Canada Among Nations 1993-94: Global Jeopardy

Lawrence T. Woods is an associate professor of international studies at
the University of Northern British Columbia and the author of
Asian-Pacific Diplomacy: Nongovernmental Organizations and International
Relations.

The up-to-date and wide-ranging scope of this annual volume will make it
appealing to both followers of Canadian foreign relations and those
readers wishing to pursue specific issues. The book’s subtitle
underscores the rapidly changing and uncertain context Canadians must
deal with at home and abroad, and is most appropriate given the themes
that unite the four sets of essays the editors have commissioned:
domestic political issues, structures, and processes; trade issues,
environmental policies; and “new agendas.” A sense of troubled
high-stakes gambling in the national and international setting runs
throughout much of the book.

The surveys of the domestic scene (contributed by Fanny and Michel
Demers, Evan Potter, Geoffrey Pearson, and Nancy Gordon) suggest that
Canada is becoming more inward-looking as a result of an awkward (if not
futile) search for economic efficiency and a renewed federalism. As 1994
draws to a close, this retreat and soul-searching is likely to increase.
The section on trade (Michael Hart and Lynne Mytelka) asks us to
consider whether the so-called end of history also means an end to
national trade policies, and whether the corporate agenda is
increasingly the locus of the real action. While the age-old “states
versus markets” debate is thereby rekindled, the final two sections on
contemporary agenda items are perhaps the most timely for readers
willing to go beyond the Canadian perspective, for it is here that the
Canadian case becomes a vehicle for exploring issues pertinent to many
nations and peoples: the environment–development nexus after the Earth
Summit (David Runnalls and Clyde Sanger); military, environmental, and
disease threats to human security (Mark Zacher); immigration and refugee
policy (Michael Shenstone); the roles of the United Nations (Albert
Legault) and NATO (Andrew Cohen); and regionalism in the Circumpolar
North (Nigel Bankes, Terry Fenge, and Sarah Kalff) and Asia-Pacific
(Brian Job and Frank Langdon).

Students of Canadian politics and foreign policy, comparative politics
and foreign policy, international organization, and international
political economy at the undergraduate and graduate levels will find
this volume of value, as will members of an increasingly concerned and
engaged general public.