"Pierre Trudeau and the "Suffocation" of the Nuclear Arms Race"

By Paul Meyer
Simons Papers in Security and Development No. 52/2016
Published by the School for International Studies,
Simon Fraser University
August 2016

See the following link for Paul Meyer's recent contribution to the Simons Papers in Security and Development published by the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser Universtiy.

"Pierre Trudeau and the "Suffocation" of the Nuclear Arms Race"

Abstract:
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau is known for his challenge to Canada’s NATO policy at the beginning of his tenure in power and his peace initiative at its end. Less well known is his support for innovative arms control policies designed to eliminate the technological impetus behind the nuclear arms race between the US and the USSR during the Cold War. At the first UN Special Session on Disarmament in May 1978, Trudeau delivered a speech outlining a “strategy of suffocation” that provided a novel package of four arms control measures that, taken as a whole, would represent an effective means of halting and eventually reversing the nuclear arms race. Although the superpowers were largely indifferent to them, these ideas helped spur the Department of External Affairs to invest in developing the institutional capacity to enable Canada to play a leadership role in future disarmament diplomacy. 

Amb. (Ret) Paul Meyer is Adjunct Professor of International Studies and Fellow in International Security, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada; and Senior Fellow in Space Security, The Simons Foundation.