DR. DOUGLAS BLAND
7:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Canada’s present mission in Afghanistan has raised questions
about our national defence and foreign policies. Dr. Bland
poses some profound questions that he feels all Canadians
should consider and provides some insight into answering
them. “What are Canada’s vital interests? What kind of
defence and foreign policies do we need, for what kind of
Canada in what kind of world? What influence should NATO,
the UN and the USA play in Canadian decisions as to which
conflicts we join and on our decisions as to how we meet
our defence and foreign policy objectives?
Should we as
Canadians, as a multicultural and diverse society take some
responsibility for policies set by our government? Are we,
as Canadians, prepared to make the sacrifices implied in
maintaining Canada as a coherent unified liberal democracy?”
Dr. Bland is an outstanding thinker and speaker from the School
of Policy Studies at Queen’s University where he is Professor
and Chair of the Defence
Management Studies Program. He is a
graduate of the Canadian Army Staff College, the NATO Defence
College at Rome, and holds a doctorate from Queen’s
University. He was a 1992-93 NATO Fellow. His research
is concentrated in the fields of defence policy making
and management at national and international levels, the
organization and functioning of defence ministries and
civil-military relations. He has completed numerous reports
on these topics for the Auditor General of Canada, the
Department of National Defence, the Department of Foreign
Affairs and other departments and agencies in Canada. In
2004, with Dr. Sean Maloney, he published his most recent
work, entitled, “Campaigns for International Security”.
