Book Review: The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy | 341

THE BLACK BOOK OF CANADIAN FOREIGN POLICY

by Yves Engler. Co-published by: Fernwood Publishing and RED
publishing, 2009. $24.95 paper. ISBN: 978-1-55266-314-1. Pages: 1-285.

Reviewed by Kara Brisson-Boivin1

Regarding Canada’s role and reputation in the field of international
relations the widespread public belief is that Canada is a tolerant and
peaceful nation maintaining a safe distance from conflict and acting as a
force for good in the world. Yves Engler challenges this taken-for-granted
assumption asking readers ‘whether or not we should be so proud of
Canada’s foreign affairs?’ (4). Engler’s aim is to expose readers to a side of
international relations that remains hidden from public knowledge and to
generate public debate as to Canada’s actions abroad. In this way, he
intends for the book to be an antidote to what he sees as ignorance
regarding the actions of the Canadian government in support of multi-
national corporations, military coups and authoritarian governments
abroad.

Engler’s book is not organized into clearly identifiable chapters,
rather case studies divide the book into sections, including the Caribbean,
the Middle East, Mexico, Central and South America, East Asia, Central
and South Asia, and Africa. Within each section, Engler outlines Canada’s
self-serving, anti-democratic, colonial, and environmentally destructive
foreign policy initiatives (34). In doing so, Engler attempts to cover a
variety of contentious topics including colonialism, Canada’s unique bind
to the United States, the fight against communism and terrorism, war,
aid and exploitation, and how these measures are very lucrative profit
making opportunities. The author employs a ‘journalistic approach’ to the
case studies, whereby he reports facts, news bulletins, policy briefings,
and headline stories regarding Canada’s role in a particular region. While
the case study method can provide a rich connection between empirical
observations, as well as the concepts and theories utilized to explain these
observations (see Blatter and Haverland, 2012, 20), this book would
benefit from an overarching theoretical framework and conceptual
terminology informed by theories and approaches to colonialism and
imperialism.

1 Kara Brisson-Boivin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology at Carleton University in Ottawa. Her research examines
international governmentality studies, penal standardization, and international
penal reconstruction efforts.



342 | Precarious Work and the Struggle for Living Wages

Engler is clear that he is not writing for an academic audience,
rather his objective is to engage a wider public debate about Canada’s
actions abroad and its multi-relational implications. However, the absence
of a theoretical approach and its lack of engagement with other works in
the field of colonialism and imperialism are a major shortcoming of
Engler’s book. While he is interested in a contemporary discussion of
Canadian foreign policies, this discussion could be better situated in, for
example, post-colonial critiques which highlight the ways modern
international relations are simply ‘old formulas of colonialism’ reworked
under the guise of liberal democracy and modernization (Duffield, 2001).
Engler’s case studies could be read as illustrations of a wide range of
important theoretical subjects such as global governance, the rule of law
and global political economy. However, with little to no engagement with
these bodies of literature the reader is left to make these connections on
their own. Further, with an emphasis on contemporary international
relations, the book would benefit from a more in-depth discussion of
controversies and debates about “globalization” at the outset in order to
contextualize the various cases provided. A strength of Engler’s book is
the inclusion of discussion questions, which does help readers to reflect on
commonly held assumptions about Canadian international relations as
well as the lessons learned in each case. This book would be well suited as
a course reader for intermediate level political science, global studies or
political sociology courses, however it should be read alongside theory in
order to provide students with the tools necessary for analysis.

Following the case study portion of the book, Engler provides a
section on international alliances that details Canada’s relationship with
several prominent international organizations such as the United
Nations, the World Bank, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO). Had this section been integrated within the case studies, Engler
could have provided specific examples of Canada’s international alliances
at work in the various global regimes he presents. As it is, this section
reads as a disjointed extension of the case studies. Further, Engler
problematically reifies the dichotomy between ‘strong Western states’
such as Canada which under the guise of aid, and often in conjunction
with international alliances, intervene in the affairs of predominantly
‘weak states’ in the Global South. Yet Noam Chomsky (2006), David
Chandler (2010), and Mark Duffield (2001) argue against this dichotomy
of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ states pointing out that Canada and the United
States also possess characteristics found in so-called ‘weak states,’
including poverty and unequal access to social services such as healthcare
and the colonial objectification and alienation of Indigenous peoples.



Book Review: The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy | 343

Following the work of Barbara Heron (2007) on the Desire for
Development, Engler’s book fails to capture the ways in which the third
world is present in the first world and the first world is present in the
third world.

In the final section entitled “Why our foreign policy is the way it is
and how to change it,” Engler provides the reader with tangible advice for
fixing the problem of Canadian foreign relations. The author does not shy
away from the difficult task of equipping Canadians with tools for
demanding democratic, respectful, benevolent, and caring foreign
relations. Some of his suggestions are bold (such as the suggestion that
Canada pull out of NATO immediately), but by far the strongest section of
the book rests on a call to invoke the “golden rule” in foreign policy,
versions of which he claims exist in every culture, country, and religion
(243). In conclusion, this book has much to contribute to the field of
Canadian international relations. Although the case study approach is
underutilized due to the lack of a theoretical framework, Engler does
successfully challenge the assumption that Canada is a peaceful nation
acting as a force for good in the world.

REFERENCES

Blatter, J and M. Haverland. (2012). Designing Case Studies: Explanatory
Approaches in Small-N Research. Palgrave Macmillan. New York.
New York.

Chandler, D (2010). International State Building: The Rise of Post-Liberal
Governance. Critical Issues in Global Politics. London: Routledge.

Chomsky, N. (2006). Failed States: The Abuse of Power and The Assault
on Democracy. Holt Paperbacks. New York. New York.

Duffield, M. (2001). Global Governance and the New Wars: The Merging of
Development and Security. London: Zed Books.

Heron, B. (2007). Desire for Development: Whiteness, Gender, and the
Helping Imperative. Waterloo. Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University
Press.