Responding to Russian aggression

There was a lot of activity in the media lately about the incursion of a Russian warplane in Canadian airspace two weeks ago. I personally found it unsettling that this was not this was only the latest of a series of such violations. When the Americans do it, at least we know that they stand much to lose should they become too aggressive. The Russians, at least from my point of view, are much more obscure.

So, should we send the mighty Canadian Legions to conquer Eurasia? The first thing that comes to mind is increasing the Canadian military presence in the arctic. This is the 20^th century response. The geographical position of an army is not that relevant in our world. Indeed, the CF-18s that intercepted the bomber were stationed in Alberta. Of course, moving the army closer to an aggressor sends a message that we are monitoring them and this has real dissuasive value. I do think however that the best way to deal with this is show Russia that they would have much more to gain by working with us than by working against us.

Russia, like us, has access to a tremendous amount of natural resources that they funnel to the European Union. Working with us, they could open another trade route to the US while we would gain a more direct access to the Eastern European countries. We would also open another route for goods to travel to northern china, one that might be more effective than the sea route currently use.

Working with Russia would also lay the bases of a strong alliance of arctic countries. The apprehended "Arctic War" would be a ridiculous way to solve the different claims in the region. Working together however, we could achieve great things.