National Defence committee  Yes, I would tend to agree, sir, it is local, and you start small. You have to make it fit where you are. I think some of the skill sets that are most important are simple skill sets that are quite complex, like mentoring and advising and monitoring and evaluating and knowing how to negotiate and mediate, knowing how to have intercultural communication, being savvy to what that landscape is.

National Defence committee  I would assert that Parliament speaks for the people in a democracy and that all politics is local. When Parliament is out and about and is sharing with its constituency, this constituency is very much affected by how the economies are changing and how conflict affects that. I think the role of Parliament is quite important in setting parameters.

National Defence committee  I use that phrase because of the change in the nature of conflict. Conflict is no longer nicely ordered between sovereign states, but it's certainly managed by non-state actors who engage now in low-intensity, longer-term, much more violent conflict. The response we see to that isn't always useful, because there's a whole other piece to why that low-intensity conflict is going on.

National Defence committee  We had a similar model in the early days of Vietnam, where we realized that there had to be a marriage of when you created a secure environment, how quickly you got development going, how quickly you got rule of law going, and how quickly you got people's needs met. That activity of responding to the local population had to happen with multiple hands.

National Defence committee  We believe in civilian oversight of the armed forces in this country and in most democratic countries. Again, I think it's not as easy as one or the other, but what is the shared relationship, what is the shared information, and what is the co-location that is required to ensure that all the parties around that table have a clear understanding and appreciation of where they are going, what they are doing, what the costs are, and what the risks are?

National Defence committee  I think with the emphasis on multilateralism in the current administration and the emphasis on smart power, there's going to be much more interest in seeing how the UN and others can be shaped in their running of mandates to the Security Council to become more active. So I think it bears watching.

National Defence committee  If we're going to go that route, then the experience gained in the fields of Afghanistan, which mimics what we are seeing in a Congo and other places, is a capability that the forces have exhibited that we will need, if we are to engage in peacekeeping that is very robust. It is not traditional peacekeeping; it's a far grander experience.

National Defence committee  I think the withdrawal of the developed world from peacekeeping was really highlighted in the debacle of the 1990s, and I don't think we've let go of that yet. I also think that because of politics and national interest arguments, there's less appetite for the UN in general as a multilateral organization.

National Defence committee  Thank you for a very interesting question. I'm not sure that it's about right or wrong. I think it's much more about a changed landscape for the delivery of services in a conflict environment that doesn't obey all the rules and complicates the relationship between the humanitarian NGO community and the military.

National Defence committee  Yes, it would be.

National Defence committee  I would suggest, sir, that the traditional role of peacekeeping is maybe a pipedream.

National Defence committee  In a globalized world, the idea of focusing only here, to the exclusion of there, probably is a bit limiting. You have to focus where the national interest is, without losing sight of what is also over the horizon.

National Defence committee  I would basically concur, but if we go back to Political Science 101, as you know, securing the borders is the principal activity for a government and for national interest. One can argue that when we look at the kind of conflict environment we are currently experiencing, borders are no longer as sacred as they used to be, and it's quite easy to infiltrate.

National Defence committee  Well, the UN has a whole new book on principles and guidelines for how they'd define it. I think international peace operations would be any and all activities that respond to imminent conflict on that continuum from prevention to peace-building.

National Defence committee  I would think so.