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Identity and Foreign Policy: Canada as a Nation of the Americas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jean-Philippe Thérien  and
Gordon Mace
Jean-Philippe Thérien
Affiliation:
Political science at the Université de Montréal. jean-philippe.therien@umontreal.ca
Gordon Mace
Affiliation:
Political science and director of the Center for Interamerican Studies at Université Laval. gordon.mace@pol.ulaval.ca
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Abstract

Using Canada's relations with the Americas as a case study, this article seeks to better understand the link between identity and foreign policy. It argues that there is a gap between the Canadian government's recent efforts to construct a state identity increasingly turned toward the Americas and Canadians' national identity as it is expressed through public opinion. It concludes that the most plausible explanation for this gap probably has to do with Canada's European cultural heritage. The analysis shows that the projection of national identity into foreign policy is a much more complex process than the projection of state identity.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , Summer 2013 , pp. 150 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2013

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