PRISM :: Browsing by Author "Huebert, Robert"

Browsing by Author "Huebert, Robert"

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Open Access
A Canadian Space Odyssey: Canada, the Great Space Powers, and the Space Power Dilemma
(2017) McClelland, Kiernan; Huebert, Robert; Keenan, Tom; Stapleton, Timothy; Brodie, Ian
Canada, despite being the third country to launch an artificial satellite, was unable to develop into a space power commanding a long-term strategic presence in outer space during the Cold War. Whereas the "great space powers" of the period, the United States and Soviet Union, held a dominant position in the space environment, Canada's space power influence declined over the years. By analyzing declassified strategic documents and the strategic literature on space power, and by interviewing members of Canada's national space organizations, this thesis will compare the strategic, political and economic variables of space power to determine why Canada did not maintain space supremacy when compared with the United States and Soviet Union from 1957 to 1991. This thesis concludes that Canada did not develop into a space power during the Cold War because, opposite the great space powers, the country did not have a comprehensive space strategy, political leadership and support, or the economic resources that would allow for the development of a long-term satellite presence.
Open Access
Ally, Enemy or Something Else? How and Why the United States Drone Program Implementation and Operation in Pakistan Changed their Relationship
(2021-05-11) Stone, Allison Nicole; Terriff, Terry; Boucher, Jean-Christophe; Huebert, Robert
This papers’ focus concerns the relationship between the United States and Pakistan around the implementation, use, and regulation of militarized drones in Pakistan. In analyzing the emergence and operation of militarized drones, this paper reconciles how their relationship has been affected legally, militarily, politically, diplomatically, and socially. To develop these arguments, I examine the pertinent historical evolution and statistical figures that exemplify drones’ trajectory from a newly developed technology strictly for intelligence gathering to an exceedingly popular weaponry system used in numerous combat situations. Subsequently, an examination of how specifically drones have altered the bilateral relationship between Pakistan and the United States is explored by analyzing the military impact and other tangible hard areas of focus, including the legality of strikes as well as softer, less easily quantifiable concerns of political, diplomatic, and social consequences. I argue that it has been militarily successful by improving intelligence cooperation, eliminating high-value targets, and assisting Pakistan to be better equipped at preventing future terrorist or insurgent attacks. Further, the drone program unified the two after the triple whammy of Raymond Davis killing two Pakistani citizens, bin Laden being found in the country, and the Salalah incident shutting down borders and airspaces, which left the relationship on the brink of total dissolution. Its redeeming feature was the still existent security concerns that required drone use to respond appropriately; without which it may have been irredeemable. However, outside the military realm the legal, political, diplomatic, and social consequences have been detrimental to their bilateral relationship by leaving them in a state of flux as to the potential future trajectories of their partnership. Where one individually falls on assessing whether it has been positive or not is ultimately a matter of opinion based on priorities. If military strategy and security are paramount, one would agree it has been a positive program. If one prioritizes the expansion of their dynamic beyond transaction military arrangements, then it has failed spectacularly. This thesis argues the former is still a victory; a relationship by any means is better than the alternative when it concerns such a tenuous partnership.
Open Access
Beyond Delusions of Grand Strategy: A Centrifugal National Security Strategy for Canada
(2017) McAuley, William; Bercuson, David Jay; Nossal, Kim Richard; Cooper, Barry; Huebert, Robert; Nesbitt, Michael
Canadian ‘grand strategy’ is a dangerous illusion. Just as even the brightest headlights have limited utility on a winding road, the common model of grand strategy is more myth than magic. Advocacy for the common linear conception of grand strategy as the solution to a complex contemporary security environment is misguided. This ‘Newtonian’ form of grand strategy has little utility for Canada. Traditional perceptions of grand strategy must be modified to account for a Canadian condition in which the ability to achieve adaptive advantage at the periphery supplants a central vision. The challenge for the forward looking national security policymaker is not how to impose a particular grand strategic objective on an uncontrollable environment, but to continually adapt and co-evolve with that environment in a manner that best satisfies specific interests. This work explores the utility of the grand strategy within a Canadian context. Intended to have resonance for contemporary policymaking, the behavioural phenomenon of grand strategy is examined with respect to its utility for real-time policy and strategy making in Canada. The assumption that the common concept of grand strategy has utility for Canada will be challenged on the grounds that it fails to account for the complexity of the Canadian policymaking environment. It will be shown that Canada has a more natural form of national security strategy that, rather than being based on a central vision, relies upon the optimization of emergent behaviour within a complex adaptive system. This unique form of national security strategy is characterized as being centrifugal rather than centripetal. Identification of this model illustrates fatal flaws in the common conceptions of Canadian grand strategy and provides greater utility for real-time Canadian policymaking in the contemporary national security environment.
Open Access
Blinded by the Rising Sun? American Intelligence Assessments of Japanese Air and Naval Power, 1920-1941
(2016) Pyke, Justin; Ferris, John; Ferris, John; Dolata, Petra; Wright, David; Huebert, Robert
This thesis evaluates American intelligence assessments of Japanese air and naval power during the interwar period. All issues from the assessment of personnel, tactics and technology, to strategy and industry are addressed together. American assessments of Japan’s poor strategic and industrial position remained highly accurate, while assessments of Japanese tactics and technology were flawed. Since the Americans planned to fight a prolonged war of attrition, strategic and industrial assessments proved far more critical than those which assessed low level issues. Their conclusion was that Japan could not win a war against the United States. Errors in the assessments of Japanese technology and tactics contributed to the shock and embarrassment of the early defeats in the Pacific War, but were not the main cause of those defeats. The underestimation of Japanese air power did more damage to the Americans than the middling assessments of Japanese naval power.
Open Access
Can We Settle This: The Role of Settlements in the Occupied Territories and U.S.-Israel Relations, 1967-1981
(2017) Ben-Ephraim, Shaiel; Terriff, Terry; Tal, David; Spangler, Jewel; Ferris, John; Huebert, Robert; Pressman, Jeremy
This dissertation examines the role of settlements in U.S.-Israeli relations. It asks when and how U.S. policy influences the likelihood of Israel substantially moderating its settlement policy? In addition, it explains when the U.S. took an interest in resolving the issue as well as when and why Israel is responsive to U.S. pressure. The dissertation is the first analysis of the topic based on primary documents. It is also a first cut at explaining Israeli settlement policy as part of a strategic interaction, rather than as a phenomenon determined by domestic Israeli factors. The project utilizes an analytical framework based on Powell and Lake’s strategic choice approach. The framework is used to situate the case of settlements in U.S.-Israeli relations in the literature on bargaining, mediation and compliance. The empirical analysis focuses on the 1967-1981 period. In the first empirical chapter, the formative policy of the Johnson administration is analyzed alongside the Israeli policy of trickery and obfuscation designed to protect its nascent settlement enterprise. It continues with a look at the Nixon administration up to the 1973 War focusing on the Meir governments efforts to openly promote “defensible borders” and the gradual U.S. acceptance of that conception. The third empirical chapter focuses on the changes wrought by the war in the estimation of the role of settlements during Rabin’s first tenure and the late Nixon and Ford years. The final empirical chapter analyzes the Israeli decision to evacuate the settlements in Sinai as part of the peace agreement with Egypt as well as the failure of the autonomy talks. The thrust of the argument is that despite possessing greater resources and influence, the U.S. was unable to alter settlement policy within the context of bilateral negotiations. Rather the outcome was dependent on the existence of a willing Arab interlocuter turning U.S. conflict resolution from bilateral bargaining to genuine mediation. Once this occurred, successful mediation depended on U.S. motivation to mobilize its resources and establish credibility. Mediation succeeded when the U.S was biased against the Israeli territorial position and had a genuine strategic interest in promoting Israeli withdrawal.
Open Access
Canadian naval shipbuilding policy: improving the effectiveness of the buy Canada policy
(2006) Curran, Ty; Huebert, Robert
Open Access
Controlling the Northern Seas: The Influence of Exclusive Economic Zones on the Development of Norwegian, Danish, and Canadian Naval Forces
(2022-12-12) Choi, Timothy Hiu-Tung; Huebert, Robert; Holloway, Ian; Ferris, John; Chastko, Paul; Sloan, Elinor
The military challenge of climate change in the Arctic is often centered upon resource access within Arctic states' Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). There is thus a need to understand how those states' naval forces have responded to EEZ creation during the Cold War and their consequences through the present day. Examining the navies of Norway, Denmark, and Canada, this dissertation asks how the EEZ directly and indirectly affected their force structures and sea control operations and whether smaller navies consistently differ from larger one, which tackles the dearth of literature on smaller navies and peacetime naval operations. This dissertation finds that while all three Arctic states created and exploited the 200 NM zones, only Norway developed notably increased constabulary seapower inputs for controlling its blue water offshore area. For Denmark, its colonial territories in the North Atlantic meant its navy already had the constabulary fleet and organizational infrastructure necessary to control its EEZ even as its warfighting fleet focused on Baltic operations. Meanwhile, Canada could depend on its pre-existing blue water warfighting fleet to serve as ad hoc constabulary platforms for legally-endowed civilian fisheries officers. Despite these differences in each country’s force structures, the actual operations of all three countries’ navies would converge in the post-Cold War era, which called for overseas expeditionary missions in accordance with alliance interests. For the two smaller navies of Norway and Denmark, such missions were carried out with the same constabulary forces originally designed for EEZ concerns as they were the ones with the necessary blue water characteristics. In contrast, Canada already had a fleet of naval vessels that were suitable for such expeditionary operations due to its focus on blue water antisubmarine warfare. By the early 2010s, all three countries would have the necessary warfighting assets to operate in expeditionary roles, though only Canada would have the numbers required to do so on a continuous basis. However, rising geopolitical tensions and climate change’s effect on increasing activity in and around these countries’ EEZs is leading to a convergence of warfighting and constabulary requirements in these northern seas close to home.
Open Access
Course 000: the maritime enforcement of Canada's arctic sovereignty and its potential implications for the Canadian navy
(2009) Horne, Marshall Seaborne; Huebert, Robert
Open Access
Environmental security and the Canadian Arctic
(2002) Wylie, Andrew; Huebert, Robert
Open Access
From Apathetic to Amiable: The British Empire and Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia, 1916-1974
(2023-08) Holbert, Quentin Colin; Stapleton, Timothy; Elofson, Warren; Apentiik, Rowland; Huebert, Robert; Thomas, Charles
Imperial Ethiopia was one of only two African states to retain its independence during the Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The most famous leader of Ethiopia was Emperor Haile Selassie, who ruled from 1930 to 1974. However, his involvement in international affairs date to 1916 when he was the Heir Apparent. The British Empire, which controlled colonies neighbouring Ethiopia, was the largest polity that the emperor conducted diplomacy with. This project examines how the British government’s attitude towards Ethiopia evolved between 1916 and 1974. The central change that happened was that Britain became friendlier to Ethiopia, having shifted from being apathetic and dismissive to more collaborative and respectful. From 1916 to 1935, Britain was dismissive of Ethiopia, although they were interested in keeping Lake Tana, one of the main reservoirs of the Nile River, flowing freely. During the diplomatic crisis leading up to the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-1937), Britain tried to use Ethiopia as a bargaining chip with Fascist Italy. Nonetheless, Selassie spent his exile in the United Kingdom. When Italy joined the Axis side of the Second World War in 1940, Britain worked with both Selassie and Ethiopian patriot fighters to help liberate the country. For the remainder of the 1940s, Britain helped stabilize the war-torn country via the British Military Administration. While Selassie leaned more heavily on American military funding in the 1950s and 1960s, Britain shifted to a Soft Power approach towards Ethiopia. Despite crises like the abortive coup attempt of 1960 and the outbreak of the Eritrean War of Liberation, Britain remained a close ally of Selassie up until the Derg coup of 1974. This dissertation represents the most comprehensive analysis of British-Ethiopian relations between 1916 and 1974.
Open Access
Galula in the Bush: A Case Study of Counterinsurgency Theory Using the Insurgent Conflicts in Postcolonial Uganda, 1981-2006
(2023-12-20) Kingston, Fenner William Patrick; Stapleton, Timothy; Hill, Alexander; Huebert, Robert
This thesis uses primary and secondary sources to analyse the applicability of David Galula’s counterinsurgency theories as described in his 1964 work Contre-insurrection: théorie et pratique to three cases from the insurgent conflicts in postcolonial Uganda from 1981 to 2006. These conflicts include the National Resistance Army (NRA) in the Luwero Triangle from 1981 to 1986, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in northern Uganda and southern Sudan from the group’s founding in 1987 to its formal departure from Uganda in 2006, and the West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) and United National Rescue Front (UNRF I&II) insurgencies in West Nile district between 1986 and 2002. These three cases offer examples of localised insurgent conflicts fought between national armed forces and regionally or ethnically motivated insurgent groups. This provides substantial evidence that Galula’s theories apply in contexts other than the international, expeditionary and/or colonial counterinsurgent campaigns to which his theories have previously been applied. It concludes that Galula’s theories offer both civilian and military leaders a model for counterinsurgency operations that they can readily apply. Galula’s theory stands up when scrutinised in the context of thirty years of conflict in which ethnic, regional, geographic, and religious factors affected the insurgencies, thereby showing its applicability across a wide range of potential insurgencies.
Open Access
General Chaffee's Small Wars: Institutional Culture, Command Intention, and Restraint in American Expeditionary Wars, 1899-1902
(2016) White, Stuart; Ferris, John; Terriff, Terry; Randall, Stephen; Jameson, Elizabeth; Huebert, Robert; Perras, Galen
This study examines U.S. conduct in two small wars in the Pacific at the turn of the twentieth century in order to examine the forces which contribute most directly to the maintenance or rupture of combatant restraint. The literature on the Philippine War and the Boxer Uprising often exaggerates the extent and influence of racism on combatant conduct, and prioritizes anecdotes of atrocity over a more contextualized survey. That interpretation masks the extent of real U.S. restraint in interactions with Chinese and Filipino populations in those conflicts, and ignores factors which play a greater role in determining troop behaviour. This study demonstrates that those factors, such as command intention, support from mid and low level officers, and limited operational objectives, are shaped by a number of internal and external forces, such as the nature of the conflict, the nature of the enemy, and the institutional norms of the military organization. It concludes that U.S. forces of that period applied violence instrumentally, and shied away from direct attacks on civilian populations. Restraint is possible but only where multiple factors align to create favourable conditions.
Open Access
Habitus, Field Theory and the ‘Bridge’: Using a Bourdieusian Approach to Examine and Explain Cold War Continuities in Britain’s Post-Cold War Foreign Policy
(2016) Smythe, Jason A; Terriff, Terry; Huebert, Robert; Keeley, James F.
This thesis examines the Anglo-American ‘special relationship’ and the ‘bridge’ role the United Kingdom has played within it since 1945, with the British seeing it as an important part of what Tate calls the post-war Anglo-American “hegemonic division of labour.” Playing this ‘bridge’ role made sense given the logic of Cold War bipolarity, but the post-Cold War shift to unipolarity has significantly decreased the need for ‘bridges’ in the international system, yet successive post-Cold War British governments remained committed to playing this role. This paper asks why this occurred and if the British are still playing this role. By applying a Bourdieusian approach the need to examine microstructures when studying British foreign policy is revealed, with the concepts of field theory and habitus highlighting the important role the unique individual experiences and beliefs of the prime minister play in the crafting of British foreign policy.
Open Access
International Arms Control Regimes: The Case for Hypersonic Weapons
(2022-05) Lakhan, Neeraj Sunny; Cameron, Gavin; Bercuson, David; Huebert, Robert
Hypersonic weapons are increasingly becoming a threat. The development and deployment of these weapons has created an arms race threatening global security. Currently, the U.S., China, and Russia are leading in the development of hypersonic weapons, but there are more states developing their own hypersonic weapons programs. The purpose of this study was to determine if an arms control regime can hinder the proliferation of hypersonic weapons. Ultimately, the goal of a regime is to facilitate cooperation in a given-issue area. It was concluded that an arms control regime can in fact be applicable towards hypersonic weapons.
Open Access
"Maintaining the Mobility of the Corps:" Horses, Mules, and the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps in the Great War
(2016) McEwen, Andrew; Brennan, Patrick; Ferris, John; Marshall, David; Huebert, Robert; Cook, Tim
Animal transportation played a crucial role in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the Great War. In an era of growing mechanization and technological development, horses and mules still provided the overwhelming bulk of draught power in the combat zone. They hauled artillery, supplies, and ambulances, packed ammunition, served as officers’ riding mounts, and chargers for cavalrymen. By the Armistice of 11 November 1918, the CEF alone utilized 24,134 horses and mules in France and Belgium. The task of overseeing their health and working efficiency fell to just a few officers and enlisted personnel of the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps (CAVC). Only 73 Veterinary Officers and 780 Other Ranks presided over this truly living and breathing transportation system. They treated diseases, wounds, exhaustion, malnourishment, and exposure to the elements. They saved what animals they could, and humanely destroyed those they could not. They were, in the words of Canadian Corps commander Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, essential for “maintaining the mobility of the Corps.” However, their contributions remain largely overlooked in the prevailing historiography. Neither the multifaceted literature exploring the conflict’s impact on Canadian society, nor the considerable scholarship on the CEF in France and Flanders, seriously considers the role played by Canadian horses and veterinarians in the war. A few monographs, book chapters, and journal articles acknowledge these crucial facets, though they too remain largely insular and do not connect the services of horses and veterinarians to the war’s broader chronology. This dissertation seeks to redress such omissions. It argues that Canada’s horses and mules, and the veterinary efforts to keep them healthy, exerted a clear impact on combat operations in the Great War. It explores their foundations in pre-war society Canadian to understand how both became key facets of the Dominion’s war effort, and further emphasizes the broader British Imperial context both served within overseas. Utilizing a broad array of war diaries, weekly casualty reports, government publications, internal correspondence, and contemporary periodicals from Canadian and British sources alike, this study exhibits how horses, mules, and veterinarians critically impacted Canada’s Great War experience.
Open Access
Masters of Controlled Chaos: Antifragility and American Space Strategy, 1953-1963
(2022-09) Brust, Carter; Chastko, Paul; Towers, Frank; Huebert, Robert
In 1957, the launch of Sputnik fundamentally altered the existing Cold War dynamic. The Soviet Union, a country left in tatters in 1945, had caught the most powerful nation in the world off guard. Despite this initial success by the Soviet Union, it was ultimately Americans who would go on to plant their nation’s flag on the moon. Why was this? How were the Americans able to come from behind in the Space Race? In order to answer these questions, this thesis considers how crisis shaped and influenced the ability of the United States to build institutional virility and refocus its strategy between 1953 and 1963. While individual events such as the launch of Sputnik and the Cuban Missile Crisis have been considered in-depth by established Cold War scholars, the wider relationship between crisis and strategy in the early Cold War has not yet been considered to the same extent. This thesis argues that the decisions made by key policy makers contributed to the building and maintenance of an antifragile system, leading to long-term strategic viability and allowing the United States to pursue a moonshot. In doing so, this analysis will also demonstrate the American capacity for agility, power conversion, and learning in response to crisis, shocks, and stressors during this period. Furthermore, it shows how antifragility was built and maintained during the administrations of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. It considers change and continuity between the two presidents both in how these leaders viewed and responded to crisis. The thesis concludes with an examination of the transformative nature of the Space Race as well as implications surrounding state antifragility. Exploration into the connection between crisis, leadership, and strategy in the past can provide useful tools for present day policy makers and assist in ongoing strategic synthesis.
Open Access
Norm Change and Contestation in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime: The India-US Nuclear Deal
(2017) Bano, Saira; Keeley, James F.; Bratt, Duane; Mather, Charles; Cameron, Gavin; Huebert, Robert
A major dilemma for the non-proliferation regime is to engage non-NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) states (India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea) more effectively in the broader nuclear non-proliferation regime without weakening or discrediting the NPT. The Indo-U.S. Civilian Nuclear Agreement claims to bring India, as a “responsible” nuclear state, closer to the nuclear non-proliferation regime. It was criticized by the non-proliferation community, concerned that global non-proliferation norms would be undermined by treating India “exceptionally”. The United States sought an India-specific exemption from the non-proliferation rules and discouraged others from seeking such exemptions to limit the damage to the regime. The implications of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal for the non-proliferation regime have been hotly contested in academic and policy circles; it is a first attempt to engage any non-NPT state but non-proliferation experts described it as a catastrophe for the regime. Yet a significant gap remains in our understanding of this on-going issue. No attempt has been made to assess its implications beyond speculation or to analyze this issue in detail in order to have a clear picture of its actual effect on the non-proliferation regime. This research project will address the question: how and to what extent has the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal affected key norms and rules of the non-proliferation regime? The United States did not act arbitrarily, but tried to modify the regime in such a way as to pursue its strategic objective regarding India because nuclear non-proliferation is also an important policy objective. This regime objective explains why the U.S., rather than establishing a set of rules that would apply to all states that have not signed the NPT, sought an India-specific exemption and is discouraging others from following suit to limit the damage to the regime. Therefore, demands by Pakistan, Israel and North Korea for a similar deal have received non-committal responses from the United States. This dissertation argues that, on balance, the deal has constructively and positively engaged India with the non-proliferation regime, and despite some drawbacks the benefits seem likely to outweigh the costs. This evolution of the non-proliferation regime to accommodate India in turn would enhance that state’s interest in strengthening the regime, and so marks a positive step. On the theory level, this study highlights that in a regime analysis norm contestation theory in combination of realist constructivism, can account for changes and stability in international regimes, by looking at power structure, normative factors, domestic culture and elite perception. Realist constructivism provides a frame to help identify and organize some factors and processes that can help us understand and explain normative contestation and its outcomes – though the results of these processes may be highly contingent rather than easily predictable. Change is both conduct- and context-shaping and it is the interpretation of the powerful state, through normative structures, that rules most of the time.
Open Access
Rules for victory: analysis of the Malayan emergency and the South Vietnamese strategic hamlet program using social constructivism
(2008) Lammi, Jeremy Michael; Huebert, Robert
Open Access
Strategy and the forces of group violence in Africa: the case of toto local government
(2010) Barrett, Robert Sean; Huebert, Robert
Open Access
The arctic in international affairs: security in the circumpolar region
(2011) Exner-Pirot, Heather; Huebert, Robert