Avoiding Armageddon : Canadian military strategy and nuclear weapons, 1950-63 / Andrew Richter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Richter, Andrew, 1965-

Series:

Studies in Canadian military history.

Studies in Canadian military history, 1499-6251

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nuclear weapons--Government policy--Canada--History.

Nuclear weapons.

Arms control--Government policy--Canada.

Arms control.

Canada--Strategic aspects.

Canada.

Canada--Military policy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Vancouver : UBC Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

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 Armageddon soundly debunks this notion. Drawing on previously classified government records, Richter reveals that Canadian defence 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 US models. Similarly, Canadian thinking on the controversial issues of air defence and the domestic acquisition of nuclear weapons was primarily influenced by decidedly Canadian interests. Avoiding Armageddon is a work with far-reaching implications. It illustrates Canada's considerable latitude for independent defence thinking while providing key historical information that helps make sense of the contemporary Canadian defence debate.

Contents:

The defense and security environment, 1945-9

Canada's air defense debate

Canadian views on nuclear weapons and related issues of strategy

The Canadian debate on the acquisition of nuclear weapons

Canadian conceptual understanding of arms control

Links between Canadian strategic thinking and defence policy, 1950-63.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-7748-5036-1

1-283-12980-9

9786613129802

OCLC:

80218625