Landmines and Leadership: The Case for a Values‑Driven Economic and Security Policy |
In Davos, this year, at the World Economic Forum, Mark Carney stood on stage declaring to the world that intermediate powers such as Canada are not powerless. On the contrary, he argued, they have “the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty, and the territorial integrity of states.”
This also presents a new opportunity for Canada to lead on the issue of landmines. From Lester B. Pearson’s role in advancing UN peacekeeping during the Suez Crisis to Canada’s role in helping protect U.S. diplomats during the 1979–80 Iran hostage crisis, Canada has at times translated principle into practical action.
That tradition still offers something worth drawing on.
Humanitarian demining offers Canada a practical way to align its economic interests, security priorities, and diplomatic leadership.
As a leading champion of the Ottawa Treaty, which bans the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel mines, Canada helped advance one of the most significant humanitarian disarmament agreements of the modern era. That legacy reflects a broader tradition of linking diplomatic leadership to humanitarian action. To this day, the treaty remains a rare and remarkable achievement in global disarmament.
Landmines: Impact Beyond Borders
The connection between mine action, economic resilience, and security is not abstract. Its effects can be seen in how landmines disrupt livelihoods, weaken recovery, drive displacement, and generate economic shocks that extend well beyond the countries directly affected.
Landmines harm indiscriminately. In 2024, 6,279 people were killed or injured by landmines and 90 percent of the victims were not soldiers or armed combatants, but civilians, half of them children. Behind these numbers lie shattered families, streets and neighborhoods haunted by hidden killers, and lives forever changed in an instant. The effects extend outward, undermining livelihoods, disrupting recovery, and destabilizing communities long after conflict has receded.
Landmines paralyze national economies........