Canadian government is gagging the government of Quebec and, by this very fact, the people of Quebec themselves. This was Minister of International Relations Louise Beaudoin's reaction to the decision by Ottawa not to allow Premier Bernard Landry to speak at the April 2001 Summit of the Americas. It was, for her, another instance of a padlock that the Canadian government places on the international activities of Quebec. (1) From the perspective of international relations, however, one would expect the Canadian government to resist attempts by a provincial government to exercise an autonomous foreign policy. (2) Foreign relations are, after all, one of the hallmarks of sovereign statehood. In international law, a state is defined by four characteristics: control of a defined territory, a population resident in that territory, a government to exercise authority, and relations with other states. (3) Indeed, since substate governments can claim the first three characteristics, foreign relations may be seen as that which distinguishes state from substate governments. When a substate government such as Quebec's lays claim to its own foreign relations, it challenges Canada's sovereignty. (4) It is all the more surprising, then, to discover that there is in fact a great deal of cooperation between the two governments in the area of foreign affairs. The two governments work closely together, whether in the organization of visits by Quebec cabinet ministers, or through consultations on international trade policy matters. Quebec government officials work within eight overseas missions as members of the Canadian diplomatic corps under the general supervision of the Canadian Ambassador or High Commissioner. (5) Even when they are not working under the same roof, officials of the two governments enjoy cooperative relations in the field. Quebec's former Delegate-General in London, Richard Guay, reported that the relations between his office and the Canadian High Commission ranged from good to very, very good. (6) If Quebec has become probably the most advanced case of international involvement for a non-sovereign state, as Louis Balthazar argues, it has done so in part by working with, not in spite of, the Canadian government. (7) How else to explain that the final international trip that the sovereignist Lucien Bouchard took as Premier of Quebec was as a member of Team Canada? (8) The state of relations with the Canadian government bears heavily on the Quebec government's capacity to act on the international stage. A cooperative relationship gives Quebec City access to the diplomatic network that sovereign states maintain between themselves and which continues to form the heart of the international system. A confrontational relationship threatens its access to foreign governments, since these will be wary of any engagement that might compromise their relations with the Canadian government. (9) The intergovernmental relationship, in other words, is a key variable in the prospects for success in the international activities of the Quebec government. Despite the inherently conflictual nature of the relationship, confrontation is only episodic, punctuating a general pattern of cooperation. This article will attempt to explain the incidence of confrontation between Ottawa and Quebec City with a view to assessing the prospects for an autonomous foreign policy for Quebec. What drives this relationship? I will consider three explanations. The first takes the Quebec government's interest in international affairs as a quest to achieve the maximum degree of autonomy possible within a federal system of government. Confrontation is a manifestation of competition over policy control. The second explanation takes the Quebec government's international activities as part of its drive to achieve independence using all peaceful means available. …