1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910781657003321

Autore

Richter Andrew <1965->

Titolo

Avoiding Armageddon [[electronic resource] ] : Canadian military strategy and nuclear weapons, 1950-63 / / Andrew Richter

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Vancouver, : UBC Press, 2002

ISBN

0-7748-5036-1

1-283-12980-9

9786613129802

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (224 p.)

Collana

Studies in Canadian military history, , 1499-6251

Disciplina

355/.033071

Soggetti

Nuclear weapons - Government policy - Canada - History

Arms control - Government policy - Canada

Canada Strategic aspects

Canada Military policy

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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.

Sommario/riassunto

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.