[R-G] Canadian counterinsurgency manual reflects US-Canada "synergy"

[Suzanne de Kuyper]

In other words Canada is in the back pocket of the United States, doing what
it does, following orders, copying laws, institutions.  Soon Canada will be
a memory.  The Queen Mother will not be pleased, in fact she will be quite
sad about it.

Suzanne                       suzannedk at gmail.com

On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 7:57 PM, Sid Shniad <shniad at sfu.ca> wrote:

>
>
>
> http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2770
>
>
>
> The Dominion July 11, 2009
>
>
>
> The Future of Warfare
>
>
>
> Canadian counterinsurgency manual reflects US-Canada "synergy"
>
>
>
> by Anthony Fenton
>
> Capping a sweeping transformation that began in the late 1990s, the
> Canadian Forces recently issued their first counterinsurgency (COIN)
> operations doctrine, which will help Canadian soldiers prepare to fight the
> wars of today and the "foreseeable future," alongside its chief ally and the
> sole global superpower, the US.
>
>
>
> In development since 2005, the COIN manual was authorized by Chief of Land
> Staff Lt. Gen. Andrew Leslie in the waning days of the Bush administration.
> It was not formalized for another two months—six weeks after the
> inauguration of President Barack Obama.
>
>
>
> Obama's administration has sent clear signals, through political
> appointments and holdovers (such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates), that
> the US military and national security apparatus' transformation toward
> fighting smaller, "irregular wars" begun under Bush will continue apace.
>
>
>
> Only a week before Bush left office, Gates, together with Secretary of
> State Condoleezza Rice and the Director of USAID, Henrietta Fore, co-signed
> the US Government Counterinsurgency Guide . Neo-conservative historian Eliot
> Cohen, who oversaw the Guide's creation, wrote in its introduction:
>
>
>
> Insurgency will be a large and growing element of the security challenges
> faced by the United States in the 21st century...Whether the United States
> should engage in any particular counterinsurgency is a matter of political
> choice, but that it will engage in such conflicts during the decades to come
> is a near certainty. This Guide will help prepare decision-makers of many
> kinds for the tasks that result from this fact.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> According to Lt. Gen. Leslie, the Canadian Army is "at the cutting edge" of
> Western armies readying themselves to fight 21st-century wars.
>
>
>
> "The paradigms of the past based on the Cold War have changed a great deal.
> We have demonstrated beyond any doubt that we can adapt our doctrine and
> training quickly in order to meet scattered, complex operations focused on
> counterinsurgency missions," Leslie told a Senate defence committee meeting
> in March.
>
>
>
> Shifts in Canadian policy adhere closely to those of her allies, like the
> US, the UK and other NATO partners. These governments are at the forefront
> of institutionalizing COIN principles and practices in military culture,
> across the "whole-of-government," and, eventually, within the "whole of
> society."
>
>
>
> Based on the "comprehensive approach," the Canadian COIN manual represents
> a synthesis of two recent US Army Field Manuals: Counterinsurgency (FM
> 3-24); and Stability Operations (FM 3-07).
>
>
>
> In 2007, after over one-and-a-half million downloads, the US Army COIN
> manual was published in print by the University of Chicago Press and
> received wide media coverage. The subsequent US Army Stability Operations
> Manual , published in early 2009, has also been widely distributed. By
> contrast, the Canadian manual is not yet publicly available. A copy of the
> Canadian COIN manual was obtained by The Dominion from the Department of
> National Defence.
>
>
>
> Writing in the Canadian Military Journal last fall, Leslie defined the
> comprehensive approach as the "ability to bring to bear all instruments of
> national and coalition power and influence upon a problem in a timely,
> co-ordinated fashion." This definition aligns with that of the US Army, as
> found in the Stability Operations Manual :
>
>
>
> A comprehensive approach...integrates the co-operative efforts of the
> departments and agencies of the United States government, intergovernmental
> and nongovernmental organizations, multinational partners, and private
> sector entities to achieve unity of effort toward a shared goal.
>
>
>
> The concept of "unity of effort" is drawn from classical counterinsurgency
> theory and doctrine.
>
>
>
> In 1966, John J. McCuen wrote in The Art of Counter-Revolutionary War that,
> "Unity of effort...is extremely difficult to achieve because it represents
> the fusion of civil and military functions to fight battles which have
> primarily political objectives."
>
>
>
> As the Canadian manual foregrounds, today's insurgencies remain inherently
> "a political problem."
>
>
>
> "The nature of operations today and in the future will resemble the Three
> Block War construct—one that demands that soldiers interact with many
> different players other than their own armed forces, and undertake
> non-traditional tasks," wrote Leslie in the Canadian Military Journal .
>
>
>
> In October 2003, Hillier made the Three Block War scenario "a guiding
> concept for the Canadian Army."
>
>
>
> Hillier's support for the Three Block War was one of the reasons he was
> selected to be Chief of Defence Staff in 2005. According to then-Prime
> Minister Paul Martin, "[Hillier] advocated a concept called the 'three-block
> war,' to describe the [military's] mission...This was not a rejection of our
> peacekeeping tradition, but a revision to suit tougher times, and I
> supported it."
>
>
>
> Martin's government dovetailed the Three Block War approach with the
> broader institutionalization of the "whole-of-government" (or 3D: Defence,
> Development, Diplomacy) foreign policy approach in its International Policy
> Statement of 2005. This trajectory has continued, with minor modifications,
> under the minority Conservative governments of Prime Minister Stephen
> Harper.
>
>
>
> That Canada should shift its foreign and defence policies in concert with
> the US comes as no surprise given their close historical relationship, even
> if the level of integration is often downplayed by the mainstream media. "No
> two militaries are more closely united than those of the United States and
> Canada," said US Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins in 2007.
>
>
>
> With counterinsurgency practices and principles on the rise under the Obama
> administration, an increasing level of "COIN-synergy" exists between the two
> militaries.
>
>
>
> "We are learning from others. I happen to know General David Petraeus, who
> is very good man. You will find that some of our recent philosophies closely
> match his and those of the US Army and our friends and allies," Lt. Gen.
> Leslie told the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence
> in March.
>
>
>
> Gen. Petraeus is likely the person who contributed the most to the
> resurrection of a new "counterinsurgency era" in the US. He oversaw the
> drafting of the US Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual in 2005 and 2006, and
> supervised its implementation during "the surge" in Iraq in 2007.
>
>
>
> As Commander of US Central Command, Petraeus currently oversees both the
> Iraq and "AfPak" wars. Many followers of Petraeus have risen to prominence
> within Obama's cabinet; others have gone on to become "experts" in private
> think-tanks and appear regularly in the US media as proponents of
> counterinsurgency war.
>
>
>
> Petraeus visited Calgary this week for a "social" meeting with Canada's top
> military brass. Partly a public relations exercise, the meeting saw Petraeus
> and Canadian Chief of Defence Staff Walt Natynczyk, who once served in Iraq
> at the same time as the US general, donning cowboy hats as they attended the
> Calgary Stampede. There, according to Petraeus, they discussed "the way
> forward for the next two years" in the COIN fight in Afghanistan.
>
>
>
> Petraeus was subordinate in rank to Natynczyk when the Canadian general was
> Deputy Commander of the Multi-National Corps in Iraq in 2003-04. At the same
> time, Petraeus commanded a small number of Canadian soldiers in Iraq on a
> low-key NATO mission to train Iraqi soldiers, according to declassified
> documents obtained by The Dominion via Access to Information.
>
>
>
> The clearest embodiment of COIN's institutionalization and the Canada-US
> "comprehensive approach" can be found in the US Army and Marine Corps COIN
> Center. Established at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 2006 by Petraeus and US
> Marine General James Mattis, it was from the COIN Center that the US Army
> Counterinsurgency Field Manual (FM 3-24) was drafted.
>
>
>
> The COIN Center's pamphlet describes its purpose as "facilitat[ing] the
> development of a culture that enables us to more effectively adapt as a
> whole government when called upon to deal with future COIN or COIN-like
> threats."
>
>
>
> Canada is identified in the pamphlet as a key COIN-partner of the US in the
> "COIN SITREP reports" that Lt. Col. Daniel Roper, Director of the COIN
> Center, publishes periodically.
>
>
>
> "Each country needs to institutionalize it in a way that works for them,"
> Roper told The Dominion . "But I see some pretty impressive collaboration at
> the inter-agency level in Canada, with people of cross-functional expertise
> trying to grapple with some issues; some similar things that we're doing."
>
>
>
> Since General Leslie signed off on the COIN manual last December, the COIN
> Center and Canada have collaborated on more than 20 exchanges, including
> "COIN Leader Workshops" and "COIN Integration" meetings.
>
>
>
> Members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command (CEFCOM) met with the
> COIN Center for discussions about "US-Canada COIN synergy" five days after
> Leslie wrote in his issuing order for the new COIN doctrine that it is
> "complementary to our allies."
>
>
>
> In April, the US COIN Center "visited military installations and
> think-tanks in Canada to inculcate the Canadian military establishment with
> COIN doctrine and best practices."
>
>
>
> During one presentation with top officials from Prime Minister Harper's
> government, the COIN Center found that "policy advisors were most interested
> in how the merits of [Canada's new Afghan COIN] strategy could be explained
> to the Canadian public and Canadian political leadership."
>
>
>
> Figuring out ways to sell the COIN campaign to a skeptical Canadian public
> has been a key aim of the Canadian government and military, and Canada's
> COIN manual emphasizes the goal of "creating and maintaining the legitimacy
> of the campaign." One of the central figures steering the Canada-US
> COIN-synergy is Lt. Col. John Malevich, who joined the COIN Center in
> November 2008 by way of a newly created exchange program between the two
> countries. He is currently the Deputy-Director of the COIN Center and
> recently gave a series of COIN lectures in Canada.
>
>
>
> Reached via telephone upon his return to Ft. Leavenworth, Malevich told The
> Dominion that the biggest assets that he brings to the COIN Center are his
> scholarly background in asymmetric warfare and first-hand COIN experience in
> Afghanistan.
>
>
>
> Prior to joining the COIN Center, Malevich was a member of the Strategic
> Advisory Team—a team of military advisors set up by General Hillier to
> provide direct advice to top Afghan cabinet ministers. He was later seconded
> to the Afghan Independent Electoral Commission, where Malevich says he "came
> up with their operations plan and their security plan" for the presidential
> elections scheduled for August 2009.
>
>
>
> "When I speak, these guys give me a pretty good respect and they're pretty
> grateful to have this help...they're very grateful to have Canadians among
> them and grateful for the contribution we've made in Afghanistan," said Lt.
> Col. Malevich of his colleagues at the COIN Center.
>
>
>
> Col. Roper, who says he's been to Canada "four or five times" to discuss
> COIN, told The Dominion that by having Malevich "institutionally embedded"
> in the COIN Center, "The Canadian Army benefits from having a full-time
> person working in here with full access to everything we've got and
> recognizing [when] he stumbles upon something here that, hey, he knows
> somebody in the Canadian Army that might benefit from that; he can very
> quickly share that information."
>
>
>
> Invoking Gen. Charles Krulak, the US marine who coined the term "Three
> Block War" and who, in 1997, predicted the importance of "transnational
> movements" to 21st-century warfare, Roper said that today, "what we're
> looking at are transnational insurgencies."
>
>
>
> Partnering as closely as possible with key allies like Canada is seen as
> crucial to conducting what some COIN experts call "global
> counterinsurgency."
>
>
>
> According to Malevich, one of his key roles is "bringing [US COIN]
> expertise up to Canada and bringing it into the Canadian military culture."
>
>
>
> Such a level of COIN integration has never been undertaken before, and it
> is difficult to foresee the possible implications for Canada's military
> culture, which inevitably spills over into broader society.
>
>
>
> "The better the people understand the pros and cons and the risks [of
> COIN], the more informed a decision they can make," says Roper.
>
>
>
> In her introduction to the University of Michigan Press edition of the US
> Army Stability Operations Manual , Janine Davidson acknowledges that,
> “[There] are those who see the new doctrine as another dangerous step on the
> slippery slope toward imperialism.”
>
>
>
> Davidson dismisses those critics, writing that they "seriously
> misunderstand the purpose and role of military doctrine"—because the
> military doesn't set the policies that send them to occupy other countries.
>
>
>
> On the other hand, influential COIN advocates such as Eliot Cohen have
> argued that the US needs to establish an "Imperial Army," the likes of which
> Canada is increasingly becoming appended to.
>
>
>
> Anthony Fenton is an independent researcher and journalist based in Pitt
> Meadows, B.C. This article is based on a book he has been researching and
> writing with Jon Elmer. Fenton can be reached at fentona at shaw.ca
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