World on Fire: How to Defend Ourselves

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This event will be held at KPMG, 150 Elgin Street, Suite 1800, Ottawa, ON.

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EVENT DESCRIPTION

Even as growing conflict, confrontation + authoritarian wars continue in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, geopolitical power dynamics have shifted dramatically. We have reason to fear that such developments will increasingly impact us at home, just as we face widening income disparity, growing homelessness in our city centres, and climate change like extreme weather or wildfire-driven air quality issues disproportionately affecting the young and the elderly.

At the CIC’s National Capital Branch (and indeed at all our 18 branches across the country), we aim to host timely discussions with key experts on issues that are (or should be) of concern to us all. Join us for the next in a series of lively discussions hosted by the CIC’s Europe Study Group: "World on Fire : How to Defend Ourselves".

What’s needed to better our capacity to defend Canadian national interest, to gain consensus on the transformational amount of investments required in security + defence, as well as in related areas essential to our future as a nation?

SPEAKERS

Stefanie Beck, Deputy Minister, Department of National Defence (Canada)

Stefanie Beck was appointed Deputy Minister at Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) on June 3, 2024.

Prior to that, Ms. Beck served as the Deputy Minster of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Associate Deputy Minster at DND for 13 months.

Ms. Beck has served as Deputy High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and as the Assistant Secretary to Cabinet, Priorities and Planning at the Privy Council Office.

Ms. Beck joined the Government of Canada in 1990 with the Department of External Affairs, working abroad as a political officer and had postings in Dakar, Senegal, Canberra, Australia, and in Cambodia and Croatia.

She grew up on several continents, attended high school in Singapore and Ontario, and has a Bachelor of Arts in German and Italian from McGill University.

H.E. Hanne Ulrichsen, Ambassador, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Canada

Prior to taking on new duties in Ottawa in 2025, Ambassador Ulrichsen had been Director for the Middle East and North Africa in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2021.

She had previously been posted to Amman, Jordan (also accredited to Iraq) as deputy Head of Mission (2005-2008), served as a Transatlantic Diplomatic Fellow in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, U.S. Department of State (2008/2009) and at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington D.C. (2009-2011).

Other assignments include the Office of the Prime Minister, the Office of the Norwegian Director of Intelligence and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).

Specialized in security policy, she holds a Master’s degree in political science from the University of Oslo; also completed studies at Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Grenoble (France), University of Warwick (United Kingdom) and holds a Master of European Administrative studies from the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). She graduated from NATOs Senior Leadership Course at the NATO Defence College in Rome with high distinction in 2015.

Christian Leuprecht, Class of 1965 Distinguished Professor, Royal Military College of Canada

Christian Leuprecht (Ph.D. Queen’s) is Class of 1965 Distinguished Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Military Journal, Director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations in the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University, a senior fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, and an Adjunct Research Professor in the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University.

He is an elected member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada and recipient of the Cowan Prize for Excellence in Research at the Royal Military College of Canada.

He holds provincial appointments as chair of the Ontario Research Fund Advisory Board and to the Kingston Police Services Board and is a a member of the RCMP’s Cybercrime Advisory Group.

His latest book is .

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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