Trends in Canadian Security Policy And Commitments
Canadian governments actively promoted the creation of NATO and demonstrated commitment to an Atlanticist security orientation throughout the Alliance's formative years. The goal of ensuring ongoing yet constrained American engagement in European security affairs obviously accounted for this ea...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327x8801500108 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0095327X8801500108 |
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crsagepubl:10.1177/0095327x8801500108 2024-06-16T07:41:51+00:00 Trends in Canadian Security Policy And Commitments Bland, Douglas L. Young, John D. 1988 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327x8801500108 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0095327X8801500108 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Armed Forces & Society volume 15, issue 1, page 113-130 ISSN 0095-327X 1556-0848 journal-article 1988 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x8801500108 2024-05-19T13:18:28Z Canadian governments actively promoted the creation of NATO and demonstrated commitment to an Atlanticist security orientation throughout the Alliance's formative years. The goal of ensuring ongoing yet constrained American engagement in European security affairs obviously accounted for this early Canadian support for the North Atlantic concept. But there were composite motives at play, including a predisposition for multilateralism over an exclusively bilateral security relationship with the country's North American ally and guarantor. The consummate irony, of course, is that Canadian security policy since at least the mid-1960s has contributed to the undermining of the very principles on which the country's Alliance membership was founded. Thus, the muchdiscussed commitment-capability gap in Canadian defense policy constitutes but a surface manifestation of a basic misreading of intra-Alliance political and military linkages that has now persisted for more than two decades. The 1987 White Paper has introduced a measure of belated corrective to the Canadian security policy drift, but it may well represent a classic instance of "too little, too late," especially since it echoes an existing declaratory stance more than it provides a blueprint for a renewed Atlanticist action policy. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic SAGE Publications Armed Forces & Society 15 1 113 130 |
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SAGE Publications |
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English |
description |
Canadian governments actively promoted the creation of NATO and demonstrated commitment to an Atlanticist security orientation throughout the Alliance's formative years. The goal of ensuring ongoing yet constrained American engagement in European security affairs obviously accounted for this early Canadian support for the North Atlantic concept. But there were composite motives at play, including a predisposition for multilateralism over an exclusively bilateral security relationship with the country's North American ally and guarantor. The consummate irony, of course, is that Canadian security policy since at least the mid-1960s has contributed to the undermining of the very principles on which the country's Alliance membership was founded. Thus, the muchdiscussed commitment-capability gap in Canadian defense policy constitutes but a surface manifestation of a basic misreading of intra-Alliance political and military linkages that has now persisted for more than two decades. The 1987 White Paper has introduced a measure of belated corrective to the Canadian security policy drift, but it may well represent a classic instance of "too little, too late," especially since it echoes an existing declaratory stance more than it provides a blueprint for a renewed Atlanticist action policy. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bland, Douglas L. Young, John D. |
spellingShingle |
Bland, Douglas L. Young, John D. Trends in Canadian Security Policy And Commitments |
author_facet |
Bland, Douglas L. Young, John D. |
author_sort |
Bland, Douglas L. |
title |
Trends in Canadian Security Policy And Commitments |
title_short |
Trends in Canadian Security Policy And Commitments |
title_full |
Trends in Canadian Security Policy And Commitments |
title_fullStr |
Trends in Canadian Security Policy And Commitments |
title_full_unstemmed |
Trends in Canadian Security Policy And Commitments |
title_sort |
trends in canadian security policy and commitments |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
1988 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0095327x8801500108 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0095327X8801500108 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Armed Forces & Society volume 15, issue 1, page 113-130 ISSN 0095-327X 1556-0848 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x8801500108 |
container_title |
Armed Forces & Society |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
113 |
op_container_end_page |
130 |
_version_ |
1802009150440341504 |