a
arctIc
28 DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 www.vanguardcanada.com
arCtiC ports
for Canadian sea power
part 1
by timothy choi
Should their potential
be fully embraced,
ports will provide
Canada with a
significant source of
new-found sea power
in the Arctic.
s
ea power is the ability to influence events
at sea or from the sea, and consists of in-
puts (the sources of power) and outputs
(what that power accomplishes). Tradi-
tionally, Canadian sea power inputs have been focused
primarily around the seagoing vessels of the Royal Cana-
dian Navy and Coast Guard, with little emphasis on another
major physical element of sea power: ports.
This fact echoes the literature on sea power in general, which is also
lacking in conceptualizing the roles ports play in the modern world. In
the century since maritime strategy giants Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sir
Julien S. Corbett wrote their masterworks on the subject, the roles of
ports have expanded beyond those authors' early conceptualizations.
Ports have acquired functions beyond serving as bases for naval forces
and for enabling the transfer of goods between ship and land; they are
also nodes for search and rescue, as well as providing environmental pro-
tection. These new roles, should their potential be fully embraced, will
provide Canada with a significant source of new-found sea power in the
Arctic.
At the heart of this is the idea that maritime strategy should encompass
activities beyond those strictly related to the accumulation of econom-
ic power and the application of coercive naval force to achieve political
