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Photo by Adrian Wyld/CP

“That sounds to me like, despite the noise, there is consensus. In a back-handed kind of way there is actually enthusiastic endorsement.”

Although it was hard sometimes to get a sense of it from the dry language and byzantine financial tables in the policy review document, the report was the result of careful consideration by the government and the Department of National Defence about how to respond to the security challenges that Canada faces today and will face tomorrow, Vance said.

And what were those challenges? North Korea? Iran? Russia? China? Global terrorism?

“At this juncture it is hard to pick just one,” said Vance.

“The closest, most immediate challenge on a daily basis are non-state actors or state actors acting through terror or terror armies in physical space or cyberspace.”

The closest, most immediate challenge on a daily basis are non-state actors or state actors acting through terror or terror armies in physical space or cyberspace

Terrorism is evolving into a trans-regional phenomenon that was “moving and morphing” into something even more dangerous, said the general, who served two combat tours fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“The psychological distance for ISIL between Iraq and Syria and the Levant and the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa is getting smaller. What we security professionals, not just military but especially law enforcement and intelligence circles (must do) is to impede and disrupt the ease with which terror groups can move around the world and make them feel more isolated and less global to prevent their ability to inspire and attract people.”