National Defence committee  I think it has to be a more comprehensive contribution. It's certainly rather easy, like sending a number of staff officers, not only in Mali but in a number of other peacekeeping operations, so that you go again into this process of learning what UN peacekeeping is about, how the UN is functioning on the ground, and also put a number of civilians, maybe not the SRSG but DSRSGs, chiefs of staff, which are very key positions, in the system.

National Defence committee  First of all, when looking at the situation in Mali, we could have envisaged the type of operation that was done in Afghanistan in terms of a multinational force. For the time being it's not a path that has been taken by the international community, so the UN is there to do what it can to stabilize a number of centres in Mali, in the north.

National Defence committee  In this debate I haven't heard the word “governance”, which is key to the stabilization of the crisis and the conflicts we have. If the Malian government is a party to the conflict, which is the case, you also have to talk to the Malian government in terms of governance, because what triggered the conflict in the first place is the lack of respect for minority rights in the north, in the Azawad.

National Defence committee  Yes, there are projects at the UN Secretariat on a small vanguard force. That's the name of it, and part of it is to have rapidly deployable headquarters to a mission. For the time being, it hasn't been tested because there's no new mission, but certainly Canada could contribute to such a force with staff officers.

National Defence committee  First of all, peacekeeping cannot do everything. Counterterrorism is not a task for peacekeeping. This has to be taken by other stakeholders, regional organizations, bilaterals, coalitions of the willing. We have to put a limit to what peacekeeping is doing. MINUSMA, the UN peacekeeping in Mali, is testing that, and really, we have to put limits on that.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. That does not change the nature of peacekeeping. Robust peacekeeping is an attitude, a posture, which in no way challenges the fundamental peacekeeping principles described by Lester B. Pearson and Dag Hammarskjöld. Robust peacekeeping is not just a military concept.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for having me here today. I'll give brief remarks just to kick-start the conversation this morning. I will start by saying that peacekeeping is one of the most difficult tasks there is, and it is a very specific activity that differs from other types of military intervention.