Avoiding Armageddon

Canadian Military Strategy and Nuclear Weapons, 1950-1963

By Andrew Richter
Categories: Political Science, History, Military History, Security, Peace & Conflict Studies, Canadian History
Series: Studies in Canadian Military History
Publisher: UBC Press, Canadian War Museum
Hardcover : 9780774808880, 224 pages, October 2002
Paperback : 9780774808897, 224 pages, July 2003
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774850360, 224 pages, October 2007
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Table of contents

Preface

Introduction

1 The Defence and Security Environment, 1945-9

2 Canada’s Air Defence Debate

3 Canadian Views on Nuclear Weapons and Related Issues of Strategy

4 The Canadian Debate on the Acquisition of Nuclear Weapons

5 Canadian Conceptual Understanding of Arms Control

6 Links between Canadian Strategic Thinking and Defence Policy, 1950-63

Conclusion

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

An examination of Canadian military thinking on key issues of the nuclear age, such as deterrence, arms control, strategic stability, air defence, and the domestic acquisition of nuclear weapons.

Description

Drawing on previously classified government records, Richter reveals that Canadian defence officials independently came to strategic understandings of the most critical issues of the nuclear age regarding the use of force in resolving disputes. 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. This book illustrates Canada’s considerable latitude for independent defence thinking while providing key historical information that helps make sense of the contemporary Canadian defence debate.

Reviews

Avoiding Armageddon is a well-researched study using recently released archival material that examines, in the defence and security context a very turbulent period in Canada's history. Richter's study ... is well-written, easy to understand, and logically organized ... Reading this book is time well spent.

- Major J.C. Stone