Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/103039
sit rep Robert Folwer The next intervention? Where will the Canadian Forces deploy next? It's a question every soldier asks his or her commanding officer whenever the opportunity arises. For those forecasting the next intervention, Mali, Iran and Syria all loom large. None may involve boots on the ground, but all three are areas of interest for the Canadian Joint Operations Command. The government has carefully avoided major commitments toward Syria, but reports in recent weeks that the failing government of Bashar al-Assad may be loading missiles with chemical warheads did prompt an offer of the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit should NATO request it. In addition, the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has been made available to provide clean water and engineers would be able to help set up a field hospital. Iran remains the most problematic, but in a presentation to the Centre for International Policy Studies in November, John Mundy, a former ambassador to Iran, and Peter Jones, a former public servant with Foreign Affairs and National Defence and now an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, raised the spectre of confrontation with the Islamic republic in the latter half of 2013. Both noted the confluence of events, from read lines on weaponization drawn by the Obama Administration to 2013 elections in Israel and Iran. "By the second half of the year all the players will have new leaders with new mandates," said Mundy, adding that a shadow war in cyber space is already underway. Jones observed that Tehran has been a net S loser in the Arab Spring, seeing its claim as a model form of government dramatically reduced. If offers to cease its military nuclear program are rejected, there could be consequences for the fall of 2013, he said As alarming as the situations in Syria and Iran are, Mali may be more pressing. The loss of government control of the northern half of the country to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and subsequent coups by the military against the government over its mishandling of a rebellion by nomadic Tuareg rebels that instigated the AQIM takeover, point to the fulfilment of AQIM's mission to spread chaos across the entire Sahel region. During a presentation to the Centre for Security and Defence Studies at Carleton University in December, Robert Folwer, a former Deputy Minister of National Defence and Canada's longest serving Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made the case for limited intervention to degrade the capability of AQIM and its allied groups. Fowler, of course, has firsthand experience with the absolute fanaticism and focus of AQIM. As UN Special Envoy to Niger in 2008, he was captured and held prisoner with colleague Louis Guay for 130 days. He advocated training Malian forces to act against AQIM, saying that unlike in Afghanistan they represent an actual democratically elected government. Moreover, AQIM "will do what they said they were going to do," potentially spreading a humanitarian disaster across a region in which Canada has invested over $150 billion dollars during the past 50 years. "It's an investment worth protecting." According to the Washington Post, the Pentagon has begun to organize a "multinational proxy force" that would be led by Malian troops with West African support, bolstered by the Pentagon and State departments. Canada already has significant experience with Malian forces. Small teams of instructors from the Canadian Special Operations Regiment in Petawawa have helped provide training as part of the U.S.-organized Exercise Flintlock. The change you want. The challenge you seek. Our MA in Human Security and Peacebuilding and MA in Disaster Management programs equip you with the skills you need to make a difference in the world. Put your passion for making the world a safer place into action with knowledge gained from graduate study with our team of industry experts. With a completely unique educational model, balancing online learning with on campus residencies, an experience at Royal Roads University is anything but ordinary. We're ready when you are: 1.877.778.6227 life.changing royalroads.ca/peace Peace & Conflict Management www.vanguardcanada.com Publication Name Vanguard Created By RRU Brand Creative / KA Booked By Cossette Send Files To sarah.wickers@cossette.com Material Deadline November 22, 2012 RRU Contact Patty Shaw DECEMBER 2012/JANUARY 2013 7