National Defence committee  I've spent a fair bit of time in East Africa conflict zones, in Sudan, and in Ethiopia at the Eritrea border. I've visited Afghanistan three times, and Uganda. Familiarity doesn't make one an expert in any of those places, I'm afraid.

National Defence committee  My point wasn't that all conflicts can be negotiated; it's that all conflicts are. That's the way conflicts end. That doesn't mean the military process hasn't influenced enormously how the negotiations go and all that sort of thing. That's one point. That's what happens. Secondl

National Defence committee  I think the distinction there is between coordination and integration. In a whole-of-government approach, you certainly need to have NGOs and the military and diplomats all working in concourse towards an identified common strategic goal, a national goal. So I think the coordinat

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, where's he from?

National Defence committee  I think part of it is political leadership. It takes a certain amount of audacity to insert yourself into conflicts where the immediate interests of Canada are not so apparent. There's a generalized interest that we have. The Norwegians have done that. They've become involved.

National Defence committee  If I could just take up the first point about insurgencies dissolving, I'd have to say that it's not a rapid dissolution process in Afghanistan. One of the difficulties there is that it won't be dissolved by a general appeal to a population. There is an insurgency that has a poli

National Defence committee  Thank you. The international arms trade is something on which there's been some reasonably positive news in the sense of international collective attention to it. As you know, through the UN now, there is actually negotiation towards an arms trade treaty, which would set some li

National Defence committee  Thank you. I agree that the United Nations certainly needs to be made much more effective. I don't know whether that means reform. I'm not sure whether you're using the term “reform” in a formal sense of institutional reform, which is a very difficult and long-tried but long-fai

National Defence committee  I can start. My understanding is that SHIRBRIG hasn't turned out to be an efficient and effective measure there. I agree with the implication that there needs to be some kind of collective readiness to deploy that is available, but I'm not sure as to the extent to which that's g

National Defence committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I add my thanks to the committee for the opportunity to be here. I have provided the committee with a paper that's been distributed this morning. I want to make three additional points just now. Approaches to post-2011 roles for Canadian Forc