54 Our Diplomatic Identity: A Canadian Balance of Reason and Passion Jeremy Kinsman

Over the past century, Canada has evolved and matured all times, while also throwing our shoulder behind the strengthening as a nation out of the yoke of colonialism and beyond of international cooperation and the the geographic dominance of its relationship to the United multilateral system. States. Through its valour in wartime and value as an hon- The two impulses have generally been mutually reinforcing. Widely est broker, Canada has weathered shifts in geopolitics and spread positive bilateral relationships its own domestic politics to emerge with its long-stand- earn support for Canadian initiatives ing imperatives of multilateralism and pluralism intact. in multilateral fora that in turn can enhance our influence, including in Veteran diplomat Jeremy Kinsman recounts the journey Washington. Influence in Washing- that brought Canada to its current place as a reliably ra- ton augments influence elsewhere. tional port in our current global storm. Canada’s defence of our geographic sovereignty goes back to the Bound- ary Waters Treaty of 1909 that set up the International Joint Commission, uke Ellington once said that become the dominant preoccupation which provided a template for man- in his music, melody was his in today. aging issues between two unequal passion. But rhythm was his D The vulnerability of the relationship partners, insulating Canada from the business. once caused worry that our preoccu- disadvantages of cross-sectoral linking Canadian foreign policy has long pations with shoring up liberal inter- of issues. In 1923, we signed with the been described as having a similar di- nationalism risked being an indulgent U.S. the Halibut Treaty (signing for the vide. Our passion has been multilat- diversion, a deference to cosmopoli- first time without a UK co-signature). eralism—the binding together of the tan values over the imperatives of The 1970 Arctic Waters Pollution world’s nations in the spirit of liberal self-interest. Our great ambassador to Protection Act that the U.S. robustly internationalism, as the antidote to Reagan’s Washington, Allan Gotlieb, contested and the 1979 East Coast competitive nationalist ambitions famously decried in a 2005 essay the Fisheries and Maritime Bound- that caused the world wars of the long-standing collision between re- ary Treaties that defined jurisdic- alism and “romanticism” in foreign 20th century, and as the platform for tions over national economic zones policy. He feared our affection for the building common solutions to global 200 miles from the coast followed “melody” of internationalism risked and trans-national challenges. (though the U.S. Senate rejected the under-representing vital national im- fisheries agreement). Legal defence of Our “business” has been rooted in peratives of business and geography. our sovereignty dovetailed with our Today Gotlieb concedes that Trump’s bilateral relations, especially key in- leading role in drafting the rules for throwback populist economic na- terest-based relationships that hold a new international regime to govern tionalism validates a renewed effort potentially existential implications, rights on the sea bed and adjacent to diversify our economic relations to the most consequential of which is continental shelves. the one with the . Af- reduce our vulnerability. ter surges of bilateral economic ten- In principle, a choice between bilater- ars also propelled Cana- sion in the 1970s and 1980s, NAFTA al and internationalist emphases is a da’s international engage- secured a productive economic re- false dichotomy. In practice, national W ment. In London’s Green lationship. Its defence from a new interest insists we defend our econ- Park, a monument honours the “more storm of “America First” impulses has omy, well-being, and sovereignty at than a million” Canadians in uniform

Policy 55 who passed through Great Britain on Canadian vocations that made Ca- their way to Europe’s murderous 20th nadian diplomats default chairper- Century wars. sons of committees and commissions After Canadian units fought together across the . impressively in the First World War Canadian officials were also original (though under British command), builders of the international trade Prime Minister Robert Borden de- and payments system, and its infor- manded a seat for Canada at the mal inside directoires, such as the G7, 1919 Paris Peace Conference, fol- formed in 1975, and after 1981, “the lowed by membership in the League Quad,” the sanctum of the four prin- of Nations. cipal world traders (the US, the EU, Japan and Canada). The 1931 Statute of Westminster for- mally conferred on the dominions of During the Cold War, though less the British Empire national responsi- ideologically hostile to the USSR bilities for diplomatic self-represen- than the US, Canada was an earnest tation formerly exercised by Britain. member of the NATO alliance, hav- Canada created a foreign service, ing sponsored the article intended having already deployed trade com- to bind members in a political-eco- missioners abroad. nomic community as well as to mu- tual military commitments, again in Prime Minister Robert Borden and First Lord of the After Canadian Admiralty Winston Churchill leave the Admiralty the hope that wider multilateral ties after a meeting in London in 1912. Library and might reduce our exposure to bilat- units fought together Archives Canada photo impressively in the First eral pressure in our neighbourhood. World War (though under ings for security, economics, culture, Since postwar international peace the environment, the Americas, the and security and trade and payments British command), Prime Commonwealth, and Francophonie. systems largely reflected U.S. design, Minister Robert Borden Washington welcomed our multilat- demanded a seat for Canada tar diplomat Lester B. Pearson eral activism. Bilaterally, intensive at the 1919 Paris Peace won the Nobel Prize for the wartime cooperation had built an S 1956 Canadian initiative to cre- easy working relationship between Conference, followed by ate a UN peacekeeping force between Canadian and American officials, membership in the League Egypt and Israel after Egyptian na- enabling Canadian diplomacy to of Nations. tionalization of the Suez Canal awoke channel creative attention to wider vestigial British and French imperial- international cooperation, including ist impulses that provoked a stunning development assistance. breach with the United States over the President de Gaulle’s quixotic late-life threat of a disastrous Middle East war. In the Second World War, Canadian- decision to throw France behind Que- commanded forces played an even Peacekeeping and mediation became bec’s separatist movement, betraying more significant role, emerging tem- porarily as the world’s fourth military power. An initial nuclear partner, our wish to act as a broker on disarma- ment drove the choice not to weap- onize our capability. The war effort earned a founding role in the creation of the post-war inter- national institutional order meant to prevent future wars, launching “the golden age” of Cana- dian diplomacy. Our best and bright- est (men only, actually) leaned into building a better world, whose mul- tilateral binding might also ease life with a much more powerful neigh- bour. We became enthusiastic join- Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and President John F. Kennedy at the Kennedy compound in ers of a myriad of multilateral group- Hyannisport, May 1963. Library and Archives Canada photo

July/August 2017 56 Canada’s critical support for him in the Second World War, posed an al- most existential threat and trauma- tized External Affairs. The crisis over de Gaulle’s “Vive le Quebec Libre!” speech in Montreal in 1967 elevated the staunchest defender of our sover- eignty in Cabinet—. Succeeding Pearson as Prime Minister in 1968, Trudeau asserted a harder- nosed focus on Canadian interests. He would repatriate the Canadian Constitution and draw up a Charter of Rights. In foreign affairs, he clipped the easy access of External officials to their PM (they had long co-habited the East Block of Parliament). He cut back Prime Minister and President at the G7 summit in Venice in June 1987, Canada’s military presence in Europe. only a few months before the successful negotiation of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum photo rudeau’s foreign-policy review introduced a strategy for rela- nomic Community (finally achieved air, sea, and land forces and Foreign T tions with the US, by then with the Comprehensive Economic Minister Joe Clark undertook highest- stuck in the quagmire of the Vietnam and Trade Agreement, CETA, in 2016). level diplomacy in the region to try War, which Pearson had publicly de- With Ronald Reagan’s election in to break logjams preventing lasting plored (disquieting External officials). 1980, U.S.-Canada relations again regional peace that would be tackled Trudeau didn’t challenge the U.S. on became fractious. His administration by the Oslo accords. the war but admitted 30,000–40,000 took issue with Canada’s perceived dissenters and draft-dodgers. “economic nationalism” as well as As expectations of Ahead of his time in foreseeing the with Trudeau’s apparent doubts over greater international rise of newly-industrializing pow- U.S. Cold War fixations. harmony spread, Mulroney ers, Trudeau broke from the pack to Successor Brian Mulroney promised negotiate diplomatic relations with connected closely to western to make the bilateral relationship communist China. An advocate of leaders and to USSR “special” again and free trade nego- North-South power-sharing, He be- tiations dominated the policy and President Mikhail Gorbachev came a prominent world figure who political agenda. He calmed fears of and then Russian President consorted as easily with Third World losing national identity, safeguard- Boris Yeltsin. He and Clark leaders as with colleagues in the G7, ing Canadian culture and avoiding which became a central forum for Ca- championed the ending of identification with unpopular (in nadian multilateral interests. apartheid and embedded a Canada) U.S. initiatives like “Star President Nixon wasn’t impressed, re- Wars” missile defence. democratic vocation for the garding Trudeau as a “leftie.” When Mulroney also became a world fig- Commonwealth. Nixon veered in 1971 to belligerent ure who led an activist foreign policy economic nationalism, imposing uni- that continued to deploy our energy laterally a no-exceptions import sur- to both bilateral business and multi- charge with devastating implications lateral passion. As expectations of greater interna- for Canadian trade, Trudeau agreed tional harmony spread, Mulroney with the recommendation from de- The Cold War’s end rewarded Cana- connected closely to western leaders ceived External officials for a “Third da’s work on East-West detente and and to USSR President Mikhail Gor- Option” on relations with the U.S. To recharged our multilateral DNA. The bachev and then Russian President reduce the “current vulnerability,” UN at last functioned, if briefly, as its Boris Yeltsin. He and Clark cham- Canada would pursue enhanced na- charter had foreseen, endorsing in pioned the ending of apartheid and tional economic capacity and control 1991 a “just” war to expel Saddam embedded a democratic vocation for and diversify economic ties, notably Hussein from Kuwait with an unprec- institutionalizing a closer economic edented international military coali- the Commonwealth. relationship with the European Eco- tion. Canada contributed significant Taking office in 1993, Jean Chré-

Policy 57 tien operated with a lower profile market forces that the financial crisis forcing the North American continen- but pushed the same foreign policy of 2008 would confirm. tal venture with the U.S. and Mexico buttons, adding to our toolbox for Stephen Harper radically tried to re- the lead priority, backed by aims to re- promoting bilateral business ties the gear foreign policy to neo-conserva- new multilateral activism and a meet- innovation of major Team Canada tive precepts that according to For- ing of minds with president Obama. missions. The scare of a near-defeat in eign Minister John Baird, would end Donald Trump’s election in 2016 re- the 1995 Quebec referendum didn’t “worship at the altar of compromise introduced a threat to vital Canadian lessen Canadian activity abroad. Chi- and consensus.” Abandoning the role interests. Internationally, an effort to na became a top priority. of honest broker, Canada shunned diversify markets and partnerships countries whose regimes it disliked, proceeds but on multilateral issues, etaining old worries from the including initially China, and on con- Canada seems wary about antago- 1988 Canada-U.S. FTA debate troversies such as Israel-Palestinian we risked being continentally issues, lining up behind one side. Re- nizing a newly nationalistic White R House—an approach that has been overbalanced, Chrétien re-ignited lations with the White House cooled talks to get the EU finally into a com- under President Obama, whose world unproductive in the past. prehensive economic agreement. view resembled the Canadian one Foreign Affairs—renamed Global Af- This bilateral initiative and symmetry Harper had shed. fairs—appears an unwieldy bureau- on the multilateral agenda of human cracy struggling with challenges of security and action on climate change Canada’s public the new digital, inter-active and pub- prompted Canada’s designation as lic diplomacy environment. An even the EU’s sixth strategic partner. image shines, driven by an enviable record of more narrowly-centred PMO monop- Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy olizes key U.S. policy issues, though steered the new policy paradigm for managing pluralism and Global’s high-profile and effective human security, launching interna- an attractive and positive Minister Chrystia Freeland is gaining tional initiatives to protect increas- leader. The country’s impact international traction. ingly vulnerable civilians by spon- soring a treaty to ban land mines, an abroad is increasingly anada’s public image shines, International Criminal Court to try channeled by internationalist driven by an enviable record war crimes, and a doctrine of interna- Canadian citizens and of managing pluralism and tional responsibility to intervene in C businesses, creators, an attractive and positive leader. The cases of mass atrocity. International civil society became a central partner universities and civil society. country’s impact abroad is increas- in policy formulation and advocacy. ingly channeled by internationalist Canadian citizens and businesses, The 9/11 attacks dramatically shifted creators, universities and civil society. the focus to security. John Manley led an all-of-government effort to save the “What’s happened to Canada?” was History doesn’t move forward in a common Canada-U.S. supply chain’s a question asked of many Canadians straight line. In a more competitive access across a hardening border. abroad, including ex-Foreign Minis- and dangerous world where populist NATO allies joined the U.S. in a cam- ter David Emerson. Canada lost an nationalism stalks even the US, the paign in Afghanistan to oust the Tali- election to the UN Security Council. hundred-year duality of bilateral and ban. Alas, the US, with UK support, In Ottawa, human security was out multilateral imperatives is more rel- pushed toward a disconnected re- and hard power was in. The long expe- evant than ever for Canadian diplo- gime-change war and occupation in ditionary war in Afghanistan became macy—and identity. Iraq. Chrétien refused participation the all-consuming foreign policy ac- There can be no let-up in efforts to because of absence of authorization tivity, with high opportunity costs champion and advance Canadian in- by the UN Security Council, earn- and meagre results on the ground and terests—our “business”—while diplo- ing Canada recognition as the “other in nation-building. Multilateralist For- macy leans in to improve con- North America.” eign Affairs (for some years merged ditions for global security, well- with International Trade, and soon Paul Martin’s brief sojourn as prime being, and governance—our endur- to absorb international development minister promoted the G-20 as a more ing “passion.” equitable central forum for interna- and the Canadian International De- tional economic discussion, reflecting velopment Agency, CIDA), was side- Contributing Writer Jeremy Kinsman floundering confidence in existing lined, centralizing power in the PMO is a former Canadian ambassador to international economic institutions to an unprecedented degree. Russia, the UK and the EU. He is now such as the World Trade Organization In 2015, newly-elected Justin Trudeau affiliated with University of California, as well as doubts over the Washing- promised “Canada’s back!” Geograph- Berkeley, and Ryerson University in ton “consensus” on the supremacy of ic and economic realities made rein- . [email protected]

July/August 2017