Uncharted Ground: Canada, Middle Power Leadership, and Public Diplomacy

Abstract

This paper examines Canada's role in the treaty to ban landmines as an innovative foreign policy process. In doing so, the Cooper, Higgott, and Nossal middle power typology is applied to Canada's leadership in the Ottawa Process which culmi­nated in the signing of the historic treaty in December 1997. It is argued that Canada's leadership in the Ottawa Process was made possible through a synergy of states, international orga­nizations, and a global network of non-governmental organi­zations. It is this new form of "public diplomacy" that the authors contend has redefined Canada's traditional approach to multilateralism. As a case study, important policy lessons can be extrapolated from this paper's analysis.