An Emerging Strategic Counterculture

Michel Fortmann is professor of political science at the Universite de Montreal. Martin Larose is a doctoral student in the history department of the same institution. The authors express their gratitude to SSHRC for the support that made this study possible.INTRODUCTIONAs Stephane Roussel reminds us in this special issue, government leaders must from time to time make hard choices in security matters. Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who became prime minister in 1968, is a case in point. After ordering, in the spring of 1968, a general review of Canada's foreign and defence policies, the government announced, on 3 April 1969, its intention to gradually reduce, in consultation with allies, the country's military presence in Europe. The Atlantic alliance thereby effectively lost the pre-eminent position that it had occupied in Canadian foreign policy since 1949. Although the actual troop reductions turned out to be less drastic than envisioned, the Liberal government's choice in 1969 represented a clear break with previous policy.What explains this departure from well-established policies? Structural-realist theory would argue that a new configuration of power in the international system, or a decline of Canada's position therein, might have been the cause of the decision. A strengthening of Europe or a weakening of the Soviet threat might have thrown into question Canada's role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Alternatively, a significant reduction in the resources that Canada could commit to its defence policy might have motivated the choice. Neither factor, however, provides a convincing explanation in the context of the late 1960s. To the contrary, the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia reinforced the reality of the threat posed by the Warsaw Pact in Europe, and NATO's 1967 adoption of the doctrine of flexible response reactivated the debate over conventional defence. Europe's political division on defence issues was aggravated by France's decision, the previous year, to withdraw its forces from NATO's integrated command. Finally, Canada's decision to reduce its military presence came at the very time that the east and west were preparing for negotiations over reciprocal reductions in their military forces in Europe. How to explain this decision, which is in apparent contradiction to the strategic reality of the time?The cultural approach provides a partial answer. According to this approach, strategic choices are not merely the reflection of a rigorous and objective analysis of the international environment; they also result from the interpretation of that environment in the light of the prevailing strategic culture. This culture, as defined by Alastair Iain Johnston, has two components: the first consists of basic assumptions about the international order, its stability and the usefulness of military force; the second reflects the operational preferences of the decision-makers (i.e., those choices that appear most rational given one's perception of the international system).(1) Thus, strategic culture is a filter through which reality is perceived, limiting, in the eyes of the decision-makers, the available options. The Liberal government's decision to reduce the Canadian military presence in Europe is thus a reflection of its vision of the world and its resulting preferences. One must therefore refer to the source of the government's perceptions in order to explain the 1968-1970 change in defence policy.The cultural approach also helps us understand how policies change. In the case under consideration, two Weltanschauungen came into conflict, one reflecting the dominant values and preferences of the internationalist or Pearsonian tradition (1945-1968), the other the emerging worldview of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and intellectuals from his generation. The revision of Canada's NATO policy thus provides an opportunity to examine the conditions under which a new approach to security questions (a strategic counterculture) can arise and challenge the dominant culture

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