On Feb. 12, only weeks before the U.S. war in Iraq, Defense Minister John McCallum announced the deployment to Afghanistan, later this year, of over 1,000 Canadian soldiers for peacekeeping duty. Hours later, Major General Cameron Ross, director of international security policy, resigned from the Department of National Defence. Ross said he was retiring; those in the know said he was quitting to protest the government’s perpetually wavering commitment to a cohesive foreign military policy.

Such fundamental disagreements in Canadian defence policy are connected by antecedents that date back to Confederation. Author and professor Desmond Morton, in Understanding Canadian Defence, divides the debate into two very broad camps: those who say the Canadian military should keep up with our allies (for credibility’s sake at least) and those who argue that such parity is not only unnecessary, it would bankrupt the country.

It’s just as likely that our geography has saved us from having to pick sides. As Morton quotes, “Canada’s defence problem is that it has no defence problem.” Being bordered by three oceans is a formidable barrier, and our southern front has been quiet since politicians realized, as early as 1870, that it would be impossible to defend against an American invasion. We have since proceeded “allowing the U.S. to do what it feels it needs to do while we fret about our sovereignty.” The American spectre has faded to the extent that, in a 1940 act of prime ministerial leger de main, Canada switched empires and came under the protection of our superpower neighbour.

Morton presents the issues from all sides in an engaging style that will appeal to policy wonks and those looking for a survey of Canadian defence policies. The book reads best as a collection of freestanding essays rather than a whole – points of history and even some bon mots are repeated. It would have been interesting, though, had Morton, with his unprecedented knowledge, waded in and taken sides. The better to understand ourselves, and Major General Ross.