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For Your Information
Plenary Sessions (On-the-Record)
- Democracy vs. Ourselves: Divided We Fall
- China vs. Democracy: The Greatest Game
- Economic Depression: Democracies' Recession
- Clubs Med: The Scramble for Middle Earth
- Go Canada! Middle Powers Show the Way
- Space: Contested
- Years On: Re-Making The Democratic World Order
- After 2020: The World With America Informal Sessions (Off-the-Record)
- Africa Matters
- Climate: Changed
- France, Freedom, Faith
- From Moscow to Minsk: Putin's Poison
- Himalayan Heat: Sino-Indian Friction
- Israel's New Friends
- Afghanistan's Final Piece
- Back: Nagorno-Karabakh
- Hong Kong's Present, Taiwan's Future
- London Outs, Brussels Pouts
- Maduro's Venezuela: A Rogues' Gallery
- Tide Power: Bay Of Fundy's Electric Waves
- Biden: His Time
- Post-Pandemic Precipice
- Racial Justice: When?
- Steal IP: Get Rich Quick
- TikTok, Tick Tock: Globalization Times Out
- Worthless Advice: The End Of Experts The 2020 agenda of the Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) gives pride of place to speakers and war criminals representing the U.S. military power: Secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo on his return from a tour of sabre-rattling meetings in France, Turkey, Georgia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia; General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; U.S. Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite; Admiral Philip Davidson, Commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command based in Hawaii; and General John Raymond, Chief of Space Operations, U.S. Space Force, which represents "a new operational domain."
Speakers from the NATO military bloc include Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg; Stuart Peach, Chairman of its Military Committee; Canada's Minister of National Defence, Harjit Sajjan speaking in the "Go Canada: Middle Powers Show the Way" session; Kersti Kaljulaid, President, Republic of Estonia; Artis Pabriks, Minister of Defence, Latvia; Rajmund Andrzejczak, Chief of Defense, Poland; Rob Bauer, Chief of Defence, Netherlands Armed Forces; Liam Fox, former UK Secretary of Defence and International Trade Secretary until sacked in June 2019; Radmila Shekerinska, Minister of Defense, North Macedonia; and Angus Campbell, Chief of Defence, Australia. Most of these countries share a border with Russia and are occupied by NATO, US and Canadian combat brigades and missile systems; North Macedonia is being turned into a nerve centre for further destabilizing the Balkans and splitting its peoples on ethnic lines; and "out of area" partner Australia is increasingly being involved in NATO, expected to join in 2026.
Some 300 people are expected to participate in this year's HISF, either in-person or virtually. The U.S. Congressional delegation includes two senators involved in the Biden presidency: Senator Chris Coons (Delaware) and Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), members of Senate committees on foreign relations and armed forces respectively. Coons, who inherited Biden's seat in the Senate and is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee is reportedly a candidate for U.S. Secretary of State. Coons is also a member of the Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs. In 2019, according to Kaiser Health News which published "Pharma Cash To Congress," a campaign contributions tracker, Coons had received $549,000 since 2007 from big pharma. Shaheen, a former governor of New Hampshire, was invited to be vetted to be Biden's
vice-presidential candidate. She is a member of three subcommittees of the Committee on Armed Services including the Subcommittee on Seapower which exercises congressional jurisdiction over all U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, including non-tactical air programs, and Naval Reserve Forces. In 2018 Shaheen and Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) reformed the Senate North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Observer Group, of which they are co-chairs. It "has an expanded mission to closely monitor and inform Senators outside of national security committees about defence spending commitments of Alliance members, the process of upgrading military capabilities, the Alliance's counter-terrorism capability, NATO enlargement and the ability of NATO member states to address non-conventional warfare." Senator Coons is a member as is Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), who is also at the HISF. Liam Fox was the British Conservative Party Secretary of State for International Trade until he was sacked by the incoming prime minister Boris Johnson in June 2019. He was first appointed to the role in July 2016 by Prime Minister Theresa May. The Guardian reported on December 21, 2017 that as International Trade Secretary, Fox had said he would "personally lead on helping the defence and security industries to export and will be involved in the most significant global deals across all sectors." Half of his new secondees in the Department of International Trade had been transferred from the private arms industry. Fox was previously UK Defence Secretary from 2010-2011 but was forced to resign in October 2011 amid the controversy over his friend and unofficial advisor businessman Adam Werritty accompanying him on several trips to key UK arms markets. Werrity did not work for the government and had no security clearance to be involved in ministerial business.
Fox is a member of Conservative Friends of Israel and on the Executive Board of Atlantic Bridge (Atlantik-Br cke). The latter was founded in 1952 with the aim of advancing cooperation between Germany, Europe and America to promote "multi-lateralism, open societies and free trade." Its membership, by invitation only, is said to be comprised of 500 "decision-makers from business, politics, science and the media on both sides of the Atlantic."
Fox participated in HISF 2010, 2011, 2112, all expenses paid by Canadian tax dollars. The 2020 HISF will also be attended by the presidents of Brookings Institution, the McCain Institute, the Stimson Centre, Freedom House, and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations; and representatives of the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, Atlantic Council, Chatham House, Council on Foreign Relations, Hoover Institute, Hudson Institute, the neo-liberal New America Foundation and several centres and foundations from Japan, India, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, etc. The Canadian involvement in the HISF now includes the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Global Affairs Institute of Canada at the University of Calgary and the Centre of International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, each of whom have representatives on the HISF Agenda Working Group, as well as the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies at Dalhousie University, Acadia University and the Canadian International Council.
(TML Weekly Supplement, November 21, 2020 - No. 45)
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