Let's recognize that the 2% increase, when it was created by NATO, is a political target. Once again, what we're really talking about is, what is the need for the effect of the Canadian Forces going into this new environment? It really comes down to the ability to deter growing aggressor states and fight in a collective security environment should that deterrence break down.
When we went into the immediate post-Cold War period, we of course went through what many democratic countries saw as the ability to save money on defence, because there wasn't a fear that we had to deter anyone and we weren't going to be called upon to fight. That has obviously changed since at least 2014—I would argue 2008.
The question is, okay, 2% sounds good in terms of making a commitment, but it's really getting to that capability: parts of the stuff that Dr. Fergusson was talking about in terms of having the types of forces that you will be able to recruit and bring in to actually give effect to it.
It really gets to the heart of what you're asking, and that is that we need to have an ability to go beyond just simply saying, okay, 2% or 1.9%. Those are numbers. They don't mean anything, but if you have a strategic knowledge within the ongoing ability at the highest levels to understand the types of threats that we are responding to and are able to respond nimbly, that in many ways actually goes further than just setting artificial numbers in terms of what you're going [Technical difficulty—Editor].
The one aspect that we haven't talked about and that we need to bring in is, of course, that Canada also has to incorporate this giving and increase its ability to have intelligence beyond sensors, beyond detecting the weapons systems. We see that with the types of warfare that both China and Russia are increasingly relying on—cyber warfare, hybrid warfare and the fears that the Russians were involved in Brexit, in the U.S. election and in the Spanish secessionist movement. It means that has to be incorporated in terms of any of our responses. It may seem to be relatively smaller amounts, but it's something that we probably haven't given enough.... It makes that overall picture of how we respond, think and react, and then, of course, you figure out the money flow from that basis.