Analysis of a contemporary issue

Analysis of the Americanization of Canadian Military

Introduction

Our job is to be able to kill more people ' These are detestable murderers and scumbags ' .we 're not going to let them rob from Canada (Staples , 2008 ) These are some of the statements released by the Canadian military that somehow attest its transformation from being a UN peacekeeper to a US war fighter . This could further be manifested through its 14 billion spending in defense , which is the 7th highest in NATO , and is being expected to increase up to the highest

level since World War II . Moreover , the Canadian military are sending commandos and snipers to Afghanistan to operate under U .S . forces these Canadian forces have killed opponents and handed prisoners over to the U .S military . Aside from these , 2000 more troops were sent to Kandahar to relieve U .S . forces . These , unsurprisingly , are in parallel with the decrease in the number of Canadian soldiers that are being sent to U .N for peacekeeping missions (Staples , 2008 ) Given these certain questions emerge - what are the causes and implications of this episode ? Is this a problem that has to be solved ? Are the Canadians aware of what is happening to their military ? Is this really the international role that the Canadian forces have to play ? These and other questions and facets of this issue will be analyzed and explained using two competing theoretical perspectives : realism and domestic politics . II . Realism and the Americanization of Canadian Military Political realism believes that objective laws , which are rooted from human nature , control and govern the way politics behave . Theories within this perspective consist of determining the facts and interpreting them through reason . Policies are examined by studying the political acts performed by concerned parties and the probable consequences of such acts . Furthermore , realism explains and studies things through the concept of interest which is herein defined in terms of power . With the assumption that everybody thinks and acts in accordance to their own interests , past , present and future behaviors can be retraced and anticipated . In realism , interest defined as power is an impartial category that is universally valid - one that is affected by neither neither time nor place . Within realism , people act with the main purpose of minimizing costs and maximizing benefits (Sheehan , 1996 ) In addition to these , within the realist tradition , politics is seen as a realm of survival . Any cooperation between two nations is interpreted as a move to ensure the security of each . This perspective rests upon three conjectures : 1 ) relations among states is all about balance of power 2 ) each nation decides in terms onf the concept of survival and 3 ) each state is egoistic - just like the very nature of man (Realism and International Relations , 2008 The Americanization the Canadian military will be analyzed in accordance with this perspective by first looking at how the military fared as an active supporter of multilateral security operations , which include , but not limited to the peacekeeping missions of the...