Adam Chapnick – författare

Three recent Canadian prime ministers, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, and Justin Trudeau made the same claim shortly after forming a government: “Canada is Back.” Martin promised to reinvest in world affairs. Harper was focused on the military. Trudeau meant more involvement at the UN. Each leader made foreign policy a part of their political brand because they recognized that in today's world, domestic and international politics are interconnected. Canada can no longer take care of its own interests if it ignores the world around it.This book traces the history of Canadian foreign policy from a time when positioning Canada First meant shunning international obligations to today. It highlights key decisions taken and not taken in Ottawa that have shaped Canadians' safety, security, and prosperity over the last one hundred years. Case studies focused on environmental reform, Indigenous peoples, trade, hostage diplomacy, and wartime strategy illustrate the breadth of issues that shape contemporary Canada's global realm. Together, these cases reveal a country that has benefited from diplomatic prudence and compromise even as its citizens have yearned for their elected officials to be world leaders. This book argues that, like any country, Canada must look out for its own interests first, but in the modern world it can't do so effectively without cooperating with other states and non-state actors.Written by two of Canada's leading foreign policy analysts, Canada First, Not Canada Alone is the definitive history of Canadian foreign policy since the 1930s.

It is hard to imagine a person who embodied the ideals of postwar Canadian foreign policy more than diplomat and scholar John Wendell Holmes. Holmes joined the foreign service in 1943, headed the Canadian Institute of International Affairs from 1960 to 1973, and, as a professor of international relations, mentored a generation of students and scholars.Canada's Voice draws upon family letters, archival records, and more than 150 personal interviews to chronicle how Holmes influenced the way diplomats, scholars, and statespeople abroad viewed Canada and its citizens and how Canadians saw themselves on the world stage. Accessible and engrossing, this is the only comprehensive biography of a man who helped shape foreign policy during Canada's golden age as a middle power.

As the twentieth century ended, Canada was completing its sixth term on the United Nations Security Council, more terms than all but three other non-permanent members. A decade later, Ottawa's attempt to return to the council was dramatically rejected by its global peers, leaving Canadians – and international observers – shocked and disappointed. This book tells the story of that defeat and what it means for future campaigns, describing and analyzing Canada's attempts since 1946, both successful and unsuccessful, to gain a seat as a non-permanent member. It also reveals that while the Canadian commitment to the United Nations itself has always been strong, Ottawa's attitude towards the Security Council, and to service upon it, has been much less consistent. Impeccably researched and clearly written, Canada on the United Nations Security Council is the definitive history of the Canadian experience on the world's most powerful stage.