Battle Rhythm

After many conversations, some twitter crowd-sourcing, and yet more discussion, Stéfanie von Hlatky of Queen's University and I have agreed to name our new Canadian Defence and Security Network podcast: Battle Rhythm.  We both picked up this piece of jargon while hanging out with the military.  I learned it in the Pentagon during my fellowship on the Joint Staff, and Stéfanie picked it up while doing fieldwork on her project on gender and NATO.  

What does the term mean?  It refers to the daily routine, which you would think would be sufficient.  For the military types, battle rhythm means having a regular schedule that helps keep everybody synchronized--in rhythm.  

Why did we choose it?  Good question.  I think it speaks to the larger CDSN effort of trying to connect and coordinate the defence and security folks (those who study it, those who do it, those who are involved in it).  We have no expectations of getting everybody to be in sync, but we do hope the podcast forces us to develop our own rhythm--of sharing the research the CDSN is generating, of providing our perspectives on defence and security issues, and of interviewing people on a regular basis, and of responding to our listeners (folks can send questions or comments to

cdsn.rcds@outlook.com).

We will use the podcast to preview events in the CDSN network--not just those organized by CDSN HQ but those of our thirty plus partners and 100+ participants--and share their findings.  So, some of the interviews will be of participants from these events.  Other interviews will be with those in and near government to understand how they think about the stuff they do. One of the key goals of the CDSN is to help foster a more inclusive and diverse next generation of defence scholars, scientists, and policy-makers.  So, we will bring those voices that have not been heard much to a wider audience (assuming the podcast develops a wider audience!).  

We are sure that the podcast will evolve, so that some recurring segments will develop and ones we started may be dropped.  It will take a while to figure out our rhythm.  I hope you can join us for this ride.