Ethical Values and Canadian Foreign Policy
| Author | Cranford Pratt |
| Published date | 01 March 2001 |
| Date | 01 March 2001 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200105600103 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
CRANFORD
PRATT
Ethical
values
and
Canadian
foreign
policy
Two
case
studies
I"T
IS
WIDELY
EXPECTED
THAT SOMETIME IN
2001
there
will
be
a
review
of
Canadian
foreign
aid
policies.
In anticipation,
Canadian
non-gov-
ernment
organizations
(NGOs)
are
mobilizing
to
do
what
they
can
to
ensure
that
there
is
no
substantial
retreat
from
the
putative
humanitar-
ian
objectives
of
Canadian
aid.
Now
is
perhaps
a
good
time
to
ask
how
much
success
civil
society
groups
have
had
in the
past
in
promoting
a
more
ethically
responsible
Canadian
foreign policy.
A
partial
answer
can
be
found
by
looking
at
their
sustained
efforts
over
several
decades
to
influence
Canadian
policies
on
two
major
foreign policy
issues
in
which
one
might
expect
that
ethical
considerations
would
play
a
sig-
nificant
role
-
Canadian
policies
toward
apartheid South
Africa
and
toward
foreign
aid.
In
recent
years,
two
theoretical
approaches
have
dominated
the
scholarly
literature
on Canadian
foreign
policy:
statist
and dominant
class.'
Neither
approach
suggests
that
ethical
considerations
have
been
In light
of
the
recent discussion
over
the
federal
government's
intention
to
undetake
a
major
review
of
its
aid
policies,
the
editors
of
InternationalJournalinvited
a
number
of
experts
to
comment
on
the
issues
involved.
We
are
pleased
to
include
two
of
the
responses,
by
Brian
Tomlinson and Cranford Pratt,
in
this
issue.
Professor
Emeritus
oflPolitical
Science,
University
of
Toronto.
Research
for
this
article
was
assist-
ed
by
a
grantfrom
the
Humanities
and
Social
Sciences Research
Council
of
Canada.
The
article
is
to
appear
in
PhyllisAirhart,
Mariln
Legge
and
Gary
Redcliffe,
eds,
Doing
Ethics
in
a
Pluralistic
World
(fbrthcoming).
i
The
literature
is extensive.
For
a
statist
analysis,
see,
for
example,
Kim
Richard
Nossal,
The
Politics
of
Canadian
Foreign
Policy
(3rd
ed;
Scarborough
ON:
Prentice
Hall
1997).
For
a
dominant
class
approach,
see
Cranford
Pratt,
'Canada:
an
eroding
and
limited internationalism,'
in
Pratt,
ed,
Internationalism UnderStrain:
The
North-
South
Policies
of
Canada,
the Netherlands, Norway
and
Sweden (Toronto:
University
of
Toronto
Press
1989),
24-69.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter
2000-2001
Cranford Pratt
a
significant
component
of
the
dominant
world
view
of
senior
Canadian
foreign
policy
decision-makers
or
that
lobbying from with-
in
Canadian
civil
society has
forced
the
Department
of
Foreign
Affairs
and International
Trade
to
become more
engaged
with
issues
such
as
sustained
oppression
and
severe
poverty
beyond
Canada's
borders.
Both
approaches
reckon
that
such
'soft'
policy
objectives
as
promoting
human
rights
or
helping
the
world's
poorest
peoples
are
filtered
out
within
the
decision-making
process.
Dominant
class
theorists
empha-
size
the
role
of
the
dominant
ideology
within
Canadian
decision-mak-
ing
circles
in
sifting
out
such
objectives,
while
statist
theorists
identify
the interests
that
act
as
the
sieve
in
less
ideological
and
more narrowly
bureaucratic
terms. However,
both
clearly
imply
that
civil
society
efforts
to
promote
more
ethical
foreign
policies have
had
little
impact.
A
closer
look
at
the
development
of
Canadian
foreign
aid
policies
and
Canadian
policy
towards
apartheid
South
Africa,
two
policies
that
have
long
been
the
focus
of
sustained
ethical
lobbying
by
the Canadian
churches,
the
NGO
community,
and
many
other
civil
society
public
interest
groups,
indicates
a
need for
a
more
nuanced
reading
of
civil soci-
ety efforts
to
secure
a
more
ethically
responsive
Canadian
foreign
policy.
ETHICAL
VALUES
AND CANADIAN
FOREIGN
AID
2
The
literature
on
the
determinants
of
Canadian
aid
policies
mentions
a
surprisingly
wide
range
of
influences,
including, among
others,
the
politics
of
the
cold
war,
the
example
and
influence
of
other
major
donors,
the
importance
attached
by
the
Canadian government
to
Canada's
primary
alliances,
Canada's
historic
links
with
the
Commonwealth and
la
francophonie,
bureaucratic
politics
within
the
Canadian
government,
and
the
government's
particular
responsiveness
to
Canadian
trade
and
investment
interests.
Canadian
ethical
values,
in
contrast,
are
rarely
emphasized.'
2
David
Lumsdaine
has
done
substantial
and
highly
innovative
comparative
work
in
this
field,
but
his primary
focus is
the
evolution
of
the
aid
programme
in
the
United
States.
See
David
Halloran
Lumsdaine,
Moral
Vision
in
International Politics:
the
Foreign
Aid
Regime,
1949-i989
(Princeton:
Princeton
University
Press
1993).
On
the
extent
to
which
his analysis
is
transferable
to
Canada,
see
Pratt,
'Moral
vision
and
foreign
policy:
the
case
of
Canadian
development assistance,'
in
Rosalind
Irwin,
ed,
Ethics
and
Security
in
Canadian Foreign
Policy
(Vancouver:
University
of
British
Colombia
Press,
forthcoming).
This
section
draws
on
that
work.
3
The
major
exceptions
are
Alain
Noel
and
Jean-Philippe
Th(rien,
'Welfare
institu-
tions
and
foreign aid: domestic
foundations
of
Canadian
foreign
policy,'
Canadian
Journal
of
Political
Science
27(September
1994),
529-58;
and
Rdal
Lavergne,
38
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JOURNAL
Winter2000-2001
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