Unbridled Constraint: The Macdonald Commission Volumes on Canada and the International Political Economy

Abstract

AbstractThis article argues that the three volumes of the Macdonald Commission research output devoted to international political economy (vols. 28 to 30) demonstrate a bias toward what might be labeled “neo-realist” analysis. As a result, they nearly all are steeped in a degree of pessimism regarding Canada's place in the evolving international political economy—a pessimism that extends not only to future prospects for the. multilateral trading system, but for the bilateral Canada-US one as well. While this sense of limited options might indeed be justified, this article argues that a serious omission from the set of studies was the relative lack of attention accorded to the security arrangements underpinning the postwar trade and monetary order. That being said, the author finds that the volumes will likely have a lasting significance for scholars, even though their relevance for public policy may not be so great or lasting.