The Middle Power Project

The Middle Power Project describes a defining period of Canadian and international history. During the Second World War, Canada transformed itself from British dominion to self-proclaimed middle power. It became an active, enthusiastic, and idealistic participant in the creation of one of the longest lasting global institutions of recent times – the United Nations. This was, in many historians’ opinions, the beginning of a golden age in Canadian diplomacy. Chapnick suggests that the golden age may not have been so lustrous. During the UN negotiations, Canadian policymakers were more cautious than idealistic. The civil service was inexperienced and often internally divided. Canada’s significant contributions were generally limited to the much neglected economic and social fields. Nevertheless, creating the UN changed what it meant to be Canadian. Rightly or wrongly, from the establishment of the UN onwards, Canadians would see themselves as leading internationalists. Based on materials not previously available to Canadian scholars, The Middle Power Project presents a critical reassessment of the traditional and widely accepted account of Canada’s role and interests in the formation of the United Nations. It will be be read carefully by historians and political scientists, and will be appreciated by general readers with an interest in Canadian and international history.

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - Region: Other States, grade: 73, University of Portsmouth, course: International Relations, language: English, abstract: The term “middle power” has been consistently used in international relations and foreign policy analysis. However, scholars argue that it remains a “deceptively ambiguous” term (Chapnick, 1999, pp. 73-74). Australia and Canada among other nations constantly project themselves as middle powers in the world, and the leaders of these countries always express the significance of their role as middle powers in global affairs. Nevertheless, this paper observes that the term “middle power” is relative because states classified as middle powers in one approach could be small powers in another, and are dependent on their relative capacity to contribute to a given situation. This paper adopts a comparative analysis of Australia and Canada’s foreign policy ambitions, and examines whether either or both countries befit a middle power status on the world stage. Employing Cooper, Higgott and Nossal’s “behavioural” approach, the paper contends that Australia and Canada are middle powers in a multipolar world; taking into account the relative decline of US hegemony and relative rise of China and others such as the BRICS. The paper demonstrates that Australia and Canada’s middle power diplomacies sometimes adopt a coalition-building with other “like-minded” countries as a key feature that distinguishes them from other middle powers. The study is divided into three sections. The first section will establish the meaning and characteristics of a middle power. The second section seeks to investigate the agencies and structures that enable or limit a middle power’s foreign policy ambitions. The final section will conduct a comparative analysis of the middle power status of Australia and Canada.

Canadian Foreign Policy, as an academic discipline, is in crisis. Despite its value, CFP is often considered a “stale and pale” subfield of political science with an unfashionably state-centred focus. Canadian Foreign Policy asks why. Practising scholars investigate how they were taught to think about Canada and how they teach the subject themselves. Their inquiry shines a light on issues such as the casualization of academic labour and the relationship between study and policymaking. This nuanced collection offers not only a much-needed assessment of the boundaries, goals, and values of the discipline but also a guide to its revitalization.

As the twentieth century ended, Canada was completing its sixth term on the UN Security Council. A decade later, Ottawa’s attempt to return to the council was dramatically rejected by its global peers, leaving Canadians – and international observers – shocked and disappointed. Canada on the United Nations Security Council tells the story of that defeat and what it means for future campaigns, describing and analyzing Canada’s attempts since 1946, both successful and unsuccessful, to gain a seat as a non-permanent member. Impeccably researched and clearly written, this is the definitive history of the Canadian experience on the world’s most powerful stage.

From 1948 to 1966, the United Nations worked to create a common legal standard for human rights protection around the globe. Resisting Rights analyzes the Canadian government’s changing policy toward this endeavour from the 1940s to the 1970s, exploring how developments in international relations and evolving cultural attitudes within Canadian society created pressure on the federal government to overcome its initial reluctance to be bound by international human rights law. This timely study situates current policies within their historical context and debunks the myth that Canada has been at the forefront of international human rights policy since its inception.

The first volume of its kind to address concepts and theories of what constitutes a 'Middle Power' in the Middle East.

This is the first work to examine the importance and role of middle powers in the key phenomenon of contemporary international politics, the rise of China. Middle powers have capabilities immediately below those of great powers yet exercise influence far above most other states in global trade and as allies or adversaries in regional security, arms proliferation, and global governance. The book reviews China's middle-power relations with South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, Turkey, and Brazil. Contributors address how these diverse nations are responding to a rising China, the impact of Chinese power on each, and whether these states are being attracted to China or deterred by its new power and assertiveness. The book also explores how much (or how little) China, and for comparison the US, value middle powers and examines whether or not middle powers can actually shape China's behavior.