Multilateral solutions to bilateral problems: The 1972 Stockholm conference and Canadian foreign environmental policy
| Date | 01 March 2015 |
| Author | Michael W Manulak |
| Published date | 01 March 2015 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702014546338 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essays |
International Journal
2015, Vol. 70(1) 4–22
!The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702014546338
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Scholarly Essay
Multilateral solutions
to bilateral problems:
The 1972 Stockholm
conference and Canadian
foreign environmental
policy
Michael W Manulak
Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Abstract
Based on archival sources, this article analyzes the Canadian contribution to the
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. It finds that continental
imperatives were of pivotal importance in the development of Canadian foreign envir-
onmental policy at the Stockholm conference and its preparatory meetings. In the
context of the passage of Canada’s Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, Canadian
diplomats set out to use the 1972 conference as a tool to fuel the progressive
development of international environmental law and to generate support for a set
of marine pollution principles. Following the conference, Canadian officials employed
the gains achieved at Stockholm to legitimize and institutionalize the government’s
unilateral Arctic anti-pollution measures. In so doing, the government of Pierre Elliott
Trudeau sought multilateral solutions to bilateral problems in the environmental
sphere.
Keywords
Canada, Canadian foreign policy, Stockholm Conference, United Nations, environmen-
tal politics, international organizations, Canadian foreign environmental policy,
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
In the small but growing literature on Canadian foreign environmental policy, it is
frequently noted that Canada played a leading role at the 1972 United Nations
Corresponding author:
Michael W Manulak, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON N2L 6C2,
Canada.
Email: michael.manulak@gmail.com
Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE).
1
Although this conventional
wisdom is often repeated, no detailed treatments of Canada’s policies at the
Stockholm conference exist. We have no explanation, for example, for why the
government elected to play such an active role and—assuming that Canada was
indeed a leader—why Canadian diplomacy was so effective. Since the Stockholm
conference remains a pivotal event in the historical development of current patterns
of global environmental governance, a detailed treatment of Canadian policy
toward the conference should reveal much about the contribution of Canadian
negotiators to shaping cooperative measures in the environment field.
On the basis of a detailed archival investigation and a program of interviews,
this article closely analyzes Canadian diplomacy at UNCHE and its preparatory
meetings. Demonstrating the importance of continental considerations in
Canadian diplomacy, it supports the observations of analysts who have highlighted
the centrality of Canada–United States relations in Canadian foreign environmen-
tal policy-making.
2
It adds to this literature by demonstrating that continental
considerations have also been important determinants of Canadian behaviour in
multilateral forums. To help manage an asymmetrical bilateral relationship, the
government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau engaged in strategic multilateralism to aid in
the realization of its pollution abatement objectives vis-a
`-vis the United States. To
this end, Canadian diplomacy contributed to the progressive development of inter-
national law and to a set of principles for combating marine pollution. Canada’s
intentions and objectives can be observed in the issues it prioritized at Stockholm,
the extent of the political and analytical resources employed to achieve its ends, and
its actions in the years following the conference.
This article begins with a discussion of the main motivations behind Canada’s
Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act (AWPPA), legislation necessitated by an
anticipated increase in oil tanker traffic in Arctic waters and instigated by the 1969
voyage of the S.S. Manhattan oil tanker through the Northwest Passage. It pro-
vides detail on the reaction of American policymakers to Canada’s anti-pollution
1. See, for instance, Steven Bernstein, ‘‘International institutions and the framing of Canada’s climate
change policy: Mitigating or masking the integrity gap,’’ in Eugene Lee and Anthony Perl, eds., The
Integrity Gap: Canada’s Environmental Policy and Institutions (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2003), 77–
79; Robert Paehlke, ‘‘Uniquely positioned: Global economic integration and Canada-U.S. envir-
onmental relations,’’ in Philippe G. Le Prestre and Peter J. Stoett, eds., Bilateral Ecopolitics:
Continuity and Change in Canadian-American Environmental Relations (Aldershot: Ashgate,
2006), 238. The importance of Canada’s role at Stockholm is noted in John Roberts, ‘‘Meeting
the environmental challenge,’’ in Thomas S. Axworthy and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, eds., Towards a
Just Society: The Trudeau Years (Markham: Viking, 1990), 160; and Clyde Sanger, ‘‘Environment
and development,’’ International Journal 28, no. 1 (winter 1972/1973): 114.
2. See, for example, Peter Stoett and Philippe Le Prestre, ‘‘From neglect to concern: The study of
Canadian-American ecopolitics,’’ in Le Prestre and Stoett, eds., Bilateral Ecopolitics, 2; Peter J.
Stoett, ‘‘Canadian international environmental policy: Context and dimensions,’’ in James
Bickerton and Alain-G. Gagnon, eds., Canadian Politics, 5th ed. (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 2009), 345–346; David B. Hunter, ‘‘The future of U.S. climate change policy,’’ in
Steven Bernstein, Jutta Brunne
´e, David G. Duff, and Andrew J. Green, eds., A Globally Integrated
Climate Policy for Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), 96–98; Roberts, ‘‘Meeting
the environmental challenge,’’ in Axworthy and Trudeau, eds., Towards a Just Society, 163.
Manulak 5
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