In the 1920s, the Canadian politician Raoul Dandurand described the country as a “fireproof house” — surrounded on three sides by the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans, and with a friendly neighbour in the US to the south. 

It is a comforting view of the world that has helped define Canada’s identity, even as it sent soldiers overseas to fight, from the second world war to Afghanistan. 

But that sense of detachment from the harsh realities of geopolitics is rapidly disappearing. Canada has found itself sucked into a series of perilous foreign policy dilemmas that have left it struggling to balance its values, interests and identity. In particular, Canada now finds itself at loggerheads with both India and China — the two most populous nations and the rising powers of this century.