“A Great Small Country on the International Scene”

Abstract

A small country on the international sceneLooking back at Canada and the United NationsIn 1952, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace thought it worthwhile to commission series of national studies on the United Nations (UN). In Canada, the task was taken on by Fred Soward, an academic and former special assistant in the Department of External Affairs, and Edgar Mclnnis, president of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs and delegate to the 1952 UN General Assembly.1 Four years later, Canada and the United Nations was released to uniformly positive reviews.2The timing of the book was serendipitous. Soward and Mclnnis completed their manuscript just months before secretary of state for external affairs, Lester Pearson attained international celebrity for his role in creating the United Nations emergency force that separated warring parties in Egypt and Israel. Pearson's remarkable achievement brought an unprecedented degree of global acclaim to his country. But it also unleashed public expectations of Canada's role in the world - and of the United Nations itself- that could never be, and never have been, fulfilled.3At home, parliamentary debate in Ottawa during the Suez crisis exacerbated growing partisan divisions over Canadian foreign policy among the political elite. Without national consensus, efforts to contemplate the future of Canada's contribution to global affairs at the strategic level went unfulfilled. And finally, the year 1956 coincided with the end of period of remarkable cooperation among the national media, the public service, and the federal leadership, all of whom had been presenting Canadians with grounded, coherent view of what Canada could and could not achieve on the world stage during the Cold War. The publication of Canada and the United Nations, then, marked the highpoint in the harmonization of the tenets of Canadian internationalism with Canada's national interests.Nearly sixty years later, the Soward-Mclnnis collaboration is as valuable as it has ever been. Not only does it provide an unparalleled chronicle of the first decade of the UN's existence from distinctly Canadian point of view, it is also among the clearest articulations of Canada's global strategic interests. As one reviewer noted, Canadian policy at the UN demonstrated how a small power can play the responsible role of leadership without disregarding the imperatives of national self-interests. was no contradiction in the term great 'small' country4 in 1956 nor, it could well be argued, must there be today.The book begins with an articulation of Canada's strategic posture and, as such, justification for the chapters that follow. There are few countries that have more reason than Canada to appreciate the inescapable connection between international organization and the national interest, writes Mclnnis:In this atomic age, even her fortunate geographical situation gives only relative security at best, and her safety is bound up ultimately with that of the other democratic nations whose ideals and interests she shares. Her prosperity and progress are similarly bound up with world economic stability, without which she cannot sustain the high volume of external trade that is essential to the maintenance of the Canadian standard of living. As nation richly endowed with natural resources, with advanced technical skills and high productive capacities, she is called on to make substantial contribution to the common cause when security is threatened or stability in question; yet she remains nation of second or third rank whose influence on vital decisions in these fields is not necessarily proportionate to her efforts.5Canada was, whether it liked it or not, an international country, one that had benefited disproportionately from the political and economic structure of the contemporary world order. To preserve its favourable position, Ottawa would have to do what it could to maintain the stability of the system, even if its efforts made some states - both friends and foes - uncomfortable. …