As the United States international finance capital concentrated the deployment of hundred military bases spread across the world to form a huge military complex. Thanks to the supply chain of Canada, millions of tons of copper, nickel, iron, aluminium and rare earth elements have been shipped to the United States since World War II. These metals and the rare earth elements constitute the raw material for the production of armaments and the surveillance equipment and technological devices that the United States have launched into space (satellites and others devices) since the attack of September 9-11 2001.
Today it’s estimated that Canada holds some of the largest known reserves and resources of rare earth metals (15.2 million tonnes of rare earth oxide in 2023). Canadian vast quantity of rare earth elements is coveted by the Americans for decades. Furthermore, the United States needs the rare earth elements in the building of AI infrastructure in order to win the AIl race with other countries such as China..
Over the last year the intimidation and provocation of the president of the United States to annex Canada created tensions between the two nations. In response to intimidation Canadians move towards becoming more independent from the United States and develop economic and strategic agreements with China, India and others countries.
A few days ago Carney made global headlines for his Davos speech, in which he indirectly called out the US president for a rupture in the postwar world order.
The rupture it is not only the responsibility of the President of the United States that generated tensions between Canada and the United States.
The United States has become what it is today because of the choices made by the political and economic elites over the past 100 years. In fact, provocation, intimidation and US military intervention has always been used. We need to see reality as it’s, over the last century the United States military forces were deployed many times in South America, in Africa, in Middle East, in Asia to control access of natural resources.
Asymmetry allies and solidarity among middle power
Today in this military global context, the question raised by Prime minister Mark Carney in Davos is not one of military symmetry between NATO allies. It is one of solidarity between middle powers who share similar values and respect international laws, the UN chart and the sovereignty of the people and cultures around the world.
In a world where the use of force, coercion and brutality is once again becoming a common instrument of international politics of the super-militarized powers. The solidarity between middle powers became a significant resistance to push back their expansionism projects.
Prime Minister Carney is not the first Canadian leader to set the record straight with the United States. Canadians embraced a culture of peace over the last century by choosing leaders promoting diplomacy and dialogue to resolve conflicts over war and confrontation. Canadian leaders did not let themselves be intimidated by the US government and have publicly declared their opposition to offensive wars operated by the US abroad. Given their geographical location, side by side with major military powers including Russia in the North, and China in the West (pacific region). Canada’s choice of diplomacy and dialogue instead of direct confrontation policy was a wise choice.
Canadians leaders setting the record straight with United States
After the second world war, Lester B. Pearson, a former prime minister of Canada who had played an important role in the founding of the United Nations helped the ceasefire between Israel and its Arab neighbors, during the Suez Crisis of 1956. France, and Israel, versus Egypt, which was supported by other Arab nations. When a ceasefire was declared in 1957, Pearson suggested that the United Nations station a peacekeeping force in the Suez in order to ensure that the ceasefire was honored by both sides.Pearson’s proposal led to the creation of the Blue Helmets.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his diplomatic role in resolving the Suez Canal Crisis (1956). The selection committee declared that Pearson had saved the world.
During the Vietnam War, Canada remained officially neutral, although mutual assistance was periodically provided. In fact, Canada and Vietnam share a common history, as both nations were part of the French colonial empire.
During his term as prime minister Pearson resisted American pressure to participate in the Vietnam War. Visiting the United States, Pearson gave a speech at the University in Philadelphia on April 2, 1965, advocating a negotiated settlement of the Vietnam War. Then when he visited President Lyndon Baines Johnson a few hours later, Johnson strongly admonished Pearson.
According to legend in Canada, Johnson grabbed Pearson by the lapel, shook him, and shouted, “Dammit, you pissed on my rug!”
In 1968, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announced that he wanted to normalize Canada’s relations with the People’s Republic of China. The administration of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson opposed any diplomatic recognition of Communist China by its allies.
The Trudeau government therefore waited for the arrival of a new president, Richard Nixon, to begin serious discussions for official recognition of the People’s Republic of China.
Trudeau had a twin goal, improving East-West relations and reviving arms control negotiations between the Soviets and the West.
Despite the pressures of the Americans and NATO in 1969, the Prime minister Pierre Trudeau signed the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and nuclear missiles were progressively banned on Canadian territory.
Like Pearson, prime minister Pierre Trudeau chose, in the 1970’ and 1980’ diplomacy over arms race and dialogue over confrontation and wars.
In 1976, despite American opposition, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was the first NATO head of state to visit Cuba and Fidel Castro. The two men quickly became friends. Upon Castro’s death in 2016, Justin Trudeau, then Prime Minister of Canada, expressed his sadness and declared that Fidel Castro was a friend of Canada, his words deeply shocked the American administration.
In 1985, Prime minister Brian Mulroney turned down President Reagan’s invitation to take part in his “Star Wars” space defense research program, deciding that it is not in the Canadian national interest. Nicknamed the Star Wars program, the program proposed a missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic nuclear missiles.
Mulroney’s action followed a recommendation made by a special parliamentary committee that Canada should maintain some distance from the U.S. program.
A few years later, the fall of the Berlin Wall vindicated Canadians’ decision not to invest colossal amounts of public money and research into the Star Wars defense system.
On September 18, 1997, in Oslo, Canadians achieved the unprecedented feat of abolishing antipersonnel mines with the agreement signed by 100 countries. Some countries simply left the conference. This was particularly the case with the United States, which had wanted to see certain exceptions included in the text. Several other major manufacturers or users of antipersonnel mines—Russia and the People’s Republic of China in particular—also refused to sign the text of the future treaty.
In February 2003, more than 150,000 people took to the streets in Montreal to express their opposition to the war in Irak.The Prime minister Jean Chrétien, having received pressure from the US government to join the war, refused to engage in a new offensive war with Iraq on March 17, 2003.
In 1980′ Prime minister Mulroney’s opposition to South African apartheid was not driven by simple domestic politics. For its position, the Prime minister received hostility from various groups and leaders around the world.
In an interview given to the Conservation, Mulroney explained the issue was to him one of simple justice and morality. Like his early political mentor, John Diefenbaker, he thought the system of apartheid was indefensible and immoral.
Mulroney thought it was contrary to Canadian values, which have their roots in the founding of the country as a place dedicated to bringing different groups closer together, rather than farther apart in division and in conflict.
People who say that nations only have interests, no friendships, are nonsense. … Everybody has interests but also friendships. And you can’t deal at the international level with any hostility. You gotta try and bring people (together). Canada is a middle power. We’re not a superpower. So we have to leverage our assets as best we can and bring people together. (Source: The Conversation)
Building a common umbrella for peacemakers and shared solidarity among the middle powers
To maintain their sovereignty the middle power must work together under a common umbrella of peacemakers and solidarity. A common space where their sovereignty, the recognition of their cultural diversity, democracy, and international law will be celebrated.
Instead of wasting their time and money in an arms race against the superpowers, which Europeans will never win. Perhaps it is time for Europeans to reform the European Union organization and open the membership to new countries outside of the territorial zone. By doing so the EU would include other middle powers such as Canada, Mexico, Turkey and Algeria and many others.
A reminder that the central valeur in the world must be the human being
To maintain the solidarity the common space of the middle powers could be propel by a commitment for good knowledge and the well-being of the human being (1).
Good knowledge leads to justice.
Good knowledge leads to reconciliation.
Good knowledge also leads to deciphering the sacred in the depths of the consciousness.
We consider the human being to be the highest value, above money, the State, religion, social systems and models.
We stand for freedom of thought.
We champion equal rights and equal opportunities for all human beings.
We recognize and encourage diversity in customs and cultures.
We oppose all discrimination.
We consider as sacred just resistance against all forms of violence—physical, economic, racial, religious, sexual, psychological, and moral.
Our spirituality has awakened from its deep sleep to nurture human beings in their best aspirations.
We want to give coherence to our lives, to bring into agreement what we think, what we feel, and what we do.
We want to overcome bad conscience by recognizing our failures.
We aspire to persuade and to reconcile.
We make a commitment to increasingly fulfill the rule that reminds us to “treat others as we want to be treated.”
We will search within ourselves for the signs of the sacred, and we will carry our message to others.
We will begin by seeking mental peace and the Force that gives us joy and conviction. Afterwards, we will go to the people closest to us and share with them everything great and good that has happened to us.
As superpowers produce more and more weapons and bombs, they often have no vision of human rights, liberty and freedom. Rather they want to conquer knowledge through AI and what is defining being human in today’s world in order to get what they want through brutality, violence, force and wars. But by doing so they are killing the essence of what define a human being.
Let’s hope, in the year to come, that Russia and China will never, never follow the steps of the United States and threaten middle power sovereignty!
Military expenses in 2024 of the Superpowers
Last year the global military spending reached $2.718 trillion, an 9.4% increase in real terms compared to 2023. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute it is the largest annual increase recorded since at least the end of the Cold War. Military spending increased in all regions of the world, with particularly rapid growth in Europe and the Middle East. The five largest spenders—the United States, China, Russia, Germany, and India—account for 60% of the global total, with combined spending reaching $1.635 trillion, according to new data released today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
US military spending increased by 5.7% to $997 billion, representing 66% of total NATO spending and 37% of global military spending in 2024. A significant portion of the US budget is dedicated to modernizing military capabilities and the nuclear arsenal to maintain a strategic advantage.
Russia’s military spending reached approximately $149 billion in 2024, a 38% increase over 2023 and double the 2015 level. This represents 7.1% of Russia’s GDP and 19% of all Russian government spending. Ukraine’s total military spending increased by 2.9 percent to $64.7 billion, equivalent to 43 percent of Russia’s total military expenditure. At 34 percent of its GDP, Ukraine had the heaviest military burden of any country in 2024.
China, the world’s second-largest military spender, increased its spending by 7 percent to approximately $314 billion, marking three decades of consecutive increases. China accounts for 50 percent of all military spending in Asia and Oceania.
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Source: Pressenza, the Conversation, SIPRI
(1) Declaration of recognition, Silo message
