yea! officially irrelevant (again)

Canada now a bit player globally, survey finds: World leaders weigh in

National Post
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
By Mike Blanchfield

OTTAWA - A major study involving politicians, diplomats and thinkers from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America has concluded Canada has become an irrelevant force on the international stage, but can regain its edge if it creates a swift and mobile brigade of peacekeepers.

"It was sobering and exciting. Sobering in the sense that we've had a declining impact over the last 15 years. Exciting, in the sense that with some of the big challenges facing the world today, Canada was seen as being almost unique in its ability to address some of them," Robert Greenhill, former president of Bombardier Inc. and author of the study on Canada's role in the world.

Mr. Greenhill spent the last six months interviewing 40 experts from around the globe in what is believed to be one of the most high-level surveys of foreign figures ever conducted on Canada's role in the world. It was sponsored by the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, a non-profit, non-governmental organization headquartered in Toronto.

Subjects included former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger, former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, and a host of other politicians as well as economists, military experts, scholars and senior bureaucrats.

Titled External Voices, the study is to be made public next month, and will coincide with the Martin government's international policy review.

In a presentation yesterday to a government and diplomatic audience at the Foreign Affairs Department, and in an interview, Mr. Greenhill gave a preview of the study's main findings.

Not surprisingly, Canada's international influence is seen as waning in the decade-and-a-half since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.

Many respondents cited the 1989-1992 period under Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney, who fought against apartheid in South Africa, and the late 1990s tenure of former foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy, who spearheaded the international ban on land mines, as the only recent periods where Canada made a difference on the world stage.

Canada is seen to have lost its leadership role in the one thing it takes the most pride in: peacekeeping. As one respondent told Mr. Greenhill: "For all intents and purposes, you are no longer here."

Though the world appreciates Canada's military contributions to the Balkans and Afghanistan, the country is seen as a bit player in bringing peace to wartorn parts of the world.

But the international community does not want it to stay that way, Mr. Greenhill says.

"Everybody from the Africans, to the Americans to the Europeans said Canada having an autonomous mobile brigade that could actually get into tough regions quickly and be there for a couple of months at a time, would make a huge difference," he said.

"First, is that few people can do it today. Secondly, those who can, like the Americans and British, are often seen as compromised politically. Whereas Canada coming in with the Maple Leaf, with civility, is seen as very useful."

He said Canada is also seen as having the potential to play a "very special role" in post-conflict reconstruction and said the recent controversy over the delayed deployment of the military's Disaster Assistance Response Team to Sri Lanka following the Indian Ocean tsunami is illustrative of the problems facing the country's ability to respond to international crises.

"It took us ages to get there. And then it was useful," he said.

About one-third of respondents said Canada could use some heavy-airlift capability, but two-thirds said Canada could make do hitching rides with its larger allies or renting commercially, as it does now.

Mr. Greenhill's snapshot of foreign opinion comes as the Defence Department prepares its review of capabilities of the Canadian Forces as part of the broader international policy review.

Prime Minister Paul Martin announced another 5,000 full-time troops for the Forces during last summer's federal election, and said they should form part of a peacekeeping brigade.

Bill Graham, the Defence Minister, has since said those new troops would be added to existing units and would be used to beef up special forces.

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