A History of the DEW Line

Working in partnership with historical geographer Matt Farish (assistant professor, University of Toronto), I am working on a transdisciplinary historical analysis of the impacts of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line on the North American arctic.

In 1953, with the Cold War entrenched in minds of the North American allies and the polar projection map representing the geo-strategic realities of the nuclear age, the Canadian and United States governments began to undertake the largest construction project in polar history. The DEW radar line would extend nearly halfway around the circumpolar world, and bring massive amounts of southern construction equipment, materials, and men to the Canadian arctic. Drawing on archival materials and oral histories, my research will describe, explain, and assess the design and implementation of the DEW Line project, with discussion of the concomitant impacts on Northern peoples.

This project will build upon the substantial body of secondary literature that explores the nature and impacts of Northern development from historical, sociological, anthropological, economic, and political science perspectives. The lessons to be gleaned from a rigorous historical assessment of the DEW line are important today, as climate change and Northwest Passage navigation represent critical issues on the horizon.

Anyone with information on the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line) and/or North Warning System (NWS), and particularly those individuals with personal anecdotes they wish to share, are invited to contact me by email at: pwlacken@uwaterloo.ca.

For more information this project, please visit my DEW Line project website