Canada and Competing Indo-Pacific Visions of China and the US

This book describes and analyzes the choices that Canada, as a Middle Power, has regarding the strategic rivalry between the United States and China. The administrations of Republican Donald Trump and his successor Democrat Joe Biden have taken a hardline stance toward Beijing, which in turn has adopted an increasingly belligerent tone toward Washington. The posture of the United States toward China has put traditional American allies in a difficult position. They must choose whether to join the effort to counter China’s ambitions, support those ambitions or take some intermediate stance. As one of America’s closest and longest-standing allies, Canada must make decisions that will affect its position in the world for the rest of the twenty-first century. The book argues that Canada’s national interests are best served by alignment with the confrontational posture of the United States while at the same time joining the efforts of U.S. allies Japan, India, and South Korea to moderate the thrust of Washington’s Indo-Pacific Strategy in a direction more consistent with multilateralism and the preservation of the rules-based international order. The book has important implications for other U.S. allies, including the member states of the European Union, Organization of American States and Association of Southeast Asian Nations, each of which finds itself caught in the middle between the world’s two greatest powers. Kenneth Holland is a former president of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States and has published several books, articles and book chapters on Canada’s foreign policy, including “Canada and the Indo-Pacific Strategy” (2021), “How Unipolarity Impacts Canada’s Engagement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization” (2017), “The Canada-United States Defence Relationship: A Partnership for the Twenty-First Century” (2014), “An Evaluation of Canada’s Engagement in Afghanistan” (2013), and Canadian-United States Engagement in Afghanistan: An Analysis of the “Whole of Government” Approach (2009). Prof. Holland has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Calgary, Fulbright Professor of Law at Tohoku University in Japan, and Research Fellow at the Australian National University. He has lectured at several Chinese universities on U.S.-China relations and assisted China in complying with the conditions established by the United States for China’sadmission into the World Trade Organization.