Canada in Norad, 1957-2007

At its creation in 1957, NORAD was given operational control over the vast U.S. and Canadian continental air defence forces.Canada in NORAD, 1957-2007follows Canadian involvement in the binational command as the threat shifted from Soviet bombers to ballistic missiles to terrorist-highjacked aircraft. It focuses particularly on what continental air defence has meant for the Canadian air force and for Canadian airspace and territory. It also looks at the differing Canadian and U.S. conceptions of NORAD's role in warning of nuclear attack, and the implications of Ottawa's decisions not to participate in missile defence. It examines the place of Canadians within NORAD as it exercised operational control over Canadian and U.S. forces, which were equipped for years with nuclear air defence weapons, as well as the command's impact on Canadian sovereignty. Finally, it outlines what Ottawa sought to achieve in the NORAD agreements with Washington, from the first one in 1958 to the most recent.

Joseph T. Jockel is professor and director of Canadian studies at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York.