The Friendly and the Fraught: Canada and the United States in National Security Affairs

In Asia, tensions grow between China and Taiwan. In Africa, malnutrition and terrorism persist. In Europe and the Middle East, ferocious wars rage. In South America, deforestation gallops and pollution spews. On only one great land mass does tranquillity reign, on only one broad continent does general prosperity prevail, on only one immense expanse of territory does relative serenity predominate. Only in North America do the conflicts—and, globally, they barely qualify as disputes—provide a measure of the vanity of small differences. Born of the same mother countries, sharing the same violent indecency towards Indigenous peoples, conducting parallel nineteenth-century stretches for continent-wide territorial possession, and characterized by similar determined races for riches, the two giant North American countries are warm allies—and yet they are subtle antagonists. The conflicts may flare, but generally they fade. In the end, it is values and not arms that both tie these two countries together and that give them special power in a world that aches for freedom and yearns for opportunity. The chapter urges the two countries—with so much in common, and with so much in common at stake—to stand together against the forces that threaten the security of northern North America.