That’s a “Hard no” from me: the questions we really need to ask

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sarah Gansen and Patrick James ask: “is a turn toward systemist graphics the way forward for more effective study of Canadian foreign policy in particular and IR in general” (Gansen and James, this volume, p. 18)? My response is no. In fact, it’s a “hard no”. Not only is this not the way forward for the study of Canadian foreign policy, it is the wrong question to be asking about Canadian foreign policy in terms of theory, practice and teaching. The way forward is by asking questions about who we are and who we want to be as a subfield, not about embracing models that take us further from the questions that we need to ask of ourselves.