Canada and the MENA region: The foreign policy of a middle power

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze Canada's interests and policies towards the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) in the post 9/11 era. The article focuses in particular on how Ottawa has understood Canada's role in the region as a “middle power” with limited resources. Furthermore it analyses how Canada's policies have been influenced by and coordinated with the Unites States, its main economic and military ally, and the European Union, the other major external actor in the MENA region. Finally, the article offers an evaluation of the state of play of Canadian policy towards this region in light of the most recent events of the Arab Spring and of Canadian participation in NATO's operation in Libya.

Keywords:

• MENA
• Canadian foreign policy
• Arab Spring
• unipolarity
• middle power

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Tim Brown for his invaluable research assistance. A number of experts on the MENA region and on Canadian foreign policy were interviewed for this article. All interviews were conducted under the Chatham House rule. My gratitude goes to all the interviewees for their time and for sharing their experience. Obviously, I remain solely responsible for the views expressed in this article, and for any mistakes or omissions.

Notes

While there is no universally agreed list of what countries constitute the MENA region, generally the following are included: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. This article will refer to the region also as the “Broader Middle East”.

Neither the Arab League nor the Gulf Cooperation Council fit the bill of an institutionalized framework to promote regional development and integration.

According to IMF data, in the decade 1990–2000 intra-regional merchandise trade in the MENA region amounted to only about 8 per cent of total exports and imports. In 2007, intraregional trade accounted for 11.1 per cent of total foreign trade. See Burke and Bazoobandi 2010.

See http://mepi.state.gov/mepi/index.html.

See http://bmena.state.gov/.

See ‘The Role of the European Union in the Middle East Peace Process and its Future Assistance’, Executive Summary of the Communication to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament made by Manuel Marin, Vice President of the European Commission, European Commission, 26 January 1998.

See “A Secure Europe in a Better World”, European Security Strategy. 12 December 2003. Available at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/78367.pdf.

These initiatives go from the training of the Palestinian security forces, to a Border Assistance Mission in Gaza.

For a record of Canada's votes and statements at the UN see http://www.international.gc.ca/name-anmo/un-onu/index.aspx?lang=eng&view=d.

See for example Harper efforts to eliminate any reference to the 1967 border from a G8 official declaration (Gurzu 2011).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Costanza Musu

Costanza Musu is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa. She is the author of European Union policy towards the Arab–Israeli peace process: The quicksands of politics (2010).