Review: Misplaced Distrust
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200405900222 |
| Author | M. D. J. Morgan |
| Published date | 01 June 2004 |
| Date | 01 June 2004 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
Axworthy's
"soft
power" doctrine
on
human
rights
and
the current
gov-
ernment's
foreign policy
review.
In
this
American's
eyes,
this
question
is
also
crucial
when
looking
into
the
Bush
administration's
abuse
of
Canada
over
Ottawa's
unwillingness
to
support
the
war in
Iraq,
Washington's initial
refusal
to
open corporate
bidding
on
Iraq-based
contracts
to
Canadian
companies,
and
security
issues
related
to
the
common
border.
Finally,
an
interesting
comparison
between American-
and
Canadian-based
foreign-policy approaches,
beyond the
scope
of
this
review
but
sparked
by
this
book, is
that
at
least
Canada
has
integrated
the
values
of
peace
and
human
security
into
its
foreign policy agenda.
For
example,
when
Women
Strike
for
Peace,
the
American analogue
to
Canada's
Voice
of
Women,
demonstrated
over
similar
issues
at
the
same
time
in
Washington,
it
was
brought
before
the
HUAC
Committee,
in
the
days
of
Senator
Joseph
McCarthy,
for
being
"Un-American."
The
continuing
debate
over
how
to
represent
Canadian
values
in
for-
eign
policy
is,
therefore,
both
timely
and
timeless.
Melissa
Haussman/Suffolk
University,
Boston
MISPLACED DISTRUST
Policy
Networks
and
the
Environment
in
France,
the
United
States,
and
Canada
Lric
Montpetit
Vancouver:
UBC
Press,
2003.
xii,
154
pp,
$75.00
cloth
(ISBN
0-7748-
0908-6),
$24.95 paper
(ISBN
0-7748-0909-4,
July
2004)
C
ynicism
about
government
and
the
civil service has
been
deeply
rooted
in
the
public
mind
for
so
long
that
it
is
now
cliche.
We
hardly
need to
read
another
op-ed
piece
or
book
decrying
wasteful
bureaucracies,
corrupt
politicians
or
self-serving
interest
groups.
Every
possible
argument
in
this
line
has
already
been
made.
For this
reason
it
is
refreshing to
encounter
a
book
that
makes
precisely
the
opposite
case:
citizens
in
the
west
should
have
more
faith
in
their
governments,
not
less.
Lric
Montpetit
bases
this
claim
on
purely
pragmatic
reasoning.
Popular
cynicism
would
be
justified
if
the
process
of
governance
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Spring
2004
471
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