The Branch Working Group on Nuclear Strategy of the CIC-Halifax Branch had the goal of expanding both Canada’s domestic competence on strategic nuclear issues and dialogue amongst strategic thinkers in Canada and elsewhere. To help achieve these goals, the Branch Working Group – in partnership with the Centre for Defence and Security Studies (University of Manitoba), the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies (Dalhousie University), with the additional financial support of the Security and Defence Forum (Department of National Defence) and the Department of Political Science and President’s Office (Dalhousie University) – organized a high-level workshop on ‘American Nuclear Strategy and the Implications to Global Security‘ that took place in May 2008.

The workshop brought together nearly 30 strategic analysts and arms control experts from Canada and the United States to discuss recent US nuclear weapon developments. Participants addressed a number of important questions: What is the current status of US nuclear strategy and deterrence? What are the implications of current US nuclear developments to global security? What are Canadian strategic interests and what impact will these developments have on Canada’s international security policy? Six panels of experts led discussions on different facets of US nuclear strategy over two days, including: Nuclear Counterproliferation, Strategic Defence, Grand Strategy, NATO, Strategic Stability, and Canada-US Relations. Research papers from the workshop formed the foundation of a special guest-edited issue of International Journal (Fall 2008), and the complete workshop proceedings – including a number of discussant responses – will appear in an edited book by the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies in 2009.

The Branch Working Group included David McDonough (Chair), Alexandre Wilner (Vice Chair), and Dr. Frank Harvey from Dalhousie University, as well as external members-at-large and project advisors Dr. Douglas Ross from Simon Fraser University and Dr. George Lindsey, Chair of the Ottawa-CIC Branch ‘Working Group on National Security’. The Branch Working Group was deactivated following the successful conclusion of the 2008 workshop and the dissemination of its research papers and forthcoming release of the complete workshop proceedings. Further research on nuclear strategy and other strategic matters will, however, continue under the auspices of the Strategic Studies Working Group (SSWG) at the CIC, which will co-sponsor a planned follow-up to the 2008 workshop expected to take place in September 2009.

David S. McDonough, Branch Working Group Chair, is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada and a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canadian Graduate Scholarship (Doctoral) holder. He is also a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies at Dalhousie University. He held positions at the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, the Royal Canadian Military Institute and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He has published widely on US nuclear strategy, Canada’s international security policy and various international security issues, including four co-edited collections as well as in International Journal, RUSI Journal, SITREP, Strategic Datalink, Strategic Survey, The Journal of Military and Strategic Studies and The Transatlantic Quarterly. His most recent publication is Nuclear Superiority: The ‘New Triad’ and the Evolution of Nuclear Strategy, Adelphi Paper 383 (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2006).

Alexandre S. Wilner, Branch Working Group Vice-Chair, is a PhD Candidate of Political Science at Dalhousie University and a Doctoral Fellow with the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies. He has been awarded the Dr. Ronald Baker Doctoral Scholarship (2006-08) from the Department of National Defence (Government of Canada) for his dissertation research on deterrence theory and counter-terrorism strategy. His other academic interests include international relations theory, democratization, failing and failed states, and environmental security. He recently co-edited a book, Revolution or Evolution? Emerging Security Threats in the 21st Century, and has also published articles in International Journal, Strategic Datalink, The Jerusalem Review, Federal Governance, and The Journal of Military and Strategic Studies. He is on the Board of Reviewers for Federal Governance and is also the Intern in Security and Defence Policy at the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), a Halifax-based public policy think tank.

Frank P. Harvey, Member-at-Large, is a Professor of Political Science and International Relations and former Director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies at Dalhousie University. He has published a number of books and numerous articles on nuclear and conventional deterrence, strategic stability, coercive diplomacy, crisis decision-making, protracted ethnic conflict and national missile defence in International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Politics, International Journal, Security Studies, International Political Science Review, Conflict Management and Peace Science, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Canadian Military Journal and others. His current research interests include globalization and terrorism, unilateral vs. multilateral approaches to security, comparative multilateralism, WMD proliferation, U.S. and Canadian foreign, security and defence policy, homeland and continental security, ballistic missile defence, nuclear and conventional deterrence, NATO military strategy and third-party intervention, peacekeeping and humanitarian intervention. Professor Harvey received Dalhousie’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1998 and the Burgess Research Award in 2000. He was a NATO Fellow from 1998-2000 and a Fulbright Scholar and the J. William Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair in Canadian Studies at the State University of New York (Plattsburg) in 2007. He has received several research grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Department of National Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Douglas A. Ross, Member-at-Large, has been Professor of Political Science at Simon Fraser University since 1988. His major research interests include Canadian foreign and defence policies, strategic studies and arms control and approaches to grand strategy. He was a founding director of the Canadian Centre for Arms Control and Disarmament in 1983, and served on the national policy advisory group for the Canadian Ambassadors for Disarmament from 1986-93. Dr. Ross is currently the Executive Director of the Canadian-American Strategic Review that is also operated through SFU. He is the author of a major study on Canada’s involvement in the Vietnam War and many other works on Canadian international security relations. He has published in International Journal, Canadian Foreign Policy and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

George Lindsey, Member-at-Large, was a civilian operational research scientist in the Department of National Defence, where he served for twenty years as Chief of the Operational Research and Analysis Establishment. He has continued to pursue defence matters as a member of the Royal Canadian Military Institute and the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, and is chairman of the CIIA Working Group on National Security that has been studying the security of North America against the threats of ICBMs and terrorism.