Split Images marks the twenty-first installment of the Canada Among Nations series. It also marks a new beginning as the first collaboration between the series host institution, the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs, and the Centre for International Governance and Innovation at the University of Waterloo, editors Andrew Cooper and Dane Rowlands, and publisher, McGill-Queen's University Press. It is reassuring to see that others have come forward to assume the task of providing an annual assessment of Canadian foreign policy, its current challenges, and future prospects. The Canada Among Nations series has, through the years, provided a valuable chronicle of the pressing concerns of the day. On occasion the volume has been overshadowed by unexpected events, such as the terrorist attacks of September 11th, that give the text less urgency than it would otherwise have. Potentially, this volume could have suffered a similar fate, given the election of Stephen Harper's minority government after the collection went to press. Repeated references to the Liberal government's International Policy Statement (IPS), not to mention the image of Paul Martin, Jr., that graces the cover, seem somewhat nostalgic, in the face of the Harper government's move to put its own face on such critically important policy arenas as relations with the United States, defence spending, climate change and the Middle East, among others.
Despite this obvious and unavoidable turn of events, Split Images contains much of value for students of Canadian foreign policy and contemporary global politics. The contributions are not as bound by the former government's priorities as the references to the IPS might suggest. Instead, the contributors try to focus in on the direction that Canadian foreign policy should take in a shifting global environment, where the traditional supports of Canadian foreign policy no longer seem secure and a domestic consensus no longer exists. For contributors Burney and Jockel and Sokolosky, it is a matter of getting it right in Canada's bilateral relationship with the US. In Burney's words, “by establishing a more confident relationship with the United States, Canada would also be better positioned to play a more constructive role on global issues” (60). Not so for Drache, who advocates a “North American Scepticism” that would move Canada away from the Bush Revolution in American foreign policy in areas including security, global governance and human rights. A series of chapters considers alternatives to the bilateral relationship and the potential for developing enhanced relations with Brazil, Russia, India and China as emerging powers in both economic and political terms. Canada's relations to date with these and other members of the so-called BRISCAM group are accurately described here as missed opportunities, yet the authors point to the urgent need for the government and Canadians to begin cultivating a more extensive set of relations with them, to expand from the marginal commercial activities that have defined connections to date. They are equally clear on the economic, political and security contradictions in existing policy that will surely complicate such efforts.
Moving beyond the particulars to consider the more general orientations available to guide policy, essays by Nossal, Knight and Welsh provide a mixed picture. Nossal dismisses the frequent comparisons with Australia as a model largely because of Canada's “markedly different geostrategic location” (90). Nossal's analysis suggests that is unlikely Harper can become the Howard of the North. Knight calls attention to the state of flux that characterizes global politics today and that confronts Canadian foreign policy makers with rival multilateralisms. He advocates the need for a policy that is pragmatic, flexible and effective, but also one that reflects a concern for “representative democracy and global legitimacy” (111). Welsh draws on themes first discussed in her At Home in the World and suggests that developments at the UN and elsewhere provide a “favourable geometry of forces” that would enable Canada to move away from its geostrategic constraints and redefine its interests to better reflect its values. To do this successfully will require the government “to think more strategically about its role internationally” (42). The collection concludes with three valuable essays that focus more on the process of policy making and especially the confusion over trade policy and its place in Canadian foreign policy and in the Department of Foreign Affairs.
As the editors suggest, this is very much “a patchwork of voices and visions” (17). There is little coherence here and little that holds the different essays together. This not so much a fault as it is a reflection of what is going on. It demonstrates the uncertainty and lack of consensus that exists about the current state and future direction of Canadian foreign policy. The reasons result from changes in the global environment, but also from competing interests and principles at home. This collection presents a timely survey of this muddled state of affairs.
