Introductory Section One – Mission Statement NOTE All reports must include a covering letter signed by the Centre Director containing: • A summary of the year’s highlights • The coming year’s priorities • A paragraph describing the funding impact of SDF dollars on activities What is the Centre’s mission statement? • Provide a brief description The Queen’s Centre for International Relations (QCIR) was established in 1975 with a mandate to conduct research in matters of national and international security and other aspects of international relations. It supports teaching in the field of security and defence and, through its publications and other activities of its members, contributes to public debate on Canadian foreign and defence policy and on issues of international peace and security. The QCIR’s mission is to endeavour to be among the best research centres in Canada working on questions of national and international security, and to continue to be recognized for: the high quality of the research and publications produced by its faculty, fellows and students, especially in the areas identified above; the contribution it makes to the teaching of undergraduate and graduate students in courses related to national and international security both at Queen’s University and at the Royal Military College of Canada; and the service it provides to society at large, locally and nationally, in engaging the Canadian public, debating issues of foreign and defence policy, and fostering networks among research institutions and other non-governmental organizations in the field of national and international security. What is the relationship between the mission statement and the activities of the SDF Centre? • Provide a brief description For almost a decade the QCIR’s agenda has been defined by two principal themes, both flowing from its core research mission. The first is transatlantic security – particularly Canada’s role in NATO and its relations with the European Union in matters of peace and security. QCIR researchers have explored the policy challenges confronting Canada in the restructuring and enlargement of NATO and the globalization of its security role, and in the growing aspirations and capabilities in defence and security of an enlarging European Union. The second theme is the security and defence of North America which, especially since September 2001, has provided the QCIR with an unexpectedly intense conference, research and publication agenda, focused on threats, scenarios, institutional changes both military and civilian, and the management of the Canada-US security community. In recent years, a third research theme has emerged: regions in transition, prone to conflict and inhabited by failed or fragile states, where Canada and the European Union have the interests and the potential to coordinate their efforts in conflict management, development and democratization. The regions of prime concern are Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. These three themes provide the overall framework for the Centre’s activities, and are reflected in the topics of its regular publications, in the books and articles produced by its personnel, and in the subjects of its conferences, workshops, National Security Seminars, and public forums. They are broad enough to capture the main activities of most QCIR researchers, while still providing the Centre with structure, priorities, and a degree of external visibility. In addition, because the QCIR’s mandate from Queen’s University extends beyond security and defence to international relations generally, and because it must be able to respond to current events and emerging trends in world politics, some of its activities will always fall outside this thematic framework. Those activities are often driven by requests or proposals from government, the media, the public or other academic centres, or by the changing interests of Centre personnel. Done well, they can serve to strengthen the QCIR’s capacity to conduct research, teaching and service to society in its core areas. How do the activities undertaken in the current fiscal year match with those in the original five- year funding proposal? • List and provide a brief description Of the eighteen National Security Seminars held during the past year, four dealt with issues of North American security and defence, three with transatlantic relations, three with other aspects of Canadian foreign and defence policy, and six with regional security issues. The seminars drew speakers from the Binational Planning Group, Foreign Affairs and the Canadian Forces, as well as a wide range of academic experts from Canada, the US and Europe. The QCIR sponsored or co-sponsored four conferences. The annual spring conference in May, 2006, on Suez Plus 50: Peace Operations Today, examined the evolution of peacekeeping and Canada’s part in it, drawing contrasts between the classic model of the Cold War era and new forms, instruments and purposes of international intervention that have emerged in recent years. In June, in cooperation with the Chair of Defence Management Studies, the LFDTS and the US Army War College, the QCIR organized a major international conference on Defence, Development and Diplomacy, drawing over 130 participants from governments, NGOs, the military and academe. In September, the Centre, again working with the Chair, hosted the SDF conference in Kingston, on the theme Canadian Security and Defence Studies: In Transition? And the QCIR was a co-sponsor and organizer of the CDFAI conference held in late October in Ottawa, aiming at an interim assessment of Canada’s foreign policy under the Conservative government. On a smaller scale, the QCIR organized one-day workshops on civil conflict in Africa, on lessons and trends in the application of international sanctions and, in collaboration with the UN Association of Canada, on prospects for the development of multilateral rapid-reaction forces. We also co-sponsored with RMC a small conference of the Association Franco-Canadienne d’Études Strateégiques on Régionalismes et sécurité internationale held in Kingston in October. The Centre continued its support for the CDAI’s annual Graduate Student Symposium. We initiated, with the two SDF Centres in Montreal, what we hope will be an annual graduate workshop on transatlantic issues. The first was held in Montreal in March 2007, with papers presented by ten graduate students from four universities. An important innovation this past year was the inaugural Transatlantic Crisis Simulation for graduate students held in Bad Urach, Germany, in which the Centre collaborated with the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin and the State Education Commission of Baden- Wuerttemberg. A three-day simulation of the Darfur crisis, combined with a series of NATO briefings and a one-day conference, drew some forty graduate students from Germany and other NATO members, as well as fourteen graduate students from Queen’s and RMC. Over the past year the QCIR has organized four Public Forums, with mixed success. In all cases, the presentations were excellent, but attendance was uneven, ranging from over eighty for a discussion of Afghanistan led by Col Mike Capstick, to about thirty for a heavily-promoted forum on Darfur. Others were held on UN peacekeeping and on African conflicts. It appears that we have not yet got the formula right for such events so as to ensure larger turnout. The QCIR’s publications program produced two Martello Papers, on Germany and the European Security and Defence Policy, and on NATO, as well as an Occasional Paper comparing Canadian and Australian concepts of national security. Joseph Jockel’s history of Canada in NORAD, with financial support from the QCIR, is currently in press. The research and publications of the Centre’s Fellows can be found listed in later sections of this report. Like the activities mentioned above, the great majority of this work meets the Centre’s overall mandate and fits in at least one of its three thematic areas. It is important to mention here some projects which have not been realized. The proposed collaboration with the Centre for the Study of the Presidency in Washington did not come to fruition. What began as a multilateral project for the renewal of the Atlantic alliance took a turn toward more of a reflection on the Iraq war and its aftermath – a worthy project but not one for which the QCIR is well-equipped. With respect to outreach, secondly, the proposed arrangement with the Whig-Standard for regular op-ed pieces is not yet in place, although individual Fellows have had such articles published over the past year. What activities are planned for next year? How do they match the original five-year funding proposal? • List and provide a brief description For the first nine months of the new fiscal year, six conferences are in the works. The QCIR’s annual May conference will focus on NORAD and North American defence, examining the history of the bilateral agreement and its prospects for adapting to a much-altered security environment. In June the second Queen’s – US Army War College Conference will be held, examining how governments and militaries learn operational and strategic lessons from stability operations. In October the QCIR will again contribute to the funding and planning of the CDFAI conference in Ottawa, whose theme will be Canada: An Emerging Energy Superpower? In November the Centre will help sponsor an international conference on Pluralism and the Military, organized by Senior Fellow Christian Leuprecht. In the same month it will run a conference on Frozen Conflicts in the Former Soviet Space, and another on Liberal Realism in International Relations. In July the Centre will host the second Transatlantic Crisis Simulation. Our German partners have secured funding to bring sixteen graduate students to Kingston for a week consisting of the simulation, a one-day conference and a series of briefings. They will be joined by graduate students from Queen’s, RMC and SDF Centres across Canada.