Ukraine, Middle East top Halifax security forum agenda
The precarious situations in the Middle East and Ukraine will be top of mind at the 15th annual Halifax International Security Forum this weekend.
“I am just passionate about this, I always have been and I am thrilled that it is happening in our province,” said Peter MacKay, one of the founding fathers of the forum, a lawyer and former MP for Central Nova who in the past has served as attorney general of Canada and minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs.
“These types of discussions don’t often happen on our shores even though we have the largest contingent of armed forces based in this province,” MacKay said. “We have a history that has demonstrated Atlantic Canada’s disproportionate contributions for our size and political weight when it comes to global security. That is something that we grew up with here.”
The forum is an independent, non-profit and non-partisan organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on strengthening strategic co-operation among democratic nations.
MacKay said he travelled to many of these forums, predominantly in Europe, as a cabinet minister in the Steven Harper-led Conservative government.
“The common theme was peace and security,” he said. “There was nothing similar in North America, let alone Canada. Given our historic contributions to global security, it was a bit off-putting that Canada was not included, let alone being given the relevant voice. We said how do we put Canada more predominantly in the conversation, we host the event.”
That gave rise to MacKay teaming with Peter Van Praagh, who had served as policy director in Foreign Affairs, to plan and launch a Halifax security forum in 2008. Van Praagh was the founding president of the forum and still holds that position today.
“It has grown substantially both in terms of its reputation and relevance and is now really the pre-eminent security forum internationally,” MacKay said. “It’s a can’t-miss security forum for delegations from just about every country in the world.”
300 delegates from 60 countries
This year, 300 delegates from 60 countries will discuss the situations in the Middle East, Ukraine, African and Arctic security, NATO, sea, space and sky cybersecurity, coexistence with Russia, antisemitism, the new era of global democracies and much more.
MacKay said the forum excludes authoritarian regimes, including what is now known as the KRINKS – China, Russia, Iran and North Korea – along with Venezuela, Cuba and other countries that don’t ascribe to democratic values.
“They are not part of the conversation, they are in the conversation and they are often subject of the conversation but their governments, their regimes are not represented. We often have citizens from those countries, most of whom are now living outside the countries.”
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MacKay said global geopolitical sands are shifting.
“We are seeing not just the rise of more authoritarian regimes but I would call it more the entrenchment of some of these existing regimes and their ability through proxies to expand instability and in some cases (cause) outright conflict,” he said.
The most obvious example, he said, is Iran’s meddling in the affairs of the Middle East, “highlighting the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories.”
‘Vicious audacity’
“The vicious audacity of certain authoritarian leaders in those countries and the emergence of new authoritarian figures in certain countries are threatening to undermine if not outright overthrow democratic values and principles,” he said.
Leaders ride populist waves and, with the aid of the internet, industrialize their misinformation campaigns to expand authoritarian regimes.
“One common stream is this audacity of certain leaders to push the boundaries beyond legal parameters, beyond moral authority, beyond values that we would ascribe to as the common thread of democracy, which is to let the people decide.”
Hamas is an example, he said, voted into power 17 years ago and still wielding that power without an election since.
“In Russia, they hold these mock elections but they are not subject to any kind of oversight or any sort of real principle of the people having any confidence in the vote in itself.”
MacKay points to the deterioration of any semblance of respect for international rules and order in some countries.
“Clearly Ukraine was on track for eventual, I believe, NATO and possibly even EU membership. I was at the meeting in Bucharest well over a decade ago when Ukraine and Georgia were on the agenda as potential, what they call the membership action program. It kind of haunts me and a lot of other people to think of what might have happened had they been granted that opportunity.”
The point of the forum is to bring together like-minded countries, their government leaders, academics and citizens of all stripes for “meaningful and thought-provoking discussions about how we confront these threats, these complex challenges, many of which, and the Middle East being an obvious example, go back not decades, not even centuries but the millennium,” said MacKay, who was to arrive in Halifax late Thursday for the forum to be held Friday through Sunday at the Westin Nova Scotian hotel.
‘A direct parallel’
“It’s a quintessential battle in that part of the world that has now once again become very prominent.”
MacKay credits Van Praagh, who he calls the architect of policy overwatch at the Halifax forum, for being the first to draw “a direct parallel between the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the deadly invasion of Putin’s forces in Ukraine and drawing from that this is not just a localized, regional war, these are truly a threat to all western democracies.”
He said we all have a stake in helping to bring about lasting peace in those conflicts.
“That is sort of the quintessential discussion that goes on not just in the formal part of the forum and the agenda, it’s also designed to allow for bilateral discussions and private discussions between policymakers and shakers and in some cases ministers to meet in a safe and conducive environment.”
“It’s a quintessential battle in that part of the world that has now once again become very prominent.”
– Peter MacKay
Van Praagh, in a news release, called the Hamas terrorist attacks “a disgrace to civilized humanity, including all peace-loving Arabs,” in intentionally targeting entire families, senior citizens, unarmed men, women, children and babies for being Israeli.
“It was also the opening of a new front of a global confrontation against democracy and civilization,” Van Praagh said. “Putin’s Russia started this violent new era of global confrontation against civilization when it attacked its peaceful democratic neighbour Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. But as a result of President Zelenskyy’s inspiring leadership, the courage of the Ukrainian people and the generosity of the world’s democracies, Putin is desperate. Now Putin is working to shift the world’s democracies’ attention — and their generous support for Ukraine – to other theatres.”
MacKay said it is difficult to quantify the successes of the security forums.
“To be honest, it’s more the planting of seeds and the cultivating of relationships,” he said. “This is a non-partisan gathering. This is about getting people together to forge those relationships. In my view, those are essential ingredients for global peace and security and the future strengthening of those alliances is what it does.”
