User:DecafPotato/drafts/Fortress North America

Fortress North America or Fortress America ...

Concept
The potential inclusion of Mexico—which lacks a history of defense or police cooperation with the United States—within the perimeter has caused disagreement.

History
Prior to World War II, Canada and the United States entered an agreement to ensure mutual defense. Since then, Canada–United States defense cooperation intensified, sparking the creation of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense in 1940. This commitment to defense effectively established a security perimeter around the two countries. In the postwar era, the United States became a nuclear power, and extended its nuclear deterrent to Canada. Canada and the United States both became founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, which promises that an attack on one NATO member state would be treated as an attack on all, furthering a collective security border.

During the Cold War in the 1950s, Soviet bombers served as the primary threat to North America. The North American Air Defense (NORAD) system was established to counter the threat. NORAD created a perimeter around the United States and Canada to defend against attacks from air and space, and has a joint command structure—the commander-in-chief is American, while the deputy commander is Canadian.

The September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 temporarily closed the Canada–United States and Mexico–United States borders. That December, the Smart Border Declaration between the United States and Canada echoed calls to establish a "zone of confidence" between the nations, and possessed similarities to the perimeter approach seen in Fortress North America. In a December 2002 report, the Canadian House of Commons committee on foreign affairs suggested that the Canadian government should consider a security perimeter around North America, to which the government issued an ambivalent response. The internal United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM) was also established following the September 11 attacks, and a joint planning unit in NORAD headquarters was established in December 2002 to further Canada–United States military cooperation.

The Bush administration announced that National Missile Defense (NMD) for the United States would be implemented in 2004, and an interim arrangement giving Canadian NORAD personnel access to ballistic missile defenses while negotiations regarding Canadian participation in the system continued. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) of Canada considered it within Canada's "strategic and national interest" to be involves in systems concerning the defense of North America.

Reception
Canadian nationalists have argued that the prospect of a security perimeter with the United States would limit Canadian sovereignty.