Bonjour, mesdames et messieurs. And good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you for that kind introduction, Patrick.
Ambassador Jacobson, General Natynczyk, General Champagne, Mr. Tachuk, Mr. Peterson, Mr. Page, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, it’s really great to be here this morning, and thank you for your very kind invitation.
It’s such an honor to be here with you all at the prestigious Rideau Club--with a wonderful view of Parliament Hill! It’s great to be in Ottawa again--among partners, allies, colleagues and friends.
Thank you to the American Chamber of Commerce National Capital Region for setting up this special event, and for giving me the opportunity to address such a distinguished group.
…and a special thanks to Boeing Canada, the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency, and the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries for sponsoring this breakfast.
I accepted your kind invitation to speak today principally because I wanted to come up and publicly make a statement about how robust and important the relationship is between our two countries, and how robust and important the relationship is between the militaries of our two countries…and how robust and important I believe the NORAD command is to what we do together as nations.
It is an honor to represent The North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States NORTHERN Command up here today.
It’s not lost on me that NORAD is a very apt metaphor for the relationship that our countries enjoy together.
Just as NORAD is one of several ways that our militaries interact, we are also interdependent in other ways, notably culturally and economically . . . together facing many complex challenges across a broad spectrum . . . but always with each nation retaining its own sovereignty and style and its own cast on its important national interests.
Our economic interdependence is perhaps most obvious to this group, and certainly very relevant. We have the world's largest and most comprehensive trading relationship, supporting millions of jobs in each of our countries.
You know the numbers . . .
- 300,000 people crossing our border each day
- 22 million people travelling between the U.S. and Canada on commercial air carriers each year
- Canada as the leading export market for [36] of the 50 U.S. States, and is ranked in the top three for another 10 States
- Canada as a larger market for U.S. goods than all 27 countries of the European Community combined
- The U.S. as Canada's leading agricultural market, drawing 55% of its agro-food exports
- Canada as the single largest foreign supplier of energy to the U.S.--providing 17% of U.S. oil imports and satisfying 18% of U.S. natural gas demand
- And also, Canada is the home to the Blackberry, for which we will never forgive you!
It’s no surprise that two nations so deeply intertwined economically, and who are such close neighbors, would have a security relationship so important that it would give birth to command like NORAD, unique in all the world.
I’d like to spend a few minutes to describe my two commands and how we support both Canada and the U.S.
I took command of NORAD and USNORTHCOM about 5 months ago, and I’ve got to tell you that I’ve been quite impressed by the talented cadre of professionals--from all services of the U.S. military, our Canadian partners, and representatives from 68 different civilian organizations--who work in and about my headquarters in Colorado Springs each and every day.
As a Sailor who’s spent most of his career overseas, I’ve found NORAD and USNORTHCOM a very exciting place to lead. It’s invigorating for me to focus on a breathtaking array of challenges and opportunities within our various mission sets.
NORAD is unique in that it is a binational command . . . which makes me responsible to both governments for the collective defense of North America.
NORAD has established a 52-year partnership to ensure the sovereignty and security of North America. Some think of this arrangement as a bit of an anachronism…a relic of the Cold War…but NORAD’s missions remain as relevant today as ever.
The potential threats we face cover the full spectrum of capability and intent, principally including:
. . .a few small, self-alienated nations with emerging capabilities but also with unpredictable leaders
. . .and violent extremist threats with lesser capability but very clear and demonstrated intent to use terrorism as a tool against us.
So NORAD is as relevant today as it was in 1958…and it’s a real privilege to have the 125 or so Canadians in my headquarters as part of the team.
My USNORTHCOM mission responsibilities dovetail well with those of NORAD.
Where the NORAD Agreement does not cover defense of the U.S. homeland, such as maritime control and missile defense, USNORTHCOM assumes the responsibility within the U.S. military’s constitutional, customary, and legal limitations.
Additionally, in a natural disaster we’re prepared to assist civil authorities and our state governments in relieving suffering and mitigating damage.
And we have a security cooperation mandate at NORTHCOM to work closely with all of our North American neighbors--notably Mexico.
Canada and the United States are intertwined at many levels to make both of these commands work effectively…
. . . from the close partnership that has always existed between our political leadership,
. . . to the civilian-led Permanent Joint Board on Defense, which dates to 1940,
. . . to the teamwork we enjoy among NORAD, USNORTHCOM and Canada Command,
. . . to the very important fact that we have largely combined the staffs of my two commands, with Canadians and Americans working side-by-side in nearly everything we do.
So, with this in mind, perhaps you’re wondering what’s actually on our plate these days in these two commands. I’d like to take a few minutes to explore our several different focus areas--which constitute quite a diverse array of challenges and opportunities each day.
Of course, because violent extremists are the only threat with clear intent to harm us, Counter-Terrorism and Force Protection reside at the top of my list.
These extremists are patient, will try to use our freedoms against us, make no distinction between military and civilians as combatants, and have no bureaucracy to slow them down.
They seem to be shifting from high-profile attacks to easier-to-execute smaller-scale attacks…what a Canadian might call “shots on goal.” Our defensemen and goalies have to be perfect, while they just have to get one through into the net--and they can claim success.
Our democratic traditions and practice leave this problem largely in the hands of law enforcement, as it should be. So, with a few exceptions, I play more of a supporting role--assisting with information-sharing, or providing a unique capability that only the military can provide, or enhancing civilian capacity when required.
One of those capabilities is to be ready to mitigate the after-effects of an attack, and my responsibility to respond in the aftermath of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attack by a terrorist on the United States is important enough to me that I’ve made it a separate focus area.
Fortunately, we have a growing capability, working hand-in-hand with our National Guard and civil partners, to handle this threat if and when it happens.
And, as a consortium of nations continues to take on the threat of violent extremism overseas, away from our homelands, we in the United States remain grateful for the considerable sacrifices Canadians have made in this effort.
Closer to home, I support Canada’s desire for a perimeter focus on this problem, but such an approach can only succeed through robust and open information-sharing, which can be legally challenging and is a topic of intense interest and discussion between our t-wo nations.
Another topic of growing interest for me and both of our nations is Mexico--and our shared challenge of countering the transnational criminal organizations, or TCOs, who exercise such a corrosive influence in North America.
This challenge is also principally the focus of law enforcement organizations, as it should be. However, because the Mexican military is playing a key role in this struggle, I have spent a substantial part of my personal time and effort, since taking command, in finding ways to help my close Mexican partners.
This isn’t only about the impacts of drugs in our cities. It’s in our mutual interest for Mexico, a fellow North American partner, to exist as a prosperous and secure neighbor and friend.
I am profoundly impressed by the determination and courage of the Mexican government and other political elites, the various Mexican security forces, and the Mexican people in taking on this challenge. They know this is about the long-term future of their country.
And if you’ve not been down there in the last three months, you’ve not had the opportunity perhaps to see the pace of change in their determination to take this threat on.
But we have to understand that the TCOs are well-financed by our own drug consumption, have relatively easy access to weapons, are vicious in their competition with one another, and are ruthless in either corrupting, coopting, or intimidating local authorities.
We’ve been working hard with our Mexican partners, with whom our relationship has never been stronger, to master this growing and shared problem of TCOs.
In so doing, we’ve carefully emphasized the sovereignty, dignity and capability of a proud Mexican nation, which only recently celebrated 200 years of independence.
Together we’ve stressed the many dimensions of the solution--from building strong and resilient communities, to forming more robust judicial institutions in Mexico, to building a 21st century border, to directly taking-on the cartels themselves.
Make no mistake: this will get harder before it gets easier. But we will steadfastly continue our efforts, hand-in-hand with our Mexican partners, and we welcome Canadian support in this effort.
The next focus area I want to discuss is Defense Support of Civil Authorities,in which I provide, as the NORTHCOM Commander, support to others [for pre-planned events, for civilian agencies doing law enforcement, and for other missions including] in the event of a natural disaster. It’s one of my primary NORTHCOM missions, and we spend a lot of time preparing for it.
We can respond relatively quickly to problems (although never fast enough for me)…and with lots of capability, but we tread carefully to ensure that we don’t overwhelm our civil partners.
We’re also capable of mutual support with Canada. The Canada-U.S. Civil Assistance Plan was signed in 2008 to facilitate military-to-military support between Canada and the U.S., with the approval of our foreign ministries, in the event of a disaster.
Though it doesn’t get much press in the United States, we’ve successfully used this plan on a couple of occasions.
…During in the summer of 2008, Canada provided a C-17 to quickly evacuate critical-care medical patients out of the path of Hurricane Gustav…and then provided two C-130 aircraft to support search and rescue operations in the hurricane’s wake.
…During the Vancouver Olympics earlier this year, USNORTHCOM worked closely with the Canadian Forces to back their support to the RCMP--who really did a fantastic job, in my humble opinion, with security for the games.
In support of their effort, USNORTHCOM had consequence management response capability pre-positioned in Washington State--ready to respond to a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear event on a moment’s notice.
U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels jointly patrolled the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Strait of Georgia with their Canadian counterparts.
We also stood ready to deploy aeromedical evacuation, strategic and rotary-wing lift, and deployable medical support, if and when asked.
…and throughout the games, NORAD fighters, tankers and early-warning aircraft were on patrol to protect the skies over Vancouver and Whistler.
This pre-planned support package showcased our two nations’ ability to work together to ensure the collective readiness of North America.
And the important point is that hardly anyone knew it was there--it was so well done.
Thus far, I’ve hardly touched on what NORAD does for our two nations.
And indeed, Aerospace Warning and Control is truly a high-profile activity within my headquarters, an important mission that draws a fair amount of our two nations’ resources, and in which we’ve seen considerable success for the last 52 years.
While certainly concentrating on the potential threat across the Pole, I spend much more of my time with the concern that extremists might once again try to use civil aircraft, including commercial airliners, as a means for employing their terrorist tactics.
We have made tremendous progress in our efforts to ensure that this kind of event can never ever occur again. It’s a challenging mission, but our team does it very well.
Regardless of whether the mission is in the far north, where Canada’s CF-18 pilots do a remarkable job in routinely ensuring that Canadian airspace is well-defined and secure…or in the lower 48, we aren’t taking any chances.
At NORAD, we’re always ready--and every day we search for new ways to improve our ability to execute this important mission, in terms of tactics, techniques, procedures and technical capability.
To do so, we need the right capability in the right place at the right time.
Fortunately, it appears that our two nations are determined that we will have it.
As I mentioned earlier, Maritime Warning and Control is another of my focus areas.
I have plenty of work to do under my USNORTHCOM hat in this area, principally to improve my own nation’s command and control and awareness of the maritime domain.
NORAD was given Maritime Warning as a mission by our two governments in 2006. We’re really only beginning to explore this. Candidly, I think we’re behind a bit where we ought to be, but we’re determined to make progress.
Our recent experience with the motor vessel Sun Sea only highlights the need for us to work together as nations in this area.
We need to better understand what our two nations mean by maritime warning . . . essentially, what we expect NORAD to do and not do in this complex environment, where things are not quite as clean and crisp as they are in the air,
…to understand the extensive and sometimes unique capabilities each nation can bring to bear on the problem, as well as each nation’s concerns in this environment,
…and then bringing this thing to life.
We should break down any unnecessary barriers so that we can most effectively turn data into information and information into knowledge--that each nation can use as required to defend its maritime environs.
I will briefly mention Missile Defense as a focus area as well.
This falls under the category I mentioned earlier of defending not against large and capable nations, but rather against potential attacks from other nations with nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions and unpredictable leaders.
Thus, we at NORAD continue our missile warning mission and, remaining respectful of Canada’s choices in this area, we at USNORTHCOM continue our missile defense mission against these limited types of attacks.
And finally, but certainly not least, the Arctic also stands out as one of my primary focus areas.
In 2007, Russia emphasized the importance of the Arctic to its long-term plans by planting a small titanium flag on the North Pole seabed.
Though this action was largely symbolic and not intended to “claim” the Arctic, it served as a wake-up call to the world regarding the Arctic’s newfound strategic significance.
The geopolitical importance of the Arctic has never been greater. No one knows better than Canadians that it represents a complex mosaic of issues, challenges and opportunities.
Covering one-sixth of the Earth’s land mass, the Arctic is a region of enormous global interest that grows in complexity as the ice cap withdraws a bit more with each passing year, drawing increased human activity bent on exploiting the riches it has to offer.
It’s estimated that up to 25% of the world’s petroleum and natural gas deposits lie beneath the ice cap, and changing climate will enable energy corporations to explore where they’ve been unable to go in the past.
Meanwhile, commercial shipping routes will gradually open through the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route--and will remain open for longer periods of time, enabling vast savings in transportation costs.
And we’ve already seen eco-tourists on cruise ships, who will increasingly ply the Arctic waters in search of adventure and beauty.
The eight Arctic nations have each expressed their Arctic interests in their own ways, but they generally carry the same tone.
Russia’s Security Council has issued its own policy, noting the Arctic’s importance to their socio-economic well-being and military security.
The United States’ interests are stated in the U.S. Arctic Region Policy, expressed in much the same way as Canada’s . . . a compendium of interlocking topics covering security and sovereignty, the environment, indigenous people, resources, and governance.
The Statement of Canada’s Arctic Foreign Policy, issued in August of this year, is--in my humble opinion--a very coherent document that makes a number of important points, three of which stand out to me in particular.
First, right up front, is the statement that “the Arctic is fundamental to Canada’s national identity.” We know this is true.
Canadians do think more about the Arctic than Americans do. And the average Canadian understands it much better than the average American. Americans and others need to understand and respect this.
We certainly do inside my headquarters, and I promise you that, if we ever stray, there will be a Canadian standing right there to remind us.
Second is the statement that “The United States is our premier partner in the Arctic.” It is reassuring to know that this is true.
Again, I find it immensely powerful and important that I have Canadians in my headquarters, partnering with us Americans on our strategic thinking for the Arctic.
This type of transparency is the hallmark of our two nations’ relationship, and it’s very valuable to me.
While we have our differences, such as in the Northwest Passage and Beaufort Sea, these have been well-managed by the U.S. State Department and Canada’s DFAIT.
There is no reason why they cannot be resolved, much as Norway and Russia recently settled their overlapping claims in the Barents Sea after 40 years of negotiations.
Stranger things have happened, such as the Maple Leafs going undefeated after the first few games of a hockey season!
Cooperation is on the rise in the Arctic, and we must continue that trajectory using the array of mechanisms available to us, such as the Arctic Council, the International Maritime Organization, and, if and when we in the U.S. ever ratify it, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
We can also cooperate through initiatives such as the Extended Continental Shelf Project, through which our Coast Guards have been jointly conducting surveys to better define the limits of the shelf.
The third point of interest to me within the Canadian statementis where it says, “Canada does not anticipate any military challenges in the Arctic.”
We hope this is true.
While sometimes we sense mixed signals from nations in this regard, it seems to me that no nation has an interest in a militarized Arctic.
We would prefer instead that together we do the peaceful things that military forces do well, such as long-range search and rescue, and monitoring the environment.
By the same token, however, neither can we allow a situation to develop where a nation is able to dictate the terms of where, when, and what activity takes place in the Arctic.
To take this thought even further, nor do we wish to produce a string of events that leads to an unintended escalation of military activity in the Arctic.
Accordingly, it will take vigilance, and exceptional statesmanship by all parties, through forums such as the Arctic Council, to ensure that the Arctic opens peacefully, with collaboration rather than competition, cooperation rather than conflict, and with proper respect for the legally-recognized sovereignty of nations.
I believe that all eight Arctic nations understand this.
And as this remarkable and beautiful region does open, new challenges await us--we should act now if we’re to be prepared.
The Arctic is a harsh environment, and operating in it--as Canadians know better than anyone--is no easy task.
Transiting through the Arctic’s treacherous waters will require a robust icebreaking capability. Canada has recognized the need for an increase in this capability, and is underway on its own new icebreaker construction program.
Unfortunately, the U.S. has only three icebreakers, only two of which are Polar capable. We can do better, though it remains to be seen whether the resources will be available within the U.S. to address this issue within a tough budget environment.
Increased human traffic in the Arctic will surely result in an increased demand for search and rescue capabilities on the ice pack. The lack of sufficient infrastructure in the Arctic makes this very difficult.
The current lay-down of various nations’ SAR assets means that it may take hours for an aircraft--or days for a ship--to reach someone in need. We can do better.
Just knowing who is operating in the region remains a challenge for us. We lack sufficient domain awareness capability to effectively monitor shipping traffic through Arctic waterways. But we can and we are doing better, particularly with some of the capabilities that Canada brings to bear.
Likewise, communications in the Polar regions can be very challenging, and we’re working very hard, within an austere budget environment, to try to make this better.
And as we seek to preserve the fragile Arctic eco-system, we must consider how to manage the resulting disasters that humans can cause, such as oil spills. We know can do better.
While the Arctic will not open completely and suddenly, we must recognize that it will take years to actually do better . . . we can’t build capability overnight. The U.S. and Canada--and indeed other nations--can and should work together to address our capability gaps now.
Fortunately, based on nearly 70 years of mutual defense of our respective homelands--and within a myriad of national-level mechanisms and bilateral agreements--the Canadian-U.S. partnership has plenty of precedent to provide for such cooperation.
The existing relationships we have among NORAD, USNORTHCOM and Canada Command provide one means of accelerating our combined efforts in the Arctic, and should be leveraged as we move forward.
USNORTHCOM and Canada Command have already agreed to develop a framework under which the two commands can operate in the Arctic together . . . and we are beginning work on a Tri-Command Agreement which will include a cooperative approach to Arctic challenges.
My conversations with my Canadian partners focus on these efforts. We must continue to operate in collaboration with each other, ensuring interoperability among our forces in the challenging Arctic environment, while fully respecting sovereignty.
And we already are.
In August, Canada conducted Operation Nanook in the high Arctic. While principally focused on Canadian sovereignty and interagency capability, the fact that the exercise included ships from the Danish and U.S. Navies, and the U.S. Coast Guard, serves as a model for increased multilateral cooperation among nations throughout the Arctic.
I am proud that Canada and the United States are strategic partners. We are so close that sometimes we forget this.
Sometimes we take for granted the things, like the air we breathe, that are the most important to us.
Yet I can assure you that I am reminded every day of our two nations’ continued friendship and cooperation . . .
. . . whether it’s by the Canadian and American flags flying outside my kitchen window and above my headquarters,
or by hearing both nations’ national anthems at every ceremony we hold in my headquarters, or at hockey games,
or by the natural presence of both Canadians and Americans inside my headquarters, working side-by-side,
or by our rich history of cooperation together,
or by our past and present shared sacrifices overseas in the name of freedom,
or by the terrific personal relationships I have with leaders such as Walt Natynczyk, Walt Simianiw, Jill Sinclair, and the many others in the Canadian government with whom I work.
I’m pleased and honored as the Commander of NORAD and USNORTHCOM to be a contributing member of this very important relationship.
Merci beaucoup pour votre attention ce matin. Thank you for your time this morning.
May God Bless all of our Sailors, Soldiers, Marines and Airmen who are deployed away from home this morning,
…and may God Bless Canada and United States of America.
I’ll be happy to take your questions.