Review: Canada among Nations 2007

Abstract

CANADA AMONG NATIONS 2007 What Room for Manoeuvre? Jean Daudelin and Daniel Schwanen, editors Montreal and Kingston: McGiIl- Queen' s University Press, 2008. xvi, 328pp, $29.95 paper (ISBN 978o773533974)Now in its 23rd year, the Canada Among Nations series has proven to be an indispensable source for any serious student of Canadian foreign policy. The latest volume, co-edited by Carleton University's Jean Daudelin and the Centre for International Governance Innovation's Daniel Schwanen, upholds the high standards of scholarship and practical utility that readers have come to expect from some of Canada's leading foreign policy analysts and practitioners.The approach of this year's editors is ambitious. Thirteen separate chapters (and 17 different writers) have been commissioned around one very specific question: how much room does Canada have to manoeuvre in world politics? The editors also aim to prove that, contrary to the opinions of scholars who emphasize the constraints faced by national foreign policy practitioners, the phenomenon of globalization has in fact increased the opportunities for Canada to make its own way on the world stage. That they are not entirely successful in either case is neither surprising nor crucial to the overall utility ofthe volume: What Room for Manoeuvre? is valuable to the scholarly and policy communities because of its breadth as well as the quality of some of the individual pieces.The editors divide the book into four sections. Their provocative introduction is followed by six chapters that examine the opportunities and constraints faced by policy players in Ottawa, three that consider Canada's room for manoeuvre on the world stage, and then four that focus on North America. They contend that there are six elements that can affect a state's ability to effect change: the extent of its willingness to trade off the constraints of multilateral engagement for the opportunities created by membership in international organizations and institutions; the ability of its government to establish a truly national foreign policy; the impact of its global reputation; its international capacity, defined in terms of human, military, and political resources, and infrastructure; the global socioeconomic context; and, finally, less controllable factors such as geography.In this context, argue the editors, so long as Canada acts rationally, improves its relationship with the United States, takes advantage of its membership in international organizations and institutions, invests in its foreign policymaking capacity, and accepts that any room for manoeuvre will necessarily be constrained by a changing external environment, Ottawa can indeed play a significant role in the world.A number of the contributors agree. In examining Canadian international economic policy, Wendy Dobson of the University of Toronto argues, for example, that have lots of room for manoeuvre if we are focused and imaginative, anticipate change, and prepare to seek new sources of growth if old ones flag (31). University of Ottawa professors Jeremy de Beer and Michael Geist argue that Canada can lead in the development of a global intellectual property regime. Historica Foundation president Colin Robertson writes that, with effort, Canada has significant room for manoeuvre in its relations with the United States. …