Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of over 67,000 regular personnel [119] and approximately 43,000

reserve personnel, including supplementary reserves. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy, and Royal [120] Canadian Air Force. In 2011, Canada's military expenditure totalled approximately C$24.5 billion. Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military [121] campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partner. Canada nevertheless has an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining to officially participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership [122] in the Commonwealth of Nations and the Francophonie. Canada is noted for having a positiverelationship with the Netherlands, owing, in part, to its contribution to the Dutch liberation [60] during World War II. Canada's strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with [123][124] other nations. Canada was a founding member of the United Nations in 1945 and of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United [125] States to defend against potential aerial attacks from the Soviet Union.

Canadian Army soldiers from the Royal 22nd Regiment deploying during UNITASexercises in April 2009

During the Suez Crisis of 1956, future Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force, for which he was awarded the 1957 Nobel [126] Peace Prize. As this was the first UN peacekeeping mission, Pearson is often credited as the inventor of the concept. Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN [56] peacekeeping effort until 1989, and has since maintained forces in international missions in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere; Canada has sometimes faced controversy over its [127] involvement in foreign countries, notably in the 1993 Somalia Affair. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990 and hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor, Ontario, in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in [128] April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in [129] theAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC).

The Halifax-class frigate HMCS Regina, a warship of the Royal Canadian Navy, nearHawaii during the 2004 RIMPAC exercises

In 2001, Canada deployed troops to Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UNauthorized, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Starting in July 2011, Canada began withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan. In all, Canada lost 158 soldiers, one diplomat, two aid [130] [131] workers, and one journalist during the mission, which cost approximately C$11.3 billion. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Russia announced their joint commitment to a $1.5-billion project to help develop vaccines for developing nations, and called on [132] other countries to join them. In August 2007, Canada's territorial claims in the Arctic were challenged after a Russian underwater expedition to the North Pole; Canada has considered that area [133] to be sovereign territory since 1925. Between March and October 2011, Canadian forces [134] participated in a UN-mandated NATO intervention into the 2011 Libyan civil war.