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CIC NCB Ottawa: World on Fire: How to Defend Ourselves
The Canadian International Council – National Capital (Ottawa) Branch‘s Europe Study Group presents…
WORLD ON FIRE: HOW TO DEFEND OURSELVES
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 | 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM EST
KPMG, 150 Elgin Street, Suite 1800, Ottawa, ON
REGISTRATION
This event will be held at KPMG, 150 Elgin Street, Suite 1800, Ottawa, ON.
To register, please do so through Eventbrite. Click here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/world-on-fire-how-to-defend-ourselves-tickets-1871643799989.
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Even as growing conflict, confrontation + authoritarian wars continue in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, geopolitical power dynamics have shifted dramatically. We have reason to fear that such developments will increasingly impact us at home, just as we face widening income disparity, growing homelessness in our city centres, and climate change like extreme weather or wildfire-driven air quality issues disproportionately affecting the young and the elderly.
At the CIC’s National Capital Branch (and indeed at all our 18 branches across the country), we aim to host timely discussions with key experts on issues that are (or should be) of concern to us all. Join us for the next in a series of lively discussions hosted by the CIC’s Europe Study Group: “World on Fire : How to Defend Ourselves”.
What’s needed to better our capacity to defend Canadian national interest, to gain consensus on the transformational amount of investments required in security + defence, as well as in related areas essential to our future as a nation?
SPEAKERS
Stefanie Beck, Deputy Minister, Department of National Defence (Canada)
Stefanie Beck was appointed Deputy Minister at Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) on June 3, 2024.
Prior to that, Ms. Beck served as the Deputy Minster of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Associate Deputy Minster at DND for 13 months.
Ms. Beck has served as Deputy High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and as the Assistant Secretary to Cabinet, Priorities and Planning at the Privy Council Office.
Ms. Beck joined the Government of Canada in 1990 with the Department of External Affairs, working abroad as a political officer and had postings in Dakar, Senegal, Canberra, Australia, and in Cambodia and Croatia.
She grew up on several continents, attended high school in Singapore and Ontario, and has a Bachelor of Arts in German and Italian from McGill University.
H.E. Hanne Ulrichsen, Ambassador, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Canada
Prior to taking on new duties in Ottawa in 2025, Ambassador Ulrichsen had been Director for the Middle East and North Africa in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2021.
She had previously been posted to Amman, Jordan (also accredited to Iraq) as deputy Head of Mission (2005-2008), served as a Transatlantic Diplomatic Fellow in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, U.S. Department of State (2008/2009) and at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington D.C. (2009-2011).
Other assignments include the Office of the Prime Minister, the Office of the Norwegian Director of Intelligence and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).
Specialized in security policy, she holds a Master’s degree in political science from the University of Oslo; also completed studies at Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Grenoble (France), University of Warwick (United Kingdom) and holds a Master of European Administrative studies from the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). She graduated from NATOs Senior Leadership Course at the NATO Defence College in Rome with high distinction in 2015.
Christian Leuprecht, Class of 1965 award-winning Professor, Royal Military College of Canada
Christian Leuprecht (Ph.D. Queen’s) is Class of 1965 award-winning Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Military Journal, Director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations in the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University, a senior fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, and an Adjunct Research Professor in the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University.
He is an elected member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada and recipient of the Cowan Prize for Excellence in Research at the Royal Military College of Canada.
He holds provincial appointments as chair of the Ontario Research Fund Advisory Board and to the Kingston Police Services Board and is a a member of the RCMP’s Cybercrime Advisory Group.
His latest book is Military Operations in Response to Domestic Emergencies and Global Pandemics.
MODERATOR
Jennifer Irish, Associate and Program Director, Telfer Centre for Executive Leadership, University of Ottawa
Jennifer Irish is the founding director of the Information Integrity Lab at the University of Ottawa. She previously served 3 times at Canada’s Privy Council Office, including as Director of Operations of the International Assessment Secretariat, which provides strategic global intelligence assessments for highest level government clients, as well as intelligence coordination and professionalization services to Canada’s intelligence analysts. This experience built upon 3 years as DG at the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre which assesses threats to Canada and Canadian interests related to violent extremism and terrorism.
Previously, she served more than 20 years in Canada’s foreign service in postings abroad to Canadian Embassies and High Commissions in Israel and Cyprus, Cuba, Mexico and at Canada’s Permanent Missions to the UN in both New York and Geneva. At headquarters, she served in leadership positions at Global Affairs Canada’s International Security and International Environment Bureaus.
Saskatoon Club 
