This talk is part of the IRPP’s 50th anniversary event series, What should be on Canada’s Policy Radar?

About this event

In the late 1990s, the US Marine General Charles Krulak came up with the concept of the “Three Block War” to illustrate the complex spectrum of challenges likely to be faced by soldiers on the modern battlefield. The idea was that the future of warfighting would be in urban environments in failing states, where soldiers might be doing humanitarian assistance in one block, peacekeeping in another, and actual combat in another.

With the “Freedom Convoy” of truckers, followed quickly by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, we are witnessing the rise of what we can call the “n-block war,” a multi-dimensional combat environment that sees the collapse of the traditional distinctions between soldier and civilian, state and nonstate actors, information operations and news reporting, mercenaries and insurgents, all of it thrown into, and mediated by, the constantly shifting and evolving real-time information environment.

This panel will look at the future of national security in the world of the n-block war, addressing questions such as: How should we prepare? What should we prioritize? With whom should we ally?

PANELLISTS

Jennifer Welsh, Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security, McGill University and Director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies

Ali Dizboni, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Royal Military College of Canada

Vincent Rigby, Visiting fellow, Max Bell School of Public Policy, McGill University

MODERATOR

Andrew Potter, Associate professor (professional) and graduate program director, Max Bell School of Public Policy

Event Details