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Articles

Canada and the challenges of globalization: a glass half empty, or half full?

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ABSTRACT

This special issue on Canada and the challenges of globalization since 1968 arises from a conference held in Ottawa to mark the publication in 2017 of the third volume in the official history of Canada’s department of external affairs: innovation and adaptation, 1968–84 (U of Toronto Press). Technological change, trade liberalisation, and a steadily expanding international agenda after 1968 heralded the arrival of globalization and placed External Affairs under great stress during the 1970s as it struggled to adapt. This collection explores Canada’s experiences with some of the key political, economic, security, and social themes associated with globalization after 1968. Rooted in a long and deep fifty-year perspective, these articles suggest that the changes wrought by globalization will not be easily undone despite today’s raging torrents of nationalist populism and economic protectionism. The challenges that confront Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government are hardly new, and will demand the same kind of frustrating and endless processes of innovation and adaptation that have characterized policymaking over the last fifty years.

RÉSUMÉ

Cette édition spéciale sur le Canada et les défis de la mondialisation depuis 1968 émerge d’une conférence qui s’est tenue à Ottawa pour célébrer la publication, en 2017, du troisième volume de l’histoire officielle du ministère canadien des Affaires extérieures : innovation et adaptation, 1968-84 (U of Toronto Press). L’évolution technologique, la libéralisation du commerce, et un ordre du jour international en constant développement après 1968, ont annoncé l’arrivée de la mondialisation et placé les Affaires extérieures sous une forte pression au cours des années 70, en raison de leurs efforts d’adaptation. Cette collection explore les expériences du Canada, relativement à des thèmes politiques, économiques, sécuritaires et sociaux majeurs, associés à la mondialisation d’après 1968. Ancrés dans une longue et profonde perspective de cinquante années, ces articles suggèrent que les changements apportés par la mondialisation ne seront pas facilement annulés malgré les torrents furieux du populisme nationaliste et du protectionnisme économique. Les défis auxquels est confronté le gouvernement du Premier ministre Justin Trudeau ne sont pas si nouveaux, et ils exigeront la même sorte de processus frustrants et interminables d’innovation et d’adaptation qui ont caractérisé l’élaboration des politiques ces cinquante dernières années.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Julien Chiasson-Lauzon (ENAP) for his help in preparing this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Greg Donaghy is co-author of Innovation and Adaption: Canada’s Department of External Affairs, 1968–84 (2017). He is also the author of the monograph, Tolerant Allies: Canada and the US (2008) and of the biography, Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr. (2015).

Stéphane Roussel is professor of political science at the École nationale d’administration publique. He is director of the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur les relations internationales du Canada et du Québec, and a co-author of The Politics of Canadian Foreign Policy (2015).

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