Editors’ Introduction
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702014521564 |
| Author | Adam Chapnick,Mairi MacDonald |
| Published date | 01 March 2014 |
| Date | 01 March 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Editors’ Introduction |
International Journal
2014, Vol. 69(1) 3
!The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702014521564
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Editors’ Introduction
We began work on an issue that would offer global perspectives on the always
vexed controversies over nuclear weapons months before the 24 November 2013
‘‘interim agreement’’ between Iran and the P5 + 1 powers. The recent development
on Iran—and, in particular, the hopes and fears it has highlighted in global public
and political discourse—adds a certain urgency to the views expressed in the essays
that follow.
Some will see in the range of these views great cause for alarm; others will find a
degree of comfort. Youngwon Cho and Mun Suk Ahn with Young Chul Cho
examine the case for nuclear weapons in North and South Korea, respectively.
Manpreet Sethi maps the twists and turns of Canada’s nuclear relationship with
India, and examines the prospects and challenges ahead now that the two countries
have re-established peaceful nuclear cooperation. Ali Fathollah-Nejad examines
the effect of Western sanctions designed to constrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions,
focusing on the gap between the ever-hopeful discourse of their proponents and
the often counterproductive results for Iran’s foreign policy, society and economy.
Jacques Hymans closes our consideration of nuclear proliferation—and non-
proliferation—with a more sanguine view based on the latest political science lit-
erature on the subject. He concludes that while the threat of proliferation remains
serious, there is no need to panic.
We are also pleased to present two articles that place Canadian experiences in a
broader global context. Keith Banting compares Canadian and European views of
multiculturalism to elucidate the Canadian mystification about what all the
European fuss is about. Robin Gendron’s ‘‘Lessons of History’’ essay puts
Charles de Gaulle’s notorious 1967 endorsement of ‘‘le Que
´bec libre’’ into the
larger context of French actions during that decade to cast doubt on the interpret-
ation that Quebec was a symptom of a broader turn to ‘‘la de
´colonisation’’ as
general policy. Francine McKenzie provides a review essay that revisits Denis
Stairs’ seminal 1974 publication The Diplomacy of Constraint: Canada, the
Korean War, and the United States. Reviews of five books of broad interest
round out this issue of International Journal. As always, we hope these scholarly
and policy-oriented perspectives stimulate thought, discussion, and engagement.
Mairi MacDonald
mmacdonald@internationaljournal.ca
Adam Chapnick
achapnick@internationaljournal.ca
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