Canada has always been characterized by the fact that we have slender numbers of people spread out across a vast territory – a circumstance that cannot change no matter how much we wish it, for much of our land is too remote and too unsuited for towns and cities. This has meant that we have always had to look to others to help survey our distances and backstop the defence of our sovereignty.
With the 1940 Ogdensburg Agreement, that guarantor became the United States and an increasing number of treaties, ties and mutual obligations have strengthened those ties since. The main focus of the relationship is to provide for joint continental security, but we have also harmonized defence production, and ensured commonality in vital systems. This has usually been to Canada’s advantage: For a start, our industries have a large piece of American defence production. Military relations with our largest neighbor remain entirely cordial – a situation that so many smaller resource-filled nations in our position would deeply envy.
For decades, the centre-piece of Canadian-US military cooperation has been NORAD – the shared arrangement for the air defence of North America. For the US, the arrangement let them have access to the strategic space they needed for defence in depth against Soviet bombers and cruise missiles, Canada got the benefit of access to American resources (and markets) in a context that respected our sovereignty. NORAD was a joint command and the Americans took that concept very seriously, Canadians were always fully involved in every aspect of the organization at every level – almost all the key roles either have a Canadian in command, or as the deputy to an American counterpart.
Another advantage to NORAD was that it let us know what was going on. NORAD’s satellites watch the entire planet for missile launches. During the author’s first visit to Cheyenne Mountain, the NORAD command centre, they were watching the Iraqis and Iranians firing ballistic missiles at each other. During another visit this October, they were tracking a narcotics flight off the West Coast of North America with radar. Besides common defence and access to intelligence, participation in NORAD has also had commercial benefit – letting Canadian companies gain access to new technologies and participate even more in the US defence market.
Few people outside of the United States have understood the extent to which the Americans have changed their government and military posture since the 9/11 attacks – but the changes have been sweeping indeed. On the actual day of the attack, a Canadian general was running things inside the Mountain, and that day was the very first time NORAD ever called an alert over possible attacks on the US– in the belief at that moment that more airliners had been hijacked. While NORAD has long been used to watch for missile launches and to coordinate air defences against bombers and cruise missiles approaching North America, watching out for an internal threat was new (NORAD also tracks tens of thousands of man-made objects in space and watches for inbound drug smugglers).
As a result of that day, NORAD now also watches all internal flights inside the US and southern Canada, and would direct the interception of any hijacked aircraft by American or Canadian fighter aircraft. Other changes include the American creation of Northern Command (NORCOM)– a military HQ tailored to coordinate the defence of the US population from all threats, man-made or natural. Seeing the success of NORAD, the US had hoped that Canada would become involved in NORCOM, but Ottawa declined the invitation. However, a joint planning group within NORCOM has Canadian officers involved in harmonizing many aspects of domestic security between our two countries.
The current Bush administration is also determined to go ahead with providing a degree of ballistic missile defence for North America. This is not some sort of vague plan, as concrete actions are already well underway to bring an ABM system on line in 2004. At the time of writing, long-range anti-ballistic missiles are being deployed in Alaska and other systems are being mounted on naval ships or are going to US theatre commanders overseas.
For the Americans, it makes enormous sense to use the NORAD command centre to coordinate missile defence, and to combine air defence and missile defence in one organization. The US Military is enormously satisfied in its partnership with Canada in NORAD and hopes that we will agree to sign on to missile defence in an expanded NORAD when the agreement comes up for renewal next year.
The US does not need to deploy missile defence systems in Canada, nor does it need to build new battle management or radar systems here. Likewise, the American intent is to have the debris from destroyed missiles fall over the oceans – or better yet – back onto the country that fired them in the first place. We would also probably expect coverage against incoming missiles whether we agreed to the program or not. What the US really needs from Canada is an agreement to let some convenient command relationships and facilities continue as they have for decades.
Should we agree to sign on, we will not have to contribute to missile defence in any substantial way; could receive access to the production programs that the system requires, and will – as we have in NORAD – continue to receive intelligence on all manner of incidents around the world. Also, considering the beating that Canada-US relations have taken lately, agreeing to participate would be an inexpensive way of reassuring our closest friend and ally.
The alternative, should Canada fail to agree to participate in missile defence, is that air and missile defence will have to become separate organizations – an expense to the US and a potential short-term handicap. Moreover, what American officers in Cheyenne Mountain worry about is having to put up with the absurdity of asking their Canadian colleagues and friends in the command centre to shut their eyes, plug their ears and leave the room whenever missile defence issues come up.
In a world where the likes of Korean Communists or Iranian Fundamentalists could threaten anyone they care to with nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles, missile defence makes enormous sense. We have nothing to lose by participation in the program, and the costs would be next to nothing. So let’s sign on the dotted line.
