Every government has a decision to make when it comes to soft power and hard security. It isn’t an either/or decision.
Rather, it’s about which tools to deploy on each side, to create useful tension. Does a situation call for trade or trainers? For jets or snubs? Should development be treated as a tool of foreign policy at all?
Political rhetoric aside, there’s nothing inherently left-wing about using non-military means to affect foreign relationships. “Soft power” includes trade deals, one of the favourite tools in the Harper Conservative kit. While the free trade agreement with Ukraine may bear Liberal Trade Minister …read more
Source: Ottawa Citizen
