The Politics of War: Canada’s Afghanistan Mission, 2001–14 by Jean-Christophe Boucher and Kim Nossal
| Published date | 01 September 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702018794201 |
| Author | Eugene Lang |
| Date | 01 September 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Westad’s concluding section, ‘‘The World the Cold War Made,’’ provides an
assessment of the decade that followed Gorbachev’s resignation in December 1991
and the end of the Soviet Union. One might wish he could have resisted yet another
assertion that the United States ‘‘won the Cold War,’’ when his own analysis
demonstrates how global forces, changing technology, enlightened and radical
leadership in Central and Eastern Europe, the power of the Third World, among
other factors outside the control of Washington—and certainly beyond Ronald
Reagan’s understanding—created a different dynamic. As he himself writes, ‘‘[t]his
book has shown that the main reason the Cold War ended was that the world as a
whole was changing’’ (620).
Westad also observes that there were other winners and losers in the Cold War.
China, he suggests, was to some extent one of the beneficiaries: It has emerged as
one of the strongest powers in a more multi-polar world. At the same time, the
regions which bore the brunt of hot Cold War military action suffered the most
from a world divided into two poles: Korea, Indochina, Afghanistan, Africa, and
Central America.
Since this review is written for a ‘‘Canadian,’’ though international, journal, one
caveat is in order for Canadian readers: there is not a single reference to Canada.
Thus, the important Cold War issues for Canadians—membership in NATO, the
establishment of the UN, the resolution of the Suez Crisis, the building of the Joint
Arctic Weather Stations and the DEW Line, or the establishment of NORAD, to
mention only some of the pre-1960s issues—make no appearance here. This is a
minor quibble, written by a Canadian scholar who has spent some four decades
trying to offseta US-centric scholarly orientation in the writing of international
relations. Such a quibble should not detract from one of the finest and most
important volumes in international relations published in many years.
Jean-Christophe Boucher and Kim Nossal
The Politics of War: Canada’s Afghanistan Mission, 2001–14
Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017. 282 pp. (paper).
ISBN: 978-0-7748-3628-9
Reviewed by: Eugene Lang (eugene.lang@queensu.ca), School of Policy Studies, Queen’s
University; Fellow, Canadian Global Affairs Institute, Canada
Henry Kissinger once wrote, ‘‘Foreign policy is in danger of turning into a
subdivision of domestic politics[.]’’
1
It is a sentiment that reflects the chief argument
in The Politics of War: Canada’s Afghanistan Mission, 2001–14, by Jean-Christophe
Boucher and Kim Nossal.
A critical assessment of political leadership during Canada’s thirteen years in
Afghanistan, the book’s thesis boils down to the notion that all of the political
parties represented in the House of Commons used Canada’s various military
1. Henry Kissinger, Years of Renewal (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000), 1078
492 International Journal 73(3)
To continue reading
Request your trial