THE APPROACH OF CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER JEAN CHRÉTIEN TO THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ

Abstract

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was an important milestone in international relations. Bush administration wanted to topple Saddam regime. He put forward that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. According to him, Saddam regime was very dangerous for peace and security of the world. Some countries didn’t support this opinion while others were endorsing this point of view. At the time of the invasion, Canada and its government were hesitating about claims of Bush administration. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien didn’t send military forces to invading Iraq on 20 March 2003. Which factors caused Prime Minister Jean Chretien to take the decision not to go to the war? This is our research question. Although Canada and the US had strong relations, Canadian foreign policy didn’t support the invasion of Iraq under Chretien government at the time of the occupation. This article argued that there were three reasons of this decision. The first reason is that according to Prime Minister Jean Chretien, weapons of mass destruction of Iraq should be analyzed thoroughly. The United Nations inspection teams should do more research. There was no strong evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The second reason is that Prime Minister Jean Chretien didn’t want to make action without endorsement of the UN Security Council. He stressed that Canada would not join the war unless the Security Council adopts a new resolution authorizing military intervention. The third reason is to show political independence of Canada in constructing its own foreign policy. Prime Minister Jean Chretien criticized that some people perceived Canada as the 51st state of the US. He stated that this non-interventionist decision consolidated political independence of Canada in foreign policy.