Muddled Views on Middlepowermanship
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206602100308 |
| Published date | 01 September 1966 |
| Date | 01 September 1966 |
| Subject Matter | Review Article |
366
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
Stephen
Clarkson,
University
of
Toronto
Muddled
Views
on
Middlepowermanshlp
In
these days
of
"communications
overload,
as
3ournals
proliferate
like
unrepentant hamsters
and newspapers
seem
to
fatten
on
our
doorsteps,
any
new
book
that
puts
a
claim
on
the
reading
public's
time
has
a moral
obligation
to
be
good.
When
a
book
bills
itself
as
a
"collection of
provocative
statements
by
some
of
the
most
stimulating
people
m
the
field
of
Canadian
foreign
policy"
is
attrac-
tively
designed,
and
sponsored
by
the
Canadian
Institute
of
International
Affairs
to
sell
at
$2.00
for
a
paperback
edition,
it
has
an
even
greater
duty
to
excel,
for
it
will
probably
be
read
by
thousands
of
that
mythical
general
public
that
is
the
target
of
so
many
editors'
endeavours.
Wide
circulation
of
Canada's
Role
as
a
Middle
Powerl
will
be
a
pity
for
this
compendium of
twelve
articles
does
not
approach
the
standards
of
what
should
make
up
a
well-edited
collective
effort
on
Canadian
foreign
policy
This
is
not a
case
of
the
reviewer
expecting
of
a
volume
something
its editor
and
publisher
did
not
intend
to
provide.
I
would
agree, first
of
all,
with
the dust
jacket
as
to
the
desirability
of
"provocative
statements"
that
"analyse
the
assumptions
on
which
our
foreign
policy
is
based"
and
secondly
with
the
editor's
expressed
hope
that
these
papers
would
lead to
a "critical examination
of
questions
of
foreign
policy
Unfortunately
these
two
aims
of
providing
a
basic
critique
of
Canadian
external
relations
and
studies
of
particular
policies
are
realized only
very imperfectly
While
one
cannot
expect
a
collection
of
short
papers
to
have
the
thematic
unity
of
a monograph,
it
is
surely
not unduly demanding to
expect
a
C.I.I.A.
publication
on
Canada's
international
role
to
deal
incisively
with
at
least
the
major
assumptions
underlying our foreign
policy
The only
postulate
that
is
thoroughly
attacked
is
the
mythology
of
Canadian
foreign
policy
Blair
Fraser
neatly
establishes
that
the
myth
of
Canada
the
Mediator was
a
Churchillian
sop
for
King
the
international
busybody
Whether
Canada's
finest
hour
as
linchpin
was
at
Suez,
as
he
claims,
or
in Korea,
as
Chester
Ronning
maintains,
our
doubtlessly
effective
mediation
clearly
depended
on
the
coincidence
of
unusual circumstances:
general
U.N.
agreement
plus
the
concurrence
of
the
great
Powers.
Donald
Gordon shows
that
even
Canada's
role
as
the
Peacekeeper
appears
to
be
more
fiction
than
fact,
since
our
independent
peacekeeping
is
conditioned
not
just
by
the
great
powers'
approval
but
by
their
financial
and
material
assistance
as
well.
If
these
contributions
are
effective
in
debunking the
conventional
ideology
of
Canadian
foreign
policy
they
are
less
successful
m
showing
the
reader what
the
realities
of
Canada's
"middle
power"
role
really
are.
What
does
"middlepowermanship"
really
involve
7
Despite
the
book's
1
Canada's
Role
as
Middle
Power
Edited
by
J.
King
Gordon.
Toronto:
Canadian
Institute
of
International
Affairs,
1966,
212pp.
(cloth
$3.50,
paper
$2.00)
To continue reading
Request your trial