Greetings from the CDSN!

In the past year, the Canadian Defence and Security Network went from a idea to a reality, from years of grant applications to a dynamic, flexible, and productive network. We hired staff, created a website, launched a podcast, held a variety of events, and started to make a difference in the defence and security space in Canada. Both inside and outside Canada, the CDSN has become the go-to organization for those seeking to build connections between the academics, the military, the government, and civil society. The pandemic struck Canada towards the very end of our first year, so most of our adaptations—moving online, producing a rapid response memo to government, providing opportunities for advanced PhD students to connect and present their work, providing a space for professors to share their online teaching strategies and tools—are technically in our second year, but all build on the foundations developed in our first.

I am so very grateful for the hard work and creativity put into this effort by the Co-Directors and by the staff at CDSN HQ: Melissa Jennings, Alvine Nintai, Jeffrey Rice, and Stéphane Plante. This has always been a team effort, and, as the team has gotten bigger and faced unexpected crises, they have risen to meet the challenges. We will continue to adapt as we operate by the slogan on our webpage: research, connect, and amplify.

In our Annual Report, you will find summaries of our first year in operation—from April 2019 to March 2020 with some discussion of the progress made in year 2. As a network, our activities tend to fall into three categories: those organized by the headquarters at Carleton University, those organized by our Co-Directors focusing on one of the five themes, and those organized by our partners. We conclude with some tables summarizing our publishing, disseminating, and training.

Sincerely,

Dr. Stephen Saideman

Director, Canadian Defence and Security Network

Read the full 2019-2020 Annual Report

What’s New at the CDSN

Undergraduate Diversity Scholarship

The Canadian Defence and Security Network is launching a Diversity Scholarship for 3rd/4th year undergrads. Recent events reminded us that we need to do better to include Black and Indigenous Canadians in the defence and security community. Please share and recruit!

View the full notice

Teaching Defence and Security: Sharing Strategies, Tactics, and Tools

This is a CDSN - CFC joint initiative to enable defence and security scholars to facilitate the sharing of experiences and of online tools. The idea is to have us meet to discuss strategies and tools (games, simulations, videos, audio materials, etc).

Participants have identified the topics they are covering and have provided some of the tools they would like to have for their defence and security classes.  We have provided a list of links below from those who have such tools and are willing to share their experiences and offer suggestions for how to deploy such materials in the virtual classroom. 

We will be holding another check-in meeting in October, in the meantime feel free to use these public resources and to submit your own via email here

Resources

PhD Seminar Series

The CDSN just wrapped up its first Summer PhD Seminar series, where we address questions about the profession, about doing research, and so forth and weeks where advanced students present their research. 

Thank you to all the students who participated, the seminar ran from 8 June - 31 August 2020

CDSN COVID Response Recommendations and Future Directions

On April 27th, members of the Canadian Defence and Security Network, along with participants from MINDS-funded networks (SPNET, DSF, NAADSN) met online to develop preliminary answers to questions we received from the MINDS program at the Department of National Defence as well as questions we developed.  The questions largely fit into the five themes of the CDSN: Operations, Security, Personnel, Procurement, and Civil-Military Relations.  Below, we briefly present the responses which represent a consensus (not every individual or organization agreed to every single response).  The CDSN will develop fuller discussions over the next few months, but the urgency of the crisis compels us to release our recommendations and questions as soon as we can. 

Before discussing each group’s findings, one common theme emerged from each group’s discussion:  The government ought to consider a new Defence Policy Review as many of the assumptions of the previous one have shifted.  Many group findings overlapped with other groups.

View the full document

CDSN welcomes our first Postdoctoral Research Fellow

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Linna Tam-Seto has joined the CIDP on July 1, 2020 as a Canadian Defence and Security Network (CDSN) Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Linna’s research interests include understanding the health and well-being of Canada’s military members, veterans, public safety personnel and their families during life transitions and changes, with a particular focus on the experiences of servicewomen and women veterans. The CDSN is a network of professionals, academics, and researchers focused on better understanding and anticipating Canada’s role in modern international security.

Before joining the CIDP, Dr. Tam-Seto completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Health Studies and Policy Research Institute at Queen’s University, supporting the development of the #Here4U Military Version, a mental health app for members of the military community. Dr. Tam-Seto holds a PhD in Rehabilitation Science and is a registered occupational therapist with extensive experience in the areas of children and adolescent mental health. She is also Adjunct Faculty in the School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen’s University and a Contractual Assistant Professor at the Royal Military College.

Dr. Tam-Seto’s post-doctoral work at the CIDP will be the development of a gender-informed, culturally competent mentorship program to support servicewomen within the Canadian Armed Forces. A culturally competent mentorship program is grounded in the assumption that mentors and mentees bring with them their collective identities and respective cultures which informs the roles, expectations, and nature of their mentorship relationship. In order for programs to be effective and successful in meeting organizational and individual needs of both mentees and mentors, specific considerations, such as these, are necessary in development and implementation. The project will use a variety of data collection methods to create a framework that will guide the development of a mentorship program which will include educational and resource materials for both mentors and mentees.

Please join me in welcoming Linna to the CIDP.

Thank you,

Stéfanie von Hlatky

Upcoming Events

Check out our calendar for events coming up this Autumn

Opportunities for Emerging Scholars

Be sure to check out upcoming job, funding and publishing opportunities from our network partners

Battle Rhythm

If you haven’t subscribed to our biweekly podcast telling you all you need to know about security & defence, here is your chance!

CDSN in the News

We’d love to hear from you!

We can help support partner events through advertising beforehand and via  blog/twitter/podcast afterwards. Let us know what you are planning to do and we will gladly promote your upcoming event!

We are new at this so any comments and suggestions are more than helpful