National Defence committee  Arms control isn't necessarily the best way of dealing with it. Right now, I'm afraid it's all about enhanced deterrence and responding to perceived threats. Arms control, is not, if you like, the first tool in the box right now for dealing with that.

National Defence committee  I agree. For example, you're looking at the Russian view—certainly newspeak—of de-escalating conflict through the use of nuclear weapons. When you're dealing with somebody who's talking in those terms, arms control is frankly a bit more distant than we would all like it to be. Ev

National Defence committee  Yes. The NATO Parliamentary Assembly was the first international organization to formally sanction the Russians for their actions in Crimea and then, subsequently, Donbass. It took us all a bit by surprise, because although we expected sanctions to be imposed, Russia, which was t

National Defence committee  I don't know about the Canadian officers. One of the things that has changed the threat environment is the unexpected rate of progress in North Korea, where they seem to have acquired probably some Russian design work that has really enabled them to make huge progress with miss

National Defence committee  You've been reading my bio. I actually started my professional life, my academic life, in physics, so I love the technology stuff, basically. The fundamental shift, of course, is that since NATO was founded, there has been the rise of the IT revolution, which has utterly transf

National Defence committee  Okay.

National Defence committee  I wish I knew the answer. It's staggering, for example, that the B-52 will have gone from the drawing board to being out of service in 80 years. It's absolutely astonishing, with some weapons systems, how long they're in service. Of course, when you have a rate of innovation in I

National Defence committee  Thank you very much indeed, Mr. Chairman. I will do my utmost to be as succinct as James was. I would like to talk about the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, because it's a dimension of NATO membership that has, obviously, from the name, a very specific benefit to parliamentarians,