Book Review: Canadian Foreign policy: Reflections on a field in transition.

Published date01 September 2021
DOI10.1177/00207020211045942
AuthorMagali Deleuze
Date01 September 2021
Subject MatterBook Reviews
sexual or other misconduct is negatively impacting operations. If Canada is facing these
challenges, every NATO member is
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and if not addressed, this failure of leadership
will do more to undermine NATO internally than Russia could ever hope to achieve.
What is more, the lack of diversity in organization, representation, and occupations
makes for stale thinking that perpetuates the tried, not the innovative. Solving these
challenges, however, requires breaking new, and messy, ground.
While not an encomium to NATO, the book is optimistic. The authors are best at
providing the historical context to NATO decisions and missions, and this will be well
appreciated by many. As a reference text,
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this book lays down important foundational
ideas. As a guide to f‌ix NATO, I am less certain.
BrianBowandAndreaLane,eds.Canadian Foreign policy: Ref‌lections on a Field in Transition.Vancouver:
University of British Columbia Press,2020. 301 pp. $34.95 (paperback) ISBN: 978-0-7748-6348-3
Reviewed by: Magali Deleuze,Royal Military College of Canada
Canadian foreign policy (CFP) and Canadian policy at large, as academic disciplines in
History or Political Science departments, seem to have been struggling for several
years. The ref‌lection began in 2017 in an issue of the International Journal dedicated to
the generational phenomenon and the connection between socialization and scholarship
in CFP.
Today, the current situation in the f‌ield does not seem to have changed much. The
f‌ield of study is less attractive to researchers because it is too associated with the
mechanism of governance, it is a discipline dominated by white men, and it has
diff‌iculty keeping up with the new diversity in humanities and social sciences studies
among other issues. Brian Bow and Andrea Lane therefore sought to f‌ind out from 14
political scientists the reasons for this crisis of identity and vocation of CFP and what
should be done to revitalize it. This book is part of the C.D. Howe Series, which has
recently published excellent volumes on Canadian political history. The book is divided
into three parts: the state of the f‌ield, exploring adjacent f‌ields, and the future of CFP.
The f‌irst part evokes the diff‌iculties of the discipline through its losses and its lack of
inf‌luence on decision-makers. Kim Richard Nossal emphasizes the loss of university
resources; Adam Chapnick regrets the loss of Canadian diplomatic history and the
challenge posed by the shift towards a more transnational study of foreign policy. Lana
Wylie offers an overview of the critical approach that must renew the f‌ield of foreign
policy and its own journey in this f‌ield. Jean-Christophe Boucher collected CFP works
5. Poland seems to be shifting gender norms. More Polish women are participating in defence, according to
Weronika Grezebalska, The future of Polandsdefence is female,Democracy and Society, June 2021.
6. A copy of the Washington Treaty is missing and is recommended for future versions.
484 International Journal 76(3)

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