Advisory Council

DENIS STAIRS - CHAIR

Currently Professor Emeritus in Political Science and a Faculty Fellow in the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies at Dalhousie, Dr. Denis Stairs attended Dalhousie, Oxford and the University of Toronto.  A former President of the Canadian Political Science Association and a member for six years of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, he was the founding Director of Dalhousie’s Centre for Foreign Policy Studies from 1970 to 1975. 

He served as Chair of his Department from 1980 to 1985 and as Dalhousie’s Vice-President (Academic and Research) from 1988 to 1993.  A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Chair of the Board of Visitors of the Canadian Forces College, he specializes in Canadian foreign and defence policy, Canada-US Relations and similar subjects.

 Dr. Stairs was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006.
 

PERRIN BEATTY

Perrin Beatty was first elected to the House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative in 1972. During his 21 years in Parliament, he served as Minister in seven different portfolios, including Treasury Board, National Revenue, Solicitor General, Defence, National Health and Welfare, Communications and External Affairs. Following the 1993 election, he joined a number of corporate boards and worked as a consultant and columnist. In 1995, Prime Minister Chrétien appointed him President and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). After leaving the CBC in August, 2005, he served as President and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters for seven years before becoming President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. In 2008, Mr. Beatty became Chancellor of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

 

JOCELYN COULON

Jocelyn Coulon is the Director of the Peace Operations Research Network. He is also a member of the Research Group in International Security (REGIS) at the Université de Montréal's Centre for International Research and Studies (CÉRIUM) since 2004. He writes a column on international politics for the Montreal daily La Presse.
 

Previously, he was director of the Montreal campus of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre from February 1999 to December 2003. He was a member of the PPC board of directors from 2004 to 2007. He is a member of the IDRC board of governors.
 

In the past few years, he has published a number of books, including, in 1998, Soldiers of Diplomacy. The United Nations, Peacekeeping, and The New World Order, University of Toronto Press, and in 2005, Guide du maintien de la paix 2006 and L'agression: Les États-Unis, l'Irak et le monde, both published by Athéna Éditions.

He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
 

JACK GRANATSTEIN

Jack Lawrence Granatstein was born in Toronto on 21 May 1939.  He attended Toronto public schools, Le College militaire royal de St-Jean (Grad. Dipl., 1959), the Royal Military College, Kingston (B.A., 1961), the University of Toronto (M.A., 1962), and Duke University (Ph.D., 1966). He served in the Canadian Army (1956-66), then joined the History Department at York University, Toronto (1966-95) where, after taking early retirement, he is Distinguished Research Professor of History Emeritus. He was the Rowell Jackman  Fellow at the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (1996-2000) and  is a member of the Royal Military College of Canada Board of Governors (1997- ). From 1 July 1998 to 30 June 2000, he was the Director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. He was then Special Adviser to the Director of the Museum (2000-01) and is now chair of the Museum’s Advisory Council (2001- ).
 

Granatstein has held the Canada Council's Killam senior fellowship twice (1982-4, 1991-3), was editor of the Canadian Historical Review (1981-84), and was a founder of the Organization for the History of Canada. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 1982 and in 1992 was awarded the Society’s J.B. Tyrrell Historical Gold Medal "for outstanding work in the history of Canada." His book, The Generals (1993), won the J.W. Dafoe Prize and the UBC Medal for Canadian Biography. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by Memorial University of Newfoundland (1993), the University of Calgary (1994), Ryerson Polytechnic University (1999), the University of Western Ontario (2000),  McMaster University (2000), and Niagara University (2004).  He is a Senior Fellow of Massey College (2000- ). The Conference of Defence Associations Institute named him winner of the Vimy Award “for achievement and effort in the field of Canadian defence and security” (1996). Canada’s National History Society named him the winner of the Pierre Berton Award for popular history (2004), and he has been an Officer of the Order of Canada since 1997.

Granatstein writes on 20th Century Canadian national history--the military, defence and foreign policy, Canadian-American relations, the public service, politics, and the universities.  He comments regularly on historical questions, defence, and public affairs in the press and on radio and television; he provided the historical commentary on the CBC's coverage of the 50th and 60^th anniversaries of D-Day (1994, 2004), V-E Day (1995), and V-J Day (1995); and he speaks frequently here and abroad. He has been a historical consultant on many films, most recently “Canada’s War” (Yap Films, 2004).

In 1995 he served as one of three commissioners on the Special Commission on the Restructuring of the Canadian Forces Reserves (chaired by the Rt. Hon. Brian Dickson, former Chief Justice of Canada), and in 1997, he advised the Minister of National Defence on the future of the Canadian Forces.  He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Dominion Institute, an adjunct fellow of the University of Calgary’s Centre for Military and Strategic Studies (1997- ), and Chair of the Council for Canadian Security in the 21^st Century (2001-4). He is both a Board member (2004- ) and the Chair of the Advisory Council of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute (2001- ).      

 His many scholarly and popular books include The Politics of Survival: The Conservative Party of Canada 1939-45 (1967), Peacekeeping: International Challenge and Canadian Response (1968), Canada's War: The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government, 1939-45 (1975, 1990), Ties that Bind: Canadian-American Relations in Wartime (1975), Broken Promises: A History of Conscription in Canada (1977, 1985), American Dollars/Canadian Prosperity (1978), A Man of Influence: Norman Robertson and Canadian Statecraft (1981), The Ottawa Men: The Civil Service Mandarins, 1935-57 (1982, 1998),  Bloody Victory: Canadians and the D-Day Campaign (1984, 1994), The Great Brain Robbery: Canada's Universities on the Road to Ruin (1984), Sacred Trust: Brian Mulroney and the Conservative Party in Power (1985),  Canada 1957-1967: The Years of Uncertainty and Innovation (1986), The Collins Dictionary of Canadian History (1986), How Britain's Weakness Forced Canada into the Arms of the United States (1989),  Marching to Armageddon: Canadians and the Great War (1989), A Nation Forged in Fire: Canadians and the Second World War (1989), Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy (1990,1991) Spy Wars: Canada and Espionage from Gouzenko to Glasnost (1990, 1992), Mutual Hostages: Canadians and Japanese in World War II (1990; Japanese ed., 1994), For Better or For Worse: Canada and the United States to the 1990s (1991, 1992; new expanded edition, Thomson Nelson, 2006), War and  Peacekeeping: From South Africa to the Gulf--Canada's Limited Wars (1991),  Dictionary of Canadian Military History (1992, 1994), The Generals: The Canadian Army's Senior Commanders in the Second World War (1993, 1995; new edition, University of Calgary Press, 2005), Empire to Umpire: Canadian Foreign Policy to the 1990s (1994), Victory 1945: Canadians from War to Peace (1995),  The Good Fight: Canadians and World War II (1995), Yankee Go Home? Canadians and Anti-Americanism (1996, 1997), Petrified Campus: Canada’s Universities in Crisis (1997, 1998), The Canadian 100: The Hundred Most Influential Canadians of the Twentieth Century (1997, 1998),  The Veterans Charter and Post-World War II Canada (1998, 1999), Who Killed Canadian History? (1998, 1999),  Trudeau’s Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Pierre Trudeau (1998, 1999),  Prime Ministers: Rating the Prime Ministers (1999, 2000), Our Century: The Canadian Journey (2000, 2001), Canada’s Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace (2002, 2004), First Drafts: Eyewitness Accounts from Canada’s Past (2003, 2004), Canada and the Two World Wars (2003), The Importance of Being Less Earnest: Promoting Canada’s National Interests through Tighter Ties with the U.S. (2003), Who Killed the Canadian Military? (2004; paper ed., 2004), Hell’s Corner: An Illustrated History of Canada’s Great War (2004), and Battle Lines: First Person Military Accounts from Our Past (2004). He is publishing The Last Good War: An Illustrated History of Canada’s Second World War (2005).

Granatstein is married and lives in Toronto.
 

SHARON HOBSON

Sharon Hobson has been the Canadian correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly since April 1985.  She has also been a regular contributor to Jane’s Navy International and Jane’s International Defense Review.

As well, since 1984, she has written a regular column on the navy for Canadian Sailings.  She has also written occasional features for the Financial Post, Ottawa Citizen, and Canadian Defence Quarterly.

She is co-author with Vice-Admiral Dusty Miller of a book on the Canadian navy in the Persian Gulf War, The Persian Excursion, which was published in April 1995.

In 2004, she won the Ross Munro Media Award for defence writing.
 

GENERAL (RET'D) PAUL MANSON

General Manson served as Chief of the Defence Staff from 1986 to 1989, culminating a distinguished 38-year career with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Forces. A fighter pilot, he commanded at every level of the Air Force prior to his appointment as CDS, and served extensively with Canada’s NATO Forces in Europe. He was Commander of Air Command from 1983 to 1985.
 

A native of Trail, B.C., General Manson was educated in Montreal and Pembroke, Ontario, before attending the Canadian Military Colleges at Royal Roads and RMC. He holds BSc degrees in Electrical Engineering from RMC and Queen’s University, and he has received two honourary doctorates.
 

Following military service, he entered business as the president of a large aerospace company, ultimately retiring in 1997 as Chairman of Lockheed Martin Canada. From 1998 to 2005 General Manson served as full-time voluntary Chairman of the “Passing the Torch” campaign, which raised $16.5 million in support of the new Canadian War Museum. He was a Trustee of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation from 2000 to 2006, and in that capacity he chaired the Canadian War Museum Committee. Recently retired as President of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, an Ottawa think-tank, General Manson has written numerous articles on defence and national security, and he has been a frequent commentator on defence issues on television and radio.
 

General Manson is a past chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada and of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame.
 

His decorations include Commander of the Order of Military Merit and Commander of the U.S. Legion of Merit. In 2002 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and he was the 2003 recipient of the Vimy Award.

DAVID PRATT

The Honourable David Pratt, P.C. is currently working in the development industry as a Vice President for Business Development. From 2004-2008, he served as Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the Canadian Red Cross where his focus was on issues related to international humanitarian law, the control of small arms and light weapons and government relations. He also led the Canadian Red Cross “Auxiliary to Government” project which promoted a new relationship with governments at all levels.  

Mr. Pratt served as an elected representative at the municipal, regional and federal levels for 16 years. He was first elected to the House of Commons for Nepean-Carleton in 1997. He was Chair of the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs – a position he held from 2001 to 2003. He also chaired the first Liberal Caucus Committee on Foreign Affairs, National Defence and International Cooperation and served as a member of the Justice Committee’s Sub-Committee on National Security. Mr. Pratt was Canada’s 36th Minister of National Defence.

As Canada’s Special Envoy to Sierra Leone under two foreign affairs ministers, Mr. Pratt was involved extensively in promoting more Canadian assistance to the war torn country as well as legislation to address the “conflict diamonds” issue.
 

ELINOR SLOAN

Elinor Sloan is Associate Professor of international relations in the Department of Political Science, and is a former defence analyst with Canada's Department of National Defence. Dr. Sloan received her B.A. (Hons Political and Economic Science) from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1988, her M.A. (International Affairs) from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, Ottawa, in 1989, her M.A. (Law and Diplomacy) from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Boston, in 1995, and her PhD (International Relations) from the Fletcher School in 1997.

Dr. Sloan's research interests include Canadian defence policy, Canadian military capabilities, U.S. force transformation, the Revolution in Military Affairs, homeland defence, ballistic missile defence and NATO military capabilities. She is the author of Bosnia and the New Collective Security (Praeger Publishers, 1998), The Revolution in Military Affairs (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002), Security and Defence in the Terrorist Era (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005) and Military Transformation and Modern Conflict (Praeger Publishers, 2008).
 

GORDON SMITH

Gordon Smith is Executive Director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria and Chair of the Board of the International Development Research Centre. He is Vice-Chair of the Canadian Commission for the international Institute for Strategic Studies and a member of the Trilateral Commission. He has been Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to NATO. Dr. Smith holds a Ph.D. in strategic studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.






 

June 2009
Nothing is Rotten in the
State of Denmark

  by Jack Granatstein

Now Available:
Summer 2009 Edition of
"The Dispatch"