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Question 13: ConclusionPlease respond to the paper as a whole. |
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| Contributor: | russilwvong |
| Date: |
2003-05-01 02:40:46 |
| Answer: |
I find myself thinking about the process: DFAIT provides a broad sketch of Canadian foreign policy, and gathers feedback from the public via the Internet. What does this process give us that isn't already provided by other means, e.g. public opinion polls and parliamentary debates?
I wouldn't expect DFAIT to base Canada's foreign policy directly on people's answers in this forum. Foreign policy is a delicate and complicated matter, and I don't think non-specialists are in a position to make detailed recommendations. From DFAIT's point of view, my guess is that this feedback will be useful primarily as a way of _registering_people's_concerns_--war with Iraq, Canada's relationship with the US, the environment, poverty and tyranny in the Third World--with more detailed answers than would be available from an opinion poll.
Conversely, from the point of view of a member of the public, this forum gives us a chance to provide feedback directly to DFAIT, without going through our Parliamentary representatives. Participating in this forum also motivated me to find out more about Canada's foreign policy (e.g. to read "Canada and the Early Cold War", to look up and read the 1947 Gray Lecture, and to read "The Big Chill"), which was useful.
One final comment on the paper itself: I think participants' answers to the questions posed by the paper (paraphrasing: "Canada's foreign policy should be based on saving the world!") illustrate the importance of emphasizing *realism*, that is, the limits of what Canada can and cannot accomplish. As Reinhold Niebuhr said: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." |
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