Review: Canada: The Revolution in Military Affairs
| Author | Dean F. Oliver |
| Published date | 01 March 2003 |
| Date | 01 March 2003 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070200305800114 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
As
memoirs
go,
this
one
is
good.
When
MacGuigan
took
an
interest
in
a
subject,
he
was
a
lively
and
acute
reporter,
and
the
result
is
a
con-
siderable advance
in
our
knowledge
of
Canadian
foreign
policy
in
the
Trudeau
era.
Robert
Bothwell/University
of
Toronto
THE
REVOLUTION
IN
MILITARY AFFAIRS
Implications
for
Canada
and
NATO
Elinor
C.
Sloan
Montreal
and
Kingston:
McGill-Queen's
University
Press,
2002,
xii,
188pp,
$65.00
cloth
(ISBN
0-7735-2363-4),
$24.95 paper
(ISBN
0-
7735-2394-4)
This
useful
treatise,
which
began
life
as
a
series
of
strategic
analysis
papers for Canada's
defence
department,
boasts
clear
writing,
jargon-
free
analysis,
and
even-handedness,
even
while
making
plainly
its
key
points. There
is
a
United
States-led
revolution
in
military
affairs
(RMA)
that
will
demand,
indeed
is
demanding,
substantial
qualitative
and
quantitative
adjustments
by
America's
allies,
Sloan argues,
though
not
in
all
fields
of
military endeavour
equally
and
not
with
equal
effects on
all
allies.
The
text
covers
familiar
terrain in
the
RMA
literature,
includ-
ing the
United
States,
major
allies,
NATO,
peace
support
operations,
asymmetric
threats,
and
-
in
a
short
epilogue
-
11
September
2001,
and
is
fluid
and
painless
enough
to
be
ripped
through
in
a
single sit-
ting.
Despite the
book's
subtitle,
however,
Canada
occupies
just
a
single
20-page
chapter.
More
serious
sins
lie
in
the
eye
of
the
beholder.
The
work
sometimes
exudes
the
rather
uncritical
flavour
of
the
official
sur-
vey
from which
it derived,
especially
(and
not
surprisingly)
in
treating
Canada.
Australia
is
an
odd
inclusion,
Israel
a
bizarre
omission.
The
second
chapter
on
historical
background,
grossly
misnamed,
is
actual-
ly
an awkward
biographical
interlude
on
several
contemporary
American-based
writers;
the
sixth,
on
peace
support
operations,
mean-
ders
sleepily
for
a
dozen
pages
before
getting
to
the
point.
Political
implications
or
perspectives
are
noticeably
absent
throughout,
the
RMA
here
tacking
closely
to
the
narrow
military-technical
definition
beloved
of
military
professionals
the
world
over.
And
Canada's
'spe-
ciality'
during
the
cold war
(p
129)
was
peacekeeping?
In
the
fertile,
.218
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter2002-2003
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