The Canadian-U.S. Permanent Joint Board on Defense has been in existence for over 80 years. This binational board of experts provides advice to the prime minister and president on how best to defend North America. The pressing topic today is North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) modernization and the renewal of its aged radar sensors in the Arctic.
The North Warning System, a series of unmanned, long- and short-range radars dotting the North American Arctic and Greenland in support of air defense and frontier control, is reaching its end of serviceable life. The American and Canadian defence industries are racing for a chance to provide both militaries with the latest technology to replace the old radars. But to what ends? More sensors are not the magic solution to “modernizing” NORAD. Sensors are but one very small part of a wider effort to reconsider what it means to defend North America — beyond technology and the North Warning System.
Our December speaker Dr. Andrea Charron will examine this wider effort.
Dr. Charron holds a PhD from the Royal Military College of Canada (Department of War Studies). She obtained a Masters in International Relations from Webster University, Leiden, The Netherlands, a Master's of Public Administration from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from Queen's University. Dr. Charron worked for various federal departments including the Privy Council Office in the Security and Intelligence Secretariat. She completed her post doctorate at Carleton's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and is now Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies (CDSS) at the University of Manitoba.
