A Big League Player? is the fifteenth volume in the Canada Among Nations series published by The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. The coming of the millennium provides a convenient occasion to review Canada's performance in key areas of international relations and to contemplate future challenges to which foreign policy will be called upon to respond. Canada is distinct in its international persona--a member of the G-7, arecently re-elected non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, an actively engaged member of international alliances and multilateral organizations and yet is a relatively small-population country with an open, vulnerable economy. If Canada's international interests and objectivestend to range globally, its capabilities are rather more limited. Canadian foreign policy must deal with the profound challenges of a small, enthusiastic player playing in the biggest of the big leagues. This tension between Canadian foreign policy goals and capabilities is, arguably, most readily apparent in the three issue-areas of human security, economic security, and cultural diplomacy that represent the subject matter of this book. Canada's promoton of human security, which became thedefining theme of Canada's presidency of the Security Council during Febraury 1999, must respond to a complex world of sub-national conflict, unstable states, and nuclear proliferation. Canadian concern for economic security will have to address the very difficult trade and investment policyquestions on the agenda. Cultural diplomacy remains a weak 'third pillar' of the Liberal government's foreign policy, but may command increasing policy attention in order to resolve the ongoing Canadian quandaries regarding such key issues as international education and cultural industrialpolicy.

Fen Osler Hampson is the director of CIGI’s Global Security & Politics Program and professor at Carleton University. He is the co-author of Brave New Canada: Meeting the Challenge of a Changing World (2014) with Derek H. Burney.

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Michael Hart is Simon Reisman Chair in Trade Policy, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University. A former trade official in Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, he was the founding director of Carleton's Centre for Trade Policy and Law and is the author of numerous books and articles on international trade issues.

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