Third Place in the Space Race: Securitizing Rhetoric, the Logic of Threat, and the Securitization of the Canadian Civil Space Program

The description of the Space Age as the “Space Race” would require there to be both winners and losers. But in the case of Canada, its trajectory as an emerging spacefaring state at the height of the Cold War was not based on winning the competition but rather ensuring that Canada could continue the race, no matter the pace. From the beginning, Canada took an independent path based on its own national interests within the larger context of the rivalry created between the United States and Soviet Union. What is curious about this approach is that, unlike the superpowers, Canada’s national civil space program shifted its focus several times over the course of the Cold War due to domestic factors, ranging from an emphasis on space science activities to domestic communication satellites. This dissertation questions the security dilemma interpretation of space-faring states during the Cold War by moving beyond the state-centric argument of space power rivalry and escalation and instead focuses on the role that motivated bureaucratic actors played in shaping the national civil space program of middle power states, such as Canada. This dissertation proposes the application of securitization theory to better explain the relationship between the development of national civil space programs and national security during the early Space Age. It focuses on the identification, construction, and socialization of civil space activities as a security issue within the Canadian federal government and the corresponding political effect of such securitizing moves on the trajectory of Canada as a spacefaring state throughout the Cold War. The process of securitization is demonstrable through the propagation of a space policy logic that considers the framing of existential threats. The institutional interactions of these logics served to influence political decision makers and departments in supporting specific space activities over others, from scientific satellites like the first Alouettes to communication satellites and the human spaceflight program.

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