Academic Calendar 2023/2024 - Canada in the World

HIST 3816  Canada in the World

Prerequisites:

Twelve credits of History with at least 3 credits at the 2000-level; or any 54 credits completed.

Hours:

Three hours of lecture per week for one term.

Credits:

3

Description:

This course examines Canada's relations with the international community since 1900. We will trace the waning influence of Britain and the concomitant rise in US power on Canada's international relations, and identify the ways in which diplomatic, military, economic, and cultural factors shape the nation's foreign policy. Specific means of analyzing these developments - such as the liberal internationalist perspective, which emphasizes Canada's key role in building support for multilateralist organizations and approaches, and the peripheral dependence perspective, which represents Canada as a thoroughly constrained satellite of the US - will be presented and assessed. In so doing, we will grapple with ongoing and often heated debates about Canada's international role and identity: Is it best defined by the nation's efforts regarding foreign aid and economic development? Peacekeeping? Military force? Does Canada exercise much agency or influence in the international arena at all?