Canada–US Security Cooperation: Interests, Institutions, Identity and Ideas

Abstract

The Canada–US security relationship has always been one of balance: creating institutions that balance the power differential, balancing domestic, regional and global interests, balancing identity considerations and balancing the ideas that drive our respective state and bilateral policies forward. However, time might challenge the balanced relationship between Canada and the United States; the two countries are continually able to return the relationship to a secure and stable homeostasis. Although the current era of Trump and Trudeau may punctuate that equilibrium, the bilateral security relationship will remain robust nonetheless. This paper examines continuity and change in the bilateral security relationship as a function of these shared institutions, interests, identities and ideas in four areas of cross-border cooperation: policing, military, intelligence sharing and border enforcement.