Book Review: What’s Wrong with NATO and How to Fix It

Published date01 September 2021
DOI10.1177/00207020211043938
Date01 September 2021
Subject MatterBook Reviews
specif‌ic to their mandates and organizational history. What the volume lacks is an effort
to draw larger conclusions on this score.
There are two essays in the volume that might appear to sit at the margins of a
discussion of security and intelligence agencies those on the Department of Justice
and on the Prime MinistersOff‌ice. The justice essay, by Craig Forcese and Jennifer
Poirier, offers the best line in the collection, when it suggests that lawyers sit at the
metaphorical elbow of security agencies. As Forcese and Poierier know well, that
system is not perfect, but it is essential in a democracy. Even a casual browser of Top
Secret Canada would do well to linger over the essay by Meredith Lilly, who served in
Stephen Harpers PMO. Not only does it explain some of the mysteries and challenges
of working in a political off‌ice at a senior level, it also puts a real human face to the
work, not least in reminding us that exposure to intelligence secrets, often with their
drumbeat of bad news, can itself be cumulatively traumatic. If we had more memoir
literature from Canadian practitioners of intelligence, most of whom are deterred by our
draconian Off‌icial Secrets Act, we might better appreciate this ground truth.
The editors of Top Secret Canada aspire to reach a variety of audiences public
servants, academics, students and the interested general public. The aspiration is
worthy, but the current audience is very small. Essentially a reference text especially
with those chapters that do manage to explore the challenges ahead for key ag encies
this essay collection awaits a future in which more attention might be paid to national
security issues, especially in Canadian universities and among the general public. That
day is coming, propelled by changes to the global threat landscape which will dispel the
myth of Canadian geographic safety, and by greater volumes of reporting from the new
review agency and a promised cultural shift in the Canadian national security system to
embrace great transparency.
Mark Webber, James Sperling and Martin A. Smith
Whats Wrong with NATO and How to Fix It,
Cambridge: Polity Press, 2021. 320 pp. $31.95 CAD (paperback)
ISBN: 9780745682624
Reviewed by: Andrea Charron (andrea.charron@umanitoba.ca), University of Manitoba
Seventy-two years after its inception, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)is
the most successful military alliance. We could end the discussion there, but among
NATOs 30 member states, there are deep divisions, proverbial elephants in the room,
and persistent concerns that it is unprepared to match re-emerging and new peer
competitors, not to mention internal consternations about dreaded national caveats
Book Reviews 481

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT