Silent Partners
240 pages, 6 x 9
8 b&w photos, 1 map
Hardcover
Release Date:15 Sep 2023
ISBN:9780774868952
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Silent Partners

The Origins and Influence of Canada’s Military-Industrial Complex

UBC Press

Canada is often seen as a peaceful country with a modest military and a small defence industrial base, but its military-industrial complex is deeply embedded in the fabric of the country. Silent Partners reveals its origins and influence.

During the Cold War, Canada’s military, industrial, and political partnerships developed in silent ways, behind the scenes and without much public scrutiny. Silent Partners explores this complicated history of leveraging military and defence expenditures to fund domestic industries, bolster employment, and support science and technology. Military and defence spending have affected Canada in myriad ways and in uneven patterns of prosperity and decline. The contributions in this volume explore the environmental impact of military activities and munitions production, the ethical issues of human experimentation and military testing, and the economic and political implications of procurement and arms exports.

Using a vast array of archival sources – some only recently declassified or discovered – Silent Partners is an illuminating examination of Canada’s military-industrial complex from a historical perspective.

This book will appeal to military and Canadian historians, defence analysts, and political scientists interested in Canadian military affairs and defence procurement.

Silent Partners provides fresh, original insights into new areas of Canadian defence history. Roger Sarty, professor, History, Wilfrid Laurier University
Souchen and Wiseman provide a historical perspective that has not been dealt with before. It is a valuable discussion of Canada’s military industrial experience within a wider war and society context. Craig Stone, associate professor emeritus, Defence Studies, Canadian Forces College

Alex Souchen is an assistant professor at the University of Guelph, cross-appointed between the Department of History and Bachelor of Arts and Science Program. He is the author of War Junk: Munitions Disposal and Postwar Reconstruction in Canada, which won an honorable mention for the 2020–21 C.P. Stacey Award for the best book in the field of Canadian military history.

Matthew S. Wiseman is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Waterloo. He previously held a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at St. Jerome’s University and is the editor of The Selected Works of George R. Lindsey: Operational Research, Strategic Studies, and Canadian Defence in the Cold War.

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