Review: Canada among Nations 2008 100 Years of Canadian Foreign Policy

Abstract

CANADA AMONG NATIONS 200 Years of Canadian Foreign Policy Robert Bothwell and Jean Daudelin, editors Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009. 4????, $29.95 paper ISBN 978-0773534384Since 1984 the Canada Among Nations series has established itself as a central and indispensible source for research and analysis on Canada's international policy. Over the years, through numerous editorial teams and several publishers, the series, produced by and for the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University, has been remarkably consistent in fulfilling its central mission: to provide an annual survey of key events and themes in foreign policy.The volume for is a departure for this series: co-edited by Robert Bothwell, a preeminent historian of Canada's international relations, and Jean Daudelin, a political scientist at NPSIA, it is devoted to marking the 100th anniversary of the Department of External Affairs (since 1993, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade).To be sure, using the volume of Canada Among Nations to celebrate an event that occurred in 2009 may end up causing a little confusion to the incognescenti, who will not necessarily make the connection that each volume of Canada Among Nations generally appears in the year after the one to which it is devoted. (Certainly the McGill-Queen's University Press staff person who wrote the blurb for the back cover took the title literally: as a result, the back cover declares that 2008 marked the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Canadian Department of External Affairs.)But departing from the usual structure of Canada Among Nations to mark this anniversary is welcome given that the Department of External Affairs is truly an institution of national importance. (In the interests of full disclosure, Greg Donaghy, head of the historical section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and I have just co-edited a collection of essays that also marks External's iooth birthday. It should be noted that Both well contributed a chapter to our collection and that Donaghy was one of the contributors to the Bothwell/Daudelin collection.)Canada Among Nations is also a departure in another way: for the first time, a volume sought to gather together a series of expressly historical essays on Canadian foreign policy, looking, just as the subtitle suggests, at the last century rather than a single year. Indeed, never has a volume in this series featured so many historians and historically minded political scientists.The result is a very special collection. The Canada Among Nations series has always been the premier reference source on Canada's international policies for particular years; this volume will be a reference of a broader sort, since it provides readers with a comprehensive historical perspective on the evolution of different aspects of Canadian foreign policy.Bothwell leads off with an excellent historical reflection on the importance of independence in Canadian thought and practice over the course ofthe 20th century. …