NATO's missions with General Jennie Carignan

NATO Through Time

Why does NATO conduct missions outside of its territory?
What were the different aims and lessons learned of NATO’s missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan and Iraq?
What is Canada’s role in a transatlantic alliance that is often framed as a balancing act between the United States and European Allies?

In this episode, General Jennie Carignan, Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces, walks us through her distinguished military career. She served on a demining team during a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, led an engineering regiment during a combat mission in Afghanistan, and was the first woman to lead a NATO mission when she took command of the advisory and capacity-building mission in Iraq in 2019. She also reflects on Canada’s role in NATO, including its contributions to the Alliance’s forward presence in Latvia, and her place in history as the first woman to lead Canada’s military.

Capitole

1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. NATO's three biggest missions (00:01:38)

3. Why did you join the Canadian Armed Forces? (00:02:18)

4. When did you learn about NATO? (00:05:21)

5. How does NATO organise a mission? (00:07:08)

6. NATO's mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (00:09:18)

7. Safe disposal of landmines (00:11:53)

8. Canada's history of UN peacekeeping (00:14:05)

9. NATO's mission in Afghanistan (00:15:35)

10. NATO's mission in Iraq (00:19:48)

11. Canada's role in NATO (00:23:34)

12. The shift from missions to collective defence (00:25:48)

13. Canada in the Arctic and the Pacific (00:28:05)

14. Women in the armed forces (00:30:21)

15. Outro + reflections (00:32:16)