1. Introduction

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) play a crucial role in safeguarding Canada’s security and sovereignty, they represent an essential asset in Canada’s foreign policy toolkit, and defence expenditures are the largest source of discretionary spending in the federal budget. Debate about how much Canada should spend on the armed forces, what the military should be equipped to do and at what cost, and how Canadian military expenditures fare when compared with allies remains contested issues and questions. Yet despite the centrality of defence issues to Canada’s national security and foreign policy and to national debates on these issues, there has not been a comprehensive book on Canadian defence for more than two decades. This gap is especially striking when compared to the many books on Canadian foreign policy. That is what this book sets out to fill: to provide an up-to-date, comprehensive overview of the main issues defining and shaping Canada’s defence policy today and in the first decades of the twenty-first century.