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2012 Halifax International Security Forum

2012 Halifax International Security Forum

Date
November 16-18, 2012
Location
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Participants
300

Agenda & Speakers

Friday, November 16
Saturday, November 17
Sunday, November 18

9:00-10:15

Breakfast Sessions

Border Patrolling: How To?

Antony Anderson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Jamaica Defence Forces

Yusuf S. Muftuoglu, Communications and Public Diplomacy Advisor to the President of Turkey

MODERATOR: Robin Shepherd, Director, International Affairs, Henry Jackson Society

 

Confronting Iran

Christian Schmidt, Parliamentary State Secretary of Defense, Federal Ministry of Defense, Germany

Geneive Abdo, Fellow, Stimson Center

Ariel Levite, Nonresident Senior Associate, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

MODERATOR: Oussama Safa, First Social Affairs Officer, United Nations Economic and Social Development Commission in Western Asia

10:30-11:45

Plenary 7: Is Afghanistan Pakistan’s Problem? (Or Vice Versa?) On the record

Speakers

Foreign Affairs Reporter, CNN
Moderator
Elise Labott

Elise Labott

Elise Labott is CNN’s Foreign Affairs Reporter. Since she joined CNN in 2002 as the network’s State Department Producer, she has reported from more than 75 countries and has traveled the world with four Secretaries of State. In addition to providing on-air reports and analysis for CNN’s television and radio networks, Labott writes regularly for CNN.com. Labott has covered a variety of important recent international stories, including the Arab spring and the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. Labott has reported extensively on the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan.Labott came to CNN from ABC News, where she covered the United Nations, and also reported for Agence France Presse and other publications on diplomatic and foreign policy issues. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in international affairs and communications. She has a Master’s in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research.Labott is currently vice-president of State Department Correspondents Association and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Chairman and CEO, Moby Group

Saad Mohseni

Saad Mohseni

Mr. Saad Mohseni is an Afghan Media mogul and entrepreneur. He is the Chairman of MOBY Group, which is one of Afghanistan’s largest media companies and is best known for brands such as Tolo TV, Tolo News, Lemar TV, Farsi1 and Arman FM. Prior to establishing Moby Group, he headed the equities and corporate finance division of an Australian investment banking firm. From 2002 to 2004, Mr. Saad served as a senior economic advisor to the Afghan Government, where he assisted in the development of the Industrial Parks Commission as well as the High Commission for Investment. He also helped establish the Afghanistan Centre for Policy and Research Studies.

Journalist and Author, Pakistan

Ahmed Rashid

Ahmed Rashid

Mr. Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist based in Lahore, who has covered Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia for a variety of publications since 1979. He is the author of the best selling Taliban (2000). His other books include Descent into Chaos: The US and the Disaster in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, (2011), Jihad (2002) and The Resurgence of Central Asia (1994). His fifth and latest book is Pakistan on the Brink, The Future of America, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both Taliban and Descent into Chaos are on course lists at more than 200 universities and defense colleges around the world. He writes for the Financial Times, the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Spain’s El Mundo, BBC Online and Pakistani publications. Foreign Policymagazine chose him as one of the world’s most important 100 Global Thinkers in 2009 and 2010.

Former Intelligence Chief, Afghanistan

Amrullah Saleh

Amrullah Saleh

Senior Defense Adviser and Former Minister of Defense, Afghanistan
General Abdul Rahim Wardak

General Abdul Rahim Wardak

General Abdul Rahim Wardak was Afghanistan’s minister of national defense from 2004-2012. Before that, he served as deputy defense minister to Mohammad Qasim Fahim. Previously, he was a lecturer at Cadet University and assistant of protocol of the ministry of defense. He has served in numerous positions, including as the military assistant to Muhaz-e-Milli, military assistant of the Tri-Lateral Unity, member of Itehad-e-Mujahiddin and commander of the Jihadi fronts of Muhaz-e-Milli. After the fall of the communist regime, he was a member of the security committee of Kabul City; chief of the Army staff; director of the Military Officers Society; director of the Education Commission and member of the National Army Commission, among other positions. General Wardak completed studies in the United States and at the Ali Naser Academy in Cairo, Egypt.

After a decade of war in Afghanistan and a seemingly endless search for Osama bin Laden, the terrorist kingpin was finally found—in Pakistan. The inability of Pakistan to police extremists inside its own borders raises troubling questions about a country that US officials would still like to consider an ally in the war on terrorism. Can we ever consider Afghanistan stable, if it has an unstable relationship with Pakistan?

“Please do not say [the violence] is because of Afghan tribalism, and the fever of violence in Afghan blood. No, we want life. A very civil, normal life. But we are in a very bad neighborhood. A country to our south promotes Sunni extremism and a country to the west supports Shiite extremism. And in the middle, we are like an asphalt flower trying to survive.”

— Amrullah Saleh, Former Intelligence Chief, Afghanistan

“I think the present US and NATO strategy is deeply flawed. They’re focusing on the military transition, and I have no doubt that will work out all right. But the real issue at stake is the political transition. The elections coming up in 2014—how much leverage or pressure can the West bring to bear to ensure those elections are free and fair? If there’s another rigged election, Afghanistan very well could fall apart. We could face a civil war or a crisis that we’ve never faced before.”

— Ahmed Rashid, Journalist and Author, Pakistan

12:15-13:30

Plenary 8: Automated or Automatic? Cyber, Drones and the Consequences of Modern Warfare On the record

Speakers

Senior Fellow, George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute
Moderator
Jeanne Meserve

Jeanne Meserve

Ms. Jeanne Meserve is a member of the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute and the Aspen Institute’s Homeland Security Advisory Group. An award-winning journalist, Ms. Meserve was a CNN anchor and served as the homeland security correspondent following September 11, covering a broad array of stories about terrorism, law enforcement, security and preparedness. On the ground in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, she was the first to report on the devastating flooding inundating portions of the city. CNN’s coverage of the storm and its aftermath won a Peabody Award. Ms. Meserve received a B.A. in English Literature from Middlebury College.

Head, Justice and Building Party, Yemen
Mohammed Abulahoum

Mohammed Abulahoum

Mr. Mohammed Abu Lahoum is head of the Justice and Building Party in Yemen, which he helped establish in 2011. He resigned from the General People’s Congress (GPC), Yemen’s ruling party, on March 18, and joined the Youth Revolution. Sheikh Abu Lahoum served as head of the Foreign Relations Department at the GPC from 2004 until 2007. Between 1990 and 1993, he served as a member of Parliament in Yemen’s first parliament after the unification and founded the Republican Party of Yemen in 1991. Over the years, Sheikh Abu Lahoum has served as chairman of various committees, focusing on the economy and development, and was director for bilateral relations at the Ministry of Development. He holds a BA and MA from The George Washington University.

President and CEO, Human Rights First
Elisa Massimino

Elisa Massimino

Ms. Elisa Massimino is president and CEO of Human Rights First, one of the nation’s leading human rights advocacy organizations. Ms. Massimino joined Human Rights First in 1991 and served as the organization’s Washington director for more than a decade before being named chief executive in September 2008. She has a distinguished record of human rights advocacy in Washington. In May 2008, 2009, and 2011 the influential Washington newspaper The Hill named her one of the top public advocates in the country. She holds a law degree from the University of Michigan, a MA in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Ms. Massimino serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court.

Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Jean Paul Paloméros

Jean Paul Paloméros

The North Atlantic Council confirmed General Jean-Paul Paloméros as supreme allied commander transformation in August 2012. From 2009 to 2012, General Paloméros served as air force chief of staff. In 2005, he was appointed vice-chief of staff of the French Air Force, where he implemented a new organization named “Air 2010.” Throughout his career he acquired extensive experience both as an operational commander and as a fighter pilot, having flown 82 combat missions and more than 3,500 flying hours. General Paloméros graduated from the Royal Air Force Staff College in 1993 where he was awarded the Curtis Prize by the Chief of the Air Staff of Great Britain. He joined the French Air Force Academy in 1973 and qualified as a fighter pilot in 1976. He has been awarded the rank of Grand Officer of the French Legion of Honour, is an Officer of the National Order of Merit and holds the Aeronautical Medal.

Minister of Public Safety, Public Safety Canada

Vic Toews

Vic Toews

The Honorable Victor Toews was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 2000. In 2006, Mr. Toews was appointed minister of justice and attorney general of Canada and in 2007 named president of the Treasury Board. Prior to his election to the House of Commons, he was active in Manitoba provincial politics. In 1995, he was elected as the member of the Legislative Assembly for Rossmere and was appointed minister of labour. From 1997 to 1999, he served as the attorney general and minister of justice for the Province of Manitoba. Mr. Toews practiced law with the Manitoba provincial Department of Justice from 1976 to 1991 and in 1987 was appointed director of constitutional law for the province. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1991. Mr. Toews graduated from the University of Winnipeg and received his law degree from the University of Manitoba.

Principal and CEO, The SecDev Group
Rafal Rohozinski

Rafal Rohozinski

Mr. Rafal Rohozinski is a Canadian expert and practitioner in the fields of information security, cyber warfare, and the globalization of armed violence. He is a principal and CEO with The SecDev Group, a Canadian company with a global mission to engage with complex problems of insecurity and violence. Mr. Rohozinski is also CEO and founder of Psiphon Inc. and Secdev.cyber, and a senior scholar at the Munk School of Global Affairs. He was formerly the director of the Advanced Network Research Group at the University of Cambridge and a senior visiting fellow at the International Development Research Centre in Canada, where he developed conceptual approaches to studying the telegeography of conflict zones, including a case study of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is widely published and frequently appears as a commentator on the BBC World Service, CBC, CNN and other international media.

Modern warfare is advancing faster than our ethical framework can keep up with it. This leaves us struggling to make sense of a new kind of war, in which unmanned drones can hit targets from miles away, and a computer virus can do as much damage to a nation’s infrastructure as a cruise missile. How can we adjust the rules of war—and our sense of right and wrong—to account for these new technologies?

“Drones in a way are like a lawn mower. You have to keep using it or your grass keeps growing. It’s a tactic, not a strategy.”

— Elisa Massimino, President and Chief Executive Officer, Human Rights First

“We shouldn’t overreact, and we must remind ourselves that cyber security is first and foremost the responsibility of each nation. We have an alliance responsible for global defense, but each nation is responsible for its own security.”

— Jean-Paul Paloméros, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, NATO

Closing Remarks On the record

November 18th marked the closing of the 4th Halifax International Security Forum, a community for thoughtful and engaged decision-makers from governments, militaries, business, academia, and the media, who work together to meet emerging threats in a changing world.

Convened in Halifax, Nova Scotia every year, the Forum provides an unscripted, discussion-based atmosphere. This year, the Forum hosted 300 leaders from 50 countries who participated in 32 panels, dinners and night owl discussions, covering dozens of topics from Syria and Gaza to energy independence and cyber attacks.

In their closing remarks, Canadian Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay and Halifax International Security Forum President Peter Van Praagh reflected on the weekend’s conversations, the importance of the Forum in the foreign policy community, and how the discussions at Halifax can lead to action moving forward.

Closing Press Conference On the record

As the 4th annual Halifax International Security Forum drew to a close, Canadian Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay spoke to the press about the importance of the Forum, and fielded questions from reporters on Canada’s national defense and role in conflicts around the world. Minister MacKay sounded an optimistic note on the future of Afghanistan, where Canadian troops will withdraw by 2014, but noted that Pakistan must play a more constructive role in securing the transition to democracy.

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