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Defence Analyst Sunil Ram

HItorMiss

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I was watching CTV Newsnet this afternoon and they had Defence Analysis Sunil Ram on talking about the CC177 arrival and it's sister aircraft impact the CF as well as some other Afghanistan related issues such as the promise to give weapons and equipment to the ANA and the Korean hostage issue.

My question is I believe he was wearing a Regimental blazer (I think it was RCR) so out of curiosty I did a google search for his Bio and though I found some intriguing stuff (such as UNITAR) His bio simply states that he was a soldier and an Officer in the CF from 1980 to 1999 and gave no regimental affiliations. My question is does anyone have info on who and where he served?

UNITAR website: http://www.unitarpoci.org/

Sunil Ram Bio from UNITAR website: http://www.unitarpoci.org/staff_bio.php?name=ram
 
HoM,

Sorry, I was intrigued by what he was saying.

The host started by asking him a leading question about the five soldiers being wounded in the RG31 and wouldn't the money have been better spent on protective measures? Ram shot right back that the aircraft were urgently needed and added that if we hadn't made the buy, we would have spent the money anyway chartering airlift. The host was on a roll, as she asked another leading question in the same vein, and he explained the need for strategic mobility, this time using East Timor as an example.
 
Yeah I saw that he really got his point across and shut her down. It's one of the reasons I am intrugued to know more about this guy. She tried to push her agenda but he was very skilled in not letting her take the lead with misinformation and misleading questions
 
I am surprised that the only Bio's for him can be found on that UN look-alike site.  http://www.unitarpoci.org/staff_bio.php?name=ram 

Professor Sunil V. Ram
Originally from the UK, Professor Sunil V. Ram resides in Toronto, Canada. He presently teaches Military History and Land Warfare to the U.S. Armed Forces at American Military University, in West Virginia. He is also the Contributing Editor of SITREP, the private defence journal of the Royal Canadian Military Institute. He has served in the Canadian Forces (CF) as both a soldier and officer between 1980 and 1999. Prof. Ram is also one of Canada's acknowledged experts in the fields of peacekeeping, military affairs, and the Middle East. He has over a decade worth of experience as a military advisor with the Saudi Royal Family, including involvement in the 1991 Gulf War and the Yemeni conflict in the 1990s. Prof. Ram has won a number of awards over the years, including the UN Global Citizen Award, which was presented to him in 1995 by the UN, the UNAC, and the Canadian Committee for the 50th Anniversary of the UN for the furthering of world peace through public awareness of peacekeeping. He is an active member of a number of prestigious Canadian think tanks and organisations, the most important being The Royal Canadian Military Institute, where he sits on the Defence Studies Committee.

Prof. Ram has also published and presented numerous articles and books over the years and has contributed occasional columns on military affairs for Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail. Prof. Ram has also dedicated his time to a number of private, non-NGO supported development projects in Africa that have directly helped local populations in numerous ways. These include work in the DRC and Somalia

When I visit a site that offers UN accreditation online, I begin to have my doubts about its authenticity.  http://www.unitarpoci.org/our_programmes.php   

 
I believe, based on seeing him elsewhere and reading something about him, that:

1. he says he served in (a) Comm Res unit(s); but

2. he was wearing a Signal Corps tie and the old, triangular, Signal Corps badge.

IF that is the case - and I wasn't paying that much attention - then he is sailing under false colours.  The Signal Corps was disbanded - replaced by the C&E Branch, about the time Ram was born.  He ought not, I think, to be wearing the badge of a corps/regiment in which he never served - unless I am mistaken the C&E Branch has a nice tie and blazer badge of its own.  It may be that Signal units (other than the now defunct 1st Signal Regiment) adopted the old RC Sigs tie and badge but, unless the resume I read was in error, he did not serve in a Signal unit - he served in the Comm Res.

 
Sunil Ram Bio at American Military University

Biography - Sunil Ram 

Welcome to Military History/Land Warfare
My name is Prof. Sunil Ram. I am originally from the UK, I now reside in Toronto, Canada. I have served in the Canadian Forces (CF) as both a soldier and officer between 1980 and 1999 and am a specialist in communications and electronics with an extensive background in various aspects of Information Technology and intelligence analysis.
I am one of Canada’s acknowledged experts in the field of peacekeeping and military affairs with over a decades worth of experience as a military advisor with the Saudi Royal Family, including involvement in the 1991 Gulf War and the 1993/4 Yemeni War.

I have won a number of awards over the years, the most important being the UN Global Citizen Award— presented to in 1995 by the UN, the UNAC and the Canadian Committee for the 50th Anniversary of the UN for the furthering of world peace through public awareness of peacekeeping. In 2003, my old university made me a Distinguished Alumnus for my humanitarian and public service in the field of peace activities.

I am an active member of a number of prestigious Canadian think tanks and organizations including The Canadian Institute of International Affairs, the Royal Canadian Military Institute, the Canadian Institute for Strategic Studies, the Institute for UN and International Affairs, the Council of Canadians for Security in the 21st Century and the Canadian Alliance for Visible Minorities.

I have published and presented numerous articles and books over the years and have had occasional columns on military affairs for Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe and Mail. Some of his most recent work includes: “The Enemy of My Enemy: The odd link between Ansar al-Islam, Iraq and Iran,” Canadian Institute for Strategic Studies (CISS), 2003; “Lessons Learned: Canada’s Afghan Adventure,” SITREP, Royal Canadian Military Institute, 2003; “A Blueprint for the Canadian Forces’ Role in Peacekeeping Operations in the Twenty-First Century, in David Rudd et al (Eds), Vision Into Reality: Towards a New Canadian Defence and Security Concept, The Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, 2002; “Return to Babylon: When America will attack Iraq,” SITREP, Royal Canadian Military Institute, 2002; and “Keeping a military myth alive,” Globe & Mail, April 30, 2002.

I have also dedicated my time to a number of private non-NGO supported development projects in Africa that will directly help local populations in numerous ways.

During the past decade, I have appeared numerous times in local and national, and international radio and television interviews and news reports relating to the Canadian Forces, military affairs, international business and international relations. 
 
His biography is lacking.  He states "In 2003, my old university made me a Distinguished Alumnus for my humanitarian and public service in the field of peace activities." but has no mention of what University he attended, nor any Degrees that he may have attained.  I find that kind of odd.
 
His Bio on "FrontLine Writers" is just as sparse, but it does have a photo.  http://www.frontline-canada.com/Defence/writers/ 

  SUNIL RAM: Professor

A former military advisor to the Saudi Royal Family, Sunil Ram is now a Professor of Land Warfare and Military History at American Military University. He also served as an officer and soldier with the Canadian Forces during the 1980s and 1990s and holds the UN Global Citizen Award for furthering world peace. He is also a member of the Defense Studies Committee of the Royal Canadian Military Institute.
 
George Wallace said:
His biography is lacking.  He states "In 2003, my old university made me a Distinguished Alumnus for my humanitarian and public service in the field of peace activities." but has no mention of what University he attended, nor any Degrees that he may have attained.  I find that kind of odd.

Page 19 of his alumnus magazine

Think community and you might think about your own
neighbourhood, your town or city or maybe your
province.
For Sunil Ram, BA '87, BA '97, recipient of this year's
Distinguished Alumnus Award for Community Service, the
definition of community is much broader. Think North
America, the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa and beyond.
Ram's community is international in scope.
Ram's writing, teaching, commentary and consultative
work focus on peace advocacy but, again, his definition
differs from what you might imagine. Ram supports a strong
military and says the use of force is often necessary to bring
peace. "Sometimes you really do have to send soldiers and
police in because the parties involved in creating the trauma
are simply not going to give up power because you tell them
to," he says.
For much of his adult life, Ram has pursued academic
and military careers simultaneously. Military service, he says,
is a tradition in his family reaching back 1,000 years when
his ancestors fought as soldiers for the Rajput princes in
India. After he finished his first degree and left military
service, he and friends formed a small high-tech company in
Regina. One client was the Saudi Royal Family, a
connection Ram has maintained and one he says gives him
heightened understanding of events in the Middle East.
Life went smoothly until 1994 when Ram was attacked in
downtown Regina and "almost bludgeoned to death." His
severe injuries forced him to spend more than a year in
rehabilitation and relearn many skills. It was during this
difficult time that Ram's commitment to peace advocacy
took root. Because he had problems reading and writing, he
decided to return to university as part of his recovery
process. Later, he also returned to the military, joining a
reserve unit in Regina.
At the U of R, political science professor Shreesh Juyal
introduced Ram to the United Nations (UN) and to a
concept of peace advocacy that differed from the
peacekeeping he had learned as a soldier. Ram got involved
in the model UN program and together with a partner won
several awards at a model UN conference in Los Angeles.
He also became involved in celebrations marking the UN's
50th anniversary, including working with the YMCA to
establish a working model of a UN observation post manned
by peacekeepers in uniform. The work led to Ram being one
of 30 Canadians to receive a UN global citizen award in
1995 for "furthering the world peace through peacekeeping
awareness."
Ram teaches peacekeeping at the American Military
University and co-authored, with Juyal, a course on
peacekeeping in the Balkans for the UN Institute for
Training and Research. He also writes on peace and defence
issues, and is a frequent commentator on these issues in the
broadcast media. Along the way, he has earned a third
degree - a master's in political science from the University of
Guelph.
He believes strongly that Canada must increase defence
spending so it can live up to its military commitments. He's
also an advocate of revamping Canadian foreign policy to
reflect changes in the world and to link its foreign, defence
and aid policies. He also believes Canadians must become
more aware of what's going on both within Canada - "there
isn't a softer target than this country" - and in other parts of
the world. "If you understand the world, you have a much
clearer understanding of how you can deal with it," he says.
As well as speaking publicly, Ram has worked privately
on initiatives geared to helping local people in Africa. In
one project in the Congo, he worked with Congolese
acquiring and selling diamonds. Proceeds went to local
people to buy schoolbooks, medicine, food and other
community needs. "If you can make people's lives easier at
the most basic level, you'll find them less inclined to be in
conflict with each other," he says. "You will also potentially
create a stable enough environment so that civil society can
regain control . . . And people will be willing to protect
themselves because they have a lot to lose."

Still does not state with whom and where he served.

Mysterious...

dileas

tess
 
From that piece I can make out five years as a Reservist from 1994 to 1999.  Perhaps broken Service from 1984 to 1994 when he left the military to start up a High Tech company with his friends, and perhaps a few years of 'unknown' Reg or Res Service from 1980 to 1984.  Perhaps not even enough time to get a CD. 

It interesting trying to find out who this guy really is.  A great way to kill time on the Internet on a rainy afternoon.  ;D
 
I know Sunil Ram.  He's a member of the mess of the Tor Scots.

He's a fantastic guy.  I'm aware of the units he served in but in typical
fashion for me, I forgot.  I didn't realize I would be quizzed on years later.

I'll see what I can find.
 
the 48th regulator said:
There was a Comms unit at Fort York, 709.

dileas

tess

Was it in an underground bunker?  (From http://www.uoguelph.ca/atguelph/02-05-08/people.html  )

Regina was home turf for Ram, who had grown up in Oxford and Regina before joining the Canadian military at age 17. Initially joining in the ranks, by the time he left the service in his early 30s, he was an officer. Among his duties, he had worked on classified projects during the Cold War.

Despite its all-consuming importance then, he says all that hush-hush work seems passé now, something that was underlined for Ram a few years ago when he visited his old squadron, where his former top-secret bunker was being decommissioned. "The world has changed. A lot of what I knew is not so important."
 
Nfld Sapper said:
Sunil Ram Bio at American Military University

and am a specialist in communications and electronics with an extensive background in various aspects of Information Technology and intelligence analysis.
I

I can confirm that only part of this factually correct, but would also comment that the way he has linked these things together and puffed up his creds is somewhat of an embellishment, to say the least.  
 
George Wallace said:
It interesting trying to find out who this guy really is.  A great way to kill time on the Internet on a rainy afternoon.   ;D
It is finally sunny here.  ;D
My litle contribution:On a sadder note, this will be my last issue as the Editor of SITREP, as I will be moving to the International Institute for
Strategic Studies as a Research Associate in January of 2006. I would first like to thank Col MacDonald and Professor Ram for their critical"
http://www.acq.osd.mil/ncbdp/nm/docs/Featured%20Articles/sitrep_november_2005.pdf

Next the "American Military University" is the military version of  those match box covers(http://www.amu.apus.edu/Academics/Faculty/index.htm
). His bio there is at http://www.amu.apus.edu/Academics/Faculty/faculty-details.htm?facultyID=237. They also list him as having his MA from Guelph and he is an "adjunct professor" His bio also lists his published article's, very short and narrow. But he does do at excellent job at fluffing.

Edit to add:
http://www.uoguelph.ca/atguelph/02-05-08/people.html
U of G graduate student Sunil Ram recalls the spring afternoon eight years ago when his life "flipped upside down." Living just outside Regina at the time, he'd been downtown with a business associate at the office where he and several other ex-army buddies had been running a small consulting company since the late 1980s.

Ram and his friend emerged from the office that afternoon to confront a group of youths high on alcohol or drugs, armed with two-by-fours and, as Ram puts it, "looking for trouble." Ex-soldiers or not, he and his friend were outnumbered. After knocking out Ram's colleague, the assailants managed to break Ram's arm before he was able to lock a chokehold on one of the youths. "My soldier mode had kicked in. I wasn't even trying to be fair." Only half-lucid, having been clubbed repeatedly on the head, upper back and hands, he decided to play dead.

Ram remembers getting up and helping to revive his friend, then staggering into a nearby pub before being rushed to the hospital. "The police figured if they'd hit me one more time, I would have died."

The lingering effects were both physical and mental. Ram couldn't use his hands, and his upper body was immobilized for a time. Even today, after the two years he spent in physical rehabilitation, he has trouble with fine motor tasks. (A collection of thousands of miniature soldiers and army equipment that he began collecting as a war games hobbyist at age 10 has been in storage ever since he was injured).

Today, Ram draws a straight line from that fateful spring day in Regina and a classic case of "being in the wrong place at the wrong time" to his recently completed master's program in public policy and public administration - supervised by Prof. Richard Phidd.

It was the attack that led to Ram's return to university, initially in Regina, then at Guelph. "I never thought I'd be where I am," he says. "The assault changed my life completely."

Before the attack, Ram and his colleagues - all former electronics and communications specialists with the Armed Forces - provided services ranging from resolution of international border disputes to strategic and technical advice to Saudi Arabia from the 1991 Gulf War to the mid-1990s.
Regina was home turf for Ram, who had grown up in Oxford and Regina before joining the Canadian military at age 17. Initially joining in the ranks, by the time he left the service in his early 30s, he was an officer. Among his duties, he had worked on classified projects during the Cold War.

Despite its all-consuming importance then, he says all that hush-hush work seems passé now, something that was underlined for Ram a few years ago when he visited his old squadron, where his former top-secret bunker was being decommissioned. "The world has changed. A lot of what I knew is not so important."

If it seems archaic to him today, he can only imagine how his experiences during the past two decades must have struck some of the undergraduates encountering him as their teaching assistant during his past two years at Guelph.

"People are surprised to learn I'm 40," says the youthful-looking, soft-spoken mature student.

He remembers the skeptical faces during a get-acquainted session for his fellow graduate students in political science when he began his master's degree in 2000. When it came to his turn during the obligatory round of introductions, he tried to skim over his career path. But how do you soft-pedal a nearly 20-year army career, award-winning work in international peacekeeping, an adjunct teaching post at the American Military University - not to mention an ongoing stint as a military adviser to the Saudi royal family?

Right, the Saudi royal family. Even Ram and his colleagues thought they were being strung along when someone called in the late 1980s claiming to represent the Saudis. The call turned out to be a legitimate response to an advertisement the company had placed through the Department of Foreign Affairs.

"The Saudis invited us to the kingdom to discuss business," says Ram, who still serves as a consultant to the Middle Eastern nation. In fact, he had been slated to visit Saudi Arabia shortly after he was assaulted, but that visit never occurred. Instead, he received a call from a senior Saudi officer to offer him a couple of bodyguards. He laughs as he recalls trying to make his caller understand that "it would be hard to explain why two armed Bedouins were following me in downtown Regina."

Recalling the reaction his abridged CV caused among his fellow graduate students at Guelph, Ram says: "You could just see everyone looking at me and thinking, 'What a big jerk.'" Several of his undergraduate students later checked for his name on the Internet just to verify his claims.

One question a few fellow students might have left unasked was how this ex-army officer and international peacekeeping expert ended up studying political science at Guelph.

Having lost his business following the assault, Ram had paid off his debts but had lost everything else. "I had gone from jetting around Saudi Arabia to not being able to afford gas for my vehicle."

He already held a double major in history and anthropology, earned part time while in the army. And before the assault, he had been working part time on a political science degree. University of Regina political science professor Shreesh Juyal convinced him to resume his studies, initially just a course at a time and then as a full-time honours student. He completed that degree in 1997.

While at Regina, Ram took part in a model United Nations program with Juyal, which included a four-day international conference in Los Angeles. Ram's peacekeeping studies and activities saw him chosen as one of 30 Canadians, including Juyal, to receive a UN Global Citizen Award in 1995.

Ram had taken peacekeeping courses through the UN Institute for Training and Research. Dissatisfied with a particular course on the early 1990s conflict in the former Yugoslavia, he wrote his own updated version of a course, drawing on his military history background and his knowledge of the conflict from peacekeepers who had served there.

Along with Juyal, he now teaches that undergraduate offering as one of 13 correspondence courses offered by the institute. He also teaches peacekeeping to American armed forces as an adjunct professor of military history at American Military University, a distance-education university based in Manassas Park, Virginia.

It was his work there that prompted him to enrol in graduate school two years ago. Although he'd been earning acclaim as a peacekeeping expert, he saw little chance for promotion without a graduate degree.

By this time living in Mississauga with his wife, Aditi, he applied to several universities within commuting distance and landed a scholarship at Guelph. "I like the campus. It reminded me very much of the smaller universities I was used to," he says.

While studying aspects of civil and military co-operation in peacekeeping operations, he has concentrated on writing, both for his course work and for newspapers and journals. That work has served a dual purpose, one going back to the 1994 assault and a lingering mental impairment.

Explaining that his mental acuity is about 90 to 95 per cent compared with what it was, he says: "I write all the time. If I don't write, my reading and writing skills degrade."

Besides its therapeutic benefits, writing allows him to share his ideas and knowledge on current affairs. Within hours of the terrorist attacks in the United States Sept. 11, Ram was on the phone and in television studios providing comment and analysis for the media. He's lost count of the number of commentary pieces he's written, including articles for the Globe and Mail, on various issues, including the attacks and the subsequent war in Afghanistan. His most recent Globe commentary, on the deaths of the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, appeared in the April 30 issue.

Shortly after the attacks, Ram received yet another call from his Saudi contact to ask whether he'd fly to the Middle East to help gauge the extent of Saudi involvement among Al-Qaeda forces. The notion that he would turn them down to continue his studies at Guelph prompted some incredulity on the other end of the line. But Ram stood his ground.

"I had already made the commitment. I told the Saudis I wasn't going to be available for any real work for a couple of years."
With the completion of his master's degree this spring, Ram now finds himself with more spare time than he'd expected. He had applied to three nearby universities for a doctorate - he was interested in studying the altered security environment since Sept. 11 - but recently learned that all three had turned him down. Instead, he may look for full-time work or at least seek out contract work while reapplying for doctoral studies.

Not being accepted for a PhD program was upsetting, he says, but "after 1994, nothing is a big issue for me."

When Ram thinks about the assault and his road back to recovery, he acknowledges that he might have been tempted to give up. He's been asked at least once whether he resents his attackers.

His response? "What's to resent? I could sit here and cry about what these people did to me. At the end of the day, those individuals will live and die, and history will forget them."

By contrast, "I've made a contribution to world peace through the promotion of peacekeeping in what little way I can. Those actions have prompted the national media to get hold of me and ask what my opinion is. There's a little piece of me in the public record."




 
???

He had applied to three nearby universities for a doctorate - he was interested in studying the altered security environment since Sept. 11 - but recently learned that all three had turned him down.

I would have figure that with his credentials, they would have been beating his doors down with ever increasingly promising offers to choose their institution.


Using Google, this information on him can be found, but much of it is all regurgitated.  This was different though:    Sunil Ram - Executive Security Services International in an article "Presidential Candidate Personal Protection Secret Service Style".  He also can be found commenting on The Bodyguard 
 
Most likely a journalistic misquote:
"A former military advisor to the Saudi Royal Family" http://www.frontline-canada.com/Defence/writers/

Sunil Ram
Canada the peacekeeper? A myth that should die
August 25, 2004 at 2:24 AM EDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040825.w/BNStory/Front/
edit to add:
http://www.frontline-canada.com/FrontLineSecurity/pdfs/Manpower_5_04.pdf

Iraq 2004: Some Thoughts and Considerations
http://www.rcmi.org/archives/July04SITREP.pdf

HEZBOLLAH DID NOT LOSE AND THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS
http://www.rcmi.org/archives/SitrepSeptember06.pdf

THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF NEW ORLEANS
http://www.rcmi.org/archives/commentary_ram2.pdf

UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTE FOR TRAINING AND RESEARCH (UNITAR)
PROGRAMME OF CORRESPONDENCE INSTRUCTION IN PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
http://www.unitarpoci.org/media/brochure.pdf












 
"My soldier mode had kicked in. I wasn't even trying to be fair." Only half-lucid, having been clubbed repeatedly on the head, upper back and hands, he decided to play dead.

I guess the Comms guys got different training than I did....

Sorry, couldn't resist  :)
 
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