Foreign policy is a tricky business. Typically, challenges and proposed solutions are perceived as disparate unless a leader can amass enough support for an idea that creates alignment. And because the prime minister is typically the one proposing that idea, Canadian foreign policy can be analyzed through the actions of these leaders.

Statesmen, Strategists, and Diplomats explores how prime ministers from Sir John A. Macdonald to Justin Trudeau have shaped foreign policy by manipulating government structures, adopting and rejecting options, and imprinting their personalities on the process. Contributors consider the impact of a wide range of policy decisions – increasing or decreasing department budgets, forming or ending alliances, and pursuing trade relationships – particularly as these choices affected the bureaucracies that deliver foreign policy diplomatically and militarily.

This innovative focus is destined to trigger a new appreciation for the formidable personal attention and acuity involved in a successful approach to external affairs.

John R. English's profile page

PATRICE DUTIL is the author or editor of a dozen books, a frequent commentator on political and policy issues, and the host of over 100 podcasts in the Canadian history series “Witness to Yesterday.” He is a professor in the department of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. He founded and for five years edited the Literary Review of Canada and served as president of the Champlain Society for seven years. He is a senior fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Among his books are Ballots and Brawls: The 1867 Canadian General Election, Prime Ministerial Power in Canada: Its Origins under Macdonald, Laurier and Borden and Macdonald at 200: New Perspectives and Legacies (edited with Roger Hall).

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"[Statesmen, Strategists, and Diplomats] is extensive in its range, exhaustive in its scope, and impressive in its scholarship and insight into Canada’s political leaders since 1867."

Social History

"Statesmen, Strategists & Diplomats is a much-needed study that has been brought to fruition by Patrice Dutil."

Canadian Military History

Statesmen, Strategists, and Diplomats brings together insightful analysis of Canadian foreign policy from the top down. This approach has regrettably fallen out of fashion in recent times, but Dutil and his collaborators remind us how our most senior decision makers influence the direction of the country on the global stage.

Literary Review of Canada