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Mar 10, 2025 | 
theglobeandmail.com | Richard Shimooka |Balkan Devlen |Alexander Lanoszka
Domestic defence cuts, inevitable legislative gridlock and a return to isolationism in the U.S. will leave a void that Canada and other allies must fill
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
thehub.ca | Richard Shimooka
It has become somewhat of a tradition among observers to write a retrospective on an outgoing leader’s foreign policy “doctrine.” Recent examples include the Bush, Obama, and Harper doctrines. This tradition started with Casper Weinberger, Ronald Reagan’s longtime secretary of defense, who annunciated six clear points that should guide the use of military force. It has since come to be used to describe a government’s entire foreign policy approach in office.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
thehub.ca | Richard Shimooka
Donald Trump’s recent threats to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods have upended the political discussion in Canada and provided a renewed focus on how to best manage the two countries’ bilateral relationship. While the president-elect’s comments were ostensibly made in regard to illegal immigration and illicit drug smuggling, an increasingly discordant part of the bilateral relationship has been Canada’s lacking defence spending.
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
thehub.ca | Richard Shimooka
Canada’s military and its entire national security and defence apparatus are in dire straits. If fixing the problem was an urgent priority before November 5th, it is even more so now that Donald Trump will once again be occupying the Oval Office down south. Trump has made his ambivalent attitude toward stable international order abundantly clear.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
thehub.ca | Richard Shimooka
The increasingly prominent story of foreign interference in Canada’s democracy grows bigger and stranger by the day. As the Hogue Inquiry continues to conduct its investigations, more and more reports of various state actors attempting to influence events and undermine our institutions are coming to light.
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Aug 28, 2024 | 
warontherocks.com | Richard Shimooka
Sometime next year, the Royal Canadian Navy will take delivery of its first of two new Joint Support Ships, HMCS Protecteur. The project is about a billion Canadian dollars over its anticipated cost and a decade late. Moreover, the ships that the Protecteur and its companion will replace have long retired. The problematic programmatics of these joint support ships belie the vital role they will play for the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Armed Forces.
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Aug 24, 2024 | 
thehub.ca | Sean Speer |Richard Shimooka
Commentary 24 August 2024 People take part in a rally calling on the federal government to expand the permanent status program in Montreal, May 16, 2021. Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press. In The Weekly Wrap Sean Speer, our editor-at-large, analyses for Hub subscribers the big stories shaping politics, policy, and the economy in the week that was. There’s a values-based case against Canada’s immigration policy.
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Aug 23, 2024 | 
thehub.ca | Richard Shimooka |Stephen Duane Staley
Last week in the first column of this Defence 2.0 series I identified a number of challenges facing defence in Canada. This column and the ones that follow in this series will propose reforms and solutions to them. In particular, the following one will examine how to address the lack of public and governmental knowledge about defence as well as aspects surrounding accountability. That road goes through Parliament. Educating adult Canadians on issues, defence or not, is highly challenging.
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
thehub.ca | Richard Shimooka |Christopher Hume
Commentary 16 August 2024 Canadian Forces personnel stand easy at CFB Kingston in Kingston, Ont., March 7, 2023. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press. Over the two years that I’ve been a contributing writer at The Hub, I have discussed a fairly wide array of issues and thinking surrounding defence. Generally, my articles identify a problem or issue and attempt to provide a solution at the end.
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Jul 19, 2024 | 
thehub.ca | Richard Shimooka |Sean Speer
It’s hard to understate the historical moment that came with NATO’s 75-anniversary summit last week. The milestone the organization reached, being held in the capital of its most powerful member, should have been significant enough on its own. But with the Ukrainian War continuing, increased Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, and the growing prospect of Donald Trump winning a second term has accentuated the summit’s importance.
