Sunday, January 29, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Navigating a New Canadian Course in the Indo-Pacific: New MLI Commentary by David Mulroney

February 28, 2020
in Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative, Commentary, Dragon at the Door, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Program, Indo-Pacific, Latest News, Releases
Reading Time: 2 mins read
A A

OTTAWA, ON (February 28, 2020): With a slow and rudderless policy toward the Indo-Pacific, Canada has failed to capture important opportunities and has been mired in challenges in the region. Former Canadian Ambassador to China David Mulroney is speaking out about Canada’s policy failures, providing his thoughts on what should be done to engage with the region.

MLI’s latest commentary, titled “Navigating a New Canadian Course in the Indo-Pacific,” argues that this failure to launch a meaningful Indo-Pacific strategy has been damaging to Canada’s national interests. This commentary is based on Mulroney’s keynote remarks at MLI’s 2020 Annual Dinner.

To put it bluntly, 2019 was “a year during which Canadian foreign policy itself has been on trial,” according to Mulroney. In this case, the chief challenge facing Canada is that of China.  Unfortunately, “we’ve been shown, repeatedly and to our great cost, the dangers of a foreign policy that is largely reactive. Too often, our ‘comprehensive engagement’ of China has been an excuse for foreign policy on auto-pilot, in which we seem to go along to get along, and in which flattery often replaces facts.”

In this context, Mulroney makes the case for an Indo-Pacific policy that is less vulnerable to China’s authoritarian whims.

Instead of looking at the region through a China-centric lens, Mulroney encourages Ottawa to engage more actively and and substantively with our likeminded allies in the region, including Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

As he goes on to explain, “a successful Canadian engagement of the Indo-Pacific region involves a lot more than spinning the globe and tweaking ministerial travel schedules.”

“Real foreign policy involves thinking clearly about who and what we are as a country, about a limited number of achievable objectives, about national assets and liabilities, and [more].”

In terms of concrete action, Mulroney believes that Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy should be anchored in a network of strong, country-to-country relationships with our allies. For instance, he argues that Canada must invest more significantly in an expeditionary military capability so that we can support our allies and be seen as a credible security partner.

Canada cannot and should not exclude China from its engagement, but tackling the challenges posed by Beijing will require policy makers to change their strategy, opting for a selective, careful, and balanced approach that is “aligned with our interests and attuned to our vulnerabilities.”

The importance of this is hard to overstate. As Mulroney argues, getting Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy right would “represent a first step in the direction of real foreign policy, of taking responsibility for navigating our Canadian course in a new world.”

To learn more about how Canada should navigate a new course in the Indo-Pacific, read the full remarks here.

***

David Mulroney is a Distinguished Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He served as Ambassador of Canada to the People’s Republic of China from 2009 to 2012.

To arrange an interview, media are invited to contact:

Brett Byers
Communications and Digital Media Manager
613-482-8327 x105
brett.byers@macdonaldlaurier.ca

Tags: ChinaDavid MulroneyDragon at the DoorForeign AffairsIndo- Pacific
Previous Post

Canada’s 5G decision is a matter of national security and should be unencumbered: J. Berkshire Miller in the Montreal Gazette

Next Post

Ep. 43 – Putting the Rail Blockades and Teck Frontier in Context with Ken Coates and Brett Byers

Related Posts

Canada can help Ukraine in better ways than sending tanks: Richard Shimooka in the Hub
Columns

Canada can help Ukraine in better ways than sending tanks: Richard Shimooka in the Hub

January 27, 2023
Just as Canadians see smartphone bills head down, the cost of watching online content on them may be going up: Peter Menzies in the Financial Post
Columns

Want cheaper cellphone bills? Allow more foreign investment in telecoms: Aaron Wudrick in the National Post

January 27, 2023
Face it, millennials – There is no realistic alternative to capitalism: Philip Cross in the Financial Post
Columns

Face it, millennials – There is no realistic alternative to capitalism: Philip Cross in the Financial Post

January 27, 2023
Next Post
Pod Bless Canada Ep. 3 – Indigenous People and the Natural Resource Economy with Crowley and Coates

Ep. 43 – Putting the Rail Blockades and Teck Frontier in Context with Ken Coates and Brett Byers

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Follow us on

Newsletter Signup

First Name
Last Name
Email Address

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

Inside Policy Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
  • Advertising
  • Inside Policy Blog
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.