Ottawa Conference on Defence and Security, Day 1

This week is the big show--the Conference of Defence Associations Institute's annual two-day conference that brings together much of the Canadian command staff, defence contractors, other folks in government, and some random academics.  CDAI is a CDSN partner, so I was most proud to see how well things went despite the overabundance of hockey references: "

STICKHANDLING THROUGH ROUGHING AND INTERFERENCE:

How to position Canada in a world of great power plays

Really. 

The conference actually kicked off Tuesday evening with a book launch: Phil Lagassé, Srdjan Vucetic, and Thomas Juneau presented their book, Canadian Defence Policy in Theory and Practice.  The CDSN was proud to support that event especially since the editors and most of the contributors are members.  Indeed, Phil and Srdjan are two of the co-directors of the CDSN, and it would not exist without their help along the way.  We had a good turnout, including a rare appearance by Mrs. Spew at a CDSN event.



On Wednesday, we started with an address by the Deputy Minister--Jody Thomas.  She was replacing the Minister of Defence who could not make it.  Thomas often has interesting things to say, but, in this capacity, it was a fairly standard intro speech with only one notable aspect--emphasis on spending more on modernization North American defence--referring to the warning systems and such in the north, essentially.  She indicated that this was in the Strong Secure Engaged defence policy review document--vaguely so, maybe, but definitely not a major commitment that had been costed out--which makes it distinct from the rest of the issues in the document.

The first panel had LtG Christ Coates, DepCom of NORAD; Janis Garisons, Latvian State Secretary; Andrea Thompson, who used to work in the Trump Administration; and Frederick Kagan, think tanker and well-noted advocate of MOAR.  Coates, as a serving officer, didn't have much to say. Garisons made clear that the Russian threat is still quite real and that Latvia wants the allies to stick around.  Andrea Thompson?  Chock full of empty platitudes and most unimpressive.  Kagan was advocating more confrontation with Russia, which I would be mostly ok with except he tended to argue that we need to engage in more risky behavior to push the Russians on their heels.  Um, no.  I have come to the firm belief that democracies aren't good at playing chicken, but autocrats are.  So, this is not a game the west can win.  We need to change the game.  Mercedes Stephenson was the moderator, and she did a nice job of pushing on some issues.

The second panel was the highlight of the day, I think.  Its focus was supposed to be great power competition in the Mideast, but it was mostly a display of sharp women taking on the problematic positions of the dudes.  Jennifer Cafarella, Institute for the Study of War, provided a clear eyed assessment of the politics of the mideast at this moment.  My friend, Bessma Momani, of Waterloo absolutely nailed both the Chinese Ambassador and the Israeli defence attache by pointing out that their two countries are the greatest exporters of surveillance technology, and thus present significant threats to freedom of expression.  Murtaza Hussain, a journalist for the Intercept, really held the Chinese ambassador's feet to the fire by asking about the concentration camps for the Muslim Uighurs.  When the ambassador called that fake news, I snorted quite audibly.  Hussain also pushed the ambassador on the two Michaels--two Canadian businessmen held captive by China in retaliation for the extradition process, still on-going, of a Huawei exec. 

The third panel involved senior officers from the UK, US, France, and Canada, but I went off to conspire with a friend about future CDSN support.

The Chief of Defence Staff Jon Vance spoke next.  He always gives one of the more dynamic and engaging talks at these things.  There was not too much that was notable except again a reference to North American modernization that makes clear that this is a major priority--not just an entry into the Mandate letter--but a key focal point.  This seems to be part of a larger effort to get this town ready for a major spending commitment.  I noted at the CGAI conference a few weeks ago that the government was focusing on this, and it was even clearer yesterday.  I did speculate that his initial comments, thanking his staff and Jody Thomas, sounded like a goodbye, but I got pushback from online.  I would still bet that this is Vance's last appearance at this conference as the head of the Canadian Armed Forces.  But I have been wrong about that before. 

Bailey receiving the award from CDS Vance

The last part of the day was the Nichola Goddard Gamechanger Award.  It was really a moving presentation, as they had Goddard's sister (Goddard was the first female Canadian combat officer killed in combat in Afghanistan) read some letters from Nichola before she died.  They presented a video of Sgt. Leslie Bailey at work, and then she gave a terrific, short thank you speech.  I work with one of the previous winners, Leah West, and my co-host of the Battle Rhythm podcast and keystone CDSN co-director Stéfanie von Hlatky is the other winner.  Bailey is in great company and so are they.

In between sessions, I chatted with a bunch of folks--my effort to build a network has led to me being well networked.  I learned a lot from these side conversations, and I have new commitments for the CDSN to keep.  Plus I advertised our Summer Institute and next week's Capstone.  And we could check out the displays by various defence contractors.  This soldier to the right wore an exoskeleton that reminded me less of Iron Man and more of a Black Lightning bad guy. 

See you there today.  You can check out my live-tweeting at #cdai2020.