Canada Foreign Policy
Canada Foreign Policy
After September 11th there was the reemergence of security as a top priority for policy makers: both U.S. and Canadian. In practice, the Bush administration has changed the way nations and international institutions do business. This Bush administration after 9/11 was not afraid to harshly criticize other nations if in their eyes that nation wasnt doing business they way the United States saw fit. The U.S. more or less “drew the line in the sand” and divided the world into two categories: “good” and “evil.” This sharp stance held by the U.S. thus presented their allies with a dilemma and therefore nations needed to decide how closely they would ally themselves with the increasingly radical and aggressive United States.
Afghanistan
A month after the attacks of September 11th (October 7th 2001) , the Bush administration began the “war on terror” and the initial battleground of this war was Afghanistan. Nations involved in the invasion and campaign against al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime were major NATO members: United Kingdom. Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Italy and France. Overall there was a total of 136 countries who offered some form of military assistance to Operation Enduring Freedom. By 2002, Canada had 750 soldiers deployed along U.S. troops as part of the U.S. Army task force. Like Bosnia and Kosovo, the U.S. forces and Canadian forces combined to form a multilateral fighting force, in Afghanistan “the Canadians were fully integrated under U.S. command.”
(Clarkson, Banda)
In Afghanistan not only was the Canadian response supportive of the U.S., the Canadian reaction was almost identical. Afghanistan was viewed as yet another example of Canada being subservient to the United States in areas concerning defense and foreign policy. One possible reason for this subservient behavior by Ottawa can be attributed to economic motives. “Despite its slow initial response, Canadas intervention in Afghanistan thus wrote another chapter in a long story of subservient defense cooperation with its neighbor in which Ottawa collaborates, spending as little as it can manage while still expecting economic favors from Washington in return.” (Clarkson, Banda) It has been noted that Canada often backs the U.S. in military endeavors expecting economic favors from the United States. In the case of Afghanistan and the War on Terror, Canada was “met with higher U.S. duties on British Columbian lumber and prairie wheat.” (Clarkson, Banda)
In other NATO endeavors, economics played a far smaller role, thus it should be noted the economic reasons are not the only reasons for Canada-U.S. cooperation. The historical relationship of Canada and the U.S. as NATO members is one of mutual defense concerns and participation in numerous multilateral military units. It may sound odd, but many times in history Canada has played the “little brother” role to the United States for defense reasons and in international peacekeeping.
Canadas reaction to the post 9/11 policies of the United States remained in essence, the same as always, generally supportive for the United States. Of course, the support for the U.S. by Canada is not ever present, certain U.S. policy would compel Canada to differ with U.S. military action. Post 9/11, the United States policy is characterized by pre-emptive military action, a doctrine Canada is far less comfortable in participating in. One notable and visible sign that Ottawa is not as committed to military action as Washington is Canadas military budget. Although Canada usually sides with the United States we are seeing and will no doubt continue to see a trend of Canada aligning themselves less and less with Washington policy, enter the war in Iraq.
Iraq
In 2003, the U.S. was no longer in favor of using diplomacy when dealing with Iraq. The war in Afghanistan was the Bush administrations first application of their new preemptive military policy.