LISTEN: Canada's foreign service & its "decade of darkness"

[Oscar]

LISTEN: Rebuilding Canada's foreign service after its "decade of darkness" (23:34 min)

[ http://www.cbc.ca/radio/popup/audio/lis ... =1.3658120 ]

Sunday July 03, 2016

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"You can't call in an air strike on a warming climate...There are no military solutions to the most profound problems that are imperilling the planet. It's got to be diplomacy," says former diplomat Daryl Copeland. (Emily Chung/CBC)

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Canada's international reputation used to be as a middle power with a proud history of peacekeeping, and as a leader in environmental causes.

But according to former Canadian diplomat Daryl Copeland, the damage done to Canada's global presence and influence under Stephen Harper's Conservative government was profound — and it won't be healed quickly.

"We were always...seen as a helpful fixer, a provider of good offices, and a purveyor of fairly progressive ideas....[We] pretty much cemented for ourselves a place in the world as someone that others liked to have at the table. It was thought that we added value. Even if we couldn't bring a great pile of guns or money to the game, we certainly brought a lot of talent. And that was widely appreciated, and under Mr. Harper, widely missed." - Former Canadian diplomat Daryl Copeland

Copeland spent 30 years as a diplomat, posted to Thailand, Ethiopia, New Zealand and Malaysia. He's currently a senior fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, and a visiting professor at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna and the author of Guerrilla Diplomacy: Rethinking International Relations. [ http://www.guerrilladiplomacy.com/ ]

Copeland says that while he's encouraged by the steps the Trudeau government has taken, the "jury's still out" on whether Canada will truly return to its traditional role as a peacekeeper.

He spoke to Michael Enright about foreign policy, what it will take to restore Canada's global reputation and why today's problems require diplomatic, not military, solutions