Canada

Witnessing the ongoing public debate about fighter jets and submarines this fall has felt a lot like watching people argue over baseball, hockey or some other team sport.

Naturally, it has been particularly uncompromising online where the characteristics and quirks of each aircraft and boat have been analyzed to the nth degree with the kind of fan worship usually reserved for pro franchises.

Wrapping our heads around what’s needed to properly secure and defend the Arctic, Wark said, will be an excellent starting point for institutions that have been inwardly focused for the last several years.

“It's going to be a major defence commitment for Canada, and is going to impose all kinds of new ways of thinking about the equipment that the Canadian Armed Forces needs, the training it needs, infrastructure it needs, the planning it needs, the intelligence it needs,” said Wark, who believes the crisis in Eastern Europe over Ukraine will also force more strategic consideration.

“I think that's going to impose a lot of discipline that otherwise wasn't there.”