Multilateralism and Canadian foreign policy in the post-Cold War era: Case studies of NATO and the GATT

The end of the Cold War marked a fundamental shift in the structure of the international system. This thesis asks, in light of this structural change, whether multilateralism will continue to play a dominant role in Canadian foreign policy.; In the attempt to answer this question, two case studies of Canadian participation in multilateral organisations have been undertaken. The first case study of this thesis examines Canadian policy towards North Atlantic security and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The approach used in this case study compares Canadian security policy objectives in the immediate post-war years of 1945-50 with security policy objectives in the early post-Cold War years of 1989-1995. The second case study undertakes an examination of Canadian trade policy objectives in the early post-war years and compares them with trade policy objectives in the early years of the post-Cold War. The rationale for this approach is premised on the assumption that if foreign policy goals and objectives are compared under different structural conditions, then any major changes in a state's foreign policy could be at least partially attributable to the structural change which occurred in the international system.; This thesis concluded that there has not been a significant shift away from multilateralism by the Canadian government, at least in the fields of security and trade policy. Thus it is possible to argue that structural change is not a strong predictive variable for accounting for change in a state's foreign policy. While the end of the Cold War has not substantially altered the government's commitment to multilateralism, many of the reasons for this continued Canadian commitment have undergone a transformation. This finding suggests that this may be a possible field for future investigation. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...