Opinion
Diplomacy should be at heart of defence policy
While defence diplomacy has not featured prominently in the Canadian defence lexicon, it is an essential but vastly underexploited tool for a medium-sized country like Canada to expand its influence abroad.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan should consider the merits of making diplomacy a bigger part of Canada's miliitary strategy, write Stéfanie von Hlatky and Thomas Juneau. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
KINGSTON, ONT./OTTAWA—On Aug 2, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan tweeted his thanks to Canadians who participated in the defence policy review consultations during the last four months. Over 20,200 submissions were received through the online portal and 4,700 people participated in the virtual discussion forum. It is worth asking how the Department of National Defence will now make sense of this input. We think that defence diplomacy should emerge as a compelling theme in Canada’s new defence policy. This
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