Ambassador Allan Gotlieb: North American Politics & Integration
Geopolitics & Empire
Geopolitics & Empire
4.2 • 568 Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2016
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Retired Canadian Ambassador Allan Gotlieb discusses Canadian foreign policy in the shadow of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11. He reveals his thoughts on the progression of the North American idea and community or as Parag Khanna recently described it in the New York Times, “an emerging North American Union”. He also provides his analysis of the Canadian oil sands and Keystone XL Pipeline. Finally, he offers advice to future political scientists and diplomats.
Websites
http://www.bennettjones.com/GotliebAllan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Gotlieb
http://www.international.gc.ca/odskelton/gotlieb.aspx?lang=eng
About Allan Gotlieb
A former Canadian ambassador to the United States, Allan Gotlieb’s international law and diplomacy experience has been honed over the past 50 years through his legal and public service careers.
Mr. Gotlieb is the emeritus chairman of the Canadian Group and former North American deputy chairman of the Trilateral Commission, a non-governmental policy discussion group. He is also chairman or member of several Canadian charitable foundations and companies and a past director of a number of international corporations in Canada and the United States as well as Canadian Crown corporations and agencies.
Mr. Gotlieb is a Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest civil honour in the country, a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Government of Canada and of the Order of Manitoba.
Mr. Gotlieb has taught at numerous universities, including Harvard University as William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor and the University of Toronto as Claude Bissell Visiting Professor. He is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, former Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a recipient of Honorary Doctorates from the University of Toronto, Western University, Concordia University and a number of other universities.
Mr. Gotlieb has written five books and countless articles on international law, diplomacy and political science. His latest book, The Washington Diaries: 1981-1989, was nominated for The Writer’s Trust of Canada’s 2007 Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing. Regarding these diaries, Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail wrote “These are among the best diaries about public policy ever written by a Canadian, maybe even the best.”
*Podcast intro music is from the song “The Queens Jig” by “Musicke & Mirth” from their album “Music for Two Lyra Viols”: http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The reason I wanted to record this interview was to introduce new generations to the important work and analysis of people such as yourself. |
| 0:07.7 | In looking for teaching material on North American politics, I found your accounts to be precise, cutting eloquently to the point, especially in the two areas of Canadian and U.S. foreign policy as well as North American integration. |
| 0:20.0 | And a few years ago, you gave an excellent speech summarizing Canadian foreign policy. |
| 0:25.6 | After being under the British thumb, Canadian policy making transferred to the US sphere of influence. |
| 0:32.6 | And you stated, Canadian international strategy is largely driven by the U.S. relationship with the U.S. |
| 0:39.3 | as a principal actor, and others such as Paul Heinbecker have stated that you have influence in the world if you have influence in Washington. |
| 0:47.3 | And before touching on the U.S.-Canadian relationship, could you briefly in just a few minutes describe to us your view of U.S. foreign policy since the events of 9-11, what would you describe as the focal point of the U.S. policy and how would you evaluate it? |
| 1:07.0 | Well, I think that 9-11 will go down in terms of Canada-U.S. |
| 1:18.6 | I think it will go down as a date of extraordinary importance. |
| 1:25.6 | And the reason is that we were on the path of integration |
| 1:32.3 | with the United States and but it you know our relationship economically had |
| 1:41.8 | developed in the 20th century as Mexico's has where we were overwhelmingly |
| 1:48.3 | kind of a almost like a one-client one-client situation. United States was in the mid-80s |
| 1:59.1 | before NAFTA, before the FDA, the United States was home to the destination |
| 2:07.2 | per 80% of our global exports. |
| 2:11.5 | So then, and we were moving through FTA and then NAFTA, indisputably towards a deepening and a widening of North American trade relations, economic conditions, |
| 2:37.0 | with Mexico following after the FTA, the FTA was a model for NASA, |
| 2:44.0 | continued in that direction. |
| 2:46.0 | And I felt pre 9-11, I believe that historically this was unassopable, that we, the depth of the integration |
| 2:58.6 | would, the integration would continue to deepen, notwithstanding the power of the lobbies in the United States, such as the softwood lumber lobby, to create |
| 3:11.6 | great obstacles. However, I believed it was inevitable and would continue, and I thought |
| 3:19.7 | that was a good thing, nor did I think of that in any way would subordinate Canada's foreign policy |
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