Department Of External Affairs Research Articles

Colonel William Roy Hodgson: A Soldier of Principle, Peace, and Pugnacity for Human Rights

Colonel William Roy Hodgson was Australia’s representative on the Human Rights Commission and member of the drafting committee for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, 75 years on, his contribution has largely been forgotten. This paper seeks to rediscover his legacy. He was a survivor of the World War One battle at Gallipoli, a dedicated and hard-working member of Australia’s fledgling External Affairs Department during World War Two and a passional advocate for enforceable human rights as a necessary part of ongoing peace.

Е. А. Стулов в Монголии и для Монголии

Introduction. Evgeny A. Stulov (1902–1940) is a remarkable yet still little-known figure who invested extensive and fruitful efforts in Mongolia and for Mongolia. He came from a large peasant family but grew to receive sound training for that time which included real school courses followed by studies at Moscow University (External Affairs Department, Faculty of Social Science). On graduation, he was added to the reserve list of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Trade (Administrative and Economic Department) to be further employed as economist (since August 1925) at the Chief Department of Tariffs (same Commissariat) — and soon promoted to Secretary of the Committee for Customs and Tariffs (CDT). Stulov’s expertise and competence were manifested in most diverse ways: he was writing scholarly articles, delivering lectures; as Advisor to the MPR Economic Council had to deal with the troubled situation in Arkhangai Aimag; and was in charge of Mongolia’s zoning. Goals. The study describes E. Stulov’s efforts dealing with Mongolia’s zoning, provides data on his articles and lectures. Materials. The paper investigates documents housed at Russian State Archive of the Economy, examines some published sources and scholarly writings. Results. Despite E. Stulov lived a short life (38 years only), his knowledge, competences, and accomplishments made it possible for him to gain a deep and practical understanding of the country and its citizens. As Advisor to the MPR Economic Council, he promptly delved into the circumstances behind the uprising in Arkhangai Aimag — and along with other researchers was further involved in zoning endeavors. Key outcomes of his work were approved and accepted by the Mongolian government. The scope of his activity also included writing of articles and lecturing. Our analysis attests to that he was well familiar with works authored both by predecessors and contemporaries , i.e. then and there we would face a man of individuality and talent who had accumulated good knowledge of Mongolia and actually done a lot for its future.

Е. А. Стулов в Монголии и для Монголии

Introduction. Evgeny A. Stulov (1902–1940) is a remarkable yet still little-known figure who invested extensive and fruitful efforts in Mongolia and for Mongolia. He came from a large peasant family but grew to receive sound training for that time which included real school courses followed by studies at Moscow University (External Affairs Department, Faculty of Social Science). On graduation, he was added to the reserve list of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Trade (Administrative and Economic Department) to be further employed as economist (since August 1925) at the Chief Department of Tariffs (same Commissariat) — and soon promoted to Secretary of the Committee for Customs and Tariffs (CDT). Stulov’s expertise and competence were manifested in most diverse ways: he was writing scholarly articles, delivering lectures; as Advisor to the MPR Economic Council had to deal with the troubled situation in Arkhangai Aimag; and was in charge of Mongolia’s zoning. Goals. The study describes E. Stulov’s efforts dealing with Mongolia’s zoning, provides data on his articles and lectures. Materials. The paper investigates documents housed at Russian State Archive of the Economy, examines some published sources and scholarly writings. Results. Despite E. Stulov lived a short life (38 years only), his knowledge, competences, and accomplishments made it possible for him to gain a deep and practical understanding of the country and its citizens. As Advisor to the MPR Economic Council, he promptly delved into the circumstances behind the uprising in Arkhangai Aimag — and along with other researchers was further involved in zoning endeavors. Key outcomes of his work were approved and accepted by the Mongolian government. The scope of his activity also included writing of articles and lecturing. Our analysis attests to that he was well familiar with works authored both by predecessors and contemporaries , i.e. then and there we would face a man of individuality and talent who had accumulated good knowledge of Mongolia and actually done a lot for its future.

Pop friction: performing Canada at the Festival Internacional da Canção Popular

ABSTRACT This article examines Canada-Brazil relations through the prism of a music festival, the Festival Internacional da Canção Popular, held in the wake of the 1964 military coup. Using sources (in French, English, and Portuguese) collected through multi-site research (Montreal, Ottawa, and Rio de Janeiro), it demonstrates that Canadians’ half-hearted, uninspired performance between 1966 and 1969 resulted from their perception of the South American giant as largely irrelevant – and too foreign – with regard to domestic and external priorities. Their elitist and tepid approach to music diplomacy was also a function of their failure of imagination in the making of international cultural relations. Not only did the Department of External Affairs and cultural officials in Canada fail to comprehend how popular music could be rendered valuable in the centennial decade and amid an upsurge of nationalism in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, but they also found themselves complicit with the Brazilian dictatorship’s efforts to embellish its image through a spectacle of sound and light.

The ‘Anglo-Saxon Triangle’ Downplayed by Canada’s Department of External Affairs, 1946–1956

In July 1951, Canada’s Department of External Affairs despatched a secret policy paper to the heads of overseas Canadian posts, instructing Canadian diplomats abroad not to refer to Canada’s ‘inner triangle’ with Britain and the United States or encourage its development into a formal alliance. The explicitly named ‘Anglo-Saxon triangle’ was acknowledged affectionately as a ‘cornerstone of Canadian foreign policy’ but was regarded as damaging to the ultimate goal of a North Atlantic community inclusive of continental Europeans. The ‘inner triangle’ comprising Canada, the United States and Britain had to be concealed, and diplomats were warned not to speak of it publicly as an objective of policy, lest another triangle would form, that of a Franco-German–Italian grouping that would split the prospects of a North Atlantic alliance. The discovery of this secret despatch provides some explanation of why references to the North Atlantic Triangle faded from statements in the post-war years.

Ireland’s “Imponderable Dividends”: A Nascent Cultural Diplomacy Policy in the Postwar Years

Focusing on Irish and French diplomatic archive material, this article analyses the conditions of the emergence of Ireland’s cultural diplomacy in the aftermath of the Second World War. From a diplomatic perspective, the Inter-Party government (1948-1951) marked a major turning point for Ireland. By passing the Republic of Ireland Act, the state officially became a Republic and withdrew from the Commonwealth. As the new Republic strove to achieve international recognition, the Cultural Relations Committee, an advisory board to the Department of External Affairs in charge of furthering the development of cultural relations with other countries was set up. The discussions among diplomats on membership of the Cultural Relations Committee and the topics to be addressed provide an insight into the competing visions of Irish culture and identity at a time of great political change. Finally, this paper gives an overview of the actions of the Committee in its first years of existence and explores the extent to which there was editorial independence in curating and commissioning work.

When two anti-Zionists corresponded: a short note on George Antonius and Elizabeth P. MacCallum

ABSTRACT The article follows a correspondence between two anti-Zionist activists, George Antonius, author of The Arab Awakening and a member of the Palestinian Arab delegation to the 1939 London ‘round table’ conference, and Elizabeth P. MacCallum, a Canadian expert on the Middle East and later the ‘Middle East desk’ of the Canadian Department of External Affairs. Following a very negative book review of The Arab Awakening by the American journalist Albert Viton, MacCallum tried hard to publish positive reviews of the book. She failed, as she failed several years later in her attempts to thwart Canadian support for the UN Palestine partition resolution.

From Colonial Revival to Architectural Regionalism: Representational Alteration in the Case of Australia’s Head of Mission Residence in New Delhi

ABSTRACT The choice of New Delhi as the location for the first Australian diplomatic building to be constructed after the Second World War reflected the growing significance of India in relation to the spread of Communism in Asia. As the importance of diplomatic representation and activity for Australia within India grew, so too did the need for suitable premises. For this purpose, arguments were made for the erection of new buildings in New Delhi for Australia’s Department of External Affairs. From initial design ideas in 1951, it took over ten years for the Head of Mission residence to be completed in 1962, and then another four years for the chancery to be opened in 1966. This paper describes the process that led to the construction of the first of these – the HOM residence – which involved two different design concepts, one based on an Australian colonial stylistic idiom and the other on a modern regionalist approach. The paper examines these two concepts for their representational intent, revealing that the desired image of respectful dignity was open to architectural interpretation which itself depended on the political complexities and practical challenges facing the Australian government in its effort to construct a diplomatic building in India in the 1950s.

Safeguarding Settler Colonialism in Geneva: Canada, Indigenous Rights, and ilo Convention No. 107 on the Protection and Integration of Indigenous Peoples (1957)

This article explores the intersecting of liberal internationalism and settler colonialism by tracing the Canadian governmental response to the emergence of International Labour Organisation (ilo) Convention 107 (1957) and Recommendation 104 (1957), the first international treaties regarding the rights of Indigenous Peoples in independent states. Drawing upon the archives of the ilo, Canada’s Department of External Affairs and Department of Citizenship and Immigration, notably the latter’s Indian Affairs Branch, the article investigates the convergence of mid-twentieth-century notions of Indigenous rights and the global phenomenon of “development.” It also explores how, amid anti-colonial resistance, decolonization, and an emerging international human rights regime, settler states responded, not least by seeking to blunt if not defeat the ilo initiative. In addition to yielding greater understanding of the origins and emergence of the ilo instruments, this analysis contributes to critical interrogations of Canadian liberal internationalism by revealing how Canadian settler preoccupations were projected abroad and shaped the international system’s evolving treatment of Indigenous Peoples. It also offers a different perspective on Canadian Indian policy by revealing the “global” dimension of an allegedly “domestic” question. Finally, the article highlights a parallel history of Indigenous internationalism speaking back to a world order constructed on Indigenous displacement and dispossession.

Foreign policy advice in the Prime Minister’s Office: Mackenzie King to Brian Mulroney

The Department of External Affairs (DEA) has always been anomalous—more closely associated with the prime minister than any other department, yet also more independent from cabinet in its necessarily far-flung structure than any other department. The unique position of the DEA has meant that its influence has been closely tied to changes in the structure of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). This article examines the ways that the advisory capacity of the DEA has gradually been eroded, while the foreign policy advice from the PMO has concomitantly increased, in the period between the 1930s and the 1990s.

Policy Writing Simulations

Policy writing is an effective skill that history instructors should teach their students for life after their undergraduate degree. This article proposes that instructors encourage their students to learn policy writing through experiential learning practices. In particular, it advocates for the use of live simulations in the undergraduate history classroom that emphasize policy writing solutions. In this case, the collaboration between historians and librarians is demonstrative of effective historical analysis and fundamental research practices. This article uses a third-year history course in Canadian External Relations as the primary example to share this model. In a simulation, upper-year students are situated within a particular historical event and are tasked to complete a group-based action memorandum writing exercise during a timed in-class period. This simulation policy writing exercise gives students first-hand experience working collaboratively with one another in a political decision-making setting. The simulation can be supplemented with an independent writing assignment that also emphasizes policy writing, such as an action memorandum or a briefing note, in place of the traditional history research paper. This article examines a Canadian history simulation which situates students within the Canadian Department of External Affairs during the Suez crisis. It demonstrates the enhancement of student learning through a practice-based, hands-on approach, that requires collaboration and semester-long learning. The simulation challenges students to act and resolve the scenario at hand. Policy writing is the process by which “government employees and non-governmental organizations create written documents for lawmakers and policy professionals to read.” Policy documents can be a variety of lengths, ranging from short-briefings to lengthy reports.[1]In the course model proposed in this article, students learn policy writing while they also continue to develop valuable history-related skills such as creativity, research, analysis, and critical-thinking. Victor Asal has argued that “the best way to get educational mileage out of a simulation is to treat it as an interactive case where learning takes place before, during, and after the simulation.”[2]Assigning an independent policy writing assignment in addition to the simulation has significant benefits for student learning. [1]Andrew Pennock, “The Case for Using Policy Writing in Undergraduate Political Science Courses,” PS: Political Science and Politics 44.1 (2011): 141. [2]Victor Asal, “Playing Games with International Relations,” International Studies Perspectives 6 (2005): 362.

The Formation, Existence, and Deconstruction of the Catholic Stage Guild of Ireland

The Formation, Existence, and Deconstruction of the Catholic Stage Guild of Ireland

A Changed Approach to Diplomacy: The Department of Foreign Affairs Then and Now

A Changed Approach to Diplomacy: The Department of Foreign Affairs Then and Now Gearóid Ó Clérigh The Department of Foreign Affairs, headquartered in Dublin, has improved in recent decades beyond all telling, since – if not due to – my retirement on Christmas Eve, 1995.This improvement is to be seen in the treatment of its officers and not least in the freedom of expression on current policies exercised by those who are retired. A similar liberty is also evident in the case of serving officers, many of whom are of very high calibre. Traditionally things were otherwise. In my own case, I entered what was then known as the Department of External Affairs as a raw Third Secretary on the first working day after the August bank holiday in 1955, having driven overnight by way of Cork from a function in the West Kerry Gaeltacht of Corca Dhuibhne. I was straight out from studying at UCD and from law school in King’s Inns. I had no experience of practical life outside such formative institutions. At the final interview for entry to the Department, I had distinguished myself by criticising its fortnightly bulletin of news and information, entitled Eire-Ireland. I informed the interview panel that as a publicity effort it could have been produced better by a shoe shop. Consequently, my first job on entry was to edit the Department’s bulletin in tandem with a senior Third Secretary. The contents of the bulletin were firstly typed by electric typewriter onto silver-grey coated plates. These were difficult to read, unless held up to the light. Once passed as fit, they were brought by messenger to the Stationery Office in Beggar’s Bush, to be printed on sheets of yellow paper, which revealed clearly every comma and other mark on them. The yellow pages were stapled and collated with addressed envelopes for various destinations, some at home, most abroad. The lot were then returned, also by State messenger, to the Department at Iveagh House on St Stephen’s Green, some Studies • volume 109 • number 434 202 for the local post, most of them for sending by diplomatic or consular bag to missions abroad for onward mailing.At the time the number of such missions of every description came to a total of twenty-four. Due to my difficulty in reading the silver-grey plates without holding them up to the window, the first issue carried clear impressions of my finger prints to the police forces of all the countries with which we enjoyed formal or informal friendly relations. In my second issue, I included the recipe for Irish Coffee but forgot to include one ingredient, namely coffee. Another issue was stopped at the mailing stage when it was realised that I did not know the difference between bloodstock and livestock. 1950s Ireland My pièce de résistance, however, was an issue commemorating Wolfe Tone. A perk of my assignment was researching away from my desk in the National Library. A downside of this was that I was forbidden, as a new entrant, from working back in the Department after office hours, even though the bulletin had to appear on schedule. This often meant my working at home late into the night. After staying up until 2.00 am, I had completed my article on Wolfe Tone. I then added brief notes on Thomas Davis’s poem on Bodenstown and on Tone’s return from France to Ireland. The first I misquoted; the second I placed at the wrong port. Nobody noticed. What hit the fan of public disquiet was a statement that Tone’s death in prison awaiting his hanging was ‘possibly by his own hand’. This phrase was inserted on the text way up the line before printing. I got the credit for it in the Department as showing an awareness of historical reality beyond common assumptions. I was too ignorant at a practical level to know how to demur. The first sign of outside interest was when a newspaper, associated with Gael Linn’s money-raising raffle on Gaelic football, took the Department to task for accusing an Irish patriot of the heinous crime of suicide...

Locating women within the Irish Department of External Affairs: a case study of Irish women at the League of Nations and United Nations, 1923–76

AbstractBy using the League of Nations and United Nations as case studies, this article identifies the women working at the diplomatic level in the Irish Department of External Affairs (D.E.A.) in the period 1923–76. Drawing on gender analysis, the article assesses where men and women were positioned in Irish diplomacy and asks if the role of women in the D.E.A. was shaped by a gendered viewpoint. It argues that there were more opportunities for women within the United Nations than the League of Nations and it questions if these increased diplomatic opportunities were reflective of women's changing status within the D.E.A. in the period under investigation. Overall, the article offers a new perspective on the conduct of Irish foreign policy between 1923 and 1976.

Pierre Trudeau and Canada’s Pacific tilt, 1945–1984

Canadian international history is currently enjoying an Asian moment. A handful of younger scholars have cast their attention eastward, generating exciting new work on Canadian relations with specific countries and regions across the Pacific region. This article draws on some of their work, as well as the author’s own long-standing research on Canada’s Department of External Affairs, to weigh the Pacific’s changing importance to Canada. The article argues that the domestic and foreign policies of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, elected in 1968, were truly transformational. Trudeau swept away the traditional hesitations and confining North Atlanticism that characterized the diplomacy of his postwar predecessors. Instead, he pursued a full-throttled policy of strategic engagement that repositioned Asia front and centre of contemporary Canadian foreign policy.

Un nationalisme tourné vers l’Amérique et les colonies : l’exportation du « Roman canadien » des Éditions Édouard Garand


 
 
 En 1923, Édouard Garand fonde à Montréal une maison d’édition destinée à promouvoir la littérature canadienne au sein de la classe populaire et francophone à travers le pays. Gérard Malchelosse, membre du comité éditorial, dira à propos des visées de l’entreprise qu’elle promeut «une édition canadienne de Romans canadiens, écrits pour des Canadiens par des Canadiens et imprimés au Canada par des Canadiens. C’est une entreprise nationale destinée à fournir un stimulant de patriotisme, tout en aidant les auteurs de chez nous en propageant leurs ouvrages». Bien que cet ancrage résolument nationaliste pourrait laisser croire que les Éditions Édouard Garand s’adressent exclusivement à un public local, l’étude de la distribution de la collection « Le Roman canadien » nous informe sur ses réseaux commerciaux de distribution particulièrement étendus : au premier temps de ce rayonnement extérieur se trouvent les villes des colonies françaises et britanniques, ainsi que l’Amérique, depuis New York jusqu’à Buenos Aires.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 L’article propose d’étudier ces réseaux en regard de leurs positionnements coloniaux, politiques et marchands, tout en mettant en contexte ce rayonnement par rapport aux activités d’exportation de livres canadiens de l’époque. L’étude des documents du Fonds Édouard-Garand (Université de Montréal) permet de constater la mise en place de deux réseaux distincts. Dès 1926, on annonce que les Romans canadiens sont vendus dans des points de dépôt en France, en Grande-Bretagne, mais aussi, de manière plus surprenante, à Saigon, à Alger et au Cap. L’éditeur semble alors exploiter les réseaux marchands de comptoirs coloniaux français et britanniques pour participer à la diffusion, au sein de différentes librairies francophones, de la littérature canadienne outremer. Puis, à partir de 1944, alors que la France est encore sous l’Occupation, Montréal devient la plaque tournante de l’édition francophone mondiale, et Garand en profite pour ouvrir de nouveaux réseaux de distribution vers l’Amérique latine, convoquant un ensemble de relations diplomatiques et politiques canadiennes. L’éditeur cible alors notamment les dépositaires en Argentine, au Chili, en Colombie, à Cuba et au Pérou, par le biais des représentants commerciaux et des fonctionnaires du Ministère des Affaires extérieures du Canada. Cette entreprise ne vise toutefois pas, chez l’éditeur, une inscription dans des réseaux d’échanges intellectuels et culturels suivant l’axe nord-sud, étudiés notamment par Michel Lacroix et Michel Nareau. Résolument commercial, le système mis en place par Édouard Garand touche moins l’économie du savoir que la mise en marché de produits littéraires.
 
 

La Revue moderne, creuset de la littérature en régime médiatique dans les années 1950 au Québec


 
 
 En 1923, Édouard Garand fonde à Montréal une maison d’édition destinée à promouvoir la littérature canadienne au sein de la classe populaire et francophone à travers le pays. Gérard Malchelosse, membre du comité éditorial, dira à propos des visées de l’entreprise qu’elle promeut «une édition canadienne de Romans canadiens, écrits pour des Canadiens par des Canadiens et imprimés au Canada par des Canadiens. C’est une entreprise nationale destinée à fournir un stimulant de patriotisme, tout en aidant les auteurs de chez nous en propageant leurs ouvrages». Bien que cet ancrage résolument nationaliste pourrait laisser croire que les Éditions Édouard Garand s’adressent exclusivement à un public local, l’étude de la distribution de la collection « Le Roman canadien » nous informe sur ses réseaux commerciaux de distribution particulièrement étendus : au premier temps de ce rayonnement extérieur se trouvent les villes des colonies françaises et britanniques, ainsi que l’Amérique, depuis New York jusqu’à Buenos Aires.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 L’article propose d’étudier ces réseaux en regard de leurs positionnements coloniaux, politiques et marchands, tout en mettant en contexte ce rayonnement par rapport aux activités d’exportation de livres canadiens de l’époque. L’étude des documents du Fonds Édouard-Garand (Université de Montréal) permet de constater la mise en place de deux réseaux distincts. Dès 1926, on annonce que les Romans canadiens sont vendus dans des points de dépôt en France, en Grande-Bretagne, mais aussi, de manière plus surprenante, à Saigon, à Alger et au Cap. L’éditeur semble alors exploiter les réseaux marchands de comptoirs coloniaux français et britanniques pour participer à la diffusion, au sein de différentes librairies francophones, de la littérature canadienne outremer. Puis, à partir de 1944, alors que la France est encore sous l’Occupation, Montréal devient la plaque tournante de l’édition francophone mondiale, et Garand en profite pour ouvrir de nouveaux réseaux de distribution vers l’Amérique latine, convoquant un ensemble de relations diplomatiques et politiques canadiennes. L’éditeur cible alors notamment les dépositaires en Argentine, au Chili, en Colombie, à Cuba et au Pérou, par le biais des représentants commerciaux et des fonctionnaires du Ministère des Affaires extérieures du Canada. Cette entreprise ne vise toutefois pas, chez l’éditeur, une inscription dans des réseaux d’échanges intellectuels et culturels suivant l’axe nord-sud, étudiés notamment par Michel Lacroix et Michel Nareau. Résolument commercial, le système mis en place par Édouard Garand touche moins l’économie du savoir que la mise en marché de produits littéraires.
 
 

Canada's Department of External Affairs, Volume 3: Innovation and Adaptation, 1968–1984 by John Hilliker, Mary Halloran, and Greg Donaghy

<i>Canada's Department of External Affairs, Volume 3: Innovation and Adaptation, 1968–1984</i> by John Hilliker, Mary Halloran, and Greg Donaghy

“Six mois à Hanoi”: Marcel Cadieux, Canada, and the International Commission for Supervision and Control in Vietnam, 1954–5

Drawing on an unpublished memoir by Marcel Cadieux entitled “Six mois à Hanoi,” this article offers the first biographical study of a Canadian diplomat to serve on the International Commission for Supervision and Control in Vietnam. It argues that Cadieux's pioneering experience on that commission during its first months in 1954–5 shaped his pro-American views on the Vietnam War as under-secretary of state for external affairs between 1964 and 1970. It also uses Cadieux's tenure in Hanoi as a lens through which to explore larger issues of both long-standing and more recent interest to Canadian international historians, including the bureaucratic culture of the Department of External Affairs, Canadian diplomacy's relationship with the decolonizing countries of the Third World, and the role of race, culture, religion, and anti-communism in the making of Canadian foreign policy.

Canada’s Department of External Affairs, vol. III: Innovation and Adaptation, 1968–1984, by John Hilliker, Mary Halloran, and Greg Donaghy

Canada’s Department of External Affairs, vol. III: Innovation and Adaptation, 1968–1984, by John Hilliker, Mary Halloran, and Greg Donaghy