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338 pages, 6 x 9
Hardcover
Release Date:03 Nov 2025
ISBN:9780774872072
CA$45.00 add to cart button Pre-order
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Chrétien and the World

Canadian Foreign Policy from 1993 to 2003

UBC Press

Conventional wisdom holds that foreign policy was not a priority for Jean Chrétien over his ten years as Canadian prime minister. In reality, he and his government pursued an often ambitious, activist policy to forward not only national interests but liberal ideals on the world stage.

Chrétien and the World combines the perspectives of key players of the time with analyses by leading scholars. They draw on personal recollections, interviews, and research to portray a foreign policy that was more coherent and engaged than previously believed. As arguably Canada’s first post–Cold War prime minister, Chrétien responded to events that reshaped the international landscape, notably the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the subsequent war on terror, the US-led invasion of Iraq, and Canadian involvement in Afghanistan. Working with trusted ministers, he emphasized trade liberalization, strong bilateral and multilateral relations, human security, and humanitarian intervention. Often characterized as purely pragmatic, Chrétien’s tenure in fact marked a high point of liberal internationalism through an agenda that emphasized Canadian values and leadership in global affairs.

This insightful collection provides a new understanding of how Canada navigated crucial years between the end of the Cold War and the emergence of a new geopolitical reality.

Chrétien and the World will engage scholars of political history, Canadian history, international relations, and foreign policy, and more broadly readers who follow Canadian politics and foreign policy.

Chrétien and the World, featuring an impressive roster of contributors with diverse experiences and approaches, makes a long-overdue contribution to our knowledge and understanding of this era. Kim Richard Nossal, Centre for International and Defence Policy, Queen’s University
With a combination of academic scholarship and first-hand, up-close accounts of what happened in Chrétien’s cabinet, Chrétien and the World – the first analyses of this era’s approach to foreign policy – is a compelling read and an important work. Raymond Blake, Department of History, University of Regina

Jack Cunningham is the program coordinator at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto, where he is also a fellow and assistant professor at Trinity College. He is a former editor of International Journal and co-editor of Australia and Canada in Afghanistan: Perspectives on a Mission (with William Maley) and Australia, Canada, and Iraq: Perspectives on an Invasion (with Ramesh Thakur). John Meehan is the director of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. He is also a fellow and assistant professor at Trinity College and affiliated faculty at the Centre for the Study of Global Japan at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He is the author of The Dominion and the Rising Sun: Canada Encounters Japan, 1929–41 and Chasing the Dragon in Shanghai: Canada’s Early Relations with China, 1858–1952.

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