Political History Commons^™

A Departmental Dilemma: The Genesis Of Canadian Military Export Policy, 1945-1960, Paul Esau

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Recent sales of Canadian military equipment to Saudi Arabia have highlighted a contradiction between Canadian policy on paper and in practice. This dissertation seeks to explain these contradictions by exploring the evolution of Canadian conventional military export policy in the key years between 1946 and 1960. It loosely divides this 15-year span into three periods, which correspond to the genesis of Canadian military export policy (1946-1949), its expansion and formalization (1950-1955), and its first existential challenge (1956-1960). With a particular focus on the Department of External Affairs, this work explores the political considerations and bureaucratic debates which shaped government decision-making …

A Marriage Of Intersecting Needs: The Procurement Of The Canadian Patrol Frigates By The Pierre Trudeau Government, 1977-1983, Garison Ma

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In December 1977, the Liberal government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau authorized the Department of National Defence to begin the acquisition of new warships for the navy. The decision to acquire fully combat capable warships was a shocking decision which marked the conclusion of a remarkable turnaround in Canadian defence policy. The navy, which had grown into a substantial and capable force during the early Cold War in the 1950s, had been in a steady decline since the mid-1960s as a result of the shifts in defence policy, cuts in personnel, and still deeper cuts to the capital funding needed to …

The Forgotten Front: British Home Defence And The Invasion Scare Of 1914, Alexander Maavara

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Few issues have impacted the British people more than the historic fear or threat of invasion. From the Napoleonic Wars to the Second World War, the most “heroic” periods of British history have been those when the island faced possible invasion and destruction. This thesis seeks to address a gap in the history of Great Britain by examining the impact of Britons’ fear of invasion on British civil-military relations prior to and in the initial stages of the First World War. Following the 1911 Agadir Crisis, Britain’s defence establishment acknowledged the political and social influence that the fear of invasion …

The Making Of Astate In Waiting: The Lives Of Fatah Political Prisoners, 1967 To 1985, Rebecca Granato

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A State in Waiting? The Lives of Fatah Political Prisoners, 1967-1985 looks at the evolution of a Fatah prisoner movement inside Israeli prisons intended for Palestinian political prisoners. An under-researched area in Palestinian studies, this project relies on a combination of oral sources and anonymous documents drafted by prisoners during their internment housed at the Abu Jihad Museum in Abu Dis, Palestine. The dissertation argues that beginning in the 1970s and lasting into the 1980s a kind of collectivity emerged and came to define prisoner interactions and their day-to-day activities. Prison, and later system-wide hunger strikes are addressed in an …

Cold War By “Other Means”: Canada’S Foreign Relations With Communist Eastern Europe, 1957-1963, Cory Scurr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Following Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became leader of the Soviet Union and ushered in a liberalization campaign that reverberated outward to certain Eastern European nations. Canadian officials recognized that limited freedom of maneuver was conceded to certain Eastern European nations, in addition to Yugoslavia’s existing independent position. This proved important, as Communist Eastern Europe became a deliberate and considered factor in Canada’s foreign policy. Canadian Soviet policy thus evolved into a Canadian policy towards Communist Eastern Europe, equipped with various nuances. Specifically, this project examines Canadian policy with Yugoslavia, Poland, and the Soviet Union.

By the mid …

For The Union Makes Us Strong: The İstanbul Metal Workers And Their Struggle For Unionization In Turkey, 1947-1970, Özgür Balkılıç

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

ABSTRACT

This study is an examination of the history of organized metal labor in İstanbul, Turkey after the Second World War. It analyzes and displays the complex and intermingled historical processes within which laborers in the private metal sector of İstanbul experienced workplace relations and actively responded to them. In this regard, although recent immigrants to Istanbul were exposed to unfamiliar conditions and labor relations, they attempted to shape those new relations through several means, in particular through the establishment of trade unions. In an effort to provide a comprehensive picture of class formation in the metal sector after the …

Leaders In Conflict: Diefenbaker, Kennedy, And Canada’S Response To The Cuban Missile Crisis, Matthew Gurney

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

While the Cuban Missile Crisis has received a tremendous amount of attention from American scholars, in Canada the historiography concerning the Crisis is quite limited, with few monographs devoted to it. Typically the Crisis might receive a few pages of attention, perhaps a chapter in a book concerned with other topics. This historiographical “blind spot” has allowed misconceptions concerning Canada’s diplomatic and military participation in the Crisis to persist in this country’s collective memory of the Crisis, which is a disservice not only to Canada’s national heritage, but to the thousands of men and women who strove to prepare Canada …

Golden Pheasants And Eastern Kings: The German District Administration In The Occupied Soviet Union, 1941–1944, Stephen A. Connor

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

German-Soviet Cooperation In The Baltic States And Poland, 1918 To 1920, Brian David Cameron

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis is based on German, Soviet, American, and British primary source material, as well as memoirs and a variety of secondary sources. Through an investigation of the Polish-Lithuanian dispute, the Polish-Soviet War, the Baltic attempts to achieve independence, as well as German and Soviet military manoeuvres in the Baltic region, far reaching and active cooperation, previously largely unnoticed, has been revealed. The research demonstrates that Germany and Soviet Russia, between the years 1918 and 1920, cooperated extensively in order to prevent Poland for exerting domination over the Baltic States and in attempting to prevent effective cooperation among the Baltic …

Toward Financial Accountability: The Creation Of The Board Of Audit In Upper Canada, 1791-1864, Michael D. Booker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

The Passage Of The Public Service Staff Relations Act, 1965-1967, Ian P. Macmillan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The aim of this study is to determine why collective bargaining rights were granted to civil servants. Chapter one examines the historical development of labour relations in the civil service, specifically social, political, and economic trends present when new bills governing labour relations were introduced. Trends which were to have an impact on Bill C-170 are delineated. Chapter two follows the evolvement of collective bargaining rights into a political issue and the reaction of political parties and other interest groups. Emphasis is placed on the role of postal employees. Chapter three examines the political situation before and after the 1965 …