It's a Long Road from Fort Greely to Chicoutimi: Qubec Sovereignty and the Issue of Missile Defense

摘要

Alone among America's Western allies, Canada seems to have had the most difficulty adjusting to the idea that America was deploying a limited missile defense system in North America. Within Canada, one province in particular has seen a near-consensus develop against missile defense. That province is Qubec, where the system has been routinely criticized as being fraught with unspecified peril for Qubec and Canadian interests. Yet within the ranks of Qubec sovereigntists who have been most critical of missile defense, there are many who insist that an independent Qubec would play a part in the Western world's current alliance and other security structures, NATO and NORAD in particular. Joining the latter, however, would pose a major contradiction for sovereigntists, given NORAD's role in missile defense. This article describes and analyzes this instance of “strategic doublethink.”