Factors That Determine Canada's Foreign Policy and its Impacts to Armed Forces

POLICY AND TREATY
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The factors that determine Canada's foreign policy and their impact on the Canadian armed forces
Canada needs to have a strong influence on the global stage. Influence translates to regional and international hegemony and helps in negotiating favorable treaties and trade agreements between Canada and other nations. Each regime aims at maintaining and increasing Canada's international influence. Increasing international influence is multifaceted and requires coordinated actions and decisions from various agencies within the government to realize this goal. One of the ways it maintains and increases the international influence is through partnering with other nations to participate in peacekeeping missions in other countries. Canada is strongly allied to the western alliances and to assert itself as a regional and international Hegemon (Reading 1). Therefore, the Canadian armed forces become a tool to assert Canadian dominance in the world. In most cases, the international influence is partly an obligation stemming from the treaties it has signed with other countries, i.e., a member of NATO.
Security trends around the world also influence or shape the Canadian foreign policies. In the last few decades, there has been an imminent threat of terrorism around the world. The 9/11 attack in America, Canada’s neighbor and ally to the south, was a defining moment to the approach of the foreign policies of the country. Canada restructured its foreign policies to ensure it kept its borders safe from terrorism. Since Canada uses both war and peace to pursue its foreign policy goals, it declared war on the Taliban. The only conceivable way of dealing with terrorists was by declaring war on them. Canada sends its troops to join other NATO troops in the Middle East to destroy the terrorist organization. CAF stayed in the Middle East for over a decade working with other nations to fight terrorism before it becomes a threat to its security. Since the 9/11, Canada has passed the National Defense Act and the Emergency Preparedness Act, which were necessary to enable the government form policies that mirrored the existent security concerns of the time (Reading 1).
The Canadian economy is heavily reliant on trade with other nations. Canada has teamed up with other nations with whom they share values and economic interests to ensure the international transport infrastructure is protected and functioning. This is ...