Review of The Lamb and the Tiger: From Peacekeepers to Peacewarriors in Canada by Stanley R. Barret

Kerr, Stewart

English

Scholars Commons

  21C A N A D I A N  M I L I TA RY  H I S T O RY 
Stanley R. Barrett. The Lamb and the Tiger: From Peacekeepers 
to Peacewarriors in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 
2018. Pp. 100.
Stanley R. Barrett’s book The Lamb and The Tiger: From Peacekeepers 
to Peacewarriors in Canada presents an analysis of Canada’s military 
during the nine years of the Harper Conservative Government (2006-
2015). Using the terms peacekeepers and peace warriors, Barrett 
argues that under the Harper Government Canada’s military 
abandoned the image of a peacekeeper, dedicated to preserving 
world peace, and began to pursue the peace warrior mentality of 
heroic bravery and soldiers dedicated to keeping Canada safe from 
external threats. Barrett begins his book by contemplating how 
Canada reached the peace warrior mentality prevalent in Canadian 
society. The book tries to cover many topics, such as Canada’s role 
in early peacekeeping efforts led by Lester B. Pearson, an exploration 
of the experiences of women and Aboriginals in Canada during the 
Second World War, and an analysis of the changes to the Canadian 
military under the Harper Government. These topics are mixed in 
with chapters that explore anthropological research on what causes 
war and how to create lasting peace. Contrary to the peace warrior 
attitudes of the Harper Government, the book advocates for Canada 
to return to a military and international policy that prioritises 
international peace.
In his criticism of the peace warrior mentality, Barrett uses 
anthropological arguments to explain the possible problems with this 
attitude. The presentation and critical analysis of the anthropological 
conceptual framework he uses is impressive and the author shows an 
ability to explain the framework in a way that even readers with a 
basic knowledge of anthropology can understand. This helps make 
the book more appealing to a wider audience outside the study of 
anthropology. The main question Barrett seeks to explore with his 
anthropological assessment is: why do wars happen? By presenting 
two theories, the genetic basis for war theory and the cultural basis for 
war theory, Barrett analyses the expansion of the Canadian military 
under the Harper Government. Subsequently, Barrett expresses 
concern with the promotion of the warrior nation and argues that 
under the Harper Government and the warrior nation mentality, 
Canada was much more anxious to lock horns with rival nations like 
Russia. This suggests the celebration of bravery found in the peace 
22 Book Reviews
warrior mentality can make a nation more willing to risk escalating 
conflict rather than working to minimise it. The types of attitudes 
found in Canada’s peace warrior mentality are related to the cultural 
basis for war theory as the culture that celebrates brave warriors 
is more active in seeking out opportunities to show bravery in war. 
Therefore, Barrett uses his anthropological framework to demonstrate 
the problems with promoting the peace warrior mentality and its 
contribution to Canada becoming more prone to engage in hostilities 
and stepping away from a peacekeeper role.
Considering Barrett’s dislike for Canada’s movement towards 
a nation of peace warriors, one is inclined to ask, what should be 
done moving forward? He attempts to provide solutions for how 
Canada and the international community can continue to promote 
international peace. Similar to his conceptual framework, he turns to 
an anthropological analysis of war and conflict as a way to explore 
alternatives to the Harper Government’s foreign policy. In the final 
chapter, Barrett analyses important anthropological works with 
several intriguing ideas on how to banish war and create lasting 
peace.1 Despite exploring these ambitious ideas, Barrett concludes 
with much more modest solutions, as he calls them, and ends with 
the thought that Canadian foreign policy should focus on mobilising 
troops only for defence or as a last resort when diplomacy fails and 
do what it can to revive international interest in peaceful coexistence 
and the reduction of weapons of mass destruction.
The book does, however, have some moments of confusion. 
Barrett shows a firm command of his anthropological assessment 
but his ability to link his arguments together with his analysis of 
the material is difficult to follow at times. His tendency to briefly 
touch on topics like First Nations sovereignty in Canada and women’s 
rights issues during the Harper Government diverges from the central 
argument of the book and never directly contributes to Barrett’s 
main points. At times, the book drifts off into Canadian political 
debates that seem to be of personal interest to the author rather 
than related to the book. Even though Barrett’s analysis mainly 
focuses on the Harper Government, it is never clear how a discussion 
1  For example, the author presents the work of Douglas Fry who, according to 
Barrett, advocates for the expansion of global governance and increasing ties among 
nations by encouraging societal leaders and their children to spend time in hostile 
nations in order to reduce ethnocentrism.
  23C A N A D I A N  M I L I TA RY  H I S T O RY 
about something like First Nations sovereignty, a political topic that 
transcends well beyond the nine years of Harper, has to do with a 
shift from the peacekeeping nation to a peace warrior nation. Rather 
than contributing to the main points of the book, the discussion of 
these topics makes the book convoluted at times.
Another critique of the book is Barrett’s insufficient exploration 
of how a renewal of Canada’s international leadership looks in action. 
One of the undercurrents of the book is that Canada should return 
to contributing regularly to peacekeeping missions. However, since 
peacekeeping has changed so much since the 1990s, it would be 
interesting to hear how Barrett imagines Canada’s involvement in 
modern-day peacekeeping operations. Considering that peacekeeping 
operations have become much more militarised, it seems possible 
that a military that celebrates brave warriors and military force is 
much more effective in today’s peacekeeping environments than the 
traditional peacekeeping that Canadians are familiar with. While 
traditional peacekeeping missions still exist, they are much smaller 
than the large-scale militarised peacekeeping missions in places like 
Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo.2 In addition, Barrett 
seems to distrust the current peacekeeping system of third world 
troops being financed by countries of the developed world, but if this 
is the case, what sort of leadership role does Barrett see for Canada 
in international peacekeeping? Does Canada’s return to being a 
leader in peacekeeping missions involve troop contribution to current 
peacekeeping missions and if so does that mean troop contribution to 
large-scale missions? Perhaps an expanded discussion of peacekeeping 
operations would have brought greater clarity to what sort of action 
Barrett would encourage Canada to take in a greater leadership role.
Overall, The Lamb and the Tiger presents an interesting and 
well-presented critique of the Harper Government while appealing for 
Canada’s return to a major role in international peace efforts. The 
anthropological assessments and framework effectively contribute 
to the author’s arguments and offer important concepts and ideas 
2  MONUSCO in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has 20,486 UN personnel 
committed to helping the DRC Government stabilise the country by using all 
necessary means. MINUSMA in Mali has a similar mandate with 16,453 UN 
personnel while the more traditional peacekeeping deployment of UNFICYP in 
Cyprus only has 1,004 personnel and acts as a ceasefire line and main buffer zone, 
similar to the traditional peacekeeping Canada participated in during the Cold War 
(United Nations Peacekeeping, Where we Operate, https://peacekeeping.un.org/en),
24 Book Reviews
that are useful to anyone advocating for Canada to play a more 
active role in the international community’s efforts towards world 
peace. The book is readable for those without an anthropological 
background, making it a worthy selection for anyone interested in 
Canadian foreign policy and international peace studies. The author 
does have the tendency to momentarily drift away from the central 
focus of the book, but the main ideas are well presented. Given the 
short length of the book and the complexity of the peacekeeping 
topic, the author could have shown more clarity on the challenges of 
creating international peace and how Canada fits into the operations 
working towards that end. Since the 1990s, Canada’s contribution to 
peacekeeping operations has dwindled to a very small number; it is 
difficult to see how the author would envision Canada returning to 
its former leadership role given the new challenges to international 
peace over the past decade. Otherwise, The Lamb and the Tiger is 
a positive contribution to the advocacy for Canada to return to a 
leadership role in international peace initiatives and advocates for 
Canadian society to celebrate peace rather than warriors. 
stewart kerr, independent researcher


Review of  The Lamb and the Tiger: From Peacekeepers to Peacewarriors in Canada  by Stanley R. Barrett

https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2005&amp;context=cmh

Review of The Lamb and the Tiger: From Peacekeepers to Peacewarriors in Canada by Stanley R. Barrett

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