There is obviously a wide range of things that we can do. A lot of it is going to come down to what the political will or appetite is to do certain kinds of things.
I gave a brief example in terms of how we're using some of our naval assets in joint operations in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean to deal with the problem of piracy. That problem is not going to go away. Arguably, it's going to become a bigger problem, particularly if you see more states failing in the African subcontinent, but also in other parts of the world.
Secondly, I think Canada has a wealth of experience when it comes to combined operations. We don't have three-D just right, but we're probably better at it than some other countries.
As we look to the future--and I stress this in my remarks--international security management is increasingly going to be a pickup game, an ad hoc game involving a combination of perhaps international organizations, regional organizations, and sub-regional organizations, and coalitions of state actors. There are huge problems of coordination and leadership in those kinds of situations. Again, given our track record, I think we clearly have experience in mounting and helping with those kinds of combined operations.
When it comes to the old question about putting troops on the ground in classic peacekeeping kinds of ventures, I think we've moved a long way from that kind of world. In part, it is because the environments that we're going into or will be going into will be failed states, where social, sectarian, ethnic strife is spilling across borders, if things get that bad. That will require interventions with muscle.
In some parts of the world, the regional actors, the regional organizations, will be putting troops on the ground. That certainly seems to be the trend in sub-Saharan Africa. But when the AU does it or ECOWAS does it, that's not to say that they don't need all kinds of pretty sophisticated logistical support and backup, and that again is something we can do.
I also want to stress that there are multiple threats and multiple security challenges. It's very hard to predict. That creates a huge problem when it comes to where you invest scarce resources in terms of re-equipping our armed forces. I think that argues for a diverse approach, for not putting all of your eggs in one basket. And certainly, in today's world and with the kinds of instabilities we're seeing, it argues for not being wedded to what I would call a very old-fashioned view of how we do international peacekeeping.