By Elisabetta Kerr, University of Toronto | This blog post accompanies the release of a digital briefing book, created in May 2018 by a team of University of Toronto undergraduate students participating in the Jackman Humanities Institute's Scholars-in-Residence research program. Part of an ongoing series, Canada Declassified's digital briefing books include key documents from recently …
Continue reading Draft History of US-UK-Canadian Atomic Energy Cooperation
By Alexandra Southgate, University of Toronto | This blog post accompanies the release of a digital briefing book, created in May 2018 by a team of University of Toronto undergraduate students participating in the Jackman Humanities Institute’s Scholars-in-Residence research program. Part of an ongoing series, Canada Declassified's digital briefing books include key documents from recently …
By Darcy Taylor, University of Toronto | This blog post accompanies the release of a digital briefing book, created in May 2018 by a team of University of Toronto undergraduate students participating in the Jackman Humanities Institute's Scholars-in-Residence research program. Part of an ongoing series, Canada Declassified's digital briefing books include key documents from recently …
Continue reading “No Annihilation without Consultation”: Canada and the New Look, 1954
By Elisabetta Kerr, University of Toronto | This blog post accompanies the release of a digital briefing book, created in May 2018 by a team of University of Toronto undergraduate students participating in the Jackman Humanitie's Institutes Scholars-in-Residence research program. Part of an ongoing series, Canada Declassified's digital briefing books include key documents from recently …
Continue reading “Brief Vodka Honeymoons”: Strategic Canadian Estimations from Moscow, 1943-46
Iain Johnston-White, Roehampton University | The Commonwealth enjoyed some unexpected interest in 2016, at least in the UK. The ‘Vote Leave’ campaign in Britain’s EU referendum made big claims for the Commonwealth. Brexiteers hailed the Commonwealth as a global network and source of post-Brexit trading partners, breaking the cycle of four-year interludes (punctuated by the …
Continue reading Back to the Future: Brexit Britain, Canada, & the Commonwealth
By Antony Anderson | It’s not surprising that contemporary commentators and historians would become so taken by what came to be called the Golden Age of Canadian Diplomacy. After all, that period from the 1940s into the late 1950s glittered with so much international creativity and unlike the dreary, quasi-isolationist 1920s and 1930s, Canadian diplomats …
Continue reading The Other Golden Age: Rethinking Seasons of Canadian Diplomacy
By Susan Colbourn, University of Toronto | In February 1983, the Canadian government ran a series of advertisements in the Washington Post, touting the unique relationship between Canada and the United States. Invoking a long history of cooperation and problem-solving, the ads tried to burnish Canada’s credentials as a trading partner and ally with taglines …
By Jennifer Bonder, University of Toronto | The last few weeks have been an exciting, maddening, “blast” from the past for observers of Canada-U.S. relations as tariff threats – no longer just threats – are being used to put pressure on the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations. But Canada and the United …
By David Webster, Bishop's University | How much does religion matter in global affairs? A seemingly undiplomatic topic, religion can actually tell us quite a bit about diplomatic history. Take the case of Burma, which in 1953 decided to refuse any more development aid money from the United States. Prime Minister U Nu made the …
Continue reading Rethinking Religion’s Role in International Relations
[This post first appeared in the Canadian Historical Association’s Bulletin (now Intersections), 43:3, 2017, p. 17.] By Timothy Andrews Sayle, University of Toronto | The Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada hosted a three-day conference on “Transparency in the 21st Century” in March 2017 to explore and compare access to information regimes in Canada …
Continue reading Transparency, Access, and History in the 21st Century
Adam Chapnick, Canadian Forces College | It’s been 20 years since I first entered what was then the National Archives of Canada to study Canadian international history. I didn’t realize it then, but reflecting back, it is now clear that I joined the community of historians of Canadian diplomacy at a time when archival research …
Continue reading Telling Canada’s International Story: Reflections on the Scholarly Process
Graeme Thompson, Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History | Nearly twenty years ago, historian A.G. Hopkins made the case for the revival of British imperial history. At the end of the twentieth century – a century shaped by decolonization and the emergence of postcolonial nation-states across the globe – this was perhaps a surprising …
Daniel Macfarlane, Western Michigan University | This post was originally published on NiCHE’s The Otter. | In late April 2017 I had the privilege of attending and presenting at a workshop at McMaster University titled "Undiplomatic History: Rethinking Canada in the World." Organized by Asa McKercher and Phil Van Huizen, this gathering brought together scholars …
Continue reading Natural Security: Conceptualizing Canada-U.S. Environmental Diplomacy
Asa McKercher | A version of this post originally appeared at ActiveHistory.ca | There is a certain delicious irony in that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will speak later today at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Not only did Trudeau’s father and the Great Communicator have a famously tense relationship, but the notion that Trudeau will …
Andrew Burtch, Carleton University | On the evening of 27 August 2014, Canada’s permanent mission to NATO tweeted out a tongue-in-cheek response to claims that Russian troops had entered Crimea by “mistake” or had “gotten lost” during the occupation and de-facto annexation of the peninsula. It read: “Geography can be tough. Here’s a guide for …
Continue reading Russia, Not Russia: The Tweet Heard Round the World
Timothy Andrews Sayle, University of Toronto | UPDATE: both Complaints discussed below have been resolved in full, with all information released. See the bottom of the page for a full update. I want to preface this note by saying that the ATIP shop at Library and Archives Canada has been doing exceptionally good work over …
Continue reading Skyhawk, Skyshield, and the Re-Classification of Canadian History
Susan Colbourn, University of Toronto | The idea of Canadian international history has made a bit of a splash in recent years. David Meren lamented the "tragedies of Canadian international history," sparking a lively roundtable with John English, Adam Chapnick, and Dominique Marshall in the Canadian Historical Review in late 2015. Elsewhere, Asa McKercher and …
Continue reading A Few Thoughts on Canadian International History
Welcome to Canadian Eyes Only, the blog of the Canadian International History Committee. Bienvenue sur Canadian Eyes Only, le blog du Comité d’histoire international du Canada. A joint initiative with the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, Canadian Eyes Only is a platform for scholars to connect both with each other and the public. …
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