America spends too much on defence and peacekeeping, but Canada and most allies spend too little.
Canada spends only 1% of GDP on military and peacekeeping activities, the US 3.8% while Britain, France, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Poland and even Estonia are at 2% of GDP. Germany is 1.3% and Canada is on the low end of the NATO spending scale, dramatically lower than Australia at 1.6%.
Military spending is not about war mongering or asking for trouble. Pulling your weight makes economic sense: Security is a necessary infrastructure to trade and, in Canada’s case, stepping up in support of its major trading partner and allies is important.
Canada and Europeans must bolster their capability or pay NATO or others to do the dirty work for them. This is notable given that this is Ukraine’s hour of need. The U.S. and Britain are pressuring all 28 members to pony up 2% of GDP, but Canada and Germany ruled out the 2% goal before the NATO summit began, hardly surprising considering that both enjoy a defence umbrella borne in large measure by American taxpayers. Germany has 48,000 U.S. troops and bases and Canada allows the Americans to do most of the heavy lifting for NORAD headquartered in Boulder, Colo. President Vlad Putin has frightened Europe with his blatant invasion as well as the attack by Russian mercenaries using Russian missiles on a commercial jet with 280 people aboard.
Now, they hope by sidestepping direct confrontation Putin will somehow accommodate Ukraine. But this simply emboldens him. This week, Putin suggested that Kazakhstan, like Ukraine, wasn’t really a nation-state and will eventually return to the Russian fold. He also paid a state visit to Mongolia on the day the NATO summit began. Mongolia is an isolated and weak former client state of Russia that may eventually become the Asian version of Ukraine. Putin also has a stranglehold over Europe, as supplier of 30% of the continent’s natural gas needs, and uppermost in many minds is a possible crisis as winter approaches.
So NATO members announced Friday they would help destroy ISIS, rebuild Afghanistan and bolster their Eastern European flank with special forces in Poland and other member nations. But it won’t arm the Ukrainians, some of its members will, namely the U.S., Britain and France. This is because they have obligations as signators to the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 that guaranteed the integrity of Ukraine’s borders in return for its surrender of the world’s third biggest nuclear stockpile. “Russia has ripped up the rulebook with its illegal, self-declared annexation of Crimea and its troops on Ukrainian soil threatening and undermining a sovereign nation state,” President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron wrote in an op-ed piece this week. France stopped delivery of a war ship.
The best course would be to return to the de facto Finlandization of the past 20 years. But that’s also too late and Russia intends to make semi-autonomous regions out of Ukraine’s occupied portions that answer to Moscow not Kiev. Eventually, as happened in Finland, the country was influenced, not occupied, by Russia during the Cold War but is now unfettered. Unfortunately, diplomatic contortions by Europeans and NATO will never change Putin. This week, Ukraine’s hapless President Petro Poroshenko had to agree to a Putin ceasefire – and to withdraw his troops from repatriated Ukrainian territory – in order to negotiate. This should be enough to disavow any notion of a fair outcome. And Canada has to step up, not just for Ukraine or ISIS, but to provide a military presence in our Arctic region that, lest we forget, Putin has claimed belongs to Russia. While Canada isn’t about to be invaded anytime soon, thanks to NORAD and the U.S. military, Putin’s imperialism and declarations underscore the fact that Canada must pull more weight both at home and abroad.
Diane Francis: Canada must start pulling its weight on defence and peacekeeping at home and abroad | Financial Post
Canada spends only 1% of GDP on military and peacekeeping activities, the US 3.8% while Britain, France, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Poland and even Estonia are at 2% of GDP. Germany is 1.3% and Canada is on the low end of the NATO spending scale, dramatically lower than Australia at 1.6%.
Military spending is not about war mongering or asking for trouble. Pulling your weight makes economic sense: Security is a necessary infrastructure to trade and, in Canada’s case, stepping up in support of its major trading partner and allies is important.
Canada and Europeans must bolster their capability or pay NATO or others to do the dirty work for them. This is notable given that this is Ukraine’s hour of need. The U.S. and Britain are pressuring all 28 members to pony up 2% of GDP, but Canada and Germany ruled out the 2% goal before the NATO summit began, hardly surprising considering that both enjoy a defence umbrella borne in large measure by American taxpayers. Germany has 48,000 U.S. troops and bases and Canada allows the Americans to do most of the heavy lifting for NORAD headquartered in Boulder, Colo. President Vlad Putin has frightened Europe with his blatant invasion as well as the attack by Russian mercenaries using Russian missiles on a commercial jet with 280 people aboard.
Now, they hope by sidestepping direct confrontation Putin will somehow accommodate Ukraine. But this simply emboldens him. This week, Putin suggested that Kazakhstan, like Ukraine, wasn’t really a nation-state and will eventually return to the Russian fold. He also paid a state visit to Mongolia on the day the NATO summit began. Mongolia is an isolated and weak former client state of Russia that may eventually become the Asian version of Ukraine. Putin also has a stranglehold over Europe, as supplier of 30% of the continent’s natural gas needs, and uppermost in many minds is a possible crisis as winter approaches.
So NATO members announced Friday they would help destroy ISIS, rebuild Afghanistan and bolster their Eastern European flank with special forces in Poland and other member nations. But it won’t arm the Ukrainians, some of its members will, namely the U.S., Britain and France. This is because they have obligations as signators to the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 that guaranteed the integrity of Ukraine’s borders in return for its surrender of the world’s third biggest nuclear stockpile. “Russia has ripped up the rulebook with its illegal, self-declared annexation of Crimea and its troops on Ukrainian soil threatening and undermining a sovereign nation state,” President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron wrote in an op-ed piece this week. France stopped delivery of a war ship.
The best course would be to return to the de facto Finlandization of the past 20 years. But that’s also too late and Russia intends to make semi-autonomous regions out of Ukraine’s occupied portions that answer to Moscow not Kiev. Eventually, as happened in Finland, the country was influenced, not occupied, by Russia during the Cold War but is now unfettered. Unfortunately, diplomatic contortions by Europeans and NATO will never change Putin. This week, Ukraine’s hapless President Petro Poroshenko had to agree to a Putin ceasefire – and to withdraw his troops from repatriated Ukrainian territory – in order to negotiate. This should be enough to disavow any notion of a fair outcome. And Canada has to step up, not just for Ukraine or ISIS, but to provide a military presence in our Arctic region that, lest we forget, Putin has claimed belongs to Russia. While Canada isn’t about to be invaded anytime soon, thanks to NORAD and the U.S. military, Putin’s imperialism and declarations underscore the fact that Canada must pull more weight both at home and abroad.
Diane Francis: Canada must start pulling its weight on defence and peacekeeping at home and abroad | Financial Post
