Now and then

Abstract

The publication of the Open report by the Canadian International Council (CIC), subtitled A global positioning strategy for a networked aged, in June 2010 opened some serious discussion not just in academic circles but in the mainstream media as well, where attention ranged from a simple summary in the Montreal Gazette to short but sharp criticism in the Toronto Sun, an in-depth feature on CTV - complete with video interviews - and a series of analyses in the Globe and Mail.' Among the report's game changers are the assertions that the world will be transformed by a rising Pacific (China), the relative decline of a central stabilizing (the United States), and the ascent of new international institutions (the G20 and ASEAN) that will not only affect the relative importance of powers, but how those powers interact. Among the controversial recommendations of the report is that Canada should grow closer to the United States, its major trading partner, even as it diversifies trade internationally, especially with regard to India and China. Canada should appear strong to win respect in the imperial because, after all, a close alliance with Washington is the best traditions of Canadian internationalism.2Although the report was rightly heralded as innovative, it shares a striking resemblance to international relations literature published in the interwar period nearly a century ago. Understanding these parallels is vital in applying some of the ideas that the report champions. Historical literature published by the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (CIIA), the predecessor to the CIC, addressed the question of empire in remarkably similar terms in 1941 when itnoted that association with the British Commonwealth of Nations has gained for her prestige of membership in a mighty empire, commercial advantages in her early history (and again since 1932) and traditions of justice, liberty and self-government of which she is rightly proud.3 In fact, there are many similarities in the global situations of the interwar period and those of today. Unsurprisingly, many themes in the CIIA and CIC publications reflect these similarities.Although there is much to learn from what we have done well, there is also much to learn from what could be considered a failure by contemporary standards. Whue Canadian industry was beginning to grow dependent on US capital, the Liberal Mackenzie King government and the nascent Department of External Affairs maintained an imperial connection, even if they refused to sign on to any efforts defining roles and responsibilities within this empire. To many historians, this indicates that Canadians had turned inwards during an era of global change rather than embracing the challenges and opportunities offered by a major change in the world order. In their eyes, Canada did not find its place in the emerging global network.4Some Canadians, however, understood that the world was changing. Although a League of Nations Society had existed in Canada from 1921, the CIIA, founded in 1928, was novel in its broad focus and emphasis on scholarship as opposed to advocacy.5 The CIIA did not begin producing much of its work until the 1930s and 1940s and International Journal did not begin publishing until 1946, but the institute was fundamental in printing some of the first detailed, technical, and somewhat balanced literature on Canada's imperial and international relations in the forms of studies, position papers, books, and pamphlets. If these publications represented the literature of the time, it is logical to assume that the global conditions of the two eras - then and now - bear some resemblance to one another.UNCERTAIN TIMES: THE INTERWAR PERIOD AND CURRENT GLOBAL CONDITIONSThe Open report does contain historical references, and veteran historian Jack Granatstein was a member of its panel. The references, however, tend to focus mostly on the difference between the relatively stable international system of the Cold War and the more diffuse and less predictable distribution of political and economic power (7). …