Canadian foreign policy since the end of World War II, in order to profit from a muscular continentalism, following American positions, influenced by the work of the Calgary School, academic thinkers often close to American Republican ideology.
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| [Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with former US President Donald Trump /Collected] |
Jocelyn Coulon, a political scientist, is someone I admire. He is serious, speaks in a controlled manner, and writes in a clear style; he has strong beliefs, but he never defends them in an overly contentious manner. He raises a qualified voice in an important area of public discourse that is frequently overlooked: foreign affairs.
Coulon worked as a journalist at Le Devoir from 1986 until 1999, focusing on the subject, before becoming a university researcher. In 2016-2017, he took the position of adviser to Stéphane Dion, the Trudeau government's Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was persuaded to return to research after this unsatisfactory experience.
Coulon identifies as a liberal. In a federal election won by New Democrat Thomas Mulcair in Outremont in 2007, he campaigned under this banner. Coulon's ideological decision has never prohibited him from expressing himself in total independence and without partisanship on his favorite subject: Canadian foreign policy, despite the fact that it colors his analyses. The political scientist expressed his dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's pledge to honorably return Canada to the international game after a decade of sad conservative diplomacy in A Selfie with Justin Trudeau (Quebec America) in 2018.
He makes the claim in Canada in Search of an International Identity (PUM, 2021, 216 pages), a compilation of texts on the issue published between 2004 and 2020. "seems incapable of understanding the new geography of international affairs and of setting a direction for Canadian diplomacy." he comments of Justin Trudeau. Its track record in this field is marked by "by imprecision, contradiction and illegibility" as well as "by mediocrity and provincialism" It's difficult to be harsher.
Coulon is likewise unyielding in his opposition to Harper's foreign policies. The Conservative prime minister reneged on liberal internationalism, which had defined Canadian foreign policy since the end of World War II, in order to profit from a muscular continentalism, following American positions, influenced by the work of the Calgary School, academic thinkers often close to American Republican ideology.
With the formation of the peacekeepers in 1956, Canada established itself as a mediator in international disputes as well as a proponent of multilateralism, international law, and peace. It chose to become directly involved in several military engagements on its own initiative. With Harper, the US becomes Canada's principal compass in the globe, resulting in militarism and a "moral reading of international relations" Europe and Africa are regarded as insignificant, the United Nations is regarded as a bother, and the battle against global warming is regarded as a barrier to economic progress.
According to opinion surveys, Trudeau vowed in 2015 to return to liberal internationalism, which is the favored foreign policy stance of Canadians and Quebecers. Without abandoning its vital and privileged relationship with the United States, Canada would re-engage in UN peacekeeping operations, assist the impoverished in developing countries, and fiercely combat global warming, according to Trudeau at the time.
Today, we see that it was merely for show. Coulon sums up Trudeau by saying, "When he said one thing, he often did the exact opposite. "He only dispatched a tiny number of troops to Mali, along with a few helicopters, for an insufficiently long deployment; it reduced foreign development funding and subsidized the oil sector.
He has thus, roughly speaking, taken up the Conservative program, scrambling it with fine, emotional speeches, thus contributing, like his predecessor, to "reducing to the rank of a small power" the Canadian middle power, which was previously regarded favorably in the world, thanks to more determined prime ministers like his father, who notably recognized communist China, and like Brian Mulroney, who notably recognized communist China, and who notably recognized communist China.
On August 17, Trudeau stated, "We have no plan to recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan," It's very understandable. The difficulty is that the Prime Minister does not appear to have a strategy for the rest of foreign relations. Instead, it reacted piecemeal, influenced by lobbyists from Canadian cultural communities, and with little respect for national interest. Coulon has every right to expect more. He can only be disappointed by the present election campaign, which answers none of these problems.
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The author Louis Cornellier graduated in literary studies from UQAM and teaches French, language and literature at the Lanaudière regional cégep in Joliette since 1991. He has been a columnist for Le Devoir since 1998.
[Translated from Le Devoir ]