Canada’s April 2024 defence policy update asserts that the “most urgent and important task” is to “assert sovereignty in the Arctic, where the changing physical and geopolitical landscapes have created new threats and vulnerabilities.” Canada commits to increase its military presence in the Arctic and to work cooperatively with partners. Norway places a similarly high priority on partnering with allies to realize its Arctic policy goals centred on security, stability, and interest-based cooperation. What lessons can allies and partners learn and apply from diverse experiences in a time of intensifying great power rivalry? How does strategic competition and posturing affect the abilities for governments to implement policy in a quickly changing environment? How can allies and partners better coordinate their messaging to deter hybrid warfare and conflict escalation?

The Gauntlet Seminar is named in honour of the Norwegian, Canadian, and British Operation GAUNTLET in 1941. Canadian Brigadier Arthur Potts led a successful but little-known combined operation by a small task force in the Spitsbergen (Svalbard) archipelago. After extensive planning and political conversations between Allied civil and military authorities, the operation was re-scaled so that a small, mixed task force would destroy mining and communications infrastructure on this remote cluster of islands, repatriate Russian miners and their families to Russia, and evacuate Norwegian residents to Britain. While a modest non-combat mission, Operation GAUNTLET represented Canada’s first expeditionary operation in the Arctic.

The Second Annual Gauntlet Seminar: Building and Implementing Foreign and Defence Policy In an Era of Increased Attention to the Arctic and High North

0830 – Registration and light breakfast

0900 – Welcoming Remarks

Mr. Trygve Bendiksby

Head of Mission, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Ottawa

Mr. Don Dransfield

Grandson of Howard Dransfield, Royal Canadian Engineers, Operation Gauntlet

0910 – Keynote Speakers

Rear Admiral Ole Morten Sandquist

Norwegian Defence Attaché Designate to Canada and Norwegian Defence Attaché to the United States

Dr. Kerry-Lynn Nankivell

Director, NATO and Europe, (ADM)Pol), Department of National Defence

Following a panel discussion moderated by:

Dr. Marc Lanteigne

Professor, Political Science, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, NAADSN Coordinator

1030 – Networking Break and Refreshments

1045 – Expert Perspectives

Mr. Mathieu Bussiéres

Director, NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence (CCASCOE)

Dr. Marc Lanteigne

Professor, Political Science, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, NAADSN Coordinator

Mr. Andrew Smith

Intergovernmental Relations, Executive Council Office, Government of the Yukon

Dr. Pål Wilter Skedsmo

Research Director, Marine and Polar Issues, Fridtjof Nansen Institute

Capt(N) Øystein Storebø

Program Director Submarines, Norwegian Ministry of Defense

Following a panel discussion moderated by:

Ms. Melissa Jennings

Chief Operating Officer, Canadian Defence and Security Network

1200 – Lunch

This event is by invitation only.