UNB prof next up in thoughtprovoking lecture series

Lee Windsor, deputy director of the Gregg Centre presents March 16.

By Cherise Letson - Staff Writer "The Brunswickian", Photo: Andrew Meade / The Brunswickan photo
March 2, 2011 5:02 AM ADT

Lee Windsor will be sharing his “Ideas that Matter” on the future of Canadian peacekeeping later this month.

Windsor is the deputy director of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at UNB and specializes in the history of the Canadian Army from WWII to today. On March 16 he will give a lecture on the future of Canadian peacekeeping as part of the thought-provoking series at UNB. Ideas that Matter allows professors to bring their ideas and cutting edge research from the classroom to the general public.

Windsor’s lecture will not only focus on the future of peacekeeping, but also the experiences of the Canadian forces overseas during the last 20 years and how we can use those experiences to become more informed. The lecture will also touch on the future of Canadian peacekeeping.

“A lot of people wonder whether or not Canada has taken a turn away from peacekeeping because of its role in Afghanistan and, as the Afghan Mission winds down, if there is any possibility that Canada could return to traditional Blue Beret UN peacekeeping,” said Windsor.

“That’s the question I am going to be looking at and I got some ideas about what the future holds. The first challenge, the first thing I think people need to consider carefully is, ‘What do you want your soldiers to do overseas?’ and ‘Just what did you think they were doing in the 1990’s before Afghanistan?’” Windsor said it is important for Canadians to know about Canadian forces because what they do overseas is a collective responsibility.

“There is a variety of other ways that Canada influences world events diplomatically, but the most visible ones, the ones that Canadians see on the news, are the places we distribute aid and send soldiers. They are also the most dangerous instances in which Canada carries out its foreign policy and, by being dangerous, Canadian soldiers die in the act of these missions. In that sense, because Canada is a democracy and because the arm forces are deployed around the world at the behest of the elected government, it means the nation has a collected responsibility for those lives that are sent into harm’s way,” said Windsor.

Windsor also emphasized how closely connected every Canadian is to what the country’s armed forces are doing in the rest of the world.
“They are your armed forces. This is your foreign aid money being paid for with your tax dollars. Therefore, the public has to have a clear idea on what they want those aid dollars to be spent on, what they want those soldiers to be doing and the risks that are going to come with that.”

Windsor said that he is honoured to have been asked to take part in the speaker series and to have so many community leaders demonstrate interest in having his research released.

“It’s quite an honour to be asked, it comes out of 20 years of hard work at watching, following, studying and going to some of the world’s ugliest, darkest, most dangerous, awful places, where humanity is at great risk, where human being are suffering tremendously,” said Windsor.

The lecture takes place at 7:00 p.m. in Tilley Hall, Room 102.