Vanguard Magazine

Making Canada's role in naTo More effeCTive D Defence 36 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 www.vanguardcanada.com This essay is one in a series commissioned by Canadian Global Affairs Institute in the context of defence, security and assistance reviews by the Trudeau Government. The security and defence choices Canada makes matter not just to Canadians but to citizens across the Euro-Atlantic community c anada is the country that makes NATO an alliance. Without Canada's member- ship NATO would be less a community and more a huddled mass of European states under American protection. As the American world-bur- den becomes more onerous and the US relationship with NATO more tenuous, and as Europe itself teeters on the edge of deep insecurity and instability, the secu- rity and defence choices Canada will make matter not just to the people of Canada but to citizens across the Euro-Atlantic community. The Canada First Defence Strategy (CFDS), first released in 2008, envisions three major roles for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF): sufficient capabilities to meet the security challenges facing Cana- dian citizens and Canadian territory; co- operation with the United States in pur- suit of shared defence and civil objectives; and the fulfillment of Canada's multilater- al objectives through the United Nations and NATO. The security environment has changed beyond all recognition for the worse since 2008. Therefore, rendering international institutions credible and effective in this and future security environments, and with NATO at the fore remains a critical Canadian interest, the fulfillment of which demands Canadian investment in 21st cen- tury Canadian Armed Forces. Hard and so canada: Why nATO matters in 2018 In 2018, Britain's new 72,500 ton super- carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth together with an escort of new Astute-class nuclear- attack submarines and Type 45 destroyers will come together to form a British carrier task group. They will then sail westward to Norfolk, Virginia, and arrive amidst much fanfare. Thereafter, days of dinners and ship visits will take place with a host of American politicians and opinion-leaders invited on board 'The Mighty Queen' to see Britain's state-of-the-art warship which together with her sister ship HMS Prince of Wales will act as the platform for Brit- ain's 21st century power projec- tion. After leaving Norfolk the task group will sail north en route to Halifax, first escorted in alliance by the descendants of John Paul Jones before the escort is handed over to ships of the Royal Cana- dian Navy (RCN), two navies, one commander-in-chief, one alliance. The strategic aim of the mission will be simple: to demonstrate to Americans and Canadians alike that Britain is a strategic power, values the transatlantic strategic relationship, and through NATO is invested in North American security and defence as much as North Americans are invested in European security and defence. Canada needs NATO. Canada is a three- ocean power, and all three of these oceans are in some way contested. Not only does Canada look eastward back to the Old World, it looks north to the Arctic and westward to the Asia-Pacific region. Cana- da has benefitted enormously from global- ization. However, the change being driven by globalization is subject to perils as well as positives. Some in Canada might conclude that the big strategy implicit in Canada's big strategic position can be left to its large, occasionally noisy neighbour to the south. They would be making a profound mis- take. A century on from when Canadian forces played a pivotal role in the freedom of Europe, then the epicentre of 20th cen- tury 'globalization,' Canada must prepare for an equally strategic and pivotal role in by Julian-Lindley french

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