Abstract
As usual, our June issue is the John W. Holmes Issue in Canadian International Policy; this year we focus on the timely topic of UN peacekeeping. Canadians have long prided themselves on their country’s contributions to United Nations peace support operations, but it has been clear for many years now that the Cold War-era “peace-keeping” that Canadians often have in mind is a thing of the past. UN peace support operations today are much more complicated, and are often poorly understood, by publics, pundits, and policy-makers. Volume 73, issue 2, features a collection of five articles, organized by Sarah-Myriam Martin-Brulé and Stéfanie von Hlatky, which identify some of the most pressing operational challenges for the UN and propose specific training strategies to prepare our soldiers for these complex environments.
We begin with Martin-Brulé and von Hlatky’s introductory essay, which outlines some of the most pressing challenges for UN peace support operations, and argues that Canada needs to think more seriously about the environments in which it will be asked to operate, the goals it wants to pursue there, and the kinds of equipment and training it will need to develop. Howard Coombs then looks at the “Soldiers First” approach the Canadian military has taken to training, and the ways in which it may be misaligned with the demands of contemporary peace support operations. These same themes are picked up again in Hans Breede’s article, which looks more specifically at Special Operations Forces, and argues for a more serious reconsideration of their role in peace support operations. Next, Gaëlle Rivard-Piché argues for more effective whole-of-government coordination for civilian agencies in peace operations, based on the Canadian experience in Haiti. Finally, Walter Dorn and Joshua Libben document the decline of training for peace support operations, and make an argument for tearing down prevailing myths about “peacekeeping” and developing a new training agenda for the Canadian Armed Forces.
The sixth article for this issue is Jonathan Paquin’s essay on US perceptions of the realignment of Canadian foreign policy under the Harper government. He argues that US officials were aware of the broad outlines of Harper’s new approach to foreign policy, and their views of that approach were driven mainly by their perceptions of the “fit” between Harper’s priorities and those of their own (US) parties.
In the Lessons of History section, Andrew Thompson has contributed an important essay on Canada’s approach to human rights and the future of the liberal international order. And we have two Policy Briefs for this issue: Alex Wilner with a policy explainer on cybersecurity, and Nicole Jackson with a review of recent Canadian research on Russia.
We also have an excellent collection of book reviews, organized by Brendan Kelly, featuring books by Anderson on Pearson and the Suez Crisis (reviewed by David Bercuson); Hilliker, Halloran, and Donaghy on the Department of External Affairs, 1968–84 (Kim Nossal); McCullough and Teigrob on Canada and the UN (Steven Seligman); and Spearin on private military and security companies (Aaron Ettinger).
International Journal, with support from SAGE Journals, was very pleased to sponsor the essay prize for Women in International Security Canada’s 2018 workshop, in Edmonton. This year’s winner was Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, a history graduate student at Queen’s, for “Culture Change and its Complexities: Gender Integration in the Canadian Forces, 1989–1999.” IJ is proud to support WIIS-Canada, and its efforts to encourage and mentor women working on international security issues.
We are looking forward to volume 73, number 3, in a few months, which will feature a set of six articles on China, with special attention given to the impact of China on Canada’s politics and economy.