Dilemmas in Defense Decision-Making: Constructing Canada’s Role in Norad, 1958-96

The historically specific set of political, material and ideological relations which constituted the Cold War5 produced a matrix of Canadian/US military and economic relationships which significantly shaped Canadian political decision-making as it related to the defense of the continent under the auspices of the North America Air/Aerospace Defense Agreement (NORAD). This book examines the construction of those relationships, their determining effects on political decision-making, and the public discourse on the issues, and argues that, as forces of status-quo decision-making during the Cold War, the matrix of relationships continues to support a traditional security agenda for the Canadian government in the post-Cold War era.