Watching the Bear: Canadian Intelligence Assessments of the Soviet Threat to North America, 1946-1964

Sheds light on the Canadian intelligence community’s involvement in Cold War relations.

As the Soviet threat to North America evolved in the early Cold War, the world was watching. What was the view from Ottawa? Watching the Bear begins to tell that story. Alan Barnes, a twenty-five-year veteran of the Canadian intelligence community, draws on recently declassified archival sources to offer a wholly new perspective on Canada’s policies for the defense of North America from 1946 to 1964.

After the Second World War, Canada created an independent capacity to produce strategic intelligence assessments, and Canadian analysts worked with their American counterparts to prepare joint appraisals of the looming Soviet menace. Canadian and American conclusions often differed significantly, but Canada’s success in negotiating the ensuing tensions was instrumental in ensuring that the two countries developed a common basis for defense planning.

By bringing little-known intelligence documentation to light, Watching the Bear makes a groundbreaking contribution to the history of Canadian intelligence, defense, and foreign relations.

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 Intelligence Assessment Secretariat, Middle East and Africa Division. He is now a co-leader of the Canadian Foreign Intelligence History Project.