Canada First, Not Canada Alone: A History of Canadian Foreign Policy

Three recent Canadian prime ministers, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, and Justin Trudeau made the same claim shortly after forming a government: “Canada is Back.” Martin promised to reinvest in world affairs. Harper was focused on the military. Trudeau meant more involvement at the UN. Each leader made foreign policy a part of their political brand because they recognized that in today's world, domestic and international politics are interconnected. Canada can no longer take care of its own interests if it ignores the world around it. This book traces the history of Canadian foreign policy from a time when positioning Canada First meant shunning international obligations to today. It highlights key decisions taken and not taken in Ottawa that have shaped Canadians' safety, security, and prosperity over the last one hundred years. Case studies focused on environmental reform, Indigenous peoples, trade, hostage diplomacy, and wartime strategy illustrate the breadth of issues that shape contemporary Canada's global realm. Together, these cases reveal a country that has benefited from diplomatic prudence and compromise even as its citizens have yearned for their elected officials to be world leaders. This book argues that, like any country, Canada must look out for its own interests first, but in the modern world it can't do so effectively without cooperating with other states and non-state actors. Written by two of Canada's leading foreign policy analysts, Canada First, Not Canada Alone is the definitive history of Canadian foreign policy since the 1930s.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Ideas and Antecedents Chapter 2: William Lyon Mackenzie King and the Evolution of Canada's Global Posture, 1935-1948 Case Studies: The Voyage of the MS St Louis, 1939 The Hyde Park Declaration, 1941 The Debate over Article 2 of the North Atlantic Treaty, 1947-1949 Granting the Great Powers a Veto in the United Nations Organization, 1945 Chapter 3: Louis St. Laurent and the Expansion of the Canadian Foreign Policy Realm, 1948-1957 Case Studies: The Launch of the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in South and Southeast Asia, 1950-1951 The Establishment of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, 1953-1957 The Suez Crisis and the Hungarian Revolution, 1956 Attending the 10th Inter-American Conference of the Organization of American States (OAS) as an Observer, 1952-1954 Chapter 4: John Diefenbaker and the Politics of Foreign Policy Decision-making, 1957-1963 Case Studies: The Establishment of the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD), 1957-1958 South Africa's Withdrawal from the Commonwealth, 1960-1961 Negotiations to Acquire Nuclear Weapons, 1957-1963 Responding to the White House's Decision to Move American NORAD forces to Defence Condition (DEFCON) 3 without Consulting Ottawa during the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 Chapter 5: Lester B. Pearson and the Domestic Implications of Canadian Foreign Policy, 1963-1968 Case Studies: The Promulgation of the Gérin-Lajoie Doctrine, 1965 Prime Minister Lester Pearson's Speech at Temple University, 1965 Managing the Impact of Split-run Magazines in Canada, 1964-1965 Chapter 6: Pierre Elliott Trudeau and the Re-imagination of "Canada First," 1968-1984 Case Studies: Reconsidering Canada's Military Role in NATO, 1968-1969 The Voyages of the SS Manhattan through the Northwest Passage, 1968-1970 Joe Clark's Proposal to Move the Canadian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, 1979-1980 The National Energy Program, 1980-1984 Recognizing the People's Republic of China (PRC), 1968-1970 Chapter 7: Brian Mulroney and the Transformation of Canadian International Affairs, 1984-1993 Case Studies: Responding to Famine in Ethiopia, 1984-1986 The Origins of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, 1983-1989 Negotiating the Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement, 1991 Responding to Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait, 1990-1991 Chapter 8: Jean Chrétien, Frugality, and Boldness, 1993-2001 Case Studies: The Turbot War, 1994-1995 The International Campaign to Ban Anti-personnel Landmines, 1994-1997 NATO's Military Intervention in Kosovo, 1998-1999 Conflict Diamonds in Angola and UN Security Council Sanctions Reform, 1999-2000 Chapter 9: Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, and the Aftermath of 9/11, 2000-2006 Case Studies: The Kyoto Protocol, 1997-2002 Canada's Response to the American Decision to Invade Iraq, 2002-2003 Deploying to Kandahar Province, 2003-2005 Participating in the United States Ballistic Missile Defense Program, 2003-2006 Chapter 10: Stephen Harper's Conservative Values on the World Stage, 2006-2015 Case Studies: Affirming Support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), 2007-2010 The Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, 2009-2010 Canada's Response to the Euromaidan, 2013-2015 Creating the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development, 2013 Chapter 11: Justin Trudeau and an Increasingly Dangerous World, 2015- Case Studies: Selling Light Armoured Vehicles to Saudi Arabia, 2015-2019 Renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, 2017-2018 China's Arbitrary Imprisonment of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, 2018-2021 Responding to a Dramatic Increase in Irregular Migration, 2017-2020 Conclusion: Canada First in the Future Notes Index

About the Author :
Adam Chapnick is Professor of Defence Studies at the Canadian Forces College and the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC). He is the award-winning author of Canada on the United Nations Security Council: A Small Power on a Large Stage, among other titles, and a former editor of International Journal. Asa McKercher is Assistant Professor of History at the Royal Military College of Canada. He is the author of include Canada and the World since 1867 (Bloomsbury, 2019) and Camelot and Canada: Canadian-American Relations in the Kennedy Era (OUP, 2016). He is the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal.