The Cold War and Canadian Intelligence

Canada's intelligence community played an important and largely unknown role in the making of Canadian and allied foreign and defence policies during the Cold War. Two recent books explore this neglected dimension of both Canadian and international history. In Watching the Bear: Canadian Intelligence Assessments of the Soviet Threat to North America, 1946-1964, former intelligence officer Alan Barnes discusses the role of Canadian intelligence in formulating continental defence policies, exploring areas of both agreement and disagreement with the United States. In The Next War: Indications Intelligence in the Early Cold War, University of Toronto historian Timothy Andrews Sayle recounts the development of a tripartite relationship among the Canadian, British, and American intelligence establishments, to monitor indications that the Cold War might become hot. Join us for discussion of these books and the role of Canadian intelligence in Cold War history.

 

Alan Barnes worked for over two decades in the Canadian intelligence community and is currently a senior fellow of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. He served as a military intelligence officer, in the Political Intelligence Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and as director of the Middle East and Africa Division of the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat in the Privy Council Office. He is now a co-leader of the Canadian Foreign Intelligence History Project, which seeks to encourage the study of historical Canadian records on intelligence.

 

Timothy Andrews Sayle is associate professor of History at the University of Toronto, Director of the International Relations Program at Trinity College, and a senior fellow of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History. He has published widely in the field of international history, including books, edited collections and articles on NATO, Canadian external affairs, nuclear history and the history of intelligence.