The Foreign Service Journal, October 2007

services and people, as envisioned in the North American Free Trade Agreement? Was Canada’s economic future in jeopardy not only because of the possibility of terrorist actions, but also because of the American effort to deter such actions at the border? Abruptly, all of the confidence Ottawa had placed in the unbroken web of economic enterprise in North America appeared to be called into question. From the American perspective, no such doubts were warranted. Washington continues to maintain that North America can have both security and trade simultaneous- ly if we accelerate the application of technology to moni- tor and examine goods and personnel at the border with- out imposing undue restrictions on the movement of either. Furthermore, when the United States sought enhanced territorial security, Canada was regarded as inside the circle, not outside it. Greater territorial secu- rity was thought of not as an obstacle to economic prosperity but as an essential parallel objective. Placed in the larger historical con- text of dynamic change, and caught between the forces of NAFTA and the forces of 9/11, Canadians ask a strate- gic question: Are we in North America moving toward a greater openness of borders, greater economic interdependence and greater efficiency through exchanges and economies of scale across those borders? Or are we moving in the opposite direction, toward greater inwardness, greater emphasis on internal security even at the cost of isolation, and tighter restrictions on mobility of all kinds? In short, can the United States really strengthen security without sacrificing openness? These are the questions that a border people quietly but insistently raises, and thereby induces the rest of us to contemplate. F O C U S 48 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 Can the United States really strengthen security without sacrificing openness?