D
Defence policy
The Navy will need to be
prepared to operate in an
environment that is orders
of magnitude more complex
than anything the RCN has
yet experienced
34 ocToBER/NoVEMBER 2016 www.vanguardcanada.com
Future roles
For the rCN
C
anada's maritime forces are
much more deeply connected
to national security and pros-
perity than suggested from
a traditional reading of their
missions and roles. To understand why,
we must examine how Canada's relation-
ship with the world has been transformed
over the past several decades through glo-
balization.
Canadians tend to think of their pros-
perity in terms of Canada's access to the
United States and the networks of bridg-
es, roads and rail that move goods within
North America. In reality, these networks
are part of a larger global economy made
possible by maritime commerce.
Over 90 per cent of all global commerce
travels by sea, including two-thirds of the
world's oil. Maritime commerce touches
daily on Canadians' lives. They experience
it in the variety of goods from which they
can choose as consumers, and they inter-
act with it through virtually every purchase
they make.
The pervasiveness of maritime commerce
by Serge Bertrand
