Canterbury University is conducting a review of statements made to the Justice Select Committee by Professor Anne-Marie Brady alleging covert military transfer to China which complainants from other Universities under attack said “contained manifest errors of fact and misleading inferences.” The University would do well to broaden its review to encompass the NATO-funded Canterbury SSANSE which Brady heads. The military-purpose link there is explicit.
SSANSE stands for Small States And the New Security Environment. The project at Canterbury University is described as:
a preparedness initiative examining the defence and foreign policy choices and challenges of small states in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Oceania in the new security environment.
The Canterbury project leader is Professor Anne-Marie Brady. Its principal funder is the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme. The NATO programme states that:
All activities supported by the SPS Programme must address one or more of the SPS Key Priorities. Each activity must also have a clear link to security and to NATO’s Strategic Objectives.
Earlier this year NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg addressed the question of NATO’s strategic objectives in a speech titled NATO 2030. He was asked whether NATO saw China as an enemy. His answer was no, but he went on to say they needed to address the rise of China:
by forging NATO as a stronger political Alliance. We need to do that, we’re working together with partners, not least in the Asia Pacific, including Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, which are very close and like-minded partners to NATO.
The single point I wish to make here is that this Canterbury University centre is funded with a political objective, to advance NATO strategic objectives. It would not be funded if it was not doing that.
So Anne-Marie Brady is clearly working to a political agenda, in her case opposition to China, which is the very thing she accuses other New Zealand academics and Universities of doing.
Brady’s papers are heavy on inference. A review by the University is timely and appropriate.
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