Canda and U.S. PeaceKeeping

This paper explores the following question: "Has Canada's Role as United Nations peacekeepers been a source of national pride or shame?" As Canada is a complex nation performing a difficult task in a dynamic world, formulating an answer to this question is difficult. The answer to this question, of course, is: "It depends". The answer depends on time and place. The answer depends upon one's conception of Canada and one's perception of the nation's global role. The answer depends upon whether one view's Canada's peacekeeping in a holistic context or whether one focuses on specific missions. The answer depends upon who one asks. To develop a rational answer to this question in this paper, it is necessary to consider some aspects of each of these qualifiers. Importantly, however, it is necessary to place Canada's United Nations peacekeeping functions in a Canadian perspective, because this is the lens through which Canadians evaluate the nation's peacekeeping role,

Canada's Historical Role as United Nations Peacekeepers

Canada did not, as some writers aver, invent peacekeeping. Peacekeeping, under a variety of names, has been around for much longer than the United Nations and predated the League of Nations. Canada did, however, motivate the United Nations to adopt a peacekeeping mission, thereby insinuating the peacekeeping process into the post-Second World War

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human rights in its foreign policy. Rather, the issue is the uneven application of the policies concerning human rights. While Canada's policy approach toward human rights may be admirable, its application remains both uneven and slanted toward more toward Canada's own international political and economic objectives than to the country's concern for universal human rights. Prime Minister Chretien said that the deployment of Canadian troops in Kosovo was to promote human rights. With respect to concerns for human rights in China, however, the Prime Minister said in the same address that "à one of the most important elements of our foreign policy is dialogue. Recognising that dialogue implies listening as well as speaking". Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy defended the approach of the Canadian government to the administration of the human rights element of the country's foreign policy on the grounds that, in the contemporary world, the safety of the individual must be the paramount human rights concern of Canada's foreign policy. According to the Foreign Minister, to be effective, Canada's application of human rights policies must be flexible. While some people in Canada do advocate inflexibility in the application of human r
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Approximate Word count = 1922
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)