February 27, 2006
What should Canadian foreign policy seek to achieve?
First, the realist approach in a National Post editorial.
Peter MacKay, the Foreign Affairs Minister, said on Thursday that Canada's foreign service needs to be refocused -- that it needs to stop trying to be "all things to all people," and concentrate instead on picking its causes more carefully.
This is good news. Overshadowed by the neglect the previous government suffered upon our armed forces was the contemporaneous disregard it showed for our diplomatic corps...
Too often in the past decade, our government-to-government contacts have been given a lower priority than participation in international agencies. While our foreign missions have done a good job projecting our trade interests, our senior bureaucrats have mistakenly theorized that our political and strategic interests would be better served by joining with other middle-sized nations in so-called "soft power" initiatives. So instead of directly approaching other governments to deal with our issues and interests, we have sought to press such bodies as the United Nations to advance human rights, environmental, public health and international security agendas...
As Mr. MacKay seems to realize, it is well past time that Ottawa redirected our foreign services officers to stand up for Canadian interests at the presidential mansions and palaces of other nations, rather than spending so much of their time at meaningless conferences or preaching social justice in international forums.
Second, Salim Mansur outlines the values that should guide the policy.
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Our friends and our foes will test our resolve in diplomacy and in war, and they will want to know what Canada represents that is non-negotiable.
It is not good enough to say, as was whimsically repeated by Paul Martin in his time as PM, that the world needs Canada.
The more germane question is why? And the forthright answer would be that we as a people today are confused on how to respond meaningfully in a crowded world...
Our domestic political differences do not override the liberal values enshrined in our constitution. So at some point, a line must be drawn for the world to know our resources will not be provided to those people and nations who repudiate and scorn what we have defended in common with our friends...
...some radical Islamists have deliberately sought a clash of civilizations as the means by which to win the civil war raging inside the Arab-Muslim world, between those seeking freedom with democracy and those wanting to impose their cruel, totalitarian version of anti-modern Islam. Canadians will have to decide on which side of this clash we stand -- or it will be forced upon us. Our presence in Afghanistan demands a clear answer...
The lesson of history stares in our face. Munich in 1938 seemed, to decent men, a small compromise for peace with honour -- and its bill was paid with the charred remains of millions from Auschwitz to Nagasaki.