Anthony Jenkins/The Globe and MailThe Globe and Mail
The arrival of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Secretary-General of NATO, in Ottawa next week will give Prime Minister Stephen Harper an opportunity to explain to him the implications or the alliance of a very significant shift in the government's thinking.
Mr. Harper could begin by saying that Canada's national security ties to Europe are weakening as memories of the Cold War fade and deployments of the Canadian Forces alter our perceptions of this country's place in the world. Mr. Harper might emphasize that it is impossible today to imagine any credible scenario whereby Canada would ever again rally to the defence of Europe. As Europe's policies demonstrate in Afghanistan, it is obvious to Canadians that they cannot expect Europe to spend one soldier's life in the defence of Canada's interests. Indeed, Mr. Harper should warn Mr. Rasmussen that his government is busy preparing to meet serious and prolonged challenges to Canada's sovereignty, especially in the Arctic and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence - challenges, ironically, launched by our so-called NATO allies.
The Prime Minister should also inform the Secretary-General that Canada is no longer merely a "North Atlantic nation." Rather, changed and changing international circumstances, and Canada's strategic imperatives - the security of Canada and the security of North America - are bringing Canadians home to America; that is, home to the idea that Canada is a natural constituent in an enormous political and cultural entity: the Western Hemisphere.
Mr. Harper could illustrate the practical evolution of this idea that Canada is a Western Hemispheric nation by handing to Mr. Rasmussen copies of the federal government's major foreign-policy statement, "Canada and the Americas: Priorities and Progress" or its "Canada First Defence Strategy." He could go on to explain that officials in Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency are radically reshaping policies to concentrate more resources and programs in this hemisphere.
He might describe to Mr. Rasmussen the several recent visits to the region by the Chief of the Defence Staff, or the significant increases in military assistance and training programs in Latin America and the Caribbean, or the deployment in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean of five senior military attachés where none existed before 2000. Mr. Harper could explain the importance to Canadian security of our naval operations to deter and intercept drug-runners and contraband and human smugglers in the Caribbean as part of his government's strategy to build a new and more relevant alliance within the Organization of American States.
Mr. Harper should mention also how the training of Latin American and Caribbean military officers and Canada's help in developing "counterterrorism operational groups" and "counterterrorism capabilities" - particularly in 2008-09 in Jamaica - are part of a rapidly developing Canadian Forces "stability in the Caribbean" mission. Mr. Harper should stress that after 2011, when the "bulk of our troops" withdraw from Afghanistan, he anticipates that significant "whole-of-government" Canadian deployments may be required in Haiti and perhaps in certain other Caribbean and Central American states to assist "stabilization operations" there.
Mr. Harper would want to make sure that Mr. Rasmussen and European NATO member states understand that although Canada has had no direct involvement in police and military security operations in Mexico in 2009, the continuing criminal insurgency in that state is a major Canadian security concern. He might explain to his European guest that the insurgency is forcing thousands of Mexicans out of contested regions and prompted thousands more to flee to Canada in the hope of escaping the chaos at home. In strictest confidence, he would tell the Secretary-General that U.S. and Canadian officials and intelligence agencies believe that if Mexico cannot at least contain the insurgency, then the violence and growing power of transnational criminal organizations operating mainly from Mexico may migrate to the United States and Canada.
Finally, the Prime Minister would want NATO's Secretary-General to carry this final strong message to Brussels. Canada simply does not have the necessary resources to defend Canada effectively and to co-operate appropriately with the United States in the defence of North America, while guarding Europe's interests, responding to UN military commitments and securing our "near-at-home" in the Caribbean and Latin America.
As it is plain for all to see from their choices and actions, Europeans have defence priorities that begin and end in Europe. Our European allies, therefore, should expect and accept that Canada's security priorities will begin at home - and extend only so far as the broad reaches of our own Western Hemispheric backyard.
Douglas Bland is chair of the Defence Management Studies program at the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University.