Where Canada should aim its international efforts
To govern is to choose, as the ancient aphorism goes, and is nowhere more true than in foreign affairs. The array of causes, crises and disasters in which a nation can choose to become involved is nearly infinite. Canada’s Global Affairs policy gurus must cherry pick from perhaps a dozen big or emerging issues to promote for attention to their political bosses. Only two or three can survive.
Chrystia Freeland, minister of foreign affairs, leads a high level-team focused on trade challenges, NAFTA foremost. As inevitable, in this Trumpsy-turvy era as this focus is, it comes at a serious strategic cost. Being necessarily tactical and short-term, it is also intensely granular. It therefore consumes so much oxygen that important nontrade issues risk being starved of high level attention and resources.
Our tradition has been to attempt to punch above our weight through alliance-building and leadership roles in multilateral institutions. Trudeau seems committed to reviving that pillar of Canadian foreign policy. However, merely being an engaged member of the G20 or NATO is not a foreign policy, either.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau deserves credit for having revived Canada’s brand internationally. The question in his final two years is how to deploy the advantages its confers.
We appear to be passing on reviving Canadian peacekeeping, at least in the Congo, also ducking our traditional leadership in nuclear disarmament. Nor do we seem willing to nurture or lead a new campaign as we did on conflict diamonds and banning landmines. So where should we deploy our ability to convene power players, attract global attention and help push a new agenda?
Canada has a proud tradition of institution-building, at home and internationally. Lester Pearson and the External Affairs boffins of that day helped create the postwar multilateral network of institutions. It is long and grinding work behind closed doors — less sexy than ribbon cutting, but it helps build a permanent legacy. It is the sort of work that gets the attention of United Nations Security Council voters, whose affection we will be seeking in search of a Canadian seat.
Let me list three possible baskets where we could play a strong role: Donald Trump has demanded UN reform, less out of conviction that it matters than as a club to beat the increasingly sclerotic institution with — and as a possible excuse for future dues holdbacks.
There is an existing UN reform agenda, delivered by a group of Nordic and Canadian UN specialists, less than a decade ago. It outlines a detailed recipe for UN revitalization. It fell on deaf ears in the post 9-11 years. Canada’s leadership could revive it today.
Canadians have played key roles in governance and building civil society institutions for decades, but usually under another nation’s flag or as team members in multilateral projects. Is it not time to bring our values and our approach to building socially inclusive societies to a global stage?
Again, there exists a fully baked policy framework from the last decade, the product of the many years of work by Commons committees and policy experts such as Tom Axworthy, chief of staff to Pierre Trudeau. It lays out a governance structure, a set of priorities and even a fully costed budget for an institution to do this work — tasks essential to building stability in postconflict zones.
Finally, the world struggles to avoid further obsession with the madness in the North Pacific, as we watch with increasingly anxiety the aerial war games being played by the United States, South Korea and Japan trying to force the delusional North Korean leader to back down. There is a clear need for a means to avoid this cycle repeating over and over — until one day it ends in tragedy. Building lasting security agreements to stabilize the region is long overdue.
Canada helped lead this work on the North Atlantic after the war. Joe Clark tried to revive the idea in the North Pacific when he was foreign minister. We have the credentials and the credibility to be a convenor on how to slowly ratchet down tensions, then design confidence-building measures to slow their escalation.
Progress on these three projects would secure Canada’s place at the Security Council table, help build a lasting international legacy for the Trudeau government and signal to the world that Canada is truly back.
Our tradition has been to attempt to punch above our weight through alliance-building and leadership roles in multilateral institutions