Avoiding Armageddon

by Richter, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780870136573
• ISBN10: 0870136577
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: Michigan State Univ Pr

Summary

The advent of nuclear weapons in the 1940s brought enormous changes to doctrines regarding the use of force in resolving disputes. American strategists have been widely credited with most of these; Canadians, most have assumed, did not conduct their own strategic analysis. Avoiding Armageddonsoundly debunks this notion. Drawing on previously classified government records, Richter reveals that Canadian defense officials did come to independent strategic understandings of the most critical issues of the nuclear age. Canadian appreciation of deterrence, arms control, and strategic stability differed conceptually from the U.S. models. Similarly, Canadian thinking on the controversial issues of air defense and the domestic acquisition of nuclear weapons was primarily influenced by decidedly Canadian interests. Avoiding Armageddonis a work with far-reaching implications. It illustrates Canada's considerable latitude for independent defense thinking while providing key historical information that helps make sense of the contemporary Canadian defense debate.

Author Biography

Andrew Richter is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Windsor

Table of Contents

Preface	vi
Acknowledgments	x
Introduction	3	(11)
The Defence and Security Environment, 1945-9	14	(23)
Canada's Air Defence Debate	37	(22)
Canadian Views on Nuclear Weapons and Related Issues of Strategy	59	(21)
The Canadian Debate on the Acquisition of Nuclear Weapons	80	(25)
Canadian Conceptual Understanding of Arms Control	105	(25)
Links between Canadian Strategic Thinking and Defence Policy, 1950-63	130	(16)
Conclusion	146	(18)
Notes	164	(36)
Selected Bibliography	200	(9)
Index	209