The fragile authoritarians: China, Russia, and Canadian foreign policy

DOI10.1177/0020702020968941
Date01 December 2020
Published date01 December 2020
AuthorLeigh Sarty
Subject MatterScholarly Essay
Scholarly Essay
The fragile
authoritarians: China,
Russia, and Canadian
foreign policy
Leigh Sarty
Scholar in Residence, Global Affairs Canada, and Senior
Fellow, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs,
Carleton University
Abstract
This paper examines how China and Russia play into the opportunities and constraints
that shape Canadian foreign policy. While both countries contribute significantly to the
challenges of twenty-first-century world politics, neither is a juggernaut: both face
serious internal difficulties and fear the West in ways that should temper our preoc-
cupation with relative decline. The paper concludes that, by seeing these authoritarian
powers as more fragile than frightening, Canada can worry less about how engag ement
might be seen to reward bad behaviour and more about beneficial outcomes in areas
that serve Canadian interests.
Keywords
China, Russia, Canadian foreign policy, international order, authoritarianism
More than a quarter-century ago, just before joining the Department of External
Affairs (as it was then still called), I wrote an article suggesting we think carefully
about Canada’s international prospects after the Cold War. My target was the
then-prevalent notion that a world in which superpower competition had given
Corresponding author:
Leigh Sarty, Global Affairs Canada, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0G2, Canada.
Email: leigh.sarty@international.gc.ca
International Journal
2020, Vol. 75(4) 614–628
!The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0020702020968941
journals.sagepub.com/home/ijx

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