Wesley Wark Explained

Wesley K. Wark (born 1952) is a Canadian historian, an associate professor emeritus of history at the University of Toronto, and an invited professor at the University of Ottawa.

Education

Wark earned a B.A. from Carleton University in 1975, an M.A. from Cambridge University in 1977 and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He was a faculty member at McGill University from 1982 to 1983, at the University of Calgary from 1983 to 1988, and at the University of Toronto from 1988 until his retirement in 2013.

Career

Wark was President of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS) in 1998-2000 and 2004-2006. He served on the Prime Minister's Advisory Council on National Security (2005-2009).^[1]

Wark is a frequent media commentator on national security and intelligence and contemporary security issues. Notably, writing in 2020, Mr. Wark appeared to be unaware that Canada's military had a medical intelligence unit, stating "The Canadian military appears to have no counterpart to the U.S. National Center for Medical Intelligence, which is part of their Defense Intelligence Agency.".^[2] Later that year Mr. Wark stated "The Department of National Defence has a small medical intelligence unit, normally utilized to assist in determining health risk in overseas military deployments, but whose expertise could be pressed into service on COVID-19.” ^[3] Again in 2021, he discussed Canada's "military medical intelligence branch.".^[4] Other scholarly interests include the popular culture of espionage in the contemporary history, the study of terrorism and counter-terrorism and modern and contemporary international relations. He was also a member of the Committee on the Civil Dimension of Security of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.^[5]

Books

• The Ultimate Enemy: British Intelligence and Nazi Germany, 1985^[6]
• Security and Intelligence in a Changing World: New Perspectives for the 1990s (co-editor with Anthony Stuart Farson and David Stafford), Psychology Press, 1991^[7]
• Spy Fiction, Spy Films, and Real Intelligence, 1991 (editor)^[8]
• Espionage: Past, Present, Future? Elsevier, 1994 (editor)^[9]
• Twenty-First Century Intelligence, Routledge, 2013 (editor)

Notes and References

1. http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2007/11/01/prime-minister-announces-appointments-advisory-council-national-security Prime Minister Stephen Harper
2. “Health Intelligence, National Security and the COVID-19 Pandemic” by Wesley WarkMarch 2020 https://www.cgai.ca/health_intelligence_national_security_and_the_covid_19_pandemic
3. “Pandemic gives security and intelligence community an urgent new mission” by Wesley Wark, April 14, 2020 https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/april-2020/pandemic-gives-security-and-intelligence-community-an-urgent-new-mission/
4. “Military medical intelligence warnings gathered dust as public health struggled to define COVID-19” Murray Brewster, CBC News, Jan 11, 2021 https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid-military-medical-intelligence-1.5866627
5. http://www.nato-pa.int/default.asp?SHORTCUT=1039 NATO Parliamentary Assembly
6. Reviews of The Ultimate Enemy: Patrick Beesly, International History Review, ; Horst Boog, Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen, https://www.proquest.com/openview/b3d58e695a40895af540d6ab466b8d5e/1; Nigel Clive, International Affairs, ; Andrew J. Crozier, History, ; Luc De Vos, Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, https://www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0818_1989_num_67_4_5735_t1_0938_0000_2; L. L. Farrar Jr., Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, ; M. R. D. Foot, Albion, ; Alfred Gollin, The American Historical Review, ; R. H., Military Affairs, ; M. W. Jackson, History of European Ideas, ; Keith Robbins, The English Historical Review, ; Peter St. John, Journal of Conflict Studies, https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/JCS/article/view/14779; Ralph White, Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains,
7. Reviews of Security and Intelligence in a Changing World: Victor Huard, Canadian Journal of History, ; Ross G. Weber, Journal of Conflict Studies, https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/JCS/article/view/15103
8. Reviews of Spy Fiction, Spy Films, and Real Intelligence: Philip M. Taylor, The International History Review, ; Keith Neilson, Canadian Journal of History,
9. Reviews of Espionage: Past, Present, Future?: Reg Whitaker, Canadian Historical Review, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/574814/summary; Martin Thornton, Intelligence and National Security,