Canada's role as world power and its sense of itself in the global landscape has been largely shaped and defined over the past 100 years by the changing policies and personalities in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).

This engaging and provocative book brings together fifteen of the country's leading historians and political scientists to discuss a century of Canada's national interests and DFAIT's role in defining and pursuing them. Accomplished and influential analysts such as Jack Granatstein, Norman Hillmer, and Nelson Michaud, are joined by rising stars like Whitney Lackenbauer, Adam Chapnick, and Tammy Nemeth in commenting on the history and future implications of Canada's foreign policy.

In the National Interest: Canadian Foreign Policy and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 1909-2009, gives fresh insight into the Canada First concept in the 1920s, the North American security issues in the 1930s, Canada's vision for the United Nations, early security warnings in the Arctic, the rise of the international francophone community, conflicting continental visions over energy, and Canada/U.S. policy discussions. The impact of politicians and senior bureaucrats such as O.D. Skelton, Lester B. Pearson, Marcel Cadieux, Jules Leger, Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney are set against issues such as national defence, popular opinion, human rights, and energy production.

In the National Interest also provides a platform for discussion about Canada's future role on the international stage. With its unique combination of administrative and policy history, In the National Interest is in a field of its own.

With Contributions By: Michael K. Carroll Adam Chapnick Greg Donaghy Robin S. Gendron J.L. Granatstein Michael Hart Norman Hillmer Peter Kikkert P. Whitney Lackenbauer Heather Metcalfe Nelson Michaud Tammy Nemeth Galen Roger Perras Stephen J. Randall Elizabeth Riddell-Dixon

Greg Donaghy is Head of the Historical Section at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and General Editor of its series, Documents on Canadian External Relations. His publications include Tolerant Allies: Canada and the United States, 1963-68, and the edited collection (with Patricia Roy) Contradictory Impulses: Canada and Japan in the 20th Century.

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Michael K. Carroll is an assistant professor of History at Grant MacEwan University. He is also the author of Pearson's Peacekeepers: Canada and the United Nations Emergency Force, 1956-1967.

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Norman Hillmer is professor of history and international affairs at Carleton University and is a former senior historian at the Department of National Defence. Granatstein and Hillmer have collaborated on five books, including "First Drafts: Eyewitness Accounts from Our Past" and the national bestseller "Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada’s Leaders".

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Galen Roger Perras is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Ottawa. He holds an MA in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada and a PhD in History from the University of Waterloo. Specializing in Canadian-American relations and North American military history, he has more than 40 academic publications located in academic journals and edited monographs. His major publications include: Franklin Roosevelt and the Origins of the Canadian-American Security Alliance, 1933–1945: Necessary But Not Necessary Enough (Praeger 1998); and Stepping Stones to Nowhere: The Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and American Military Strategy, 1867–1945 (University of British Columbia Press & Naval Institute Press, 2003). The University of Ottawa selected him as an Educator of the Year in 2008–09.

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J. L. GRANATSTEIN is the author of over 60 books, including the bestsellersWho Killed The Canadian Military? and Whose War Is It?, along withYankee Go Home?, Victory 1945 and The Generals, which won the J. W. Dafoe Prize and the UBC Medal for Canadian Biography. A distinguished research professor of history emeritus at York University, he was a member of the RMC Board of Governors and is chair of the Advisory Council of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. He lives in Toronto. Visit Granatstein atwww.whosewar.ca.

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Adam Chapnick est directeur adjoint de l’éducation au Collège des Forces canadiennes et professeur agrégé des études de la défense au Collège militaire royal du Canada. Ses domaines de recherche comprennent l’histoire politique et la politique étrangère du Canada ainsi que l’enseignement et l’apprentissage. M. Chapnick est l’auteur de plusieurs ouvrages. M. Chapnick poursuit ses recherches sur l’histoire des expériences canadiennes au Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies.

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P. Whitney Lackenbauer is associate professor and chair of the Department of History at St. Jerome's University in the University of Waterloo, and a faculty associate with the LCMSDS.

Peter Kikkert recently completed his M.A. at the University of Waterloo and is a Ph.D. student in history at the University of Western Ontario.

 

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Peter Kikkert recently completed his M.A. at the University of Waterloo and is a Ph.D. student in history at the University of Western Ontario.

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Robin S. Gendron is assistant professor, history, Dalhousie University.

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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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Tammy Nemeth's profile page

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Stephen J. Randall is dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, and professor of history, University of Calgary, and the author of many books, including Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies.

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Elizabeth Riddell-Dixon has spent three decades researching and writing about law of the sea policy. She is a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, University of Toronto, and Professor Emerita in the Department of Political Science at Western University.

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