Russia, China ‘consider themselves to be at war with the West’: defence chief

An internal military document circulated Wednesday lays out stark language about the state of the world, and what’s required to counter hostile countries.

Canada’s military must rapidly retool to defend against hostile nations that already “consider themselves to be at war with the West,” a new internal military report suggests.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) also needs to better incorporate “information operations” into their efforts to counter misinformation, and must co-ordinate with “other instruments of national power” during a time of so-called hybrid warfare.

The document — which is not an official strategy or policy, but instead offers “guidance” — was released over the military’s internal communications network on Wednesday, and Global News obtained a copy through a source.

It calls for a drastic reimagining of how the CAF views warfare ahead of the Liberal government’s long-awaited defence policy update, and while the CAF’s top brass are warning they are not prepared to properly address modern threats.

The guidance document suggests that two adversaries — Russia and China — already believe themselves to be “at war” with Canada and its allies, and that those allies need to respond appropriately.

“We must remember that Russia and China do not differentiate between peace and war,” Gen. Wayne Eyre, Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff, wrote in the foreward to the document.

“Their aim is not just regime survival, but regime expansion and a rewriting of the rules-based international order to their ends. Seeking to achieve these objectives, they will use all elements of national power, often acting just below the threshold of armed conflict.”

“We must therefore counter the daily actions of our adversaries to deny them incremental gains and to preserve the rules-based international order.”