Canada among Nations 2001

When Lloyd Axworthy became Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs in January 1996 he brought to his new cabinet portfolio a deep interest in international affairs and a strong desire to make a difference in a post-Cold War world that festered with brutal civil wars--the lingering effects both of colonialism and of the superpower standoff of the previous decades. His initiatives on landmines, the International Criminal Court, war-affected children, and United Nations Security Council...
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When Lloyd Axworthy became Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs in January 1996 he brought to his new cabinet portfolio a deep interest in international affairs and a strong desire to make a difference in a post-Cold War world that festered with brutal civil wars--the lingering effects both of colonialism and of the superpower standoff of the previous decades. His initiatives on landmines, the International Criminal Court, war-affected children, and United Nations Security Council reform, as well as his efforts to involve civil society in the policy process, contributed to his reputation as an innovative thinker and foreign policy activist. At the same time, Axworthy raised Canada's international profile to extraordinary--and controversial--heights. Some academic and military analysts of a realist bent found much to criticize in the Axworthy doctrine that focused on human security while appearing to sidestep the hard realities of state-centred power politics. The Axworthy Legacy, the seventeenth volume in the Canada Among Nations series produced by The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, offers a thorough assessment of the foreign policy achievements and setbacks of Axworthy's tenure in office, and considers the extent to which the Axworthy years will have a lasting impact on the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, on Canada's place in international affairs and on global human security. Contributors to this volume also examine the changes that are likely to occur under new Foreign Minister, John Manley, and emerging issues in Canadian foreign and security policy. These include international environmental accords, the proposed US National Missile Defense, the place of Africa in Canadian foreign policy thinking, and the possible impact that newly elected governments in Mexico and the United States, Canada's two NAFTA partners, will have on Canadian foreign and trade policy.