Abstract
Reviewed by: Aaron Ettinger, University of Waterloo
It is uncommon for an academic book review to begin with the cover art but the 29th volume of Canada Among Nations is worthy of mention. Gracing the front is the image of a special operations soldier with parachute in full bloom, slightly above a treeline, with a snow-capped mountain in the distance. Exactly what the paratrooper will encounter on the ground is not clear. It is a clever visual representation of the challenge of intervention and the purpose of this volume. Elusive Pursuits serves as a comparative evaluation of Canadian interventions in the post-Cold War era, a period that saw Canada in (or above) Afghanistan, Bosnia, East Timor, Haiti, Kosovo, Libya, Somalia, and at present, Iraq–Syria. Elusive Pursuits is intended to provide lessons learned for that paratrooper and the policymakers that will send him drifting to the ground the next time, wherever and whenever that may be.
The volume is inspired by the formal end of the Afghanistan mission in 2014, which looms large in the Canadian consciousness. Or, to be more precise, what looms large is the deadly 2006–2011 period of counter-insurgency in Kandahar. This informs the scope of “intervention” laid out in the editors’ introduction, which defines it narrowly as “the use of force to affect the domestic dynamics of another country, with the broad aim of contributing to international peace and security” (3). It is for the best, however, that the contributors do not strictly adhere to this definition. After all, Canada’s experience with “intervention” is much broader than the introduction lets on. Thus, Elusive Pursuit’s principal strength is the broad perspective it takes on intervention and the insights that flow from diverse scholarship on the issue. The individual contributions in this volume cover a wide expanse of issues that serve to remind readers of the scope and implications of Canada’s interventions over the past 25 years. There are chapters on Canada’s recent high-profile combat experiences in Iraq/Syria, Kandahar, and Libya, but also on diplomatic responses to the Arab Spring, security sector reform initiatives in Haiti, and the disastrous peacekeeping and aid mission in Somalia, the consequences of which still linger. Furthermore, there are up-to-date analyses of how Canadian government institutions and society have evolved during the post-September 11 era.
Undoubtedly, though, the most ambitious and controversial chapter in Elusive Pursuits tries to articulate the Harper Doctrine on military intervention by schematizing the operational code that informed Stephen Harper’s “duty-driven internationalism.” Authors Derek Burney, Fen Osler Hampson, and Simon Palamar make the important observation that Harper’s interventions appeared to mimic the humanitarian and multilateral impulses of liberal internationalism, but his pathways to military intervention are entirely different. They argue that, rather than emphasizing the universal responsibilities of sovereign states, formal alliances, and the United Nations, the Harper Doctrine turns on the duty to rescue and non-delegable duties to allies. These twin duties explain how humanitarian impulses in Harper’s public statements led to the kinds of interventionism undertaken by the Conservative government between 2006 and 2015. Indeed, the argument is bold and highly debatable. For example, while the authors explain how Harper’s ending the Kandahar combat mission in 2011 in favour of a training mission in Kabul is consistent with the two duties, this does not explain why, in 2012, Harper set 2014 as the end date for Canada’s Afghanistan commitment. This is not exactly the model of an inherent resolve to fulfill the duty alongside NATO allies. Quibbles aside, this chapter is one of the first, if not the first academic attempt to explicate Harper’s foreign policy doctrine.
The principal weakness of Elusive Pursuits is its organization. The 11 substantive chapters are organized into three parts on lessons learned, the domestic side of intervention, and the responsibility to protect (R2P). However, the contributions fit awkwardly into this thematic structure, which undermines the volume’s analytical unity. Part 1, “Interventions: Lessons Learned,” also happens to be the stated purpose of the entire volume and seems redundant. Part 2, “The domestic side of intervention,” features a pair of illuminating discussions of gender mainstreaming and foreign aid, neither of which is a strictly domestic affair. Only one out of three chapters in Part 3, “The responsibility to protect,” meaningfully relates to that theme. Thus, the section on the domestic side of intervention is underpopulated, the section on R2P is hardly about it at all, and two chapters—one on public opinion and one on Canada’s demographic trends—are inexplicably not located in Part 2. With this advance notice, the reader may choose to ignore the organization without much consequence since the separate contributions are all worthy of serious consideration. But organizational disunity and the absence of a substantive concluding chapter is a missed opportunity to make Elusive Pursuits more than the sum of its parts.
Nevertheless, Elusive Pursuits is an interesting read in 2017 as the year-old Liberal government under Justin Trudeau manages a complex foreign and defence file: recommitments to peacekeeping, stagnant defence spending, the Deschamps report on sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces, Russia’s renewed assertiveness, and the latest developments in the ongoing war against ISIS. It is instructive to observe these contemporary issues in light of the contributions in this book and ask what lessons learned might be helpful for our parachutist on the cover, what in-house expertise can be brought to bear, and what else needs to be done.