Canada, Missile Defence, and the Pursuit of World Order

Abstract

Although the Canada-United States (US) defence relationship is unparalleled in the international system in terms of cooperation and interoperability, Canada’s responses to offers of participation in two US missile defence programs in recent times confused many observers. This thesis seeks to provide an explanation as to why Canadians were reluctant to engage in the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in 1985 and the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program in 2005. It searches for a deeper explanation than offered thus far by scholars. Phillipe Lagassé and Patrick Lennox have both argued that the most prominent factor in Canada’s rejection of these two US missile defence initiatives is the evident support Canadians exhibit for arms control and strategic stability. The thesis builds on the work of Lagassé and Lennox but goes further by suggesting that Canadian anxieties related to how these programs would impact arms control and strategic stability can be traced to Canadians’ support of internationalism and, in particular, the tenet of internationalism that, according to Kim Richard Nossal, Stephane Roussel and Stephane Paquin, emphasizes the pursuit of world order.