A Model Power for a Troubled World?
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200706200309 |
| Date | 01 September 2007 |
| Author | Jasmin H. Cheung-Gertler |
| Published date | 01 September 2007 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Jasmin H. Cheung-Gertler
A model power for a
troubled world?
Canadian national interests and human security in the 21st century
| International Journal | Summer 2007 | 589 |
Canada greeted the approach of the new millennium with apocryphal
visions of global economic breakdown resulting from an electronic glitch—
Y2K—and its potential interruption of technologically dependent flows of
ideas and commerce. Like environmental degradation and disease epi-
demics, this was exactly the kind of “new threat”—transnational, non-terri-
torial, non-political, and indiscriminate—that had been heralded as the pri-
mary challenge to international security and stability in a post-Westphalian
world. Traditional tools of national security, such as the military apparatus
of nation-states and their alliances with one another, were scarcely adequate
to address these kinds of problems. The warriors of old would have to be
replaced by the Microsoft generation with overlapping identities and iden-
tifications, “green” consciences, and preferences for individual rights over
collective obligations.
Jasmine H. Cheung-Gertler is an independent researcher on Canadian foreign policy
issues, working in Ottawa. This article developed out of a study of human security
carried out at Carleton University’s centre for security and defence studies. The
author would like to extend particular thanks and gratitude to Norman Hillmer for his
immense help and great generosity.
Among its proponents, soft power, non-coercive approaches to leader-
ship—based on mobilizing likeminded networks, empowering civil society,
utilizing information technologies, and facilitating the development of new
international norms—were better suited to meeting the challenges of 21st
century security than military posturing. The old debate between values and
interests in the conduct of Canadian foreign policy required revision.
Human security, championed by Lloyd Axworthy as minister for foreign
affairs between 1996 and 2000, served as a template for a new perspective
on Canada’s relations with the outside world that placed the rights, safety,
and lives of people first. The Ottawa convention to ban antipersonnel land-
mines and the Rome statute to establish a permanent international crimi-
nal court were considered to be notable successes for Canada’s human
security agenda.
HUMAN SECURITY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY?
When Canadians woke to the first dawn of the 21st century, the Y2K threat
had failed to materialize. Although the problem was overstated to begin
with, the episode demonstrated that new threats were not insurmountable
given foresight, preventive action, and international cooperation. Other
problems and transnational threats were less easily overcome and required
collective responses and commitments.An ambitious set of common objec-
tives, or “millennium development goals” (MDGs), announced by the UN
secretary general at the United Nations millennium summit in September
2000, demonstrated some movement in the direction of collective respon-
sibility. Many of the MDGs, such as the halving of extreme poverty by 2015,
universal access to primary education, gender equality, combating
HIV/AIDs, promoting environmental sustainability, and a global partner-
ship for sustainable development, reflected a distinctly human security per-
spective on the relationship between security, development, and human
rights. But the spirit of optimism generated by the MDGs soon dissipated.
After the heyday of human security in Canada under Axworthy’s lead-
ership, a changed domestic and international political climate challenged
the sustainability of the human security approach to foreign policy.
Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and
Washington, public policymaking adapted to a combination of fear and
threat that privileged public security, counterterrorism and defence expen-
ditures over human rights, foreign aid, and international development.
| 590 | International Journal | Summer 2007 |
| Jasmin H. Cheung-Gertler |
To continue reading
Request your trial