Chrétien and the World: Canadian Foreign Policy from 1993 to 2003 (The C.D. Howe Series in Canadian Political History) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0774872071 ISBN 13: 9780774872072

Publisher: University of British Columbia Press, 2025

Synopsis

Conventional wisdom holds that foreign policy was not a priority for Jean Chrétien over his ten years as Canadian prime minister. Chrétien and the World combines the perspectives of key players of the time with analyses by leading scholars to reveal something unexpected: an often ambitious, activist approach to international affairs.

Contributors draw on personal recollections, interviews, and research to portray a coherent and engaged foreign policy. Chrétien responded to events that reshaped the international landscape, notably 9/11, the war on terror, the US-led invasion of Iraq, and Canadian involvement in Afghanistan. Working with trusted ministers, he emphasized trade liberalization, strong bilateral and multilateral relations, human security, and humanitarian intervention. Often characterized as purely pragmatic, Chrétien's tenure in fact marked a high point of liberal internationalism.

This insightful collection demonstrates how Canada navigated crucial years between the end of the Cold War and the emergence of a new geopolitical reality.

About this title

About the Author

Jack Cunningham is the program coordinator at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto, where he is also a fellow and assistant professor at Trinity College. He is a former editor of International Journal and co-editor of Australia and Canada in Afghanistan: Perspectives on a Mission (with William Maley) and Australia, Canada, and Iraq: Perspectives on an Invasion (with Ramesh Thakur). John Meehan is the director of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. He is also a fellow and assistant professor at Trinity College and affiliated faculty at the Centre for the Study of Global Japan at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He is the author of The Dominion and the Rising Sun: Canada Encounters Japan, 1929–41 and Chasing the Dragon in Shanghai: Canada's Early Relations with China, 1858–1952.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of British Columbia Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0774872071
• ISBN 13: 9780774872072
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 338
• Editor: Cunningham Jack, Meehan John