Beyond Delusions of Grand Strategy: A Centrifugal National Security Strategy for Canada
Abstract
Canadian ‘grand strategy’ is a dangerous illusion. Just as even the brightest headlights have limited utility on a winding road, the common model of grand strategy is more myth than magic. Advocacy for the common linear conception of grand strategy as the solution to a complex contemporary security environment is misguided. This ‘Newtonian’ form of grand strategy has little utility for Canada. Traditional perceptions of grand strategy must be modified to account for a Canadian condition in which the ability to achieve adaptive advantage at the periphery supplants a central vision. The challenge for the forward looking national security policymaker is not how to impose a particular grand strategic objective on an uncontrollable environment, but to continually adapt and co-evolve with that environment in a manner that best satisfies specific interests. This work explores the utility of the grand strategy within a Canadian context. Intended to have resonance for contemporary policymaking, the behavioural phenomenon of grand strategy is examined with respect to its utility for real-time policy and strategy making in Canada. The assumption that the common concept of grand strategy has utility for Canada will be challenged on the grounds that it fails to account for the complexity of the Canadian policymaking environment. It will be shown that Canada has a more natural form of national security strategy that, rather than being based on a central vision, relies upon the optimization of emergent behaviour within a complex adaptive system. This unique form of national security strategy is characterized as being centrifugal rather than centripetal. Identification of this model illustrates fatal flaws in the common conceptions of Canadian grand strategy and provides greater utility for real-time Canadian policymaking in the contemporary national security environment.
Description
Keywords
History--Canadian, History--Military, Military Studies, Political Science--International Law and Relations, Public Administration, Sociology--Organizational
Citation
McAuley, W. (2017). Beyond Delusions of Grand Strategy: A Centrifugal National Security Strategy for Canada (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25114