Effectively Engaging Diasporas Under the New Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development

With the amalgamation of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) into a new Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), new opportunities will emerge for a coherent approach to diaspora engagement initiatives that combine the existing policy directions under a single umbrella. DFATD should work with diasporas in Canada to facilitate and improve engagement with the sending regions. This engagement can occur through current programs, as well as the creation of a new pilot project requiring cooperation between the different policy approaches. Engagement should vary according to the different levels of formal government diasporic engagement of the sending countries, as countries with weak government engagement will require policy approaches distinct from countries with strong government engagement

The untold story: The role of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Canadian foreign intelligence.

Of the Canadian agencies involved in intelligence work, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) has tended to be overlooked. In fact, DFAIT acts as a collector, analyzer and disseminator of foreign intelligence. It is actively involved in foreign intelligence collection, participates in international intelligence sharing, and contributes to the Canadian intelligence-community. This thesis explores and highlights for the first time DFAIT's involvement in foreign intelligence work, albeit selectively, over the past sixty years.The original print copy of this thesis may be available here: http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=b160009

Trend Spotting: NAFTA Disputes After Fifteen Years

Cross-border investment disputes have supplanted trade disputes as the main focus of legal actions under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), according to this study. The author finds a growing number of these investment disputes entail challenges by American investors against Canada's provincial, as opposed to federal, laws and regulations. So important constitutional issues need clarifying between Ottawa and the provinces. He notes as party to the treaty, Ottawa must carry the ball in court but who is really responsible? Who pays when the provinces or municipalities run afoul of Ottawa’s multilateral commitments?International Policy, NAFTA, trade remedy disputes, Canadian federal government, Canadian provincial governments

Harvesting Public Policy? Private Influence on Agricultural Trade Policy in Canada

Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,

International trade negotiations and the trans-border movement of people: A review of the literature

We review the international and New Zealand literatures on the two-way interaction between international migration and agreements designed to enhance cross-border trade or investment. Benefits and costs of migration, to the extent that these may feature in trade and migration negotiations, are discussed. While trade and migration can be substitutes in some contexts, they will be complements in other contexts. Liberalisation of services and the movement of people are likely to offer much more significant gains than liberalisation of remaining barriers to goods trade. Significant scope for liberalisation under GATS mode 4 (the movement of natural persons) may remain. However, temporary migration is already promoted on a unilateral and bilateral basis within immigration policy frameworks that may provide greater flexibility than GATS mode 4. With respect to both trade and migration, the more diverse the exchanging countries are, the greater the economic benefits tend to be. However, greater diversity may also imply greater social costs. This paradox of diversity needs to be addressed through appropriate social policies accompanying enhanced temporary and permanent migration

IMAGINE: Canada as a leader in international education. How can Canada benefit from the Australian experience?

Hosting international students has long been admired as one of the hallmarks of internationalization. The two major formative strands of internationalization in Canadian universities are development cooperation and international students. With reduced public funding for higher education, institutions are aggressively recruiting international students to generate additional revenue. Canada is equally interested in offering incentives for international students to stay in the country as immigrants after completing their studies. In its 2011 budget, the Canadian federal government earmarked funding for an international education strategy and, in 2010, funded Edu-Canada—the marketing unit within the Department of Education and Foreign Affairs (DFAIT)—to develop an official Canadian brand to boost educational marketing, IMAGINE: Education in/au Canada. This model emulates the Australian one, which rapidly capitalized on the recruitment of international students and became an international success story. Given current Canadian higher education policy trends, this paper will address the cautionary lessons that can be drawn from the Australian case.  Accueillir des étudiants étrangers a longtemps été considéré comme l’une des caractéristiques principales de l’internationalisation. On considère en effet que les deux principales lignées formatrices de l’internationalisation parmi les universités canadiennes sont l’accueil d’étudiants étrangers et la coopération pour le développement. Le financement public de l’enseignement supérieur s’étant amoindri, les gouvernements et les établissements d’enseignement d’autres pays recrutent énergiquement les étudiants étrangers dans l’espoir de produire des revenus supplémentaires. Le Canada est tout aussi intéressé à présenter des mesures incitatives aux étudiants étrangers afin qu’ils immigrent au pays. En effet, dans son budget de 2011, le gouvernement fédéral du Canada attribuait des fonds à une stratégie d’enseignement internationale un an après avoir fondé Edu-Canada, un service de marketing au sein du ministère de l’Éducation et de celui des Affaires étrangères et du Commerce international. L’objectif d’Edu-Canada est de créer une image de marque canadienne officielle, aujourd’hui baptisée IMAGINE: Education au/in Canada, pour relancer le marketing de l’enseignement. Ce faisant, le Canada imite l’Australie, l’un des premiers pays occidentaux à rapidement tirer profit du recrutement d’étudiants étrangers pour en faire une réussite. Devant les tendances politiques actuelles en enseignement supérieur au Canada, cet article présente les leçons de prudence à tirer du cas de l’Australie

In the National Interest

Canada's role as world power and its sense of itself in the global landscape has been largely shaped and defined over the past 100 years by the changing policies and personalities in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). This engaging and provocative book brings together fifteen of the country's leading historians and political scientists to discuss a century of Canada's national interests and DFAIT's role in defining and pursuing them. Accomplished and influential analysts such as Jack Granatstein, Norman Hillmer, and Nelson Michaud, are joined by rising stars like Whitney Lackenbauer, Adam Chapnick, and Tammy Nemeth in commenting on the history and future implications of Canada's foreign policy. In the National Interest gives fresh insight into the Canada First concept in the 1920s, the North American security issues in the 1930s, Canada's vision for the United Nations, early security warnings in the Arctic, the rise of the international francophone community, conflicting continental visions over energy, and Canada/U.S. policy discussions. The impact of politicians and senior bureaucrats such as O.D. Skelton, Lester B. Pearson, Marcel Cadieux, Jules Leger, Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney are set against issues such as national defence, popular opinion, human rights, and energy production. In the National Interest also provides a platform for discussion about Canada's future role on the international stage. With its unique combination of administrative and policy history, In the National Interest is in a field of its own

Regional Seminar on Antipersonnel Landmine Victims

More than 125 representatives from across the Hemisphere met in Bogotá from November 12 through 14, 2003 to take part in the “Regional Seminar on Antipersonnel Landmine Victims,” sponsored by the Organization of American States Mine Action Program, the Mine Action Information Center of James Madison University and the Office of the Vice President of the Republic of Colombia, and made possible with financial support from the Department of State of the United States. The purpose of the seminar was two-fold. First, it aimed to bring together experts and practitioners in the field of victim assistance from national and local governments in mine-affected countries, donor nations, and nongovernmental and international organizations to share experiences and evaluate the possibility for new partnerships. In addition, several landmine survivors from throughout the Americas participated in the seminar, offering some unique perspectives on the issue

The impact of trade promotion services on Canadian exporter performance.

We evaluate the impact of the programs delivered by the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) on export performance by Canadian firms. We draw on a unique set of microdata created by linking three separate firm-level databases: Statistics Canada’s Exporter Register and its Business Register, which provide information on export activity and firm characteristics, and the TCS client management database maintained by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, which contains details on trade promotion services provided to Canadian firms. We apply the treatment effects analytical framework to isolate the effects of public sector trade promotion. We find that TCS programs have a consistent and positive impact on Canadian exporter performance. Exporters that access TCS services export, on average, 17.9 percent more than comparable exporters that do not. Furthermore, we also find that TCS assistance benefits exporters in terms of product and market diversification.

The New Mission Field: International Service Learning in Canada, a Socio-Historical Analysis

 The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) states that Canada, “has been a consistently strong voice for the protection of human rights and the advancement of democratic values” (DFAIT, 2011). In fact, volunteer initiatives based on social justice, social welfare, missionary, and civilizing agenda have a long history in Canada and are tied to nationalistic values growing out of a Christian heritage.  Today, recognition for religious (as well as ethnic and linguistic) identity are embedded in the Constitution, laws, and institutions, including of course institutions of higher education.  Even as Canadian society becomes progressively more sensitive to religious diversity and religion becomes increasingly privatized, much of our foreign policy “that gives Canadians this warm fuzzy feeling that Canada is a caring country” (Michaud, 2007, p.  347)  can be traced to Christian origins. This article provides a socio-historical analysis of the context out of which most international learning programs in Canada have developed. I argue that many institutions and participants continue to carry quasi-Christian or diffusely religious beliefs with them into the service learning environment and I call for greater clarity of purpose in how these programs are promoted and delivered.[1] For a brief history of volunteer initiatives in Canada see http://volunteer.ca/nvw/timeline-history-volunteerism-canada [2] Some scholars argue that Canada has already failed in this regard.  See for example Cohen, A. (2004). While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart; Welsh, J. (2004). At Home in the World: Canada’s Global Vision for a 21st Century. Toronto: Harper Collins