This is really interesting. What do our resident academics know about Jennifer Welsh? Has anybody read her "At Home in the World: Canada's Global Vision for the 21st Century"? From this report it could presage some interesting things for you lot in uniform, not necessarily all bad.
It also seems to say something about the PM's view about the bodies in Foreign Affairs. Hope it doesn't delay the policy release.
canada news
Friday, Feb 04, 2005
Martin outsources search for national identity to university academic
OTTAWA (CP) - Paul Martin tossed his hands up in frustration over his government's review of Canadian foreign policy and has asked an Oxford University scholar to inject it with a bold, new vision for the country.
The prime minister concluded after a series of in-house drafts that his government's review failed to provide that vision, The Canadian Press has learned. The task was subcontracted last month to Jennifer Welsh, a Saskatchewan-born Rhodes scholar who is examining the work and offering suggestions, say sources close to Martin.
The Canadian expatriate is known in foreign-policy circles for her Canada-as-model-citizen concept - a philosophy that touches on everything from the military and foreign aid, to changing the relationship with the United States.
That broad-based philosophy was precisely what the prime minister felt was lacking in drafts produced by bureaucrats and political staff, who a year ago were tasked with charting Canadian foreign policy for the early 21st century.
"(Martin's) not satisfied enough with the story line. It's like, 'What is the organizing principle here?' " said a senior government official.
"I think the main issue is (he's) saying, 'Let's have a fresh pair of eyes that might give it a little more pizzazz.' "
The fresh eyes in question belong to Welsh, who teaches international relations at Oxford and has lived in England for the last five years.
She is also the author of a book - At Home in the World: Canada's Global Vision for the 21st Century - read by both Martin and Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew.
The book encourages Canadians to escape their traditional mind set about how they relate to the United States and the rest of the world.
Welsh says Canada must grow up and stop defining itself in relation to the U.S., which will only lead to knee-jerk pro-or anti-Americanism that fails in both cases to serve this country well.
She says the low point came in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, when U.S. President George W. Bush touched off a furor by failing to mention Canada in an address to Congress.
"It was a raw and unattractive display of our national inferiority complex," she wrote.
"How could we turn an international crisis, an impending war, into an opportunity to navel-gaze and wring our hands over our lack of influence with Washington?
"How small of Canada, I thought."
If it simply strived to be a so-called model citizen in the world, Canada could, she argues, make the best possible choices on things like military deployment and foreign aid, free from the hand-wringing and anxieties over whether we're too much or too little like the U.S.
Instead, Welsh says we should make decisions based on Canadian needs and the needs of countries where we're involved. In other words, we should start worrying about simply making the right choices, she says.
The model-citizen concept cuts across the political spectrum and can be applied to virtually any cause.
Conservatives would take heart, for instance, in Welsh's conclusion that Canada should join the U.S. missile shield. The system is being built with or without Canada, she says, and the federal government has a moral duty to protect its citizens with the best available technology.
She also calls for investments in the armed forces, which she calls a crucial tool of Canada's foreign policy.
She and the Liberal prime minister are on the same page when it comes to just what Canada's role should be in the world.
They agree that Canada's new international niche should be democracy-building, and helping failing or struggling states build judicial and political systems.
The principles in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are an example, Martin said recently, of how to build a peaceful country from the ashes of war.
"Two nations historically at war with each other - the French and the English - came together to found a new country and two religions, Catholic and the various Protestant religions . . . found a way to work together," Martin said during a recent trip to Asia.
"We never sought to form a melting pot, because we always understood that respect for each other was a fundamental tenet of what Canadians were all about. . . .
"I believe that we have built one of the strongest countries in the world and certainly a country that the rest of the world can use as a model."
To Martin, foreign policy is one area where he's winning plaudits and has made numerous foreign trips based on his promise to expand Canada's role internationally.
As soon as he took office he ordered a review of Canadian foreign, military and trade policy.
The last one conducted by the federal government was in 1995, just after the Cold War and dismissed as outdated in the fast-changing international context.
Welsh declined to be interviewed about the foreign-policy review, saying in an e-mail she had a "conflicting commitment."
But in an interview posted on the federal government's Website, she said she wanted Canadians to stop thinking about their country in relative size to others.
"I introduced this idea of the model citizen because I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the idea of Canada as a middle power," she said.
"I increasingly think a huge aspect of Canadian foreign policy is simply being what we are, which is a highly successful model of a liberal democracy."
The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment on Welsh's involvement.
© The Canadian Press, 2005
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