Specialization and the Canadian forces

Philippe Lagasse

Defence and Peace Economics, 2005, vol. 16, issue 3, 205-222

Abstract: Canada is facing a force structuring dilemma. In spite of Ottawa's desire to promote international peace and stability alongside the United States and the United Nations, Canada's minimalist approaches to defence spending and capital expenditures are undermining the long-term viability of the Canadian Forces' (CF) expeditionary and interoperable capabilities. Two solutions to this dilemma present themselves: increased defence spending or greater force structure specialization. Since Ottawa is unlikely to increase defence spending, specialization provides the only practical solution to the CF's capabilities predicament. Although it would limit the number of tasks that the CF could perform overseas, specialization would maximize the output of current capital expenditures and preserve the CF's interoperability with the US military in an age of defence transformation. This paper thus argues that the economics of Canadian defence necessitate a more specialized CF force structure.

Keywords: Canadian defence; Force structure; Specialization; Interoperability; Capital expenditure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1080/10242690500123208

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