New rabbits, old hats: International policy and Canada's foreign service in an era of reduced diplomatic resources

International Journal

Volumn 60, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 743-762

  Copeland, Daryl ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 29144447930     PISSN: 00207020     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/40204061     Document Type: Review

References (27)

1. This is a more fully developed version of a paper presented on 5 March 2005 at a Wilton Park conference entitled Diplomacy today: Delivering results in a world of changing priorities.
2. Since at least the 1970s, when Pierre Trudeau quipped famously that he could get all of the international reporting he needed from the New York Times, diplomats have had to fight a determined rearguard action to demonstrate their continuing relevance. Certainly, the advent of low-cost travel has made it much easier to quickly match specialized people with complex problems internationally, and has lessened the need to have generalists on the ground every-where.
3. See for example, Peter Marshall and Nabil Ayad, eds., Are Diplomats Really Necessary? and The Information Explosion: A Challenge for Diplomacy (London: Marylebone, 1996; 1997).
4. See, for instance, Richard Grant, "The democratization of diplomacy: Negotiating with the internet," November 2004, www.oii.ox.ac.uk.
5. See also James F. Larson, "The internet and foreign policy," Foreign Policy Association, Headline Series no. 325, New York, spring 2004.
6. See Daryl Copeland, "The Axworthy years: Canadian foreign policy in the era of diminished capability," in Fen Hampson, Norman Hillmer, and Maureen Molot, eds., Canada Among Nations (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2001), 152-72.
7. For more on these issues, see Daryl Copeland, "Globalization, enterprise, and governance," International Journal (winter 1997-98),
8. and "Foreign policy, foreign service: the challenge of globalization," Canadian Foreign Policy (autumn 1997).
9. See also Chalmers Johnson, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (New York: Henry Holt, 2000).
10. For a forceful counterargument, see John Ralston Saul's The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World (Toronto: Penguin, 2005).
11. Perhaps the most provocative and insightful assessment of the post-Cold War, post 9/11 world is offered by Thomas Barnett in The Pentagon's New Map (New York: Putnam, 2004).
12. The good news is that things are underway within the Canadian foreign ministry, and they are unfolding very much along the lines set out above. The ethos of this reorganization was set out by Jonathon Moses and Torbjorn Knutson in "Inside out: Globalization and the reorganization of foreign affairs Ministries," SAGE, Discussion Papers in Diplomacy, London, 2001. It is noteworthy that theorists and practitioners have reached similar conclusions and prescriptions independently.
13. For an excellent comparative look at PD in Canada and Norway, see Jozef Batora's paper "Public diplomacy in small and medium-sized states," www.clingendael.nl.
14. The literature on various aspects of public diplomacy as the new diplomacy has become quite rich and extensive. See, for instance, the US Institute of Peace series on "Net diplomacy" at www.usip.org
15. or the Centre for Strategic and International Studies study "Re-inventing diplomacy in the information age," www.csis.org.
16. A more critical take, with a focus on the shortcomings of US PD in the Muslim world, is found in David Hoffman, "Beyond public diplomacy," Foreign Affairs (March/April 2002).
17. On this theme see also Rami C. Khouri, "The US public diplomacy hoax," on-line at www.aljazeerah.info.
18. See also the report of an independent task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, "Public diplomacy: A strategy for reform," www.cfr.org.
19. See the background and research papers on the website of the professional association of foreign service officers, www.pafso-apase.com,
20. as well as its quarterly, Bout de papier. By way of comparison, see the site of the American Foreign Service Association, www.afsa.org, and their superb Foreign Service Journal.
21. See "Introduction" in Brian Hocking and David Spence, eds., Foreign Ministries in the European Union: Integrating Diplomats (London: Palgrave, 2002).
22. For a more technology driven analysis, see Evan Potter, ed., Cyber-Diplomacy, (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002).
23. For a multilateral context, see Andrew F. Cooper, John English, and Ramesh Thakur, eds., Enhancing Global Governance: Towards a New Diplomacy (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2001).
24. Jennifer Welsh, At Home in the World: Canada's Global Vision for the 21st Century (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2004).
25. Daryl Copeland, "Guerrilla diplomacy: Delivering international policy in a digital world," Canadian Foreign Policy 11 (winter 2004), 165-75.
26. The latter could be of particular significance were Canada, for instance, to reach out to moderate Islamic democracies with a view to developing cooperative security and intelligence sharing arrangements.
27. Anyone in need of a real jolt of reality would be well advised to peruse Robert Greenhill's sobering assessment of Canada's international image and reputation as seen by 40 global opinion leaders interviewed during 2004, Making a difference? External views on Canada's international impact, www.ciia.org.