E11 Canada's G7/G8 Diplomacy and Approach to Kananaskis
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G8online 11. Canada’s G7/G8 Diplomacy and Approach to Kananaskis John Kirton I’m John Kirton, Director of the G8 Research the diplomacy of concert, which role does Group at the University of Toronto in Canada Canada in fact play in the G8? and your lead instructor for G8 Online 2002. In this lecture I argue that since the start, but In this session, “Canada’s G7/G8 Diplomacy with increasing strength and success over the and Approach to Kananaskis,” we explore years, Canada has largely practised the diplo- Canada’s role and the results of its diplomacy macy of concert. Based on its distinctive na- within the G7/G8, and Canada’s approach to tional values and national interests, Canada has the Kananaskis Summit this year. offered its own positions and initiatives. It has Canada’s diplomacy within the G7/G8 has allied with any other member to advance its long been a subject of considerable debate. cause. Often it has prevailed, even when the Those wedded to the liberal-internationalist United States and most other members have tradition see Canada as a middle power, once stood against it at the start. Such a pattern of again practicing the venerable diplomacy of con- diplomacy may seem strange to those who see straint. Thus, in ways implied by the models of Canada as only a small, penetrated satellite or international institutionalism and American a mere middle power needing broad multi- leadership, Canada within the G7 combines lateralism to get by in a dangerous world. But with others, mediates differences among oth- it is indeed possible for Canada, as a principal ers and builds up the G7/G8 institution in order power, to be a full member of an effective con- to contain the more powerful United States cert of equals, where detailed differences in (Stairs 1972). capabilities among members are offset by their However, others see a satellite Canada, in shared sense of responsibility for offering global peripheral dependant fashion, abandoning leadership, by their common democratic con- United Nations’ multilateralism to pursue the victions and by their domestic democratic diplomacy of acquiescence within the G8. Here accountability as eight popularly elected and Canada adopts the false new consensus of the politically accomplished individuals that the G7’s neo-liberal values in return for the illusion world looks to for leadership in uncertain times. of influence and the superficial pleasure of “be- ing there” to bask in the limelight with the truly A. Canada’s Summit Diplomacy, 1975–2001 great. Still others assert that, in a G8 that is a Since Canada first started practising Summit concert of equals, Canada is a principal power diplomacy in the lead-up to the first G7 gath- that successfully practices the diplomacy of con- ering at Rambouillet, France, in November cert (Kirton 1995). 1975, it has performed as an equal principal Indeed, in Canada in the World, Canada’s 1995 power, operating in ways that even the most statement of its foreign policy priorities, Prime powerful Summit members do. This has meant Minister Jean Chrétien’s government claimed: that Canada has occasionally had to mediate “Canada can further its global interests better differences among members. For example, in than any other country through its active mem- 1989 Canada sought to find a compromise bership in key international groupings, for between a France that wanted to invite several example, hosting the G-7 Summit.” Amidst developing country leaders to its Paris Sum- these competing claims of the diplomacy of mit and a United States that wanted none at constraint, the diplomacy of acquiescence and all to come. Canada has also had, with varying THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED BY THE G8 RESEARCH GROUP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. www.g8online.org ©2002 degrees of reluctance, to accept others’ Sum- France, to emphasize human rights. It did so mit initiatives, even when they caused politi- most clearly during government of Progressive cal difficulty back home. For example, as a Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney result of his attendance at the 1978 Bonn Sum- between 1985 and 1992, with its advocacy of mit, Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau, first harsh Summit sanctions against apartheid in elected as Prime Minister in 1968, came back South Africa and against the People’s Repub- home and cut government spending in ways lic of China for its massacre of unarmed stu- that may have contributed to his party’s defeat dents in Tiananmen Square. in the general election of 1979. In 1979, his Canada’s distinctive values, determination successor, Joe Clark (from Canada’s Progres- and willingness to join with partners beyond sive Conservative party) returned from the its World War Two allies have led to some Tokyo Summit to raise gas taxes in Canada, a important Summit achievements. In addition move that led to the defeat of his minority to those just noted, these include Canada’s ini- government in Parliament and his party’s de- tiative to have the Summit take effective action feat in the general election that followed. against aircraft hijacking in 1978, to help cre- On the whole, however, as an equal princi- ate the United Nations Framework Conven- pal power Canada has advanced initiatives of tion on Climate Change and the Convention its own. Despite its physical absence from the on Biological Diversity in 1992 and the United first Summit at Rambouillet, Canada has come Nations Agreement on High Seas Overfishing as a full member to every Summit since. In and Straddling Stocks in 1995. Consistent with 1986, Canada and Italy joined the new G7 Canada’s economic openness, Prime Minister finance ministers’ forum that soon replaced the Kim Campbell helped lead the 1993 Tokyo former G5. Canada has been a full member of Summit to complete the long overdue Uruguay every G7/G8 institution since. Round of multilateral trade negotiations and Canada has brought to the G7 its own create the new World Trade Organization. As agenda and approach, which flow directly these Canadian achievements indicate, often from its distinctive national values at home. G7/G8 leadership is necessary in order to Canada has not been satisfied with a United reform and establish the broader multilateral, Nations Security Council dominated by the UN-based institutions that are needed to gov- Permanent Five, nuclear-armed, traditional ern the global community in our rapidly glo- military powers. Supported by its values of balizing age. anti-militarism and multiculturalism, Canada has sought to develop the G7/G8 as a B. Canada’s Approach to Kananaskis 2002 political and security institution, with an In keeping with this tradition, for the 2002 emphasis on nuclear non-proliferation, arms Kananaskis Summit, Canada as host has control and disarmament, human security, designed a Summit of retreat, of reaching out, conflict prevention and regional security where and of real results. Jean Chrétien chose to hold the lives of minorities are at stake. In this quest, the Summit, for the first time ever, in western Japan, Germany and Italy have been Canada’s Canada, in a secure, serene, remote mountain closest soul mates. Similarly, Canada’s egali- retreat with few officials, media and ceremo- tarianism and environmentalism have led it nial distractions and with maximum oppor- to emphasize north-south development tunity for the leaders to engage informally in issues, along with France, and environmental a short period of time. For participants, Canada protection, along with Germany. Canada’s is reaching out to involve, for the first time ever, commitment to multiculturalism and the the Prime Minister of Spain and the leaders of rights of minorities have led it, along with several key African countries, as an integral part G8online NO. 11 • PAGE 2 of the G8 Summit itself. This extended reach, Cohn, Theodore (2001), “Securing Multilateral supporting Canada’s core value of globalism, Trade Liberalisation: International Institutions is also evident in Canada’s agenda, of poverty in Conflict and Convergence,” pp. 189–218 in reduction in Africa, combating global terror- John Kirton and George von Furstenberg, eds., ism and sustaining global growth. For New Directions in Global Economic Governance: Kananaskis, as for the first Summit hosted by Managing Globalisation in the Twenty-First Cen- Canada at the secluded Château Montebello tury (Ashgate: Aldershot). in Quebec in 1981, the focus will be on a new Dam, Kenneth (2001), “Hunting Down Dirty north-south bargain that will command the Cash,” Financial Times, December 12, p. 17. agreement of all in the north, including the Dewitt, David and John Kirton (1983), Canada new Republican party President in the United as a Principal Power (John Wiley: Toronto). States. In 2002, the key Kananaskis challenge Doern, G. Bruce and John Kirton (1996), “For- is how to design a new paradigm for develop- eign Policy,” pp. 237–264 in G. Bruce Doern, ment with Canada’s African partners — and Leslie Pal and Brian Tomlin, eds., Border Cross- an action plan to deliver it — ones that might ings: The Internationalization of Canadian Pub- succeed where the predominant approach of lic Policy (Oxford University Press: Toronto). the past half-century has manifestly failed. Doran, Charles (1996), “Will Canada Unravel?” Thus far, the products from the innovative Foreign Affairs 75 (September/October): 97–109. preparatory process and the downpayments Eayrs, James (1974), “Defining a New Place for already delivered on the road to Kananaskis Canada in the Hierarchy of World Powers,” suggest that there is a good chance the leaders International Perspectives (May/June): 15–24. can pull this new deal off. But as Summits, and G8 Research Group (various), Analytical Stud- particularly those hosted by Canada, are for ies <http://www.g8.utoronto.ca> (May 2002).