CIAO DATE: 02/05/08
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
BMD AND US STRATEGIC DOCTRINE: CANADIAN STRATEGIC INTERESTS IN THE DEBATE ON MISSILE DEFENCE
David S. McDonough
Abstract
Canada has recently declined formal participation in US plans for a missile defence system. During the Cold War, Canadian defence planners recognized that this country’s participation in US plans for missile defences carried important implications to American strategic doctrine. Missile defence has not, however, become disassociated from the US strategic deterrent. The 2002 Nuclear Posture Review and the prominent inclusion of active defences make this relationship abundantly clear. Any analysis must take into consideration the linkage between missile defence and strategic doctrine. Canada should be willing to accept defences against the immediate threat posed by rogue states, while being cautious that any strategic defence be sufficiently limited as to not destabilize strategic stability among the principal nuclear powers. In the end, Ottawa should recognize that a more sophisticated and ‘limited’ approach to missile defence, while having a clear relationship with an aggressive American strategic doctrine, could be in Canada’s strategic interest.
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