Brian Bow - Böcker

At the turn of the millennium, Mexico seemed to have finally found its path to political and economic modernization; a state which had been deeply embedded in society was being pulled out, with new political leaders allowing market forces to play a greater role in guiding the nation’s economic development, and allowing old patron-client networks to crumble. At the same time, many hoped that political and legal reforms would increase the state’s capacity to provide prosperity, security, and equity for its citizens. In the midst of this historic transformation, however, Mexico was confronted with an urgent new policy challenge.Internationally recognized experts from the academic and think-tank communities in the United States, Mexico, and Canada consider the origins of the current crisis in Mexico, and the nature and effectiveness of the Calderón government’s response. Simply not another book on North American regional security, this volume uses Joel Migdal’s concept of "the state in society" to provide a refreshingly clear and accessible exploration of political change in the developing world. The engagement with the US and Canada gives the reader a chance to observe the dynamics of persuasion across the developmental divide. Four key questions structure the study: What does the ongoing security crisis in Mexico tell us about the changing role of the state in society there? What does the changing role of the state tell us about the nature (and intractability) of the crisis? How has the transition to democracy affected the links between the state and organized crime in Mexico, and the state’s capacity to contain non-state challengers? What kinds of political and legal reforms are called for, and what effects can we expect them to have on the extent and intensity of violence in Mexico?No other study comprehensively uncovers new conceptual and theoretical insights in each of these areas whilst offering some practical guidance for policy-makers and publics seeking to understand these urgent and complex challenges.

Canadian Foreign Policy brings together leading scholars in a lively, engaging meditation on the current state and future direction of the Canadian foreign policy discipline, and on how we see Canada in the world.

Canadian Foreign Policy, as an academic discipline, is in crisis. Despite its value, CFP is often considered a "stale and pale" subfield of political science with an unfashionably state-centred focus. This book asks why. Contributors from both inside and around the field investigate how they came to view themselves as participating in CFP as an academic project – or not – and what that means for both their intellectual trajectory and the development of the field. How were they taught to think about Canada? How does that affect their interpretation of this country's place in the world? And how do they teach the subject themselves? The thoughtful essays in this nuanced collection shine a light on issues such as the casualization of academic labour, the prospect of Indigenizing the field, and the relationship between study and practice. More broadly, they offer a much-needed assessment of the boundaries, goals, and values of the discipline, and an important guide to its revitalization.

Forty years ago, as the United States became increasingly involved in Vietnam, questions were raised in Canada about the relationship between its foreign policy agenda and that of its southern neighbour. Now, with the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is time to raise the same questions: does Canada need an independent foreign policy? Does Canada have the capacity and will to chart its own course?Divided into sections about the history of Canadian foreign policy, diplomacy, security, economics, decision-making and new policy issues, this collection of prominent political scientists provides valuable and timely perspectives on the state of Canada's international relations in the twenty-first century. Examining pertinent issues such as defence, security, the Arctic, global environmental cooperation, NAFTA, and the post-9/11 world, these accessible and insightful essays are a long-overdue reassessment of Canada and its current role in international affairs. An Independent Foreign Policy for Canada? asks the question that is perhaps more important now than forty years ago and supplies answers so pertinent to the twenty-first century.ContributorsBrian BowAdam ChapnickStephen ClarksonPatricia GoffStephanie R. GolobGeoffrey HaleRob HuebertChristopher KukuchaPatrick LennoxChristopher SandsHeather A. Smith

Twenty years after NAFTA, the consensus seems to be that the regional project in North America is dead. The trade agreement was never followed up by new institutions that might cement a more ambitious regional community. The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), launched with some fanfare in 2005, was quietly discontinued in 2009. And new cooperative ventures like the US‐Canada Beyond the Border talks and the US‐Mexico Merida Initiative suggest that the three governments have reverted to the familiar, pre‐NAFTA pattern of informal, incremental bilateralism. One could argue, however, that NAFTA itself has been buried, and yet the region somehow lives on, albeit in a form very different from regional integration in other parts of the world.A diverse group of contributors, from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with experience in academia, government service, think tanks and the private sector bring to bear a sophisticated and much needed examination of regional governance in North America, its historical origins, its connection to the regional distribution of power and the respective governments’ domestic institutions, and the variance of its forms and function across different issue areas. The editors begin by surveying the literature on North American regional politics, matching up developments there with parallel debates and controversies in the broader literatures on comparative regional integration and international policy coordination more generally. Six contributors later explore the mechanisms of policy coordination in specific issue-areas, each with an emphasis on a particular set of actors, and with its own way of characterizing the relevant political and diplomatic dynamics. Chapters on the political context for regional policy coordination follow leading to concluding remarks on the future of North America.At a time when scholarly interest in North America seems to be waning, even while important and interesting political and economic developments are taking place, this volume will reinvigorate the study of North America as a region, to better understand its past, present and future.

Twenty years after NAFTA, the consensus seems to be that the regional project in North America is dead. The trade agreement was never followed up by new institutions that might cement a more ambitious regional community. The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), launched with some fanfare in 2005, was quietly discontinued in 2009. And new cooperative ventures like the US‐Canada Beyond the Border talks and the US‐Mexico Merida Initiative suggest that the three governments have reverted to the familiar, pre‐NAFTA pattern of informal, incremental bilateralism. One could argue, however, that NAFTA itself has been buried, and yet the region somehow lives on, albeit in a form very different from regional integration in other parts of the world.A diverse group of contributors, from the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with experience in academia, government service, think tanks and the private sector bring to bear a sophisticated and much needed examination of regional governance in North America, its historical origins, its connection to the regional distribution of power and the respective governments’ domestic institutions, and the variance of its forms and function across different issue areas. The editors begin by surveying the literature on North American regional politics, matching up developments there with parallel debates and controversies in the broader literatures on comparative regional integration and international policy coordination more generally. Six contributors later explore the mechanisms of policy coordination in specific issue-areas, each with an emphasis on a particular set of actors, and with its own way of characterizing the relevant political and diplomatic dynamics. Chapters on the political context for regional policy coordination follow leading to concluding remarks on the future of North America.At a time when scholarly interest in North America seems to be waning, even while important and interesting political and economic developments are taking place, this volume will reinvigorate the study of North America as a region, to better understand its past, present and future.