It is a revolution. Well, whatever Louis called it, it was clear that things weren't ever going to be the same around Paris. Now Canada's defence policy framework, the Defence White Paper of 1994, doesn't even mention RMA, nor does it contemplate many of the developments, both technical and political, that have transformed the security landscape since it was written. Certainly today's environment is very different from that which existed even a few short years ago. We no longer live in the bipolar world of the cold war.
Threats are more diffuse, power is more dispersed, consensus is more difficult.
The RMA force would, it is asserted, be much more capable of responding to a wider range of international challenges. To be sure, some radical rethinking is required. And common sense would suggest that the basic parameters of our military thinking need to change to keep up with the world as it now is. I didn't come today with all the answers to these questions, but I believe they should be our starting point. To fail to ask them at the outset could lead us to fit our policy to match the premises of RMA rather than have the RMA help us to implement our policies.