Relocating Middle Powers: Australia and Canada in a Changing World Order

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.

When Canadian and Australian scholars turn their minds to the analysis
of international relations, an inward-looking emphasis on middle-power
behavior is predictable. Fortunately, the authors of Relocating Middle
Powers go beyond the routine to focus on the allied notions of
“leadership” and “followership.” Can and do middle powers take
the initiative or do they always follow the lead of major powers when it
comes to important issues of international relations?

This book stresses the technical and entrepreneurial leadership
strategies demonstrated by the Australian and Canadian governments over
the past decade. A typology for the assessment of middle-power activity
and a review of evolving bureaucratic structures precede chapters that
set middle-power initiatives (e.g., the Cairns Group of Fair Trading
Nations and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum) within the
context of the changing international political economy and the
emergence of NAFTA. The authors test the leadership–followership
dichotomy by assessing the coalition-building dynamics that conditioned
participation in the 1991 Gulf War. Traditional military security issues
are surveyed alongside Asia Pacific security dialogues, global human
rights issues, and environmental concerns.

A welcome addition to the literature on the comparative study of
Canadian and Australian foreign policy, this book also serves as a
timely counter to the wave of literature exploring the “new world
order” role of the United States; it reminds us that other players are
present and can shape events.