This is the first systematic account of the Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS), a collaborative science program between Canada and the United States that created a distinctive state presence in the ...Canadian Arctic Archipelago from 1946-1972. These five meteorological stations, constructed at Eureka, Resolute, Isachsen, Mould Bay, and Alert, became remote hubs for science and sovereignty, revealing the possibilities and limits of modernity in the High Arctic. Drawing on extensive archival evidence, unpublished personal memoirs, and interviews with former JAWS personnel, this book systematically analyzes the diplomatic, scientific, social, environmental, and civil-military dimensions of this binational program. From the corridors of power in Washington and Ottawa to everyday life at the small outposts, The Joint Arctic Weather Stations explores delicate statecraft, changing scientific practices, as well as the distinctive station cultures that emerged as humans coped with isolation in polar environments.
Tolerant allies Lackenbauer, P. Whitney
International journal (Toronto),
12/2020, Letnik:
75, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
From 1947–1972, the Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS) program transformed Canada’s High Arctic. This article focuses on Canada’s aspirations to “Canadianize” the joint program from the late 1940s ...to the late 1960s. Both Canada and the United States questioned the extent and form of American involvement in the JAWS program intermittently over 25 years of joint operations. Was Canadianization of these remote weather stations necessary or practical? This article concludes that, in retrospect, the conventional, dominant narrative that emphasizes the ongoing American threat to Canada’s Arctic sovereignty seems misplaced with respect to the JAWS story.
This comparative article reveals how the general focus of Canadian and Russian threat perceptions in the Arctic have shifted from a Cold War fixation on hard defence to accommodate soft security ...issues over the last three decades. Both countries now pay greater attention to threats and challenges stemming from climate change, security, and safety risks associated with resource development and increasingly accessible sea routes. Although concern about military conflict arising from Arctic disputes continues to frame some media discussions in both countries, most strategic analysts and academics have moved away from this line of argument. Instead, military functions now include assertion of Canadian and Russian sovereignty over their respective internal waters, as well as protection of resources in their exclusive economic zones and on and in extended continental shelves; protection of economic interests in the North, including mineral and bio-resources; prevention of potential terrorist attacks against critical industrial and state infrastructure; and dual-use functions, such as search and rescue operations, surveillance of air and maritime spaces, support to safe navigation, and mitigation of natural and human-made catastrophes.
The authors argue that analysts should parse two forms of military modernization in the Arctic: one of capability development related to the global strategic balance, where the Arctic serves as a bastion or a thoroughfare; and a second intended to address emerging non-traditional security challenges. They contend that these modernization programs do not inherently upset the Arctic military balance and need not provoke a regional arms race.
This article critically interrogates the assumptions and critiques levelled at the Canadian Rangers by two ardent media critics: Robert Smol and Scott Gilmore. Situating the Canadian Rangers in the ...Canadian Armed Forces’ Arctic Operational Picture, it argues that the Rangers are an appropriate and operationally valued component of a Canadian military posture designed to address Northern risks across the defence-security-safety mission spectrum. Rather than seeing the Rangers as a sideline to the “serious” military show that Smol and Gilmore would like to see play out in the North, their proven ability to operate in difficult and austere environmental conditions – often reflecting applied Indigenous knowledge of their homelands – and to maintain interoperability with mission partners to address practical security challenges is highly valuable. By serving as the “Eyes, Ears, and Voice” of the CAF in their communities, the Rangers embody federal approaches to collaboration and partnership predicated on ideas that Northerners are best placed to make decisions in areas that impact them.
Community-based organizations along with territorial, provincial, and federal agencies are responsible for search and rescue (SAR) in the Canadian Arctic. In delivering response capabilities at all ...hours of the day and for 365 days a year, the community-based organizations face a wide array of challenges. Using the data collected through the Kitikmeot Search and Rescue Project and the Kitikmeot Roundtable on SAR, coupled with academic and non-government organization literature, this article explores the major challenges facing community SAR organizations in Nunavut and builds a case for how targeted investment can best bolster community-based capabilities. We suggest novel, practical, and holistic solutions that have been proposed by or co-devised with community partners, are rooted in the unique context of Nunavut’s communities, and are reflective of a community resilience-building approach. One set of recommendations involves strengthening current programming, including the expansion of Nunavut Emergency Management’s inReach program, continued support for the enlargement of the CCGA, streamlining the process to activate Canadian Ranger patrols, and encouraging greater cooperation in the provision of training by federal and territorial agencies. We also propose new approaches, including a whole-of-society preventative SAR program centred on educational and youth programming, the adoption of a SAR equipment usage rate model, and the launch of a Community Public Safety Officer program in Nunavut. Finally, to justify greater investment at the community level, we argue that policymakers must change how they conceptualize community-based SAR capabilities in Nunavut. An effective SAR system is about more than the ability to respond to emergency events. It is a critical enabler to broader objectives and goals prioritized in the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework and other federal, territorial, and Inuit strategies.
Dans l’Arctique canadien, les activités de recherche et sauvetage (SAR) relèvent des organisations communautaires ainsi que des organismes territoriaux, provinciaux et fédéraux. Les organisations communautaires doivent fournir ces services 24 heures sur 24, 365 jours par année et ce faisant, elles éprouvent toutes sortes de difficultés. S’appuyant sur les données du projet de recherche et sauvetage de Kitikmeot et de la table ronde de Kitikmeot sur les activités de SAR, ainsi que sur la documentation des organisations non gouvernementales et universitaires, cet article explore les principales difficultés auxquelles les organisations de SAR font face au Nunavut et démontre comment un investissement ciblé peut rehausser les capacités communautaires. Nous suggérons des solutions pratiques, nouvelles et holistiques proposées ou conçues en collaboration avec des partenaires communautaires, enracinées dans le contexte unique des collectivités du Nunavut et axées sur une approche communautaire visant le renforcement de la résilience. Un ensemble de recommandations consiste à solidifier les programmes actuels, dont l’expansion du programme inReach de gestion des urgences du Nunavut et de la Garde côtière auxiliaire canadienne, à rationaliser le processus d’activation des patrouilles des Rangers canadiens, et à favoriser une plus grande collaboration en ce qui a trait à la formation dispensée par les organismes fédéraux et territoriaux. Nous proposons aussi de nouvelles approches, dont un programme de SAR préventif pour l’ensemble de la société axé sur la programmation destinée aux jeunes et sur la sensibilisation, l’adoption d’un modèle du taux d’utilisation de l’équipement de SAR, et le lancement d’un programme d’agents de la sécurité publique communautaire au Nunavut. Pour conclure, afin de justifier un plus grand investissement au niveau communautaire, nous soutenons que les décideurs politiques doivent modifier leur façon de conceptualiser les capacités communautaires de SAR au Nunavut. L’efficacité d’un système de SAR ne réside pas seulement dans la capacité à intervenir en cas d’urgence. Il s’agit aussi d’un instrument critique permettant d’élargir les buts et les objectifs priorisés dans le cadre de référence des politiques de l’Arctique et du Nord et d’autres stratégies fédérales, territoriales et inuites.
Dans l'Arctique canadien, les activités de recherche et sauvetage (SAR) relevent des organisations communautaires ainsi que des organismes territoriaux, provinciaux et fédéraux. Les organisations ...communautaires doivent fournir ces services 24 heures sur 24, 365 jours par année et ce faisant, elles éprouvent toutes sortes de difficultés. S'appuyant sur les données du projet de recherche et sauvetage de Kitikmeot et de la table ronde de Kitikmeot sur les activités de SAR, ainsi que sur la documentation des organisations non gouvernementales et universitaires, cet article explore les principales difficultés auxquelles les organisations de SAR font face au Nunavut et démontre comment un investissement ciblé peut rehausser les capacités communautaires. Nous suggérons des solutions pratiques, nouvelles et holistiques proposées ou conçues en collaboration avec des partenaires communautaires, enracinées dans le contexte unique des collectivités du Nunavut et axées sur une approche communautaire visant le renforcement de la résilience. Un ensemble de recommandations consiste å solidifier les programmes actuels, dont l'expansion du programme inReach de gestion des urgences du Nunavut et de la Garde côtiere auxiliaire canadienne, å rationaliser le processus d'activation des patrouilles des Rangers canadiens, et å favoriser une plus grande collaboration en ce qui a trait å la formation dispensée par les organismes fédéraux et territoriaux. Nous proposons aussi de nouvelles approches, dont un programme de SAR préventif pour l'ensemble de la société axé sur la programmation destinée aux jeunes et sur la sensibilisation, l'adoption d'un modele du taux d'utilisation de l'équipement de SAR, et le lancement d'un programme d'agents de la sécurité publique communautaire au Nunavut. Pour conclure, afin de justifier un plus grand investissement au niveau communautaire, nous soutenons que les décideurs politiques doivent modifier leur façon de conceptualiser les capacités communautaires de SAR au Nunavut. L'efficacité d'un systéme de SAR ne réside pas seulement dans la capacité å intervenir en cas d'urgence. Il s'agit aussi d'un instrument critique permettant d'élargir les buts et les objectifs priorisés dans le cadre de référence des politiques de l'Arctique et du Nord et d'autres stratégies fédérales, territoriales et inuites.
Given the low standard of contact between environmental and military historians, it is unsurprising, if regrettable, that the relationship between military activity and natural landscapes in Canada ...has received minimal scholarly attention. This paper seeks to open space for such an environmental history of militarism and militarization. Focusing on the Cold War and its aftermath, the essay documents the history of military activity on Canadian soil, with an emphasis on the North, specifically examining a set of crucial projects and operations that redefined not only physical terrain but associated imaginative understandings of nature. The history of Cold War Canada is littered with suitable examples, from early military exercises and the construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) radar line to more recent missile tests and low-level training flights. While it is crucial that these are understood in environmental terms, a genealogy of military activity in the Canadian North reveals changing and at times contrasting approaches to the military-environment relationship. Equally, however, as northern nature was viewed through a series of shifting strategic perspectives, it remained a target of state-driven modernization linked consistently to military objectives.
Dean and Lackenbauer discuss the geostrategy and military defence of Canada. Geostrategy is the study of the importance of geography to strategy and military operations. Strategist Bernard Loo ...explains that it is the influence of geography on tactical and operational elements of the strategic calculus that underpins, albeit subliminally, strategic calculations about the feasibility of the use of military force because the geographical conditions will influence policy-makers' and strategic planners' perceptions of strategic vulnerabilities or opportunities. By extension, the geographical size and location of a country are key determinants in shaping the way that political decision-makers and military leaders think about strategy. Operationalizing this approach, however, is more complicated than it may appear. Strategist Colin Gray argues that geography can be seen as consisting of two parts: the 'objective' or physical geography of measurable terrain and environments and the subjective geography of the mind and "imagined spatial relationships. Examples of subjective geography in the Canadian case include the ideas of an "Atlantic Triangle" between Britain, Canada, and the US and a Pacific Quebec centred on French Canada's preference for anti-imperialism and anti-militarism.
China’s Arctic Ambitions and What They Mean for Canada is one of the first in-depth studies of China’s increasing interest in the Arctic. It offers a holistic approach to understanding Chinese ...motivations and the potential impacts of greater Chinese presence in the circumpolar region, exploring resource development, shipping, scientific research, governance, and security. Drawing on extensive research in Chinese government documentation, business and media reports, and current academic literature, this timely volume eschews the traditional assumption that Chinese actions are unified and monolithic in their approach to Arctic affairs. Instead, it offers a careful analysis of the different, and often competing, interests and priorities of Chinese government and industry. Analyzing Chinese interests and activities from a Canadian perspective, the book provides an unparalleled point of reference to discuss the implications for the Canadian and broader circumpolar North.
PDF
