The Canadian-American North American Defence Alliance in 2005

Abstract

This will be an important year for Canadian-American North American defence alliance. There is a re-elected Bush administration in Washington, a new minority government in Canada, a foreign and defence policy review completed in Canada, and informal talks are beginning about renewing and possibly expanding North American Aerospace Defense Agreement (NORAD) that expires in 2006. That agreement is basic arrangement that United States and Canada have for defending North America. Expanding NORAD would require some hard decisions in both countries concerning resources, program priorities, and assignment of responsibilities among various players on each side of border. The NORAD negotiation may shape both priorities and configuration of Canadian forces and United States-Canadian defence relations.The defence relationship that United States and Canada now enjoy is a legacy of World War II. The principal elements of this alliance relationship are that North America is a single military theatre, that each country has a duty to other to defend North America, and that they will do this together. The origins of this arrangement lie in an exchange of remarks between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mackenzie King in 1938. After president had stated in a speech at Queen's University that the people of United States would not stand idly by if domination of Canadian soil was threatened by any other empire, Prime Minister King responded a few days later that [w]e, too, have our obligations as a good friendly neighbour, and one of them is to see that...our own country is made as immune from attack or possible invasion as we can reasonably be expected to make it, and that should occasion ever arise, enemy forces should not be able to pursue their way either by land, sea, or air to United States from Canadian territory.1The current view of this understanding was well stated in 2003 by John McCullum, then minister of national defence, when he told house of commons, [a]t least since 1940, Canada has entered into a solemn covenant with United States to jointly defend our shared continent.2The progression from basic ideas of a single theatre and a defence duty to each other to current numerous cooperative arrangements is in part due to second step that President Roosevelt and Prime Minister King took in 1940 when they created Permanent Joint Board on Defence (PJBD). In retrospect, this was a decision with major, long-term effects. The board is a high-level organization led by a United States chairman appointed by president and a Canadian chairman appointed by prime minister. Its mission is to consider in broad sense defense of North America.3 The board decided to work on a consensus basis, beginning what quickly became a partnership approach to North American defence. This approach was given substance by an early decision of board to develop a joint plan for defence of North America (an activity that continues to this day but is no longer handled directly by board). This single action led to a host of additional sub-groups all working together in same manner on joint projects. It set style and pattern for today's United States-Canada defence partnership: i) formal equality, consensus building, and a great deal of informal contact, and 2) use of an increasing number of binational institutional arrangements to manage deepening bilateral defence relationship.The establishment of board itself in 1940, Military Cooperation Committee (MCC) in 1946, North American Aerospace Defense Agreement and Command in 1958, and Binational Planning Group in 2003 illustrate this approach to North American defence management.The MCC was established because board could no longer handle its workload; depth and extent of defence relationship had reached point where far more staff support was needed. …