Summer Institute Days Drifting Away But Ah Oh Those Summer Institute Nights

I asked for a silly pose.  This was the last day
(yes, they are wearing CDSN SI t-shirts)
during the lunch break--they all went
together across the new bridge to the park
for a picnic rather than heading off in
different directions.

 Once again, I am energized by an amazing week of Summer Instituting.  This year is our third in-person SI, and it coincides with the start of efforts to re-apply for another seven years of CDSN.  Why do we put so much effort into this application?  In part because realizing this part of the grant, the Summer Institute, hits all the sweet spots--it helps engage our (my) curiosity as we learn all kinds of stuff, we meet people--participants and speakers--from all across the Canadian defence and security community, it is simply fun, and it feels good to foster the professional development of others and to break down the barriers between the different pieces of the community.

I write each year about the SI (see here for last year's post), and yes, each year is more effusive than the last.  Why? Simply because it keeps getting better.  We learn what panels work, and we learn how to tweak the simulation to make it work better.  Last year's participants finally hit what we had imagined this thing to be--one third emerging academics, one third policy folks from govt, one third military officers and senior enlisted types. This year, we had that and also one or two folks from the private sector who added an additional perspective.  The only thing missing in terms of participants is we would love to get some journalists involved.

Once again, our speakers nicely matched the participants as we had folks from academia (Canadian and American), from key partner organizations like Bridging the Gap and Out in National Security, from the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, and the like.  We had a new panel on Whole of Government that brought in sharp folks from Privvy Council Office (nothing like it in the US) and Global Affairs Canada (State).  That panel worked great, even before I tossed in a grenade--why are the political advisors to missions these days mostly coming from inside DND rather than GAC?  Good times.  Our day at DND HQ was even better than last year's (with one caveat) as we extended from just three speakers in one morning to five over the course of the day.  We heard from Army, Navy, Cyber, military intel, and the Associate Deputy Minister.  The one caveat is that the prior two years, the Deputy Minister had a wide ranging Q&A with us, and that was pretty terrific.  We didn't have that this year, alas.

Above, I mentioned the we--it is very much a team sport.  Melissa, Sherry, and Racheal did most of the work, Morad kicked in some help as well.  All I did was smile and wave. Ok, I did more than that--I served as MC and I got to present some of my stuff in a couple of panels--one on civ-mil and one on public attitudes about the military (which is also civ-mil).  I am so very grateful to Team CDSN for pulling this off.  The SI is the hardest thing we do, and it is most important thing we do.  It helps foster generations of sharp defence folks who are better connected and better informed.  We once again had a very diverse crew along lots of dimensions--gender, region, occupation, ethnicity, etc, so this is very much a key part of one of the CDSN's key objectives--to foster a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable next generation of defence and security scholars, scientists, policy officers, and military officers.  

If you are interested in the Summer Institute, we will be putting out ads and accepting applications in early 2024, and you can check out more info at our website: https://www.cdsn-rcds.com/summerinstitute 

Below are a variety of pictures from the week that I took.  Racheal took better ones that will be on the CDSN website eventually.

I love a good meta picture as I caught them taking
pics after their picnic.

Last bits of simulation scheming

Phil had a wonderful procurement rant or two

Our reception brings together co-directors, participants, 

n

Stef vH and Anna repped WIIS-C which
co-organizes our midweek reception

We probably need a better backdrop for our
annual NDHQ picture.  But we had a great day

a theme across the week--the CAF is really challenged

Murray Brewster and Col Paul Doucette talk
defence and the media.

Al Okros, who is not very good at retiring, and 
Kristine Ennis-Heise of DND talk policy process

Thomas, Erik, and Luke talk bridging the gap

More simulation scheming

the view from the speakers' end of the table

We met at the hotel bar the night before the
event to break the ice. Bridgers Erik and Luke at
the kids' table (we had more folks show up than
could fit at the main table) hang with participant Husnain

The cool kids table at the closing reception

The folks who arrived early sat at this table. 
Hence not the cool kids

I was quoted in the simulation post-brief. I had no
idea... but then again, this happens in two years.

The sim took place in the future, so it has a
guess at who is in office down the road. 
I am guessing they will be half right.

Summer Institute 2023: This Is Why We CDSN

Did I just turn CDSN into a verb?  Sure, why not.  We had a tremendous week at our second in-person Summer Institute (see last year's summary here).  I am still jazzed after a week of informative presentations from our various speakers, of scheming by our participants in the simulation, of sharp insights from the participants who came from all over the Canadian defence and security community, and of amazing work behind the scenes by our CDSN team.  

Group pic after DND briefings

It starts with the participants.  The original idea that animated the grant in the first place was to bring together people from military, from the other parts of the government, and from academia (would love to have journalists as well) attend a week-long seminar/workshop/institute/whatever to learn from experts but as/more importantly, learn from each other by seeing the same stuff from different perspectives via the varying lenses of folks in the community. Plus we wanted to facilitate networking that bridge the various divides.  And, yeah, it was really sweet to see it come to fruition this week.  Last year's cohort was wonderful, but was not nearly as representative of the defence and security community.  We still have work to do to include folks from Public Safety, Global Affairs, and other departments.  

Our presenters included CDSN co-directors and other Canadian academics, folks from the policy community, CAF officers, American academics, journalists, and a pollster.  They brought much experience and insights to our discussions, provoking many questions along the way.  Most of the week was at Carleton, but we did foray into downtown one morning to meet with folks at the National Defence Headquarters.  There we meet with folks from defence intelligence, the deputy commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, and some of the top officials on the civilian side of the Department of National Defence.  With Chatham House rule in effect, I can't say what individuals said, but I can say that most of the folks we met along the way were quite open.  

The Valens Simulation ended in tears and dollars?  The scenario had disinformation and arctic sovereignty in play with three teams role-playing the US, Canada, and Meta.  Meta got huge profits as it continued to spew disinformation, while the US-Canadian relationship was torn asunder as they failed to reach an agreement.  Daveed Garenstein-Ross, the head of Valens, had to wake up early and re-write the ending presentation in light of unexpected conflict.  This sim had multiple purposes--to use some of the skills over the course of the week, to get a taste of the strengths and limitations of simulations, to provide a more interactive experience, and to create small cross-sectoral teams.

I am very grateful to the HQ team of Melissa, Sherry, Racheal, Carelove, and Ayshia for doing all of the hard work.  All I did was make cookies and introduce people and ask some pesky questions along the way.  Colonel Cathy Blue, who was our Visiting Defence Fellow for the past year, was so crucial.  Her first week with us last year was during the previous Summer Institute, so she gave us great feedback on what worked best and what did not, and then she helped plan this year's SI.  More importantly, she is an amazing recruiter, so she helped us reach our goal of a nice mix of policy, military, and academic folks.  She couldn't join us for this year's as she has an important job now of Commanding the cadets at the Royal Military College.  

If you are interested in the Summer Institute, we will be putting out ads and accepting applications in early 2024, and you can check out more info at our website: https://www.cdsn-rcds.com/summerinstitute 

Below are a variety of pictures from the week.  Again, Carelove took better ones, but I am quick to upload mine ;)

Once again in the Board of Governors room

Our policy process panel with Kristine Ennis-Heise
of DND, retired man of many jobs Vincent Rigby, and
CDSN Co-Director Alan Okros

Valens introduces the week's simulation with
Libby at their hq and Daveed Garenstein-Ross
in Ottawa

Murray Brewster, Amanda Connolly (on zoom), and
Captain (N) Kelly Williamson on the media and
Canadian defence

My first slide for the panel on Canadian
civil-military relations with Andrea Lane, Risa Brooks,
and myself

Co-director Will Greaves, Michel Roy of CSE,
and Saira Bano of Thompson Rivers
discussing variety of threats facing Canada

Stephanie Carvin zooming from Oshawa talking
intel with ...

Battle Rhythm co-host Artur Wilczynski

Much fun at our midweek Networking Reception

Charlotte and Andrea enjoying the picture taking

Our partner for this event was
Women in International Security-Canada. 
WIIS-C is a founding member of the CDSN, and
I greatly enjoyed hanging out with their new team

You know it is a good reception when a large
segment of the group stick around after the event
at the hotel bar.

Grace Scoppio of Royal Military College,
co-director Andrea Charron, and
Conseils de Sécurité host Sarah Myriam Martin-Brûlé
discuss collaborative research

Co-Director JC Boucher, Captain (N) Kelly
Williamson, and Nik Nanos of the Nanos Research firm
discuss Canadian public opinion on defence

Co-director Phil Lagassé looks to be in some
pain as he discusses defence procurement

Twas really great to have ADM (Mat) Troy Crosby
and the always natty Kim Nossal to discuss
defence procurement

Brandon Behlendorf presented red-teaming to us

Alliance dynamics with Carleton poli sci prof
Aaron Ettinger, DND NATO officer Ashley McCauley
and Co-Director Stéphane Roussel

The end of the simulation with US and Canada
breaking up and Meta profiting hugely.

Mission Accomplished: First CDSN Summer Institute Rocked!

 Yesterday concluded the first Canadian Defence and Security Network's Summer Institute.  The idea was to bring together people from across the defence/security community for a week's worth of professional development and networking.  This was one of the key ideas in our grant efforts, and it was great to see it realized after having to cancel last year's.  

We spent much time working on translating the event to being online for this summer's edition, and we are pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Instead of being in a conference room for many hours a day punctuated by meals and receptions and a tour or two, we met online for a few sessions a day.  The sessions ranged from traditional roundtables to breakout sessions to small group exercises to happy hours.  

The roundtables and breakout sessions focused on some of the threats facing Canada (climate change, extremism, and pandemics); public affairs and civil-military relations; personnel issues; a strategic foresight exercise; alliance politics; operations in Canada, north and not so north; figuring out what security means for different actors; thinking about data; and bridging the gap.  

Our presenters ranged from CDSN co-directors to academics elsewhere to government officials/practioners.  We had some media folks involved, but they could not attend due to the election.  We also had to shuffle things around a bit as some of the people who were supposed to speak were government officials with responsibilities including ...  Afghanistan.  The replacements were fantastic, providing very valuable perspectives.  The whole week was a Chatham House Rule event--no attribution of whatever was said--so the speakers felt comfortable being pretty open about stuff.  

The participants were mostly emerging scholars (PhD students, assistant professors), relatively junior military officers, and relatively junior policy officers with some folks who were less easy to categorize.  We had some folks from outside of Canada--US, UK, and Morocco.  Not sure that would have happened if we were doing things in person.  They were all very engaged and provided perspectives that taught me and other presenters a few things--when done right, learning is in two directions.

To facilitate networking, we had the participants split into the same small groups all week long and had them work on some creative thinking projects:

• 
  assigned a party, what would they write as that party's platform.  We had five groups, so five platforms.  And they were far more realistic than a certain one or two I have seen from the actual parties.
• develop a DND/CAF media strategy.  This was pretty wide open, and they took it in very interesting directions

• 

  Three research agendas
  

  assigned a historically excluded community, each group was to develop strategies to make DND/CAF include that group better.
• what should the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and/or DND's Mobilizing Insights in Security Defence programs set as their next funding priorities.

The small group exercises worked far better than we had hoped, as they did foster some connections within the groups AND generate some really sharp thinking.  

We had two happy hours.  We did a speed dating kind of thing where each person would meet several others and exchange a bit of info--their favorite defence/security issue, their favorite hobby, a pandemic survival strategy.  We didn't set up the zoom breakout rooms quite right so it didn't work as smoothly as we liked, but it generally allowed folks to meet others and get a better sense of the other folks in the community.  The second happy hour involved geoguessr (h/t to Lama for the suggestion), a game that plops a group somewhere in the world in googlestreetview, and you have to figure out what country you are in.  It was silly, serving as a good icebreaker.  I met a few people in my zoom room that I hadn't had a chance to speak with, so I chalk that up as a win.  

This event was very inspired by stuff I had seen at Bridging the Gap's weeklong summer seminars where I was a presenter a couple of times and also by stuff I had heard about SWAMOS and other similar enterprises.  I am very grateful to the CDSN HQ team who did so much of the work this summer to get this ready, to the presenters who did great with my vague instructions and were willing to stick around after the designated time (pretty much every session went long, which I took as a good sign), and to the participants for bringing it every day.  

One of the goals of the CDSN in general and this event in particular is to foster a sense of community for those who are in this defence/security enterprise.  I am pretty sure it worked, but only time will tell.  We will try to do things down the road to bring these people back together and to reinforce the bonds that were created.  And if we can do this in person, we will add more topics, including more speakers from beyond DND/CAF.

And now I can go back to preparing to teach the next batch of classes as, alas, summer is ending.