{"id":2437,"date":"2015-07-30T19:04:33","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T19:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cciss.net\/?p=2437"},"modified":"2016-06-02T15:18:50","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T19:18:50","slug":"contrasting-military-chiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/csids\/2015\/contrasting-military-chiefs\/","title":{"rendered":"Contrasting Military Chiefs: US and Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Professor Steve Saideman, Paterson Chair in International Affairs<br \/>\n<\/em><em> The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The US and Canada are replacing their military chiefs at about the same time. \u00a0 As each starts their term in office, observers can easily confuse what each can and cannot do.\u00a0 The striking difference is that the US Chairman can speak but not act and the Canadian Chief can act but cannot speak quite as much.\u00a0 Let me explain some of the differences and then some of the similarities.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Chief of Defence Staff [CDS] is the commander of the Canadian Armed Forces.\u00a0 He is the ultimate authority, essentially, writing the rules of engagement, firing subordinates if need be, and providing the operational commanders with their missions.<\/p>\n<p>The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff commands the Joint Staff &#8230; and that is about it.\u00a0 His primary job is to serve as adviser to the President and the Secretary of Defense.\u00a0 He cannot order around the Combatant Commanders&#8211;the four star generals and admirals who command all of the US forces in their sector or function.<\/p>\n<p>The CDS is appointed by the Prime Minister, and Parliament has no role in vetting him.\u00a0 Which means he is only accountable to the Prime Minister, but is answerable to Parliament.\u00a0 This answerability thing is actually quite limited since advice to cabinet is confidential.\u00a0 So, the CDS can speak about what the Canadian Armed Forces are doing and can do, but not what the CDS told the Prime Minister about what should be done.<\/p>\n<p>The Chairman is appointed by the President but must be confirmed by the Senate.\u00a0 So, he is actually accountable to both the President and to Congress.\u00a0 This means that he can and occasionally must speak more broadly, depending on the questions asked by those in Congress.<\/p>\n<p>How are they similar?\u00a0 Well, I used &#8220;he&#8221; a lot above since the American and Canadian military chiefs have been male.\u00a0 The time for a female CDS\/Chairman is coming as more women are getting promoted to higher levels and with more women getting more experience commanding in combat, those numbers should increase even more.\u00a0 Still, not anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p>How else?\u00a0 CDS&#8217;s and Chairmen can range from being forward-leaning to acquiescent.\u00a0 The Chairmen, Myers and Pace, under Donald Rumsfeld experienced &#8220;mind melds&#8221;, where they basically sold out to Rummy&#8217;s stances on the issues.\u00a0 One could use many adjectives to describe the outgoing CDS but forward leaning is not one of them.<\/p>\n<p>The two new leaders, US Marine General Joe Dunford and Canadian Army General Jon Vance, may or may not be that similar as chiefs (time will tell), but they do have some similar attributes.\u00a0 Both commanded in Afghanistan.\u00a0 Both are generally viewed as relatively blunt and assertive.\u00a0 Both have tough jobs ahead as they face more budgetary constraints in more complex times (the Cold War was more dangerous but far more simple).\u00a0 Both have to deal with messed up procurement processes (a widely shared dynamic among democracies these days).\u00a0 And both are starting their jobs during election season (although the US election is farther away, the campaign is very much underway).\u00a0 Dunford&#8217;s boss will certainly change during his term in office, and might happen to Vance and maybe not.<\/p>\n<p>Anyhow, as each takes over their respective militaries, we need to keep in mind that despite the common title of CHOD (chief of defense, in the NATO parlance), they have somewhat different jobs and definitely different expectations.\u00a0 The key commonality is that they will lead in interesting times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US and Canada are replacing their military chiefs at about the same time.   As each starts their term in office, observers can easily confuse what each can and cannot do.  The striking difference is that the US Chairman can speak but not act and the Canadian Chief can act but cannot speak quite as much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Contrasting Military Chiefs: US and Canada - Centre for Security, Intelligence and Defence Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The US and Canada are replacing their military chiefs at about the same time.  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