Editor’s Corner

A heartfelt welcome to the Spring 2021 edition of the Canadian Military Journal, and this is now the fourth consecutive edition of our flagship DND/CAF quarterly to be produced, primarily out of the home. Boy, time sure flies when one is in a pandemic lockdown, but I have to admit, this is beginning to get a tad tedious, or ‘a bit of a bother,’ as my British friends would say… Nonetheless, there now seems to be ‘light at the end of the tunnel,’ with vaccines starting to be delivered in significant numbers. However, the onus is still on all of us to honour and practice the oft-repeated precautions, wearing of masks, hand washing, and social distancing if we are going to triumph over this terrible blight.

Well, as the saying goes, “Hope springs eternal,” and as I draft these words for the preface to the spring edition, it is 20 January, and Joseph R. Biden has just been inaugurated as the 46^th President of the United States. His acceptance speech was a soothing balm of dedicated purpose, reason, selfless commitment, and a plea for unity, healing, and mutual respect throughout the land. We at the Journal wish our cherished American friends and neighbours the very best of luck in implementing these noble and refreshing goals.

As tends to be the case, lots of variety this time out… Taking the point, Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Wood, the Canada-US plans desk officer on the Strategic Joint Staff, suggests that in spite of Canada’s repeated commitment to the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), “…a lack of political willingness, a diverted focus in favour of overseas operations, and a failure to invest in the capabilities required to maintain NORAD as a credible defence, has resulted in the Command’s falling behind in its effectiveness to carry out its assigned missions.” Wood then contends that a further Canadian political commitment to the US-Canada relationship, coupled with policy and capability investments, is required to modernise the Command, and “…is urgently needed to restore the relevance of NORAD and render it an effective deterrence.”

Next, Dr. Sergey Sukhankin, a Research Fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, as well as being a security expert and a previous contributor to the CMJ, along with his colleague, Alla Hurska, an Associate Fellow with the International Centre for Policy Studies (Kyiv), and an Analyst at the Jamestown Foundation delve into the murky world of Russia’s private military contractors (PMCs). In essence, they believe that “…Although they are effective as a tool against weaker opponents, we argue that Russian PMCs should not be viewed as a strategic element in Russia’s military toolkit. Indeed, they are effective only when paired with Russia’s regular armed forces.”

Moving right along, Lieutenant-Colonel Bernie Thorne, an Air Combat Systems Officer with over 32 years of Regular Force service in the Maritime Air domain, and now a reservist helping to field the newest updates to the CP-140M Aurora long range patrol aircraft, brings us up to date with all the innovative changes that have been brought to fruition for this venerable and distinguished Maritime (and beyond) aerial asset.

For a change of direction, a consortium of defence scientists and personnel behavioural specialists, namely Deanna Messervey, Waylon Dean, Elizabeth Nelson and Jennifer Peach, explore ethical decision-making by military members under stressful operational circumstances and conditions. To that end, they have tabled a revision to the established Defence Moral Decision-Making (DMDM) model, which incorporated recent findings on “… decision-making under stress, on the role of emotions and ‘heat of the moment’ thinking, and on the influence of situational factors.” However, the authors were quick to qualify and clarify their stated purpose from the original DMDM, specifically, “… is not to prescribe ethical or moral behaviour – i.e., to show military personnel how to solve moral dilemmas – but to describe the moral decision-making process and the factors that can affect it in order to develop training and education to counteract these ethical risk factors.”

In the last of our major articles, military intelligence analyst Ismaël Fournier, who specializes in strategy and tactics related to insurgencies and counterinsurgencies, takes us back to the past with a stimulating and informative review of American (and Allied) tactics, (both conventional and counterinsurgency), employed against the insurgent and conventional forces of the North during the Vietnam War. “This article goes against the classic views regarding the US military’s ‘poor performance’ in Vietnam, and suggests that US counterinsurgency initiatives were highly effective in the area, and went so far as to cause an unequivocal defeat of the Communist insurgency. It will be further suggested that the execution of conventional military operations was in fact essential if US and South Vietnamese forces hoped to preserve the Republic of Vietnam.”

Only one opinion piece this time out, but it is a very timely consideration of a highly relevant topic. Master Warrant Officer Tim Stackhouse, the Company Sergeant Major for Medical Company, 1 Field Ambulance, contends that in order to modernize and embrace a new generation of the soldier, specific units and sub-units (as well as ‘top down’ guidance) must also lead the change with respect to mentoring and motivating millennials and post-millennials.

Our esteemed resident commentator, Martin Shadwick, is taking a brief medical furlough this time out, but he will be back in force for the summer issue.

Finally, we close with four book reviews on very different subjects, which we recommend for consideration by our readers.

Until the next time.

David L. Bashow
Editor-in-Chief
Canadian Military Journal