National Defence committee  Thank you. I just have to come back on the point. I agree and I'm very glad about the comment about the UN having lessons learned and having the capstone doctrine. We were reminded of that. I was just talking about a very narrow lacuna in the protection of civilians, the lack of

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for that question, because I think it's fundamentally important that we develop a meaningful capacity for a whole-of-government approach in Canada. Also, bear in mind that this whole-of-government approach in Canada must take account of the broad strategic and

National Defence committee  I guess it's like the chicken and the egg. I'm not sure how you can do....

National Defence committee  It's like the problem with the protection of civilians and not developing that doctrine, because it's extremely difficult without the lessons on the ground. The typical way of doing this is that you get the practical experience in what the challenges were on the ground, and you f

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  Yes. I might note at the outset, with respect to polling, that the most recent polling introduces the element of risk and puts forward to Canadians that peacekeeping is now of greater risk. That doesn't seem to have diminished their support for it. Peace operations is a more acc

National Defence committee  Yes, thank you very much. I'm very pleased to do that. Before I do that, though, I'll echo comments that have been made by others here about this whole-of-government approach. Canada needs to focus on supporting the peace process. If we're going to send military peacekeepers, t

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for the question. I will answer in English, if that's okay, because I will use technical terms.

National Defence committee  This is a very important question that is being raised about what is now routinely included in UN mandates—the protection of civilians. It's a very difficult and demanding task, and a great deal of experience has been gained, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. My comments will focus on the value added of UN peacekeeping and the urgent need for Canada to upgrade its training for effective re-engagement. I will hopefully build very much on the previous speakers. UN peacekeeping is no miracle cure and there are no g

National Defence committee  It's not added to the treaty, because of course NATO's nuclear posture is not part of the treaty. It's a policy. It's updated, reviewed, and changes are made quite regularly. There's a long history of footnotes to various aspects of the policy. It's not necessarily just the nucle

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for the question. It's actually very hard to know. I mean, NATO says that, just like NATO said, in the September 20 document I talked about, that the NPT is the cornerstone of the international non-proliferation and disarmament architecture. Of course, that NP

National Defence committee  NATO's job is to be a collective defence alliance, and its nuclear—

National Defence committee  Not just in a vacuum, for no purpose.

National Defence committee  I mean, no, its purpose is not to exert its military might. Its purpose is to be a defensive alliance. That's its purpose.