Dissecting Military and Security Outsourcing in Canada’s Expeditionary Culture : Afghanistan and the Future

Abstract

This chapter identifies that military and security outsourcing has helped a constrained professional military to conduct long-term and substantial operations overseas. It recognises that military and security outsourcing allowed Canada to make a contribution to international security while at the same time it helped to remake the Canadian Armed Forces' (CAF's) image. It then shows that outsourcing of the type contributed to the political palatability of Canada's expeditionary operation in Afghanistan. The chapter focuses on what the future might entail given the Afghanistan experience and potential shifts in Canadian military engagement. Military and security outsourcing is a fixture in the Canadian Armed Forces' (CAF) expeditionary operations. In August 2013, even with no substantial foreign military engagement underway at that time, the Department of National Defence (DND) initiated the iteration of the Canadian Forces Contractor Augmentation Program (CANCAP). The CAF's engagement in Afghanistan, Canada's largest, longest and most violent operational commitment since the Korean War, served as a multifaceted rebranding tool.