The Middle East in Canadian foreign policy and national identity formation
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/00207020211049326 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essay |
Scholarly Essay
International Journal
2021, Vol. 76(3) 359–383
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/00207020211049326
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The Middle East in Canadian
foreign policy and national
identity formation
Jeremy Wildeman
Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Abstract
While often overlooked, the Middle East has been a pivotal geographical and discursive
space in Canadian foreign policy and national identity formation. The region was the
birthplace of Canada’s liberal internationalist foreign policy identity, Pearsonianism, and
the national myths associated with it. The Middle East also appears to be where
Pearsonianism was later superseded by a more realist foreign policy approach, centred
on key bilateral relationships with Western countries and a shared sense of Western
civilisation. For reasons tied to identity formation and how Canadians perceive their
place in the world, the Middle East is therefore a deeply contested space in the
domestic arena and a site of deep divisions today. With the support of three con-
temporary case studies—Israel and Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and Iran—this paper
explores how Canada’s ties to the Middle East have shaped and continue to shape
Canada’s foreign policy, national identity, and place in the world.
Keywords
Canada, Middle East, identity, Canadian foreign policy, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Palestine,
Israel
The Middle East has, is, and will remain a region of vital geostrategic importance that
Canada cannot ignore. From a shipping vessel stuck in the Suez blocking world trade to
an airstrike on an Iranian general threatening to start a war, the Middle East offers
Corresponding author:
Jeremy Wildeman, Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa, 57 Louis-Pasteur
Private, Room 550, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
Email: jeremy.wildeman@gmail.com
constant reminders of its strategic imperative. A cradle of world civilisation and
birthplace of Canada’s largest religious denominations, the region has suffered from
devastating conflicts unleashed since the War on Terror in 2001 and Arab uprisings in
2011. So, despite being home to multiple energy superpowers that fuel world industrial
and military might, the Middle East has also become home to numerous fractured states
like Yemen, Libya, Iraq, and Syria, and resulting humanitarian crises. Though new
alliances like the 2020 Abraham Accords represent d´
etente among some regional
governments, these seem set to reinforce ongoing violence by further entrenching the
occupation and repression of the Palestinian and Sahrawi peoples. Meanwhile, the
extension of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and strategic investment in Iran offer new
points of contention in the brewing Sino–United States struggle for global hegemony.
Yet, the Middle East is more than a geopolitical arena that occasionally asserts itself
into Canadian policy priorities and imaginations. It is a region which, through in-
teraction and evolving Canadian attitudes toward it, has fundamentally shaped how
Canadians perceive themselves, their nation, and their place in the world. The Middle
East is where Canada really asserted itself in the 1950s as a sovereign power,
independent from Britain, and forged its Pearsonian identity as a peacemaker and
multilateralist state. This is an identity that still defines how many Canadians and non-
Canadians perceive Canada and how it should act in foreign affairs. Likewise, the
Middle East is where Canada’s liberal internationalist identity has been most contested,
and has been, as this paper describes, superseded by a more realist approach that is
centred on key bilateral relationships based on a sense of Western civilisation.
In fact,events tied to the MiddleEast have beenso influential on Canadain recent years
as to broadly affect Canadian governance, institutions, speech, and the composition of
political parties. The impact of these occurrences o n Canada may have as much to do with
the pivotal role the Middle East has played in the story of Canadian identity formation—
raising the stakes on every incident that takes place—as their own geostrategic logic and
other factors like community ties. Meanwhile, Can ada’s links to the region are mostly
underappreciated and poorly understood, given a combination of limited scholarly
analysis
1
and common assumptions about a topic that elicits incredible passion.
The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, it describes critical ways that the Middle
East has contributed to the development of Canada’s national identity. Second, it traces
how events in the Middle East continue to shape Canada and its ongoing identity
formation. The paper does this through five sections. Section one establishes how the
Middle East has mattered historically in Canadian politics and how Canada has
mattered in the region. Section two explores how Canada–Middle East engagement has
shaped the development of Canadian identity. Sections three, four, and five each use a
unique case study—Israel and Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and Iran—to offer contem-
porary examples of the Middle East’s importance to Canada, including how it continues
to shape Canadian domestic politics, identity, and external policy. In the process, the
1. Thomas Juneau, “A realist foreign policy for Canada in the Middle East,”International Journal 72, no. 3
(2017): 401.
360 International Journal 76(3)
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