The North Atlantic anchor: Canada and the Pacific Century
| Published date | 01 September 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702018792909 |
| Date | 01 September 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essays |
Scholarly Essay
The North Atlantic
anchor: Canada and
the Pacific Century
Kim Richard Nossal
Centre for International and Defence Policy, Queen’s University,
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
This paper surveys Canada’s ambivalence towards the Asia Pacific, and seeks to put that
ambivalence into the broader context of the dominant strategic perspective in Canada
that has privileged,and continues to privilege, a North Atlantic focus for Canadian foreign
and defence policy. It argues that Canada’s laggardly approach to Asia Pacific diplomacy
can be best explained by the widespread perception among Canadians—and their gov-
ernment—that the North Atlantic alliance should remain the key driver of Canadian
foreign and defence policy. Indeed, this geostrategic outlook has actually intensified
with the election of Donald J. Trump and his unorthodox approach to the transatlantic
alliance and the liberal international order. I argue that this North Atlantic outlook, so
dominant for so much of Canada’s history, will continue to anchor Canadian foreign and
defence policy, making Canada’s engagement in the Asia Pacific more problematic.
Keywords
Canada, China, diplomacy, foreign policy, Asia Pacific
If the centre of gravity of global politics during the 20th century—the ‘‘American
Century’’—was the North Atlantic, the centre of gravity in the 21st century prom-
ises to be the Asia Pacific, with the ‘‘American Century’’ replaced by the ‘‘Pacific
Century.’’
1
But Canada’s place in the Pacific Century is both paradoxical and
problematic. While Canadian governments routinely claim that Canada is a
International Journal
2018, Vol. 73(3) 364–378
!The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702018792909
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Corresponding author:
Kim Richard Nossal, Queen’s University, Centre for International and Defence Policy, 138 Union
St, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada.
Email: nossalk@queensu.ca
1. Thomas Wilkins, ‘‘The new ‘Pacific Century’ and the rise of China: An international relations
perspective,’’ Australian Journal of International Affairs 64, no. 4 (2010): 381–401; also Hillary
Rodham Clinton, ‘‘America’s Pacific century,’’ Foreign Policy, 11 October 2011. In this article, I
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