Canada Among Nations, 1997: Asia Pacific Face-Off

Lawrence T. Woods is an associate professor of International Studies at
the University of Northern British Columbia and the author of
Asia-Pacific Diplomacy: The Nongovernmental Approach to Regional
Economic Co- operation.

Asia Pacific Face-off is a particularly valuable addition to the Canada
Among Nations series, primarily because of its thematic focus and the
geographic range of its contributors.

Opening chapters by John Kirton, Michael Hart, and Donald Abelson
provide an overview of Canada’s contemporary foreign relations, while
articles by Raymond Chan, Martin Rudner, Bijit Bora, and researchers
from the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada set the scene for Canada’s
hosting of the November 1997 Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC)
forum and

summit in Vancouver. Andrew Cooper’s chapter offers a useful and
well-documented up-

date on his previous work comparing Australian and Canadian approaches
with the Asia-Pacific region’s.

Perhaps the strongest entries are found in two sets of chapters, one
exploring labor and human-rights issues (with contributions from Ozay
Mehmet, Errol Mendes, and Bernie Frolic) and another focusing on
Canada’s role in regional military-strategic issues (Amitav Acharya,
Shannon Selin, and Ted McDorman). While each of the latter pieces
highlights the value of “track two” (unofficial) diplomacy, the
former chapters are welcome because of the controversy subsequently
sparked by the expression of social concerns at the Vancouver APEC
gathering—the very gathering that prompted the editors of Canada Among
Nations to select an Asia-Pacific focus.

The book’s decidedly ahistorical approach is odd given the editor’s
premise that Canada has yet to develop a Pacific persona that is taken
seriously by other nations in the region. Further, it is generally
assumed here that Canadian participation in APEC is a good thing because
of the region’s economic dynamism. That said, the potential for a
backlash against this premise is noted, as is the political-economic
vulnerability of Asian nations in which human-rights abuses and
corruption are well documented. The recent Asian economic downturn
confirms the wisdom of these cautions, as do the clashes and parallel
summit at APEC 1997. This volume is highly recommended to anyone with an
interest in Canada’s foreign and Asia-Pacific relations.