Diplomatic Missions (The Ambassador in Canadian Foreign Policy)

Heads of missions represent Canada to the world. Canada has 140 missions and offices abroad, but the foreign policy literature in Canada has little to say about the role of ambassadors. Even official reports do not articulate an explicit Canadian doctrine on the practice of diplomacy. In Diplomatic Missions recent Canadian ambassadors and scholars of foreign policy examine the role of Canada's ambassadors in the context of a changing foreign ministry, a changing state, a new world order, and rapidly evolving technologies of transportation and communications.

The collection addresses expectations placed on ambassadors, the role of provincial representatives, the history of foreign service recruitment, diplomatic change in Washington, the challenges of small missions, the contrasts between representing Canada in a G-7 capital and in a populous developing country, civil society organizations and diplomacy, the promotion of Canadian exports, and the perspective of domestic departments. Both diplomats and students will find that this book makes an important contribution to their understanding of the practice of foreign policy.

Contributors include Andrew F. Cooper (Waterloo), Louis Delvoie (Queen's and Royal Military College), Lucie Edwards (Foreign Affairs and International Trade), Anthony T. Eyton (ARA Consulting Group), Paul Frazer (Foreign Affairs and International Trade), Janet L. Graham (Foreign Affairs and International Trade), Peter Hancock (Toronto), Paul Heinbecker (Foreign Affairs and International Trade), Richard Kohler (Foreign Affairs and International Trade), Hector Mackenzie (Foreign Affairs and International Trade), Kim Richard Nossal (McMaster), Alison Van Rooy (North-South Institute), and Robert Wolfe (Queen's).