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Contributor: jamesm
Date: 2003-04-30 16:15:58
Honorable Bill Graham
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Government of Canada
Dear Minister,
I want to thank you for this opportunity to express my opinions regarding the future of Canada's foreign relations. As a political scientist, scholar, a former military officer, and a committed friend of Canada, I find these issues to be especially pertinent. Canada enjoys a unique position in relation to the world and its powerful friend and neighbor to the south.
Therefore, the future of Canada's role in the world demands careful consideration, especially within the context of its proud traditions in this
area. Your willingness to solicit this sort of input, by itself, signals an
important distinction between Canadian and American approaches in this area
that is indicative of the nature of Canada's polity and should benefit
Canada and the world, greatly.
Canada's commitment to liberal democratic values should be the most
important guiding principles of its foreign policy, even when pursuing such
a commitment does not appear to be in its short-term interests. Canada's
foreign policy can best reflect that priority by emphasizing diplomatic
solutions to conflicts, a willingness to intervene (militarily, if
necessary) in defense of clearly articulated and substantiate violations of
international law, including in the area of human rights, and a commitment
to using its status as a member of NATO, the G-7, and other international
associations to achieve these goals.
The "three pillars" approach to foreign policy objectives offer a good
conceptual framework, but Canada should not, necessarily, treat them as each
having equal weight in importance. Canada must not simply become, for
example, a junior partner of the United States in pursuing matters of
security and prosperity that are most relevant only to these two countries,
but it must use its values to persuade the United States and other powers to
promote stability and justice throughout the world.
Canada's participation in all of its international organizations should be
strengthened. First, that participation will reinforce Canada's commitment
to a multilateral international system. Second, Canada's relationship with
the United States will enable it to influence that superpower toward
accepting the same multilateral approach, rather than using international
organizations as mere instruments of its own will that are abused and
abandoned when those organizations fail to submit to its will. Third,
Canada's participation in more specialized, yet still global, sytems
(especially the Commonwealth, la Francophonie, and APEC) will allow Canada
to serve as a bridge between its fellow industrial democracies and the
developing world.
While Canada should maintain credible conventional military forces, its
emphasis should be different from its neighbor to the south. Intelligence
gathering and analysis has been an area that has needed special emphasis
(terrorism is a non-conventional threat that cannot be fought, ultimately,
by conventional means), but successful intelligence operations cannot be
done, effectively, without multilateral cooperation of the most profound and
sophisticated sort. Promoting matters such as environmental degradation and
human rights can reinforce that overall strategy of global cooperation in
security and persuade other countries of Canada's willingness to pursue
interests that are not just its own.
Contd...
Sincerely,
Dr. James T. McHugh
Professor of Political Science
Chair, Legal Studies Program
Roosevelt University
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