The Origins of NORAD: Institutionalizing Canadian/US Military Cooperation

Abstract

With the emergence of the Soviet Union as a ‘great power’ at the end of World War II, two distinct, and in many ways polar-opposite, systems of social organization were faced with the problem of cohabitation. The Soviet Union practised a communist form of political organization with a demand economy, both activities being centrally managed by the state. According to Marxist ideology upon which Soviet society was built, communism, with its attendant demand economy, is the highest form of social organization. With public ownership of the means of production, and an economy that produces for need, not profit, each person contributes equitably to the production of societal well-being and also shares equitably in the fruits of that production. Decision-making is a communal process, and because there are no hierarchies of advantage possible within this system, power relations are non-existent. As society thrives, so does the individual.