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Burney and Hampson Indict
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- The title is an example of excessive rhetoric
- Burney is biased – he’s the director of the company building the pipeline
- Turn – endorsement of their logic guarantees a total collapse of relations, they’re overly defeatist
Burney and Hampson IndictBurney and Hampson are wrongRoland Paris; University Research Chair in International Security and Governance at the University of Ottawa, founding Director of the Centre for International Policy Studies, and Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Previously, he was Director of Research at the Conference Board of Canada, this guy has a shitload of credentials, foreign policy advisor in the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Privy Council Office of the Canadian government; Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder; Visiting Researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.; and constitutional policy advisor in the Federal-Provincial Relations Office of the Canadian government. He has won several awards for his research, graduate and undergraduate teaching, and public service; June 29, 2012 “Whither Canada-U.S. Relations?” Canadian International Council - http://www.opencanada.org/features/blogs/roundtable/whither-canada-u-s-relations/ NCHO Derek Burney and Fen Osler Hampson have well-deserved reputations as level-headed observers of Canada-U.S. relations. How, then, did they come to write an article so full of misjudgments on this subject?¶ The article in question, “How Obama Lost Canada,” appeared on the website of Foreign Affairs magazine this week. As the title suggests, the authors argue that Canada-U.S. relations are suffering, and that the U.S. administration is to blame.¶ In fact, they go further. The bilateral relationship, they contend, reached its “lowest point in decades” last year, when the Obama administration postponed its decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, which is designed to ship Albertan bitumen to refineries in Texas. This is the first in a string of puzzling statements from the authors – statements that make for exciting reading (to the extent that Canada-U.S. relations are ever exciting) but that have little basis in fact.¶ Between 2003 and 2005, I had the privilege of serving as an advisor on Canada-U.S. relations in the Department of Foreign Affairs and in the Privy Council Office. Relations today are no worse, and probably better, than they were then. Jean Chrétien had just declined to send Canadian troops to Iraq – the right decision, but one that nevertheless angered officials in the George W. Bush administration, who were hoping at least for an expression of political support. (It didn’t help that Chrétien announced his decision in the House of Commons to a throng of cheering Liberal MPs.) Bush then cancelled a planned state visit to Canada.¶ Those were difficult days. Two years later, Canada chose not to participate in the U.S. ballistic missile defence system for North America. Once again, the announcement of Canada’s position was bungled, causing unnecessary irritation in the bilateral relationship. Those were also difficult days.¶ Are relations worse today? Burney and Hampson claim that Obama snubbed Canada when he chose to defer a decision on the Keystone pipeline until after this November’s presidential election. They further claim that approving Keystone should have been an “easy diplomatic and economic decision” for Obama.¶ In fact, Keystone was a very tough political call for the president, who faced strong domestic interests pulling in opposite directions, including a powerful environmental movement. Any politician worth his or her salt – perhaps even some in the Harper government – would have understood the political logic of Obama’s decision, and the fact that it was not intended to insult Canada. (What’s more, the pipeline permit application has been amended and resubmitted, and may be approved in early 2013, after the election.) Yet, Burney and Hampson portray this episode as a rebuff of historic proportions. The title is an example of excessive rhetoricChristopher Sands; Senior fellow, Hudson Institute; 06/26/2012 “Has Obama Really "Lost Canada"?” http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/christopher-sands/how-obama-lost-canada_b_1627876.html NCHO It took me a few minutes to wipe the coffee off my computer screen this morning after I'd read an article entitled, "How Obama Lost Canada" in the online edition of Foreign Affairs, the Council on Foreign Relations journal. Canada? Lost? Really?¶ The authors are two men I respect deeply: former Canadian Ambassador to the United States Derek Burney and the director of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, Fen Osler Hampson. Both of them have been following the U.S.-Canadian relationship -- and in Burney's case, helping to shape it -- far longer than I have.¶ Still, their argument caught me by surprise. The article's title is a reference to the U.S. debates over "Who lost China?" in the 1950s when some American politicians sought to blame others for the Communist take-over in China that turned a second World War U.S. ally into a Cold War enemy. Granted that this is just a turn of phrase, but there has been no change of leadership or policy in Canada -- I checked -- that would compare to a Communist revolution. Burney is biased – he’s the director of the company building the pipelineChristopher Sands; Senior fellow, Hudson Institute; 06/26/2012 “Has Obama Really "Lost Canada"?” http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/christopher-sands/how-obama-lost-canada_b_1627876.html NCHO However, the central grievance for the authors is the failure of President Obama to grant a presidential permit for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline is being built by Trans Canada Corporation, where Ambassador Burney has been a member of the board of directors since 2005 This criticism is likely to sting the Obama administration the most: the Keystone pipeline has become a partisan issue in the United States election, with Mitt Romney pledging to approve the Keystone pipeline on Day One of his administration; Obama has insisted that he may approve the pipeline in 2013 as well. Turn – endorsement of their logic guarantees a total collapse of relations, they’re overly defeatistChristopher Sands; Senior fellow, Hudson Institute; 06/26/2012 “Has Obama Really "Lost Canada"?” http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/christopher-sands/how-obama-lost-canada_b_1627876.html NCHO Even if the 2009 Burney-Hampson blueprint for better U.S.-Canadian relations has not achieved everything the authors hoped for, their 2012 view that the Obama administration has alienated Canada through its neglect of Canadian priorities seems overly defeatist. Relations between Canada and the United States are imperfect but not that bad, and the Obama administration's engagement of other friends around the world is natural. The fact that President Obama has occasionally let domestic considerations take precedence over diplomacy, even in the case of a friendly ally like Canada, is regrettable perhaps but also to be expected.¶ Both Burney and Hampson must know all this, yet did not let it temper their harsh judgment of the Obama administration in their Foreign Affairs article. Many U.S. policymakers will be hurt by their negative characterization of the U.S.-Canadian relationship. If Obama is re-elected in November, he may wonder if Canada can ever be satisfied, and whether it is worth devoting so much attention to the Harper government and its priorities. And a President Romney could end up asking the same question.¶ It may be then that a Canadian foreign policy journal will publish an article with the rhetorical title, "Who Lost the United States?" Directory: files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Integer programming and game theory files -> 4 Integer Programming files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. Objective files -> Pop Warner History files -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations Download 0.81 Mb. Share with your friends:
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