The future of national security in the world of the “n-block war”
In the late 1990s, the US Marine General Charles Krulak came up with the concept of the “Three Block War” to illustrate the complex spectrum of challenges likely to be faced by soldiers on the modern battlefield. The idea was that the future of warfighting would be in urban environments in failing states, where soldiers might be doing humanitarian assistance in one block, peacekeeping in another, and actual combat in another.
With the “Freedom Convoy” of truckers, followed quickly by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, we are witnessing the rise of what we can call the “n-block war,” a multi-dimensional combat environment that sees the collapse of the traditional distinctions between soldier and civilian, state and nonstate actors, information operations and news reporting, mercenaries and insurgents, all of it thrown into, and mediated by, the constantly shifting and evolving real-time information environment.
This panel, moderated by Andrew Potter, looked at the future of national security in the world of the n-block war, it addressed questions such as: How should we prepare? What should we prioritize? With whom should we ally?
Video
This talk is part of the IRPP’s 50th anniversary event series, What should be on Canada’s policy radar? Held throughout the spring and fall of 2022, these panel discussions will help us to identify the challenges that our decision-makers will face in the coming years, and examine ways in which Canada can promptly address these issues. The events are offered free of charge and are open to anyone with an interest in the topic.
Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security, McGill University and Director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
Jennifer M. Welsh isthe Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University and director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies.She was previously chair in International Relations at the European University Institute and a professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where she cofounded the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. From 2013 to2016, she served as special adviser to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the responsibility to protect. She has published several books and articles on the ethics and politics of armed conflict, the responsibility to protect, humanitarian action and civilian protection, the UN Security Council and Canadian foreign policy. Her most recent book, The Return of History: Conflict, Geopolitics and Migration in the 21st Century (2016), was based on her CBC Massey Lectures. Prof. Welsh is a member of the IDP Protection Expert Group, established by UNHCR and the Global Protection Cluster, and sits on the advisory boards of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. In 2021, she was elected an international honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Royal Military College of Canada
Ali G. Dizboni is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Economics at the Royal Military College of Canada and the chair of the Military and Strategic Studies Programme. He is an associate fellow with CIDP (Queens’ University) and ICAMES (McGill University and Université de Montréal). His current research includes Five Eyes security cooperation, the genesis of ballistic missiles in the Middle East and right wingradicalization in select NATO armed forces. He is an occasional media commentator on aspects of Middle East–Iranian politics and Canadian foreign policy in the region.
2022-23 McConnell Professor of Practice, Max Bell School of Public Policy, McGill University
Vincent Rigby recently retired from Canada’s public service after 30 years in a variety of departments and agencies, including the Privy Council Office, Global Affairs Canada, Public Safety, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian International Development Agency. His career focused on security and intelligence, foreign policy, defence and development issues. His last position was as national security and intelligence adviser to the Prime Minister from 2020 to 2021. He is currently J.W. McConnell Professor of Practice at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University.
Associate professor (professional) and graduate program director, Max Bell School of Public Policy
Andrew Potter is an associate professor (professional) and graduate program director at the Max Bell School of Public Policy. Previously he was a journalist, and between 2011 and 2016 he was managing editor and then editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen, and from 2006 to 2011 he was a public affairs columnist for Maclean’s Magazine. He is also a former director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. Andrew holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto and did postdoctoral work at the Université de Montréal. He studied philosophy at McGill University and earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1993.
Online via Zoom Webinar
In person: Max Bell School of Public Policy, McGill University
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COVID-19 provincial policies, fiscal relations, Indigenous governance, public opinion on federalism: the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation is the IRPP's new permanent research initiative providing key insights on the Canadian federation.
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