Afghanistan isn’t the most immediate security challenge facing North America, the narco-fuelled conflicts are.

How does Canada remain relevant to the security of North America as it prepares to end its military mission in Afghanistan in December of 2011? Withdrawal at the moment when the new U.S. president has made this “his” war, at the moment when our Prime Minister has said “any threat to the U.S. is a threat to Canada” will certainly cause some confusion about Canada's commitment to North American security. As they say, actions speak louder than words.

Yet, Afghanistan is not the only, or even the most immediate, security challenge that Canadians and Americans face. That distinction falls to the narco-fuelled conflicts that have raged throughout the hemisphere and are now firmly camped along the U.S.-Mexico border. This is also a security threat that Canadians, as North Americans, understand.

The threats to our security in North America have changed drastically and dramatically over the past decades, and discussions about beefing up the military or sending troops half-way around the globe are not making anyone feel safer.

Two factors are at play here.

First, World Wars and Cold Wars no longer keep us up at night; car bombs and drug wars do. And the latter are not the quaint TV shootouts from Miami Vice. Current levels of violence, corruption, and general insecurity arguably make the hemisphere more dangerous now than at any previous time. This is perhaps the only thing upon which everyone in the hemisphere, from Hugo Chavez to George Bush, could agree.

And though crime has not risen dramatically in Canada and the U.S., literally everywhere around us it has. People have noticed and they are worried.

Second, traditional means of confronting foreign security threats do not really work as remedies to the new types of challenges we face. Criminal networks are not states that can be bombed into submission or dragged to the negotiating table. Wipe out one network and, at best, another pops up to take its place, and, at worst it, pops up in your front yard. What good is an F-16 then?

Yet, adapting to these new realities remained on the backburner until the September 11 attacks. In an instant the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) was transformed into the U.S. Northern Command and, ever since, Canada has been scrambling to catch up.

The shock of large scale narco violence along the U.S.-Mexico border more recently has had a similar effect in the U.S. And we now see the Americans developing a two-pronged approach to respond to these threats with more traditional military-style counter-insurgency operations for distant conflicts and more anti-gang, law-enforcement operations closer to home.

Canada has responded to the first shift with our involvement in Afghanistan. But with second shift, the one that matters most urgently for North America, we are just beginning to adapt.

As the country begins to wind down the military mission in Afghanistan, now is the ideal time to accelerate this shift and Mexico is the place to begin.

Increased interaction with Mexico over the past decade has created a basis which now makes us ideal and natural, though relatively new, partners in many areas. Canada has recently increased security-related cooperation and funding with Mexico. Expanding on this cooperation – significantly, urgently, and dramatically – is needed. And, visa issues aside, given the history of relations between the U.S. and Mexico, the Mexicans would welcome a third party in the room, as would the Americans.

So, what can we do? For starters we need to increase RCMP involvement. This means revisiting the organization's mission to enable more, and more robust, international presence, as well as increasing resources and manpower. This money may have to come from defence department budgets and in the short-term it may mean shifting RCMP participation from other missions to Mexico. Financial crimes is an area of Canadian expertise and one where Mexico would like help. We will also have to follow the lead of other countries by devoting more development resources to address the “softer” side of security, such as judicial reform, re-integration of gang members, community strengthening, and other programs to counter the impacts of insecurity. This will mean having the Canadian development agency, CIDA, join its American counterpart and other development agencies in working in Mexico.

Involvement in Mexico will not be without risks, but these are less severe than we face in Afghanistan and our chances of success are much higher and our potential contribution greater.

Canada has been slow to respond to this shift in the hemisphere – understandable given our involvement in Afghanistan and the absence of a “shock” to raise public and government awareness. But Ottawa is beginning to respond and there are encouraging developments in several departments such as the RCMP and Public Safety, to name but two. What we do and learn in Mexico will not only go a long way to making North America safer, it will also allow Canada to better help countries in the hemisphere respond to the security challenges they now face.