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Participant: jamesm
Date: 2003-04-30 16:16:44
Canada should remain flexible in the way it deploys its military forces.
Nonetheless, a prominent role in peace keeping also provides a specific
focus that would be most appropriate, given Canada's resources and values in
this area. It should cooperate with the United States but not try merely to
emulate that country's superpower priorities, which would be both redundant
and fiscally implausible.
Canada's multilateral cooperation will provide it with increased
opportunities to influence those global conditions that promote instability
in the developing world and the sort of resentment that is at the root of
much, though not all, terrorist movements. A commitment to its core
democratic and human rights values will make Canada more credible to these
parts of the world, in this respect. Furthermore, it will both contrast
with, and complement, the realist approach of the United States, providing
options for its allies, as well as for its own foreign policy approaches.
That goal will be especially important in continents such as Africa, where
Canada can, and should, take advantage of its leadership role within
organizations such as the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie.
NAFTA provides a forum for promoting Canada's prosperity. It also will
offer an important, competetive counterbalance to the continuing expansion
and intergration of the European Community. However, in keeping with
Canada's values, it should use that forum to promote economic justice for
the entire continent, especially Mexico. Canada's success in helping this
developing country to transform itself, both economically and politically,
will reinforce its positive international image and its role as a leader for
multilateral global diplomacy and cooperation. Meanwhile, Canada should
negotiate to protect its cultural market, especially in Quebec, in order to
prevent NAFTA from becoming the basis for the advancement of a mere
homogeneous continental marketplace.
Canada should promote, effectively, those democractic values that the United
States purports to do, in theory, but which it often fails to achieve, in
practice. Canada must accept that it cannot always support American methods
and goals when they contradict those fundamental values that both countries
claim to cherish. Instead, Canada must insist upon the continuing relevance
of the United Nations and other international organizations and be willing
to volunteer its services in projects that seek to advance global
development, gender equality, international understanding, and peace.
The danger that the world could become divided between an industrial
"Christian" world and a developing "Moslem" would needs to be counteracted,
especially, through Canada's active efforts in support of these
organizations. Canadian leaders need to be as visible as possible in
presenting this image to the world, though in a constructive way that is not
perceived as being, indulgently, anti-American, for it must avoid making the
United States doubt Canada's ultimate friendship.
Canada must renew its commitment to promote and support academic programs
abroad that disseminate knowledge and appreciation of Canada. The
proliferation of Canadian Studies programs that was, once, so successful
must become a priority, once again. It is through the educational systems
of the international community that Canada's culture and experience will
gain the prominence it deserves and reinforce conventional Canadian
diplomatic and public relations activities.
Canada's position as a major, but not a "super," power must be the basis for
all of its international relations. Canada must demonstrate an appreciation
for the position and goals of the United States and continue to foster its
close friendship and alliance with Americans. However, it must not submit
itself to the unilateral tendency of recent American foreign policy, nor can
it allow itself to be guided by the allure of a realist approach that can be
highly successful in the short-term but which fails to address the sort of
long-term problems that result in global instability and, even, terrorism.
Canada's liberal democratic values represent the best features of the
industrial world, and it must be unshakeable in promoting them and reminding
its neighbor to the south never to abandon its own stated commitment to
human rights and the "better angels of its nature."
Thank you for this opportunity. I wish you and the government every success
in preparing Canada's foreign policy for the twenty-first century. I trust
that Canada's image as a strong, compassionate, and admirable participant in
international relations will continue as a result of this process.
Sincerely,
Dr. James T. McHugh
Professor of Political Science
Chair, Legal Studies Program
Roosevelt University
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