On August 3, Scowcroft Strategy Initiative Assistant Director Imran Bayoumi authored a Globe and Mail piece arguing for the need to update Canada’s National Security Strategy to accompany the recent creation of a National Security Council. Not only will an updated strategy help define what the present government perceives as a threat, Bayoumi argues, but it can also serve as a much-needed guide for resource allocation between the various agencies responsible for national defense and intelligence activities. The article was featured on Canadian Forces College’s Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs.
The most recent Canadian national security strategy was released in 2004, and it is a document now vastly out of touch with the current threat environment. That strategy posited terrorism as the primary threat facing Canada, a previously accurate but now outdated notion. An updated national security strategy must touch on the current threats affecting Canada’s security, such as great-power competition, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and China’s repeated interference in Canadian politics.
