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Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Continental Defence At Sea-The Canadian Challenge
Dr. Rob Huebert, Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University of Calgary
Abstract
The traditional view of Continental Defence of North America is dominated by air and space concerns. With the allied victory over Germany and Japan, the fear of an invasion of North America by hostile land and maritime forces disappeared. Even as the military threat to North America reemerged from a hostile USSR, American and Canadian efforts remained fixated on the skies. While periodic consideration was given to the extension of the various airbased cooperative arrangements to the seas around and lands of North America, there were no formal arrangements developed throughout the Cold War. It was only after the Cold War ended and the new threat of fundamentalist Islamic terrorists arrived that serious consideration has been given to developing formal arrangements which extend continental defence to include maritime elements.