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2019 Halifax International Security Forum

2019 Halifax International Security Forum

Date
November 22-24, 2019
Location
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Participants
300

Agenda & Speakers

Friday, November 22
Saturday, November 23
Sunday, November 24

7:00

5K Run with Canadian Minister of National Defence

LOCATION: Westin Lobby

8:30-10:00

Breakfast Sessions

Global Energy, Renewable Threats

SPEAKERS:

  • Mr. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Founder, Open Russia; Mr. Laurent Ruseckas, Executive Director, Global Gas, IHS Markit
  • MODERATOR: Mr. Ryan Heath, Senior Editor, POLITICO

 

Out of Control: Nukes Without Treaties

SPEAKERS:

  • Ms. Heather Hurlburt, Director, New Models of Policy Change, New America; Mr. Mikhail Kasyanov, People’s Freedom Party, Russia; General Stephen Wilson, Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force
  • MODERATOR: Mr. Bryan Bender, Defense and Space Editor, POLITICO

10:00-10:30

Halifax Chat On the record

Speakers

5th President of Ukraine, Government of Ukraine
Petro Poroshenko

Petro Poroshenko

President Petro Poroshenko was the 5th President of Ukraine (2014-2019) and Chairman of “European Solidarity” Political Party. In 1998, he started his political career as Member of Parliament of Ukraine. In 2000, he became Deputy Head of National Bank Council of Ukraine. In 2005, Petro Poroshenko served as Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. In 2006, he won elections and returned to Parliament. In 2009, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs and in 2012 – Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine. In May 2014, Petro Poroshenko won early elections and became the 5th President of Ukraine. Conclusion and entry into force of Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, visa-free regime between EU and Ukraine, new modernized NATO-standard Ukrainian Armed Forces, international unity and solidarity against Russian aggression are among major achievements of Poroshenko’s presidency. It is recognized that under Poroshenko’s leadership Ukraine carried out more reforms than for all years of independence.

Vice President, Halifax International Security Forum
Moderator
Mr. Robin Shepherd

Mr. Robin Shepherd

Robin Shepherd is Vice President at Halifax International Security Forum. A British citizen, Robin has been a senior journalist and think tank analyst for many years. Among the highlights of his career, he has been the head of the Europe Programme at Chatham House, Moscow Bureau Chief for the Times of London, and the author of two previous books, A State Beyond the Pale: Europe’s Problem with Israel; and Czechoslovakia: The Velvet Revolution and Beyond.

Will Crimea be returned to Ukraine? There isn’t a doubt in former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s mind that the annexed territory will soon belong to his country once more. The post-war era was destroyed in an instant when President Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea in 2014, bringing U.S.-Russian tensions to their highest point since the Cold War.

In spite of the conflict, Poroshenko is grateful for strong bi-partisan solidarity from Canada and still considers the U.S. to be Ukraine’s strongest ally, even with the uncertainty that shadows that relationship today. He issued a call for Ukraine to join NATO. He also urged the Sunday Halifax Chat to remember that the values of democracy that once united the world, will strengthen NATO solidarity. He left the Forum with a warning from the frontlines of the Russia conflict – “Don’t let Putin divide us.” Ukraine is not going anywhere.

10:30-11:30

Plenary 7: Security Solutions, Women’s Contributions On the record

Speakers

Chief of Defence, Netherlands Armed Forces
Admiral Rob Bauer

Admiral Rob Bauer

Admiral Rob Bauer is the Netherlands Chief of Defense. Admiral Bauer joined the Royal Netherlands Navy via the Royal Naval College and was commissioned as a naval officer in 1984. During the first twenty years of service, he held numerous operational positions at sea. In 2011, Bauer was appointed as Deputy Director of Plans for Operational Policy and Innovation. He was then promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral and appointed Director of Plans for the Armed Forces, including the newly formed Defence Cyber Command. Over the following three years, he was also a member of the Council for Defence Research and Development, the National Council for Cyber Security and the Netherlands Coast Guard Council. In 2015, Bauer was appointed as Vice Chief of Defence. He is the Chairman of the Defence Business Platform. Since early 2017, Bauer has also been Chairman of the Adaptive Armed Forces Steering Committee.

Chief of the Defence Staff, Canadian Armed Forces
General Jonathan Vance

General Jonathan Vance

General Jonathan H. (Jon) Vance is the Canadian Armed Forces Chief of the Defence Staff. He joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1982 and has served in Canada, Germany and on UN Peacekeeping operations with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, The Royal Canadian Regiment. General Vance has commanded at all levels within the field force from platoon commander to brigade commander and in combat operations as a Joint Task Force Commander in Afghanistan. Following his tours in Afghanistan, General Vance served in Army headquarters as Chief of Staff Land Strategy and as Director of the Strategic Joint Staff in National Defence Headquarters. He completed a tour as Deputy Commander, Allied Joint Force Command Naples in July 2014 before assuming the position as Commander, Canadian Joint Operations Command in September of the same year. General Vance was appointed Chief of the Defence Staff in July 2015.

Deputy Minister of National Defence, Department of National Defence, Canada
Ms. Jody Thomas

Ms. Jody Thomas

Ms. Jody Thomas was appointed Deputy Minister of National Defence on October 23, 2017. Ms. Thomas began her career in the Public Service in 1988. She served in a variety of senior roles within the Passport Office, culminating in Chief Operating Officer, where she managed service delivery at 35 locations involving 3,000 employees across Canada. In 2010, Ms. Thomas joined the Canadian Coast Guard where she held the position of Deputy Commissioner of Operations for four years, during which she provided leadership and functional direction in the development of the Coast Guard’s strategic and operational policy frameworks, monitored their implementation and ensured the strategic direction for the cost-effective delivery of Coast Guard programs. In September 2014, Ms. Thomas was appointed as Special Advisor to the Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet (Operations) at the Privy Council Office until her appointment as Commissioner of the Coast Guard on January 1, 2015.

Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support, United Nations
Mr. Atul Khare

Mr. Atul Khare

Mr. Atul Khare is the Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support. He was appointed on 1 Jan 2019. He was previously appointed Under-Secretary-General for Field Support on 2 March 2015. Mr. Khare brings to the position strategic management and innovative reform expertise in both headquarters and field perspective. Mr. Khare has had a long senior career with the United Nations. In 2010-11, he served as Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations and Deputy Head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York. He was later appointed as Assistant Secretary-General in the Change Management Team. Mr. Khare was previously Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Timor-Leste and Head of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) at the level of Under-Secretary-General (2006-2009). Mr. Khare is Former Director of The Nehru Centre and Minister (Culture), High Commission of India in London (2005-2006). Before that, he served in the Indian Foreign Service.

Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force
General Stephen Wilson

General Stephen Wilson

General Stephen W. “Seve” Wilson is Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, Arlington, Va. As Vice Chief, he presides over the Air Staff and serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Requirements Oversight Council and Deputy Advisory Working Group. He assists the Chief of Staff with organizing, training, and equipping of 685,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian forces serving in the United States and overseas. General Wilson received his commission from Texas A&M University in 1981. He’s had multiple flying tours, and led bomber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, mobility, aeromedical evacuation and airborne command and control operations supporting operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management and Founding Director, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
Moderator
Dr. Janice Gross Stein

Dr. Janice Gross Stein

Dr. Janice Gross Stein is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and the Founding Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was the Massey Lecturer in 2001 and a Trudeau Fellow. She was awarded the Molson Prize by the Canada Council for an outstanding contribution by a social scientist to public debate. She has received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from four universities and is a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario. She is a frequent contributor to CBC, TVO, and the BBC and writes regularly for the Globe and Mail.

Canadian Deputy Defence Minister Jody Thomas recognized that in 2019, women must play an equal and significant role in global security – especially at events like the Halifax International Security Forum. The sector is often exclusionary to women, but the seventh plenary encouraged a discussion on how the barriers to gender equality can be removed. Janice Stein opened the panel immediately to the floor, allowing participants to speak directly to their experiences as women leaders in their field. This showed that women in security do not need anyone to speak for them. Their contributions and solutions speak for themselves.

Having more women in the room changes how we look at conflict zones. It changes our access to communities and it should be fundamental to our values as a nation. Canada has taken a leadership role in gender equality, but the world, the industry, and men can do more to ensure that equality is achieved. Including women in security is not just a moral imperative. It is a strategic security advantage that can bring change desperately needed in an uncertain world.

“We know that women are ‘mentored’ and men are ‘sponsored’ and that word sponsorship matters because I wouldn’t be in the job today if some men hadn’t sponsored me, because five years ago absolutely no one would have seen me as the Deputy Minister of National Defence.”

— Ms. Jody Thomas, Deputy Minister of National Defence, Department of National Defence, Canada

“We have to encourage more women to do this, it’s not enough to be the first, it needs more than just one”

— Solveig Krey, Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations Section, Defence Staff Norway, Norwegian Armed Forces

“As long as you think culture is a soft, female-ish, word, you’ll have a rotten time working for me and you might want to find a different job”

— Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan, Commander, Cyber Defence Force, Netherlands Armed Forces

“Talking about being inclusive is only a first step. Real, lasting change takes action. All of us have more to do and all of us can do better”

— Hon. Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, Canada

“Women in the armed forces are not just numbers, they bring a unique perspective. They can do things that men can’t do”

— General Stephen Wilson, Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force

“We need to show people that being different is something that is right, that is okay, that is being sought”

— Admiral Rob Bauer, Chief of Defence, Netherlands Armed Forces

“Diversity is of critical importance. When we talk about peace, we want a peace that is founded on the full, meaningful contributions of all members of society”

— Mr. Atul Khare, Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support, Department of Operational Support, United Nations

“We need a critical mass of diversities”

— Dr. Janice Gross Stein, Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management and Founding Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto

11:30-12:00

Coffee Break

12:00-13:00

Plenary 8: Revolutions and their Remains On the record

Speakers

Senior Presenter, BBC Radio and World Service
Moderator
Mr. James Coomarasamy

Mr. James Coomarasamy

Mr. James Coomarasamy is a senior presenter for BBC World Service Radio’s award-winning programme Newshour and BBC Radio 4’s main evening current affairs show, The World Tonight. He also appears on BBC World News. Before he began presenting in 2009, he spent fifteen years as a BBC Correspondent in Washington, Paris, Moscow and Warsaw. He has brought the results of the last four US presidential elections to BBC listeners around the world and will be co-hosting BBC World Service Radio’s UK general election programme next month. He is a Russian speaker, who regularly presents from that country. In recent years, he has also presented from Kosovo, Eastern Ukraine, Crimea, Poland, the Netherlands and France.

Publisher and Editor, Die Zeit; Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution
Dr. Joseph Joffe

Dr. Joseph Joffe

Dr. Josef Joffe is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and is publisher and editor of the German weekly Die Zeit. Previously he was columnist and editorial page editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung (1985-2000). A Courtesy Professor of political science at Stanford since 2004, he is an Abramowitz Fellow of the University’s Hoover Institution. In 2007, he was appointed Senior Fellow of Stanford’s Institute for International Studies. He has also taught at Harvard, Johns Hopkins and the University of Munich. Abroad, his essays and reviews have appeared in: New York Review of Books, New York Times Book Review, Times Literary Supplement, Commentary, New York Times Magazine, New Republic, Weekly Standard, Prospect (London), Commentaire (Paris). His most recent books are The Myth of America’s Decline, 2014, WW. Norton and Über-Power: The Imperial Temptation in America (2006, translated into German, French and Chinese). He obtained his Ph.D. in Government in 1975 from Harvard.

Senior Editor, Voice of America, Georgia
Ms. Ia Meurmishvili

Ms. Ia Meurmishvili

Ms. Ia Meurmishvili is a journalist, senior editor, and the anchor of “Washington Today,” a weekly news magazine produced by the Voice of America’s Georgian Service.  In this capacity, she presents American foreign policy, values and culture to audiences in Georgia. She also covers American foreign and national security policy concerning NATO, U.S.-Russian, and U.S.-Georgian relations, and regularly appears as an expert commentator on Georgian television news and analysis programs.  She has also lectured at universities in Georgia, and spoken about U.S. politics, disinformation campaigns, and freedom of speech. In addition to her work for the Georgian Service, Ms. Meurmishvili has contributed to the investigative, fact-checking publication “poligraph.info” aimed at debunking fake news and propaganda. Prior to joining the Voice of America, Ms. Meurmishvili held positions at the Eurasia Foundation, Finmeccanica, and the office of U.S. Representative Allyson Schwartz.

Ambassador for Women, Peace, and Security, Canada
Ambassador Jacqueline O’Neill

Ambassador Jacqueline O’Neill

Ambassador Jacqueline O’Neill is the Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security for Canada. Appointed by the Prime Minister in June 2019, her primary role is to advise Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence, and numerous other departments engaged in implementing Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. Previously, Ambassador O’Neill was President of the Institute for Inclusive Security, a US-based organization that increased the inclusion of women in peace negotiations, including the reform of police and military organizations. Over 13 years at Inclusive Security, she supported the creation of national strategies and policy frameworks for more than 30 countries and organizations. Prior to that, Ambassador O’Neill worked at the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan and at Khartoum’s Ahfad University for Women. She helped found the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative to eliminate the use of children during conflict.

Spokesperson, United States Department of State
Ms. Morgan Ortagus

Ms. Morgan Ortagus

Ms. Morgan Ortagus is spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State. She was sworn on April 3, 2019. Ms. Ortagus is a seasoned foreign policy professional and an active U.S. Naval Reserve Officer. In 2010, Ms. Ortagus was the Deputy U.S. Treasury Attaché to Saudi Arabia. From 2008-2010, Ms. Ortagus was an intelligence analyst at the U.S. Treasury. She began her government service as a public affairs officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where in 2007 she spent several months in Baghdad, Iraq. In her private sector experience, Ms. Ortagus helped found EY’s Geostrategic Business Group and she was a Global Relationship Manager at Standard Chartered Bank. She was also the co-founder and Managing Director of GO Advisors, and a national security contributor at Fox News. She earned an honors thesis at Johns Hopkins in May 2013 with a dual Master of Business Administration/Master of Arts in Government.

You say you want a revolution. Well, everybody wants to change the world. From Hong Kong to Lebanon to Chile to Iran, people are taking to the streets. They are frustrated with institutions that are failing to provide their basic social and economic needs. They are embittered by widening levels of inequality and they are fed up with their leaders’ weakness in the face of the existential threat of our day – climate change. As people rise up and raise their voices all around us, what should we make of this moment? Should we be hopeful? Should we be fearful? And what can democracies do to help?

Morgan Ortagus is convinced that democracies have a big role to play. She highlighted the U.S. State Department’s continuous efforts to use communications methods, old and new from telegrams to Instagram, in order to extend its hand to people who are fighting for their freedoms abroad. The U.S. goal is to amplify their voices for the rest of the world to hear. Dr. Joseph Joffe pointed out that while revolutions have local origins, these battles always turn into something larger. The world’s democracies have an obligation to help, but they can no longer do so by dropping bombs and firing bullets. Ambassador Jacqueline O’Neill agreed that democracies need to deliver support, but interventions can only yield long-term results if we encourage revolutionary movements to clear a larger space for women’s voices and leadership.

“Winners tend to go after the losers of the revolution. That is what happened in Georgia. We are lacking American leadership, and seeing an increase of Russian intervention”

— Ms. Ia Meurmishvili, Senior Editor, Voice of America, Georgia

“I don’t think we should ever be shy about promoting democracy and promoting the will of people to choose their own destiny”

— Ms. Morgan Ortagus, Spokesperson, United States Department of State

“Something we see consistently is that women play major roles in a revolution as organizers but when it comes to take power, they are excluded”

— Ambassador Jacqueline O’Neill, Ambassador for Women, Peace, and Security, Canada

“We can’t talk about great powers when people can’t put bread on the table”

— Dr. Josef Joffe, Publisher and Editor, Die Zeit, and Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution

13:00-14:00

Closing Lunch

LOCATION: Atlantic Ballroom

Clippings

Hong Kong activists urge UK to give ex-colony’s residents ‘real citizenship’
Ryan Heath

“There are over 2 million British citizens living in Hong Kong and very many of them are very nervous and anxious about their future,” said Lau, speaking to POLITICO on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum on Friday. “I hope Britain would consider giving them citizenship, real citizenship.”

Military officials say White House won't intervene in review of Navy SEAL who posed with dead body
Barbara Starr and Jim Sciutto

“Navy Secretary Richard Spencer told reporters Saturday after the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada, that so far there has been no order from the President to stop the process of reviewing Gallagher’s status. Spencer said he would need an order “to act” and added that he does not “interpret (tweets) as a formal order.”

Official says White House gave Navy go-ahead on Gallagher
Rob Gillies and Robert Burns

“Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said Saturday at an international security forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, that he did not consider a tweet by Trump an order and would need a formal order to stop the Navy review board, scheduled to begin Dec. 2, that would determine whether Gallagher is allowed to remain in the SEALs.”

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