Pinchpenny Diplomacy
| Date | 01 March 1999 |
| Author | Kim Richard Nossal |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209905400107 |
| Published date | 01 March 1999 |
| Subject Matter | Essay |
KIM
RICHARD
NOSSAL
Pinchpenny
diplomacy
The
decline
of'good
international
citizenship'
in
Canadian
foreign
policy
A
SPIRITED
DEBATE
HAS
EMERGED IN
CANADA
IN
THE
1990S
IN
BOTH
the
academic
and
the
policy
communities
about
the
nature
of
Canadian
foreign
and
defence
policies
in
the
post-cold
war
era.
The
debate
focuses
on
how
Canadian
foreign
and
defence policies
should
be
characterized;
the
doctrinal
bases
(if
any)
that
underlie
contemporary
foreign
policy
in
Canada;
and, of
course,
the
appropriate
approach
to policy.
Given
the
tra-
ditional
concerns
of
Canadians
about
the
role
of
their
country
in
the
world,'
it
is
perhaps
not
surprising
that
much
of
the
debate
revolves
around
whether
Canada's
role
in
world
affairs
is
changing
and,
if
so,
how.
Of
particular
concern
is
the
fate
of
internationalism,
the
dominant
for-
eign
policy
idea
in
Canada
for
much
of
the
cold war
era.
2
Some
argue
that
it
is
simply
no
longer
appropriate:
to
use
the
evocative
analogy
suggested
Professor
of
Political
Science,
McMaster
Universit)
Hamilton;
author
ofThe
Patterns
of
World
Politics
(1998)
andThe
Politics
of
Canadian
Foreign
Policy
(3rded,
1997).
1
For
a
good
discussion
of
the importance
of'role'
in
Canadian
foreign
policy,
see Mau-
reen
Appel
Molot,
'Where
do
we,
or
should
we,
or
can
we
sit?
A
review
of
Canadian
for-
eign
policy literature,'
InternationalJournal
of
Canadian
Studies
1-2(spring/fall
199o),
77-96;
and David
R.
Black
and
Heather
Smith,
'Notable exceptions?
New and
arrested
directions
in
Canadian
foreign
policy
literature,'
Canadian
Journal
of
Political
Science
26(December
1993),
745-74.
2
For
a
discussion
of
dominant
ideas
in
Canadian
foreign
policy,
see
Kim
Richard
Nos-
sal,
The
Politics
of
Canadian
Foreign
Policy
(3rd ed;
Scarborough
ON:
Prentice
Hall
Canada
1997),
chap.
5;
the
best
survey
of
Canadian
multilateralism
remains
Tom
Keat-
ing,
Canada
and
World Order:
The
Multilateralist
Tradition
in
Canadian
Foreign
Policy
(Toronto:
McClelland
and
Stewart
1993).
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter
1998-9
Pinchpenny
diplomacy
by
Fen
Osler
Hampson
and
Christopher
J.
Maule,
Canada
may
be like
Sunset
Boulevards
Norma Desmond,
the
star
of
the silent
movies left
behind
by
profound
change. Some
applaud
what
they
see
as
a
more
hard-headed
calculus
of
Canadian
'self-interest'
while
some decry
what
they
see
as
a
'retreat
from
internationalism.'
And
some
argue
that
inter-
nationalism
has
not
disappeared
in
Canada.
The
purpose
of
this
article
is
to
contribute
to
our
understanding
of
the
changes
in
train
in
Canadian
foreign
policy
in
the
1990s.
The
dual-
ism
usually
used
to
assess
the
orientation
of
foreign policy
-
interna-
tionalism
or
isolationism
-
tends
to
be
drawn
from
a
parallel
debate
in
the
United
States
which
is
not
fully
applicable
to
the
Canadian
con-
text.
Although
the
1990s
have
witnessed
a
progressive
retreat
from
internationalism,
this
does
not
mean
that
what C.P.
Stacey
once
called
the
'tough
weed'
of
isolationism
has
again
taken
root
in
Canada;
4
iso-
lationism is
an
inappropriate description
for
Canada's
foreign
policy
orientation
in
the
1990s. At
the
same
time,
however,
other interpreta-
tions
of
Canada's
external
policy
do
not
do
justice
to
the
profound
changes
that
are
occurring.
Instead
of
such
flattering
notions
as
'niche
diplomacy,'
what
has
occurred
over
the
course
of
the
1990s
is
pinch-
penny
diplomacy,
marked
by
a
meanness
of
spirit
that
delegitimizes
the
voluntaristic
acts
of
'good
international
citizenship'
that
are
essential
components
of
internationalism.
CANADIAN
INTERNATIONALISM
IN
THE
1990S:
JUST RESTING
OR
PINING
FOR
THE
FJORDS?
How
'alive'
is
internationalism
in
contemporary
Canadian
foreign
pol-
icy?
Two
broad
schools
of
thought
seem
to
have
emerged.
One
argues
that
internationalism
in
Canadian diplomacy
is
alive
and
well.
This
is
certainly the
government
line
-
and
the
line
of
those who
tend
to
inter-
pret
foreign policy
using
the
government's
criteria.
This
argument
stresses
the
continuity
in
Canadian
foreign
policy,
linking
contempo-
rary
trends with
a
long
tradition
that
dates
back
to
the
halcyon
days
of
3
Fen
Osler
Hampson
and
Christopher
J.
Maule,
'After
the
cold
war,'
in
Hampson
and
Maule,
eds,
Canada
Among Nations
199o-91:
After
the
Cold
War
(Ottawa:
Carleton
University
Press
1991), 2;
for
an
excellent
reconsideration
of
the
Sunset
Boulevard
analogy
see Leigh
Sarty,
'Sunset Boulevard revisited?
Canadian
internationalism
after
the
cold
war,'
International
Journal
48(autumn
1993),
749-77.
4
C.P.
Stacey,
'From
Meighen
to
King:
the reversal
of
Canadian
external
policies,
1921-1923,'
Transactions
of
the
Royal
Society
of
Canada,
series
IV,
vol
7,
1969,
246.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter
1998-9
89
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