Canada Among Nations 2005: Split Images

Extract

Canada Among Nations 2005: Split Images, Andrew F. Cooper and Dane Rowlands, eds., Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2005, pp. xiv, 295.

Split Images marks the twenty-first installment of the Canada Among Nations series. It also marks a new beginning as the first collaboration between the series host institution, the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs, and the Centre for International Governance and Innovation at the University of Waterloo, editors Andrew Cooper and Dane Rowlands, and publisher, McGill-Queen's University Press. It is reassuring to see that others have come forward to assume the task of providing an annual assessment of Canadian foreign policy, its current challenges, and future prospects. The Canada Among Nations series has, through the years, provided a valuable chronicle of the pressing concerns of the day. On occasion the volume has been overshadowed by unexpected events, such as the terrorist attacks of September 11^th, that give the text less urgency than it would otherwise have. Potentially, this volume could have suffered a similar fate, given the election of Stephen Harper's minority government after the collection went to press. Repeated references to the Liberal government's International Policy Statement (IPS), not to mention the image of Paul Martin, Jr., that graces the cover, seem somewhat nostalgic, in the face of the Harper government's move to put its own face on such critically important policy arenas as relations with the United States, defence spending, climate change and the Middle East, among others.