Obama in Canada

[Barack Obama]'s comment, however, is slightly misleading. His strategic review comes on the heels of prior strategic reviews undertaken by his predecessor. For one, the Afghanistan Study Group, chaired by General James Jones (Ret.), who would later be named Obama's National Security Advis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inForeign Policy in Focus Vol. 4; no. 8; p. N_A
Main Author Fenton, Anthony
Format Report
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington Inter-Hemispheric Resource Center Press 24.02.2009
Subjects
Ambassadors
Armed forces
Counterinsurgency
Foreign policy
Government
Harper, Stephen
International relations-US
Meetings
National security
Obama, Barack
Petroleum
Pipelines
Presidents
Prime ministers
Canada
United States > US
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN1524-1939

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Summary:[Barack Obama]'s comment, however, is slightly misleading. His strategic review comes on the heels of prior strategic reviews undertaken by his predecessor. For one, the Afghanistan Study Group, chaired by General James Jones (Ret.), who would later be named Obama's National Security Advisor, called for an increase in U.S. troop presence in January 2008. Canada, too, has previously conducted a strategic review. In October 2007, the Conservatives established the Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan. Led by former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister John Manley, the commission was established to bring about an elite consensus on Canada's role there. Strangely, the question of foreign energy dependency wasn't raised during Obama's visit, despite the subject's equal applicability to both Canada and the United States. In fact, Canada is in the peculiar position of being both a major exporter and a major importer of oil. Both Canada and the United States are dependent on Iraqi, Venezuelan, and Saudi Arabian oil. Canadian oil doesn't flow to Eastern Canada; pipelines predominantly flow north to south, rather than west to east. David Wilkins, [George W. Bush]'s ambassador to Canada, once said that "No two militaries are more closely united than those of the United States and Canada." Taking cues from important U.S. presidential and Pentagon directives, Canada's political and military leaders have radically transformed Canada's military in order to fight "irregular" wars or conduct "global counterinsurgency" operations well into the foreseeable future. In 2007, Canada finalized its first-ever counterinsurgency doctrine and expanded its covert Special Operations capabilities to previously unseen levels. The Canadian Armed Forces have never been so closely integrated with the U.S. military.
ISSN:1524-1939