisis, and strategic depth in a large-scale, multi-domain conflict.
USEUCOM is supporting NATO's augmentations in deterrence and defense forces. Since April 2017, USEUCOM's 2nd Cavalry Regiment (2CR), based in Vilseck, Germany, and has fulfilled the U.S. commitment as the Framework Nation for the NATO eFP battle group in Poland. 2CR will hand off the eFP mission in September 2018 to the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment of the Tennessee Army National Guard. In the fall of 2017, USEUCOM's 493 Fighter Squadron deployed to Lithuania to conduct the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission. In addition to operational deployments, we are contributing to NATO defense and operational planning in such areas as NATO operational fires, integrated air and missile defense (IAMD), and hand- over/take-over between U.S. and NATO headquarters. Finally, USEUCOM support to the NATO exercise program includes leading the planning for U.S. participation in the TRIDENT JUNCTURE 18 exercise in Norway scheduled for late October 2018. Approximately 30,000 U.S., allied, and partner nation personnel are expected to participate in TRIDENT JUNCTURE 18.
With the close support of other Geographic and Functional Combatant Commanders, the Joint Staff, the Services, and the Missile Defense Agency, USEUCOM and its Service components are augmenting NATO's Ballistic Missile Defense. The implementation of European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) Phase 3 will increase NATO's strategic depth.
Recent multi-national deployments in support of Operation ACTIVE FENCE in Turkey, and NATO's ongoing development of complementary BMD capabilities demonstrate clear progress on a combined IAMD architecture.
To enhance freedom of movement in the European theater, USEUCOM has formulated a military mobility strategy that will enable US and Allied forces to respond to crises at speed. We have leveraged Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) and Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) rotations to refine our understanding of the requirements and timelines for Joint Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration (JRSOI) of forces deploying into the theater. Through bilateral and multilateral key leader engagements, we have encouraged our European allies to address policies and procedures that impede freedom of movement.
USEUCOM complements its support to NATO with bilateral partnership and capacity building efforts with allies and partners. In FY17, USEUCOM conducted over 2,500 military-to- military engagements, including over 700 State Partnership Program events in 22 countries, and under Section 1251 authority, USEUCOM trained nine allies in 22 exercises. These activities directly support ongoing U.S. and NATO operations, increase interoperability, promote partner nation integration in the Euro-Atlantic community, and foster relationships that enhance U.S. strategic access. Our partnership focus helps allies and partners in Eastern and Southern Europe meet emerging security challenges. For example, along with British and German counterparts, USEUCOM implements the Transatlantic Capability Enhancement and Training (TACET) initiative, which synchronizes the contributions of more than a dozen NATO allies in the Baltic states and Poland across the joint, land, air and maritime domains. Additionally, with approximately $35M of FY17 Section 333 support and $18M in FY15 State Department Foreign Military Financing (FMF) support, USEUCOM is launching the Georgia Defense Readiness Program this spring. The program will augment Georgia's military readiness and ability to support both national and NATO missions. Through these and other activities, USEUCOM helps to ensure that NATO hones its operational edge that allies meet defense obligations, and
that partners are equipped to defend their sovereign territory.
USEUCOM continues its strong support of Ukraine's efforts to build its defense capacity
to defend itself from Russian aggression. Following the occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its invasion of eastern Ukraine, Russia has done little to nothing to implement the commitments it made in the Minsk agreements. Russia remains satisfied with the status quo in the hope that its multifaceted effort to destabilize Ukraine will eventually succeed so that Russia can reassert its sphere of influence. Russia continues to foment the conflict in eastern Donbas, where it arms, trains, leads, and fights alongside Russian-led forces. In Crimea, Russia has increased its post-annexation military posture, forming a new Army Corps with reconnaissance and coastal defense forces and increasing capabilities.
Despite Russia's destabilizing actions, Ukraine is making progress toward its goal to achieve NATO interoperability, but much remains to be done. USEUCOM, working with DOD and the interagency, supports Ukraine's development of capable, accountable, and transparent institutions. The Ukrainian government recognizes its need to develop a capable, sustainable, professional defense force interoperable with Euro-Atlantic military structures. Ukraine's defense reforms will improve its ability to deter and defend against Russian aggression. The Multinational Joint Commission (MJC) for Defense Reform and Security Cooperation in Ukraine is the primary vehicle for U.S. and allied security assistance. The MJC meets semiannually with representatives from Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Canada, Lithuania, Poland, and the U.S. to identify Ukrainian requirements and prioritize training, equipment, and advisory initiatives.
USEUCOM support to Ukraine falls into three broad areas. First, we lead the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine (JMTG-U) program to train Ukrainian forces. Under U.S. Army Europe and Special Operations Command Europe, the JMTG-U provides individual and collective training to conventional battalions and special operations units within Ukraine's Armed
Forces. JMTG-U also supervises train-the-trainer efforts, which will allow Ukraine to assume full training responsibility by 2020. Second, USEUCOM provides recommendations on the utilization of security assistance funds to support Ukraine's self-defense capacity. Since 2014, the United States has provided over $850 million in security assistance to Ukraine through Department of State and Defense authorities. These funds have provided counter-battery radar support, medical assistance, communications, command and control, HMMWVs, night vision devices, and training and advising assistance. The President recently decided to provide enhanced defensive capabilities to Ukraine, as part of the US effort to help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity, to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to deter further aggression. Third, USEUCOM supports broader Presidential and Ministerial-level reform activity directed at Ukraine's defense institutions.
In the Balkans, our command directly supports U.S. efforts to promote regional stability.
USEUCOM is assisting the Kosovo Security Forces (KSF) with implementing its Security Sector Review transformation recommendations. Security cooperation activities include developing English language capability, leadership training, equipment to support the KSF core competencies in search and rescue, explosive ordinance disposal and demining, hazardous material response, and fire-fighting.
USEUCOM also continues to support the U.S. contribution of approximately 600 personnel to Kosovo Forces (KFOR). In accordance with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, KFOR's mission is to contribute to the maintenance of a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement throughout Kosovo for citizens of all ethnicities, as well as for NATO and EU personnel. KFOR helps ensure conditions remain conducive for continued EU-facilitated dialogue to normalize relations between Pristina and Belgrade, while Serbia sees KFOR as a way to ensure the security of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo. As a nonpartisan, professional presence, KFOR is essential to the security and stability of Kosovo and the greater region.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, our security cooperation activities focus on assisting the Bosnian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces meet NATO standards and interoperability goals, while supporting their aspirations to join the Alliance. Troops from Bosnia-Herzegovina already support NATO operations, such as the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.
EUCOM works closely with interagency partners such as the Departments of Justice, Treasury, Energy, and State to facilitate and enhance support for democratic institutions and processes in the Balkans and to counter malign influence. Balkan nations view the United States as a major supporter of their efforts to develop institutions and processes that promote the rule of law and strengthen governmental systems.
Russia is exerting its influence in the Balkans to prevent individual nations from progressing on a Euro-Atlantic path. We must assist our NATO Allies in the region as they seek to increase their resiliency in the face of Russian malign influence. We must also support our non-NATO partners as they pursue a brighter future as part of the Euro-Atlantic family of nations.
Turkey is a strategic ally for the U.S. and NATO, a proven enabler for combat operations, and a pivotal player in our long-term competition for a favorable balance of power. USEUCOM actively participates in several ongoing efforts to explore strategic issues and find bi-lateral solutions mutually supporting U.S. and Turkish interests. Through increased intelligence sharing, continued counter-terrorism coordination, and regular military-to-military dialogue, USEUCOM is committed to strengthening the trust between the U.S. and Turkey.
Situated within Europe's strategic southeastern security zone, Turkey is a key stakeholder of regional security, stability, and access. Turkey provides the United States with proven logistical support, as demonstrated in Operations IRAQI FREEDOM, ENDURING FREEDOM, and now INHERENT RESOLVE. Turkey also supports Operation ATLANTIC RESOLVE and NATO activities in the Black and Mediterranean Seas, while securing one of the region's most important sea lines of communication through the Turkish Straits.
A major customer of our defense technology, Turkey has 334 open foreign military sales (FMS) cases, valued at over $9.9B. These sales are important components of the broad U.S.- NATO effort to ensure interoperability of equipment and combined training in Western tactics, techniques, and procedures.
Turkey's geographic location also puts it at the crossroads of the theater's two primary security challenges—Russian subversion and the terrorist threat from ISIS. With instability along its southern border and more than 3 million Syrian refugees within its borders, Turkey has been affected by the Syrian war more than any other NATO country. Meanwhile, Russia benefits from political disputes between Turkey and NATO allies that it can exploit to undermine trust and unity. In alignment with the National Defense Strategy's direction to fortify the Trans- Atlantic alliance, USEUCOM will safeguard and strengthen the U.S.-Turkey relationship.
The United States' commitment to the security of Israel is unwavering. Our ongoing support and commitment to Israel is focused on enhanced mil-to-mil cooperation to ensure our Israeli partners maintain a qualitative military edge. Israel continues to be the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, and in September 2016, the United States and Israel signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that provides $3.8B a year in military assistance over the FY2019 – FY2028 period. As the executor of the U.S.-Israel military-to-military relationship, USEUCOM maintains a robust series of senior leader engagements, constant coordination, and multiple joint exercises. This bond has assumed greater significance as the regional security environment has become increasingly volatile and complex.
USEUCOM is determined to address the diverse challenges in the European theater by capitalizing on our strengths, building new capabilities, and leveraging relationships with European allies and partners. We are working to optimize the force posture of land, air, maritime, and cyberspace units. We are enhancing the resiliency and redundancy of our infrastructure network to enable reliable and flexible response options. We are improving cyberspace security and operations through joint defense activities with allies and partners. However, we cannot accomplish our assigned missions without the continued support of Congress. The resources requested in DOD's FY 2018 and FY 2019 Budget requests are needed to implement the National Defense Strategy, especially to deter, defend, and expand our competitive space with Russia.
Deterring adversaries is contingent on U.S. forces retaining a decisive edge in combat capabilities, agility and flexibility, on our ability to respond rapidly in a crisis, and on U.S. presence as a constant reminder of the costs of aggression and miscalculation. U.S. force posture in Europe has been augmented by increased rotational presence, enhanced pre- positioning of equipment, and military infrastructure improvements. Posturing a combat-credible force in Europe as called for in the NDS is essential to deterring future aggressors, preserving stability, and reassuring allies and partners. A combat-credible force includes a combination of assigned and rotational combat forces, flexible basing options, and pre-positioned equipment in the theater.
European Deterrence Initiative (EDI)
USEUCOM's preparedness and agility to respond amidst the uncertainty posed by the
current strategic environment is contingent upon adequate and predictable resourcing. The European Deterrence Initiative provides resources that are essential to deterring Russian aggression while assuring European allies of the U.S. commitment to NATO's Article 5. These resources, in addition to the base budget funding that supports USEUCOM, enable our headquarters and Service components to: 1) increase presence through the use of rotational forces; 2) increase the depth and breadth of exercises and training with NATO allies and theater partners; 3) preposition supplies and equipment to facilitate rapid reinforcement of U.S. and allied forces; 4) improve infrastructure at key locations to improve our ability to support steady state and contingency operations; and 5) build the capacity of allies and partners to contribute to their own deterrence and defense.
EDI-funded land forces capabilities are resourcing USEUCOM's requirement for an ABCT presence along with a Division Mission Command Element and combat support and service support enablers. Coupled with CAB rotations, integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) enhancements, ISR initiatives, and eFP support, this increased in-theater presence across Eastern Europe has fundamentally improved our readiness and posture.
In the air domain, we leverage EDI to deploy theater security packages of bombers as well as 4th and 5th generation fighter aircraft to execute deterrence missions and train with ally and partner nation air forces. We are building prepositioned kits for the Air Force's European Contingency Air Operation Sets (ECAOS) and making improvements to existing Allied airfield infrastructure, which will afford us the ability to rapidly respond with air power in the event of a contingency.
In the maritime domain, we are expanding our theater antisubmarine warfare capabilities
both by improving our sensor capabilities as well as increasing our capability to surge P-8 antisubmarine assets to critical areas. Additionally, EDI dollars help fund USEUCOM's mission partner environment, which successfully linked into NATO's federated mission network during exercise STEADFAST COBALT last year. This was a significant step in improving interoperability with NATO.
Finally, EDI supports mil-to-mil engagements and exercises that improve interoperability and build partner capacity. Joint exercise SABER GUARDIAN 17, a U.S Army Europe led event in Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria focused on building readiness and improving interoperability under a unified command and control framework. In total, nearly 25,000 U.S., Ally, and partner nation personnel from 21 European countries demonstrated the ability to execute the full range of military missions in the Black Sea Region.
To retain our competitive edge and build on the progress made over the last few years since the implementation of the European Reassurance Initiative and EDI, we continue to work within Departmental processes to meet our posture requirements across warfare domains, with consistent targets and a long-term view.
Land Forces
We continue to enhance our assigned and rotational land forces to meet the requirement
for an armored division accompanied by critical enablers, such as a fully sourced combat aviation brigade, long-range fires, engineers, and sustainment brigades. This armored capability will be comprised of forward stationed and persistent rotational units as well as prepositioned stocks and infrastructure that enable us to rapidly aggregate these capabilities.
Air Forces
USEUCOM requires additional combat and aviation support air assets, to include
prepositioned assets, airfield infrastructure improvements, and dispersed basing. The FY18
and FY19 budget requests have begun the process of funding investments that enable the rapid reception of fourth and fifth generation fighters, close air support, bombers, and air mobility aircraft in a contingency. We have detailed these requirements in our ECAOS concept, funded through the Administration's EDI request.
Maritime Forces
Additional maritime capabilities are being requested to increase our lethality in the
maritime domain and to counter Russian maritime capabilities. Similar to the land and air domains, this necessitates infrastructure improvements to sea ports of debarkation (SPOD) as well as prepositioning critical naval capabilities such as munitions. The FY19 request also provides additional capability for antisubmarine warfare (ASW) sensors and platforms such as the P-8s. Additionally, USEUCOM is working with the Department to increase the rotational presence of guided missile destroyers, a Carrier Strike Group, and attack submarines, all of which provide lethal combat power to deter our adversaries and counter growing threats in the undersea domain.
Amphibious Forces
USEUCOM has requested enhancements to Marine Corps Prepositioned Program-
Norway to allow the rapid deployment of naval expeditionary forces. USEUCOM has also asked the Department to assess the role that an increased Amphibious Ready Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit (ARG/MEU) presence could play in the AOR, recognizing that deployments in the Mediterranean allow for response to threats in three Geographic Combatant Commands.
Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD)
It is essential that our assigned and rotational multi-domain forces are protected by a robust, layered IAMD capability. The FY19 budget calls for the development of an IAMD architecture that begins to address USEUCOM's requirements for capabilities such as those provide by Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Patriot batteries. These capabilities will ensure we can effectively maneuver forces throughout the AOR. Our approach to IAMD must be inclusive with our NATO allies and key partners as we face a growing ballistic missile threat from regional adversaries.
C4ISR is a fundamental capability set for the Global Operating Model articulated by the NDS. To this end, the FY19 budget helps to reverse the long-term reductions in ISR platforms, in manning, and in processing, exploitation and dissemination (PED) capabilities. This includes growing our cadre of intelligence linguists and analysts, adding permanently stationed ISR platforms to the theater, and expanding our satellite footprint.
USEUCOM's command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) networks must also become more resilient and survivable. More work is needed to ensure the sustainment of operations and to maintain freedom of maneuver in cyberspace. We are working with the Services to develop infrastructure that will significantly increase C4I capability and resilience.
Freedom of Movement
The ability to rapidly surge combat ready forces into and across the theater is critical to deterring future Russian aggression. Improving freedom of movement and force maneuver both prior to and during conflict requires enhancing our logistics infrastructure. Additional organic logistical assets are being deployed to reduce reliance on commercial providers, mitigate distribution gaps, and accelerate steady state operations. We are also increasing our close coordination among U.S. agencies, NATO, the EU, and individual European nations.
If fully funded, and once the necessary access agreements are in place, the FY18 and FY19 EDI program requests will increase freedom of maneuver for the Joint Force by establishing critical logistical hubs capable of supporting maritime operations in the North Atlantic and increasing pre-positioned forward stocks of equipment and munitions. USEUCOM will maximize cost sharing initiatives, such as the NATO Security Investment Program, and increase coordination with European nations and commercial entities to further enhance mobility.
Complex Exercises
A key pillar of our overall deterrence approach is a campaign of high end, multi-domain exercises. We will continue to coordinate our Joint Exercise Program with NATO allies and partner nations to enhance our high-end combat capabilities, promote interoperability, and sustain strategic access.
USEUCOM is expanding its cyber capabilities and integrating cyber operations into full-spectrum military activities. USEUCOM is focused on refining cyberspace information sharing tactics, techniques and procedures. To ensure wartime interoperability, USEUCOM is engaged with NATO Allies' and partners' logistics and cyberspace experts to develop a shared framework for cybersecurity.
In closing, I want to again thank Congress for its continued support for USEUCOM– especially for the European Deterrence Initiative – and for helping us to articulate to the Nation the very real challenges that the United States and NATO face in the European theater. Russia is engaged in strategic competition with the United States, pursuing a strategy that undermines the international order and erodes U.S. leadership and influence. Violent extremists, also intent on destroying a Western, rules-based system, remain a significant threat. Faced with these challenges, we must reestablish our military competitive advantage and ensure our forces are prepared to address the challenges of this complex, dynamic, and competitive strategic environment. The Service members and civilians of USEUCOM stand ready to do so. We are fully committed to being the agile, lethal, and resilient force needed to protect and defend the Homeland while supporting a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace.


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"It feels great," said slugger Kiko Garcia. "This is what all 12 and 13 year olds that play little league baseball dream of."
"I am so proud of these kids," said coach Ric Ramierez. "We're clicking, and playing great baseball. I wouldn't bet against us."
The game was held before an estimated 13,500 fans who packed Al Houghton Stadium in San Bernardino. Many traveled north from Chula Vista and chanted "P-V-L-L" throughout the intense game.
Park View dominated the competition, winning 6-straight games without a loss at the Western Regional Little League tournament. The team hit an astounding 38-home runs, including the four Sunday night, during the tournament.
Sunday, Park View got off to a quick start in the first inning. Andy Rios led off the game with a line drive home run over the right field fence. Two batters later, Kiko Garcia smashed a two-run homer, his 11th of the tournament, to give the team from Chula Vista a 3-nothing lead.
"We've been working on our hitting, and it's paying off," said shortstop Rios.
But for the first time, Park View, which came into the game having outscored opponents 87-11 in the tournament, found themselves in a tight game.
Pitcher Luke Ramirez, who stands 6'2", 205 lbs., pitched his way out of several jams in the first two innings. Northern California finally broke through in the third inning. Connor Greer hit a 2-run home run to cut Park View's lead to 3-2. Then Grant Powers stole home later in the inning to tie the game 3-3.
Northern California pitcher Mitch Hart pitched a brilliant game, but had to be removed from the game in the fifth inning due to the 85-pitch count limit in little league. With Hart out, Park View was able to break the game open.
With the bases loaded, Bradley Roberto drew a walk, which forced in Bulla Graft giving Chula Vista a 4-3 lead. Then Oscar Castro smashed a single off the right field fence to score Ramirez and Garcia, making the score 6-3. Daniel Torres followed with an infield single that scored Roberto to make it 7-3. Park View added another run when Seth Godfrey beat out a ground ball mishandled by the Northern California second baseman.
In the sixth inning, Park View continued its home run barrage. Ramirez went deep to make it 10-4. Then Garcia hit his second home run of the game and 12th of the tournament giving the boys from Chula Vista an 11-4 lead.
Isaiah Armenta pitched the last 3 2/3 innings to get the win for Park View.
Prior to the game, Adrian Gonzalez of the San Diego Padres telephoned the Chula Vista team with well wishes. Interestingly, Rios now lives in the boyhood home of Gonzalez.
Park View is scheduled to leave for Pennsylvania from the L.A./Ontario International Airport at 11:30 a.m. Monday. The Little League World Series begins on Friday.


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Have you ever been searching for some of your favorite things on Bing, and suddenly realized you were in the mood to experience some retro video game play? Bing has brought us the ability to do that by coming out with an interactive game that you can play directly in their search results.
In order to play the classic game in Bing, just do a search for
[pong]. At the top of the search results, you'll find the Bing Pong game ready to play. Just click on the game to start playing against Bing.
Here's what it looks like:
It seems that Bing is taking a page from Google, who typically has interactive games in their search results, such as the Pac Man Google game, among many other interactive easter eggs from the past.
This was first spotted last week by Microsoft News.


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Ashley Furniture CouchesOn
Ashley Furniture Couches. This amazing photo selections about Ashley Furniture Couches is accessible to save. We collect this wonderful image from internet and choose the top for you. Ashley Furniture Couches figure and pictures selection that published here was carefully elected and uploaded by rebeccarcahill after choosing the ones that are best among the others.


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Jump to navigation Jump to search
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable, precise and verifiable source for any quote on this list please move it to Kabir. --Antiquary 18:04, 3 August 2009 (UTC)
- I felt in need of a great pilgrimage so I sat still for three days and God came to me.
- If you don't break your ropes while you're alive do you think ghosts will do it after?
- Kabir says: Listen to the word spoken in every body.
- Kabir says that I start and end all my rituals by chanting "Ram" for since the very begining of this world it is this word that has protected all Ram's disciples.
- Kabir's conception of "Rama" (or "Ram") is attested to have been quite different than the anthropomorphic conceptions of conventional traditions.
- Look at you, you madman! Screaming you are of thirst and dying as if you are in a desert, when all around you there is nothing but water.
- Music without words is like leaving the mind behind. And leaving the mind behind is meditation. Meditation returns you to the source. And the source of all is music.
- There is nothing but water in the holy pools. I know, I have been swimming there. All the gods sculpted of wood or ivory can't say a word. I know, I have been crying out to them. The Sacred Books of the East are nothing but words. I looked through their covers one day sideways. What Kabir talks of is only what he has lived through. If you have not lived through something, it is not true.
- When you were born, you cried, and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a manner that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.
- This and close variants of it are also often cited as an "Indian" proverb, a Tibetan Buddhist proverb or a Cherokee proverb.
- Variants: When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live in such a manner that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries.
When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live so that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries.
When you were born in this world
Everyone laughed while you cried
Conduct not yourself in manner such
That they laugh when you are gone.
- Wherever you are is the entry point.
Robert Bly[edit]
Robert Bly's version is not a separate translation but a paraphrase of Rabindranath Tagore's translation. Should it be removed or should that just be pointed out in the text? (My source is Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh's The Bijak of Kabir, page 6, 1983 version.)


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When our pets inspire us to be more loving and caring individuals, it's no surprise that our Store Leaders truly embody those qualities.
We need dedicated and passionate leaders like you to drive the success of our stores and provide our customers with a unique shopping experience.
As a Store Leader, you'll be responsible for leading associates by coaching, developing, and inspiring your team. You'll ensure the safety of all live pets in our care, deliver on all policies and standards and meet financial business goals all while upholding our exciting company culture.
In addition to directing the daily operations, you'll also have the opportunity to build relationships with shelters and make a significant impact in the community by driving adoption events and helping homeless pets find forever homes.
With your expert leadership and communication skills, you'll thrive in our fun and rewarding animal-filled environment and take pride in knowing you're making a real difference for your associates, our pet parents, and pets everywhere.
Similar Job Titles Store Manager, General Manager, Senior Team Leader, Retail Manager
PetSmart is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, disability, as well as any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial or local law.


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Sunday, January 15th, 2012
When I was in the States last year, I met up with Nancy Duarte… and she interviewed me. She's now written up the interview on her blog. Find out more about my story and why I'm passionate about helping people be better presenters – and particularly helping people overcome the fear of public speaking. Here's the link: Nancy Duarte interviews Olivia Mitchell.
And here's five more links to great writing on presentation skills:
Even TED speakers get nervous
TED is an elite conference where invited speakers give 18 minute talks on the ideas they're passionate about. In this short post on the TED blog, TED speakers talk about what it's like to give a TED talk. Main takeway – if you're not nervous , you're not pushing yourself enough – you're playing safe.
What you can learn from Dan Pink
Another of Andrew Dlugan's signature speech critiques (scour his blog for many others). This one features a 2009 TED talk by Dan Pink which is worth listening to in it's own right. Andrew has a wonderful talent for deconstructing a talk and showing us why they work (and occasionally why they don't).
An elegant way of addressing the elephant in the room
Diane DiResta was about to teach a class of young girls when she was told that their school principal had died unexpectedly the day before. How did she handle it?
Jon Thomas's best 20 posts on PowerPoint presentation design
Jon's blog is a fantastic treasure trove of slide design advice and now he's collated a list of his best posts that will help you create visually engaging and effective PowerPoint presentations.
Speaking Perfection is a Myth
This is a recurring rant of mine – and it's well-articulated in this post by Rich Hopkins. If you fall prey to the disease of perfectionism, then you need to read this.
If you've recently read a great article on presentation skills, do leave a link to it in the comments.
Posted in Presentation skills | Comments Off on 6 Presentation Links Worth Clicking
Friday, August 26th, 2011
This is a post written by Tony Burns, my partner and co-trainer.
There are two types of people in the world – those who divide the world into two types of people, and those who don't. I'm one of the former.
I find models useful – they show distinctions that can help explain and predict behaviors – and they can help us see other opportunities and ways we can grow.
One distinction that, as a presenter and presentation trainer, I've found useful, is to look at whether a person is "careful" or "carefree" when it comes to creating and delivering presentations.
It's a question you might like to ask yourself. As a presenter, are you predominantly careful, or carefree?
They plan their presentation. They think about their audience and their needs. They work out what their key message will be and create a structure for their talk that will take their audience on a logical journey. They think about stories and statistics – what evidence will support their message and they design effective PowerPoint slides or other visual aids that will help the audience to understand the points that are being made. They not only think through what they're going to say, they also create notes or a script. And they rehearse their presentation – maybe many times in order to ensure that there is no hesitancy and no mistakes.
When the careful presenter delivers their presentation, they are thinking about "getting it right." They refer to their notes a lot – sometimes, even when they don't really need to. As a result, they don't look at their audience as much as they could. And they appear as if the presentation is a trial – something painful, rather than an opportunity to connect with people.
They tend to say only what is written in their notes – there's no spontaneity or variety. In fact, the presentation seems mechanistic – there's no sense of real connection with the audience.
The audience usually gets value from the presentation but would have liked to enjoyed the experience more.
The carefree presenter knows "in their head " what they're going to say. They may jot down a few thoughts but they don't create a structure – they'd rather let the presentation flow freely on the day and see where things lead. They might think of a few funny stories to tell but they don't research – and they don't rehearse. They tend to use a whiteboard or flipchart rather than PowerPoint – that will give them greater flexibility on the day.
When they deliver their presentation they're really engaging. They connect with their audience resulting in smiles and nods. They have lots of energy and enthusiasm – they move around, gesture a lot and speak with passion.
But they're hard to follow. It's difficult to know what their point is. The audience are enjoying the presentation but they don't really know what they're meant to do as a result of attending.
In fact some sections of the talk are quite confusing as the presenter goes back over material that they've already covered because they've thought of something else to add. And then they remember something they forgot to say earlier which is critical in order to understand what they're saying now.
But then they crack a joke and everyone laughs.
OK – I've painted two extremes, but you get the point.
I believe it's useful to be both careful and carefree when you are a presenter – but it's all about timing.
Before the presentation – be in careful mode. Think, plan, design. Rehearse and get feedback. Create a presentation journey that is easy for you to present and for your audience to follow. This will make your delivery job easier.
But when you stand in front of your audience to deliver – switch to carefree mode. Don't be overly concerned if the words don't come out exactly as you planned – the audience won't know.
Focus on your audience members. One by one, talk to them as if there's just you and them in the room. The odd mistake or pause to think does not matter – in fact it makes you more real. Carefree is not the same as careless – it's a mode in which you trust yourself to deliver with ease the material you've carefully crafted.
English actor Michael Cain puts it well – "Rehearsal is the work, performance is the relaxation."
So both attributes are useful to a presenter – it's useful to be careful before the presentation and it's useful to be carefree, during the presentation.
If you realize that you're strong on one attribute, recognize that strength and keep using it. But your opportunity for development will be the other attribute and by developing that side, you will add to the impact and influence you can achieve through your presentations.
Posted in Presentation skills | Comments Off on The two types of presenter: which are you?
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
I've been through a long journey (25 years) of developing as a speaker. I started off shy, nervous and tentative. Now I'm a high energy, animated speaker and I love connecting, laughing, riffing with an audience. But along the way I've picked up some bad habits. Attending Doug Stevenson's Story Theater Retreat helped me identify some of these habits. So I'm starting off this list with my bad habits and then I'll go onto list habits I've observed amongst other experienced speakers.
At the Story Theater retreat, I discovered that I smile most of the time when I'm speaking. Start talking – smile, that was my pattern. This was a cringe-making discovery. I've observed other speakers with this habit and internally mocked them – without realising that I too, suffered from this problem.
For me the habit probably started from wanting to portray myself as warm and friendly to my audiences, but it had become so ubiquitous that I was smiling even when I was describing unpleasant events. I broke the habit by identifying the segments of my presentation when I shouldn't smile, and then rehearsing those segments consciously keeping my face relaxed. Just before starting my presentation, I would remind myself again of the segments when I didn't want to smile. Now that I've broken the habit, I just remind myself to 'live my content', to be in touch with the feelings behind what I'm saying and live those feelings in my speaking.
Doug has written more about this here: Beware the Phony Speaker's Smile.
As a beginner speaker, I scripted all my presentations word for word. As I became more comfortable and more experienced, I let go of the need for a script and trusted myself to say what needed to be said. I took on the concept that I was communicating ideas, not sentences. And that's what I teach to most of my clients who are beginner and intermediate speakers.
Doug Stevenson advocates scripting your stories. Having eschewed a script for so long this took me a while to grasp. But here's the paradox. At some point in your speaking career, you will reach a point where you can't improve without going back to scripting again. That's because you should be fine-tuning and replicating your best lines. You can't do that consistently unless you write those lines down.
I'm lucky in that I work most of my time with my partner Tony and we listen to each other speaking and write down the great lines. They then go into our notes so that we can use them again. If you don't have a partner to do this for you, record your speeches (it doesn't have to be a camera, it could just be a sound recording) and then listen back noting your best lines. Now you can consistently replicate them.
As you get more experienced and start to get in the swing of telling stories and acting them out, it gets tempting to ham it up. For example, in one of my presentations I act out the drama I have in my head about people being able to see that I'm nervous as I'm giving a presentation. The more I ham it up, the more people laugh. But there are other situations where hamming it up has no effect at all on the audience. The distinction between these two situations had eluded me. Doug Stevenson had the answer:
Humor is big, drama is small
When you want people to laugh exaggerate. But when you want to portray emotion, think Colin Firth – be subtle.
For more on Doug's take on humor see: How to be Funnier.
Speaking can be like a drug. Being at one with the audience, riding a wave of interaction and laughter, is a great feeling. You feel on top of the world, with this audience in the palm of your hand. You are all-powerful… and yes, power corrupts!
You start improvising, riffing, you get hyper! Most people in the audience appear to be having a great time. Problem is these manic offshoots don't take the presentation anywhere.
Sure, play with your audience – but don't forget the point of your presentation.
And then there's the opposite situation where you just can't seem to make it with a particular audience. Your best lines are falling flat, you're facing a sea of unresponsive faces.
Some speakers in this situation get desperate. They depart from their plan and start throwing out random, clichéd questions hoping for just a breadcrumb of interaction from someone… anyone in the audience.
Don't let it happen to you. Audiences are different. Some will show their delight in the ride overtly. Others may be quieter in their appreciation.
Asking questions of the audience can be an excellent interactive technique. But your questions should be carefully planned – in their placement, wording and implementation. For more on asking questions check out this post: The 10 steps to asking questions so you get an answer every time.
This is the second of my posts on what I learned from Doug Stevenson's Story Theater Retreat. Check out the first post: How to Turn your Story into a Movie.
To dig deeper into Doug Stevenson's insights into advanced speaking buy his book Story Theater Method, and the audio version – which you can get as CDs or downloadable MP3s (disclosure: these are affiliate links which means that I earn a 15% commission if you buy one of Doug's books or other products). And to go deeper still attend one of his Story Theater Retreats.
Posted in Presentation skills | Comments Off on The 5 Bad Habits of Experienced Speakers
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
When Tony and I were in America we attended a Story Theater Retreat with professional speaker Doug Stevenson. This is a two-and-a-half-day workshop focusing on crafting and refining just one story, but at the same time teaching you a process that you can apply to all of your stories. Each retreat has just four participants so it's an intensely individualized experience.
Doug has developed the Nine Steps of Story Structure. It's classic storytelling technique with a protagonist, an obstacle to be overcome, and a resolution at its core. However, Doug adds 3 significant steps to classic story structure so as to brand the learning point of the story. Doug has laid it out in a step-by-step way so that you can take any event in your life and craft it into a valuable story for your audience.
Using Doug's Nine Steps to structure your story coupled with the acting techniques that he teaches turns your story into a movie.
I chose to work on the story that I tell at the beginning of our courses. It describes my first attempt at the Toastmasters public speaking competition 20 years ago. The Retreat was transformational for me – and my story. I've described below some of the elements of my story makeover. I've added video clips from my coaching session during the Retreat so that you can see what I was trying to do. The quality's not great but I still think it's helpful to see as well as to read!
I had many of the elements of Doug's Story Structure. But I was missing one element. There were no other characters in the story. I was the only character – the story had me battling alone through three levels of Toastmaster competition. That made the story rather one-dimensional. Imagine a movie or a play with only one character!
So Doug suggested that I add another character. It was easy to think of who that should be. At Toastmasters there was a woman that I respected and admired. Her name was Margaret Nixon. Margaret was a mentor to me, giving me useful feedback and encouraging me to set new challenges for myself.
Adding Margaret to the story gave the story much more interest and depth and also allowed me to incorporate some of the acting techniques which Doug teaches.
So it's not really a movie. Since the audience can't see the other characters we have to help the audience visualize the characters by describing them. Here's how I described Margaret:
She was a government lawyer, just like me. She was petite with blonde, curly hair. Her speeches were models of structure and clarity. But she was never intimidating because she had a warm and sparkly personality.
Later on in the story, I have a short sequence involving our dogs – so I described them too:
Tara is a golden retriever – big brown eyes, always wagging her tail at you (or at anybody). Jodie is an elegant collie (strangers call her Lassie) and somewhat more discerning.
Now I could use photos of Tara and Jodie (you can see a lovely photo of them by scrolling down my about page). But sometimes the images that the audience can conjure up on the screen of their minds is just as powerful, if not more powerful, than actual photos.
For more see: Doug's post Storytelling in Business – Create Memorable Characters
Turning your story into a movie means you're not just telling a story, but showing your audience what happened. Doug was an actor for 20 years before he segued into professional speaking and he's married his acting expertise with his speaking expertise. He's developed the Story Theater method to show non-actors a step-by-step system to incorporate acting techniques into a story.
Doug calls showing your audience what happened an IN moment, whereas the times when you're narrating the story are OUT moments. His guideline is that 30% of your story should be IN moments.
In my pre-makeover story here's what I used to say:
As I walked up to the stage, my legs felt like they were noodles. I stood up on the stage and looked out and just saw a jumble of shapes and colors. My heart was pounding like it was going to explode out of my chest and I could feel sweat trickling down my sides.
In my post-makeover story all the words above have gone, I act it. Here's a short clip from my coaching session during the Retreat as I try out acting this moment:
For more on IN moments see Doug's article: Identify the Moments
Humor is something that I've struggled with and at times I've just said to myself "I'm not a funny speaker – that's not me and so I won't try to be funny". As I've developed experience as a speaker I have realised that I can make people laugh but I still haven't seen myself as a funny speaker. Doug believes that everyone can be funny and can develop their ability to be funny. So I decided to give humor another go. I already had a line in my story where I mentioned that I rehearsed to the dogs but with Doug's help I developed it into a funny scene:
With another character in my story, I could create some dialogue. Doug showed me how to do the two-character two-step to act out a dialogue between two people. Here are the basic elements:
– each character stands at a slight diagonal to the audience.
– as you change character you shift to the other diagonal.
It takes some practice to get right! In the clip below I'm just getting the hang of it:
Another acting technique that Doug teaches is the inner monologue. Instead of saying:
To my surprise I won the competition. That was great news for my self-esteem, but bad news for my future. Because it meant that I would be representing my club at the next level of competition – the Area level.
Doug had me pace up and down talking to myself. I found this quite difficult. Whenever I try to walk and talk I end up slowing down – walking fast and talking to myself was tricky! Also my instinct was to look down at the floor as I walked, but that doesn't work for the audience. I had to look up. You can see my struggle with this technique in this extended clip which includes Doug's coaching:
Or you can just watch my final attempt:
Using these techniques you can turn your story into a movie too.
I've only covered a small percentage of what I learned at Doug Stevenson's Story Theater Retreat. I highly recommend attending a retreat if you're committed to taking your story-telling to the next level. Doug and his wife Deborah create an incredible welcoming and supportive environment in their Peak View Studio.
If you can't make it to a retreat buy Doug's book Story Theater Method, and the audio version – which you can get as CDs or downloadable MP3s (disclosure: these are affiliate links which means that I earn a 15% commission if you buy one of Doug's books or other products). I recommend getting both the book and the audio version as you'll get all the details and hear Doug telling and dissecting his stories. You'll get an extra level of learning as a result.
Next week I'll discuss my personal learnings from the Retreat.
Posted in Presentation skills | Comments Off on How to turn your story into a movie
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A new report from Pollen and its partners at Priori Data dishes details about what is now deemed to be a "very healthy and maturing app economy."
For the first time, the report also calls out the clear emergence of the "torso" of revenues made on the app stores.
The traditional L-curve of revenue distribution has changed. No longer do the top 100 publishers dominate the marketplace. Today, the trend is "an emergence of developers starting to make meaningful revenues by breaking out of the long tail and creating this emerging torso, or middle-class of app developers."


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If you were to ask me what comes next, the best answer is that I do not know. But if I try to reason through the question, I tend to divide the problem into parts. On the one hand, one of these parts, the personal facet, is what's to come after my present literature. Or, rather, what will I be writing, what will the next books be like, or even more importantly, how will I relate to them. The other facet is related to literature in general, what comes after the present, or what comes after the "great crisis" of literature, presumably imminent; a great crisis with several ways of making its symptoms felt—that's what brings us here today—but that, perhaps, is not actually a great crisis.
I think that a writer's question about what to write in the future is central. Central because it allows writers to imagine, beyond the plans they may have or not have regarding projects, plots, titles or drafts, their own trajectory when this is essentially blurry. The question of the future, for a writer, should be a question of decomposition: the moment when the struggle between legibility and illegibility is set forth. But in general this question is formulated in the inverse: the question of the future tends to place writers in a comfort zone, to the extent that they lean on the past to answer it.
My approach might be a bit arbitrary, in the sense that it is also personal. I will refer to my experience with writing, in electronic formats, and to my relationship with electronic editing. I will also present some examples and points of view about the, in my opinion intriguing, relationship between textuality and simulation that emerges from electronic formats. I am going to propose, if only partially, some general ideas, although I hope that these paragraphs might be useful for thinking about scenarios that, in the future, will be tied to literature.
1. One day I was talking with a writer for whom word processers had always been his exclusive writing tool. We spoke of what each of us was doing. At some point the usual question about writing came up: how one manages the act of writing. In general these are things people run through quickly; schedules, habits and quirks are mentioned. I said that I prefer to write with a word processor. From my point of view it most closely approximates writing by hand in terms of the text's flexibility and also in terms of immediacy. Writing with computers is more intimate and involving.
That comment must have awakened my friend's curiosity, because then he wanted to know how people wrote before computers. Unexpectedly, his question unleashed a series of memories and contradictory impressions. And one of the most curious things for me was my interlocutor's complete ignorance (which became apparent as I answered) of aspects, details and procedures tied to writing that pre-dated the computer, as if he were glimpsing abstruse and eccentric aspects of the past.
I explained that I had gone through several kinds of machines in only a few years, constantly trying to maintain my place in a race whose destination was far from clear, but that I felt was feverous. I started writing with old typewriters, sinking my fingers into white porcelain keys. And with electronic ones, the latest technology at the time, prematurely ancient and incomplete anterooms of what would be computer's virtual writing. They printed thanks to a system called the "daisy wheel." Among the mechanical typewriters, I went from the older models to the portable ones, via the light brown Olivetti desk machines, which were then considered medium-sized, the natural inhabitant of any Argentine desk in the 1970s and '80s. All of the typewriters had two-toned ribbon spools, and thanks to a button you could opt for the red or black (or sometimes blue) band.
Facing the surprise of my friend, who had surely not formulated his question expecting a detailed response, I made reference to the typeset that during the bookbinding process became deformed in a sublime and particular way. I said that the typewriter for me was a mechanical obstacle that could only be gotten around through an assortment of minor devices, and only with the computer did I discover the simplicity and naturalness of writing by hand—without writing by hand. I also went over my experiences with the "golf ball" typewriter, the heavy IBM Selectric, voluminous like an industrial souvenir, whose writing was sorted out by a metallic sphere crammed with characters. The sphere moved laterally to the ink roller, now immobile, and turned with every strike to the keyboard and immediately stamped a mark thanks to a quick blow to the type ribbon.
After the IBMs, as I said, the new era belonged to the electronic typewriter. They were squat, but quite light. And the top part of the keyboard had a digital screen where text appeared as you wrote. The "daisy wheel" itself was a small plastic plate, with a serrated hole in the center fit onto the top of the typewriter arm that moved along the inkroller, also immobile. The daisy had multiple "petals," that is, flexible rods at the end of which were stamped characters (a lowercase or uppercase letter, a number or a letter symbol). Therefore, if you wanted to change the typography, the daisy had to be reset with a new family of letters.
This world of the past was vague and unknown to my friend; in the face of the reconstruction that I offered he oscillated between displaced nostalgia and incredulity. On the domestic side of the conversation, writing took me back to a series of old rituals that now seemed outdated but that in their time had been signs of culture. Sometimes I think of myself as a disseminator of knowledge in the process of extinction or dissolution—is this perhaps what literature is about?—and this was one of those moments. Like smokers that detail individual rituals as they share cigarettes, the associated paraphernalia and the typical smoking scenes, the contexts and the procedures, etc. Once we began using machines, that is, typewriters, typing was reinvested with artisanal rituals. Now the processing of words is ritually manual.
2. The act of writing today has less physical aspects and relates in a different way to our ideas and premises regarding its condition. My memory of the struggle with typewritten manuscripts is of a tortuous artisanal process where a good number of tools intervened. In contrast, my impression today as regards the processing of "electronic manuscripts" is, in the first place, that these manuscripts do not exist on their own, but rather as a reflection of a source that cannot be localized in any verifiable place. The intangibility of what is written sometimes reverts back to the unstable relationship that writing establishes with what it seeks to say.
Immaterial writing, like the writing that we see on screens when we work with texts, even texts of a varied nature that are not necessarily literary, proposes a statute of latency and even of reflexivity that these texts lacked in previous historical moments, when they appeared in a physical format and material writing was the only guarantee of preservation.
In an essay ("The Pensive Image"), Jacques Rancière pauses to examine the fact that certain photographs irradiate and propose a type of meaning that does not refer to the intentionality of the author. He calls that type of indecisive image a "pensive presence." Rancière says, "A pensive image is an image that contains unthought thought, a thought that cannot be attributed to the intention of the person who produces it and which has an effect on the person who views it without her linking it to a determinate object. Pensiveness thus refers to a condition that is indeterminately between the active and the passive."[1] I like the idea of assigning a measure of activity to an object that is passive on its own, in the sense of being fixed and unmodifiable, albeit potentially eloquent, as is the photographic image. I would say that it acts like a nucleus of larval and invisible activity, in its way passive, as if it were casting indeterminable glances. I suppose Rancière gives this condition the name "pensive" because of the unstable meaning of photos, photos that in the cases analyzed respond to certain physical characteristics and that subject them to a regime of ambiguity; they are at the same time omnipresent and elusive. On the other hand, isn't concealment perhaps the principle virtue of thought?
In the metaphor of the pensive image I found a notion akin to that of the immaterial writing that I am trying to define. The "pensativity" of the digital text comes from the conflict between the physical-typographical mark inscribed in all writing, including digital writing (since writing is understood as a system of signs that as such come from those that served as inscriptions), and a condition that is immaterial and of a provisional postulation, in the sense of unstable, that derives from the glint of the virtual. The way writing floats on the screen makes me think of it as possessing a form more distinctive and appropriate than the physical. As if the electronic presence, through its immateriality, better approximates the insubstantiality of words and the habitual ambiguity that they often evoke.
3. Several years ago I began to publish a blog in an offhand and careless way, and, one could say, I continue doing it in that way. But its presence, albeit peripheral, has changed the way I perceive my own writing. In my case, what is understood as a blog is a series of distinct kinds of texts. I do not use the page as a space to spill out opinions every day, or to reflect on activities tied to my books. I make use of the already defined templates and free space, inserting fragments, essays, and dispersed writing. Comments are not activated and neither are there links to other pages. In a sense the site is a bit autistic; it attempts to be as silent as possible. At one time I conceived the blog as a simple platform for reading, but I eventually adapted to the blog's particular presence and temporalities that, if the blog doesn't impose, it does encourage.
My impression is that on the one hand there is the printed word, primarily published in book format. And on the other there is the virtual, on digital screens. The printed letter adopts a fossilized presence; in libraries, books make up a visitable cemetery, silenced due to their material statute. The typical physical effects, for example the deterioration of paper and other marks of the passage of time, are circumstances that speak more to their expiration than to their permanence.
In my "blog" I assume that I can be my own editor, naturally in a different way than when I am with originals. The page on the internet allows me to avoid the book format and other related media, and also to combine texts of varying physicalities. Nothing impedes me from, for example, using the same title for textual fragments of a novel and photographs of handwritten fragments of the same text. The image of the handwritten "original" is more auratic than the corresponding text, but the homogenous virtual writing takes on a presence that is more enigmatic—I would say autonomous or self-sufficient—that protects it from physical harm.
I imagine virtual texts as if they formed cemeteries of sleeping beings. In contrast to printed texts, coagulated due to their materiality, texts hidden in the internet constantly emit a promise of immutability. They shield themselves in that promise to present, or rather to stage, a condition of constant available. Latency, somnolence, electronic writing promises a permanent and ambiguous access. I think that to a point these attributes better complement my writing than physical attributes. That is why I am tempted to post texts on the internet, because there they promise to have a continuous existence that in appearance is separate from its earthly avatars. A promise of oblivion and persistence at the same time.
4. In relation to what is digital itself, or rather, to the interactive aspect and dynamic consistency that is inherent in it, insofar as a digital text can never be declared completed and closed, I would like to consider if it is possible to insert the experience of certain areas of thought—specifically what is related to the so-called "digital humanities"— into literature. Digital humanities are a type of aggregated knowledge, or a tendency, that's articulated around interdisciplinarity on the one hand and creation and circulation through digital media on the other.
When ideas and projects are circulated, they are texts in constant transformation. One of the most evident impacts of these formats, from one point of view, is the inadequacy and destabilization of the idea of the author, and, from another, of projects and documents. I ask myself if something similar would be possible in literature. I think the answer is both yes and no. On the one hand, I imagine, many of the things that are likely being done now under the rubric of "digital humanities" may be considered literature, insofar as they create their own reader. On the other hand, I am not sure that a precise subjectivity is constituted around those formats. That is, a subjectivity that permits us to configure an idea of a reader more or less convergent with that modality.
There is also a very evident aspect of the digital world that puts pressure on literature; I'm referring to the technical protocols, constructive marks of digital media that are exported to conventional literary formats. That is why we sometimes see epistolary narratives constructed out of email, or by simulating Twitter updates, etc. In the reiterated headers that correspond to every message, we sense the excluding presence of the machine as a technical intermediary. These strategies are iconic and a little bit naïve from a certain point of view, it is true, and their innocence shows an uncritical passivity as regards these technical metaphors, from which they borrow, what we might call their constructive eloquence, and in this way are also a bit naturalistic.
From another point of view, I believe that immaterial writing, or rather, writing in virtual format, finds in electronic circulation its full realization as a non-material event. But the digital dimension places on the same plane texts that are much more segregated in physical publications, because they need the schema of a book, the institutional idea of bookbinding, to make themselves present as legible texts. I am referring to notes, diaries, incomplete and larval compositions, letters, private writing, etc. These types of writing can now circulate instantaneously; but in many cases their forms of writing and reproduction imply that they do not exist as such, in the sense that these marginal compositions, upon being written without a material support, come to be definitively ephemeral.
5. Accustomed to the electronic formats of writing and reading, sometimes an alchemical convergence occurs between the paradigms belonging to digital formats and categories of narrative representation. I would like to illustrate this with Agustín Fernández Mallo's "Mutations" (In The Maker, by Borges (Remake)), published by Alfaguara in 2011. The plot consists of two trips organized as reconstructions of previous trips. One of them is made by Robert Smithson in his well-known essay "The Monuments of Passaic." The other is Fernández Mallo's, titled "A Journey Through The Monuments of Passaic 2009."
The essay by Smithson describes a trip to Passaic, New Jersey, and developes a series of reflections tied to the landscape and the pictures taken there. Fernández Mallo's account reconstructs Smithson's journey, but also travels through the essay itself, making it the object of quotes, comparisons and both conceptual and physical references. Fernández Mallo undertakes the trip again, in the style of documentarians and contemporary researchers who retrace the steps of naturalists, explorers and seafarers. An important element is that Fernández Mallo's trip is not physical, rather he uses Google Maps to carry it out.
This way, you realize in Fernández Mallo's account that the series of narrative topics destined normally to describe sequences or important landmarks (preparations, route changes, coincidences, disorientations, discoveries, etc.) find themselves translated into the sphere of virtual coordinates and screenshots. Fernández Mallo as narrator moves with the screen, and in the small white hand that represents the position of the cursor he finds both a cultural signal and a cipher of his own subjectivity as a traveler. At the same time, the reproduced photographs oscillate between Smithson's original images and those created by Fernández Mallo with his cell phone in front of the computer screen during his trip.
Among the several questions that the account poses, I am interested here in an idea tied to literature understood as machinery, subject to the rules of simulation. Simulation is a system of imitation in which elements and functions are taken from reality in a necessarily analogous way. Only if we limit the meaning of the word, may we say that it is a representation. To the contrary, simulation proposes a direct and never deflected tie to the world that it simulates, or imitates. Simulation can also recreate closed and nonexistent systems, but with the condition of being subject to the rules that govern them as if it were an outline of reality.
The idea of simulations has been extended into videogames and computers as a ludic or entertainment alternative, but many of them, in fact, propose specific syntactical narratives. In Fernández Mallo's "Mutations," I think we can find accounts of simulations, as far as these digital experiences (the computer as an observation tool, the digital map as real physical environment, the cell phone as recording artifact) are proposed as a substitutional yet non-representational schema of the real world, between icon and analogue, that is, of a geography where real things are organized according to the simulator's description.
Fernández Mallo´s narrator repeats Smithson's original trip; to this end, he is accompanied by captured images from two time periods and by the conceptual observations of the author, let's say, the original. But it should also be said that, given the direct means to verify the original material, a new conceptualization is wielded from the moment this digital form is chosen as an approach. The result is a cartography that is sometimes ironic and sometimes literal, without ever fully becoming a reconstruction.
I have the impression that accounts like Fernández Mallo's (discontinuous critical discourses? textual variations? conceptual versions?) reveal an increasingly common literary method, one that also pervades literature previous to it—since it operates through strategies of reading that exist in the present moment, not only on composition or verbal creation strategies. It would be something like a mode of simulation. Literature no longer as—or not only as—a strategy of representation but rather as a sphere of simulation, like the digital options present on online maps, or like videogames. Simulation offers the possibility of operating upon the represented universe; that universe represented on the screen is based on a group of analogue references.
Carried over to literature this system would be a new form of realism that finds in simulation the testimonial surface to propose new layers of sensibility where today's subjectivity may present new scenarios
[1] Here I use Gregory Elliot's translation from Jacques Rancière's The Emancipated Spectator (Verso, 2011).
Sergio Chejfec's books include My Two Worlds, The Planets, and The Dark, all published in English by Open Letter Press. He has been a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. Jessica Gordon-Burroughs is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia University.
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Sarah Borchgrevink Photography offers timeless, fresh and unique baby photography. Calista + her sweet parents visited the studio at 11 days new.
Hi, friends! Good morning to you! Happy Friday! Today is a great day here in Houston. The sun is shining, it's about 80 degrees out, and I have a full calendar of fun shoots geared up for this weekend. However, up first is an adorable studio session focusing on a precious baby girl. If this is your first time at my blog, welcome! I'm excited you're here.
In case you're interested, C's parents booked both a natural light, outdoor maternity session that took place during sunset . This is a huge treat for me because it's fun to work together before we document your newborn baby's session. This is also a great idea for clients because it ensures the editing style is the same so all of your wall art is cohesive and matches, plus it means you've met the person who will be handling your new baby. As a mama, I completely understand who you choose to photograph your newborn is a huge deal! I am currently pregnant with baby number 4 and just booked me own newborn session for him; I did a TON of research!
Also: before we dive into the session I have to brag a little bit. Mom is a super talented hair and make up artist serving the entire Houston area. I refer her to all of my clients so here's a little more information about her professional beauty services in case you're ever looking for someone to make some magic, ha! She also is extremely sweet, giving, kind and a joy to work with. I cannot recommend her highly enough. She's located close to my studio, too, so it's really convenient.
Let's get started, shall we? :-)
Family and Parent Images
For family and parent images, I like to wrap baby in a soft neutral color so as not to detract from baby's elegance. For little boys, I generally leave them without a bonnet or hat, however, for little ladies, like Calista, I will adorn their sweet heads with a lovely flower crown, headband or tie back. In this particular instance, I used a pink and purple headband by one of my favorite newborn prop vendors since this reflects the colors in baby's nursery. This vendor is located in the UK, but makes amazing items! Check her out. :-)
Rainbow Baby Girl | Calista at 11 days fresh & new
You may be asking yourself, "What's a rainbow baby?" According to kick's count, a rainbow baby is:
A "rainbow baby" is a baby that is born following a miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death or infant loss.In the real world, a beautiful and bright rainbow follows a storm and gives hope of things getting better. The rainbow is more appreciated having just experienced the storm in comparison.
The mama natural blog also elaborates explaining that:
Like the miracle of a rainbow after a storm, many mamas refer to babies born after loss as their rainbow babies. The rainbow doesn't erase the storm, nor does the arrival of a new baby eclipse the tragedy of previous pregnancy loss.
Calista and her parents stopped by for a full newborn collection when she was 11 days fresh and new. Weighing over 9 pounds, her chubby cheeks and adorable features truly made my heart melt. I could not help but marvel at her beauty and tell her mama how lucky she is.
This collection is about 2 hours long. This gives plenty of time for baby to be fed, soothed, etc., and also allows for diaper changes and a relaxed atmosphere.
There's something especially fresh and pure about using white during a newborn session. While I am a really big fan of all things vibrant, I do include neutrals here and there since it adds a timeless element to your gallery. All of my headbands, tie backs, bonnets and hats are custom designed by small business owners so there's a huge selection.
This super cute floor prop is a dream! I wish it was mine, but Mom did bring it in. It looks perfect again the burgundy!
Followed by the vintage Dr. Pepper box, we used one of my favorite buckets. The sage green looks lovely on her. Green, you see, is one of those colors parents don't always consider. That's part of my job during session design: coming up with neat combinations for you.
The vintage cradle is one of my other favorite props. This is because the prop can be styled to reflect the gender of baby. In this case, we used a soft mauve that's muted. Pink is not my favorite color but I will use a mauve here and there. While there is nothing wrong with the color pink, it's a common color and my goal is to create interesting images that are dynamic, fresh and authentic through the use of texture, color, and vintage inspired props and items. :-) If you like pink, however, no worries! I always make sure it is showcased at some point in your collection. In case you are interested in some alternatives to pink, feel free to read away!
After floor props, this is where we do the bean bag posing. All of these are done with care and usually take about 45 minutes from start to finish. Baby does call the shots here, so if she is not comfortable in a pose, we move on and try something else. If you would like to read more about my favorite newborn poses, too, you'll find tons of great information on newborn safety, posing and handling.
Sarah Borchgrevink Photography is a Houston Newborn Photographer specializing in gorgeous posed newborn sessions. Her studio is located in Northwest Houston. In addition to breathtaking baby portraiture, Sarah also offers stylish natural light family photography as well as dynamic outdoor maternity sessions for expecting mothers and couples. Sarah joyfully serves the entire Harris and Montgomery county areas including North Houston, Cypress, Tomball, Spring, Jersey Village, The Woodlands, Magnolia, Conroe, Willis, Montgomery, Humble, Kingwood, Porter, New Caney, Waller, Memorial & West Houston, Katy, Fulshear, Sugar Land, Pearland, Hempstead, Richmond, West University, Rice Village and Porter TX. Sarah has also been ranked among the Best Houston TX Newborn Photographers on the criteria of reputation, credibility, experience, availability, professionalism and engagement. Connect to chat with Sarah today! Please consider booking your session at your earliest convenience in order to secure your appointments on the calendar.