Canada wants to give itself the opportunity to regain its influence on the international scene by changing the way it conducts its diplomacy in the world. To this end, Secretary of State Mélanie Joly presented to the heads of missions meeting in Ottawa last week a working document resulting from an internal review of the functioning of Global Affairs Canada’s three components: the Department of State, International Trade and International Development.

After a year of deliberation and reflection, officials have produced a high-quality document whose recommendations will be implemented over the next three years. These recommendations revolve around four fields of action: gaining new political expertise; increase the country’s presence abroad; invest in people; and finally, enhancing the tools, processes and culture needed to fulfill Canadian diplomacy’s mandates. The reader will have understood that this document is not a foreign policy statement, but a guide for its implementation.

In recent years, I have often highlighted on these pages and elsewhere how Canadian diplomacy has become a business run by efficient managers, rather than a box in which diplomats brainstorm ideas to improve international relations. Both measures are necessary to engage in active diplomacy, but the first clearly takes precedence over the second. The document regrets this situation: “Certain employees, we read, particularly.” [ceux] Employees with extensive expertise in specific regions and areas felt increasingly disadvantaged over time, even in promotion processes that emphasized managerial skills rather than expertise […]. »

The result of this leadership drift was not long in coming. The last time Canada excelled on the international stage was 1996-2000 thanks to the spectacular diplomatic initiatives of Lloyd Axworthy, one of our great Foreign Ministers, and a brilliant cohort of diplomats.

The government wants to remedy this by promoting better in-house training, favoring the most creative, encouraging the spirit of initiative and risk-taking, hiring more professionals, and offering better personal and professional opportunities. But reversing a trend that has prevailed for the past twenty years will take time and constant monitoring. Department officials must ensure that thinkers get to the top just as quickly as managers if they are to create a critical mass of advisors who can explain the best decisions for Canadian diplomacy to their political superiors.

“Diplomacy is about influence,” the document says, and much of that influence is exercised through a presence on the ground. In this area, the findings presented in the working document are overwhelming for a G7 country. We obviously don’t live up to our claim to play a role on the international stage. Canada has 178 missions (embassies and consulates) in 110 countries, 40 of which are concentrated in four countries: USA, China, India and Mexico. This mechanism has been stable for twenty years, while competition between large and medium-sized powers to influence international affairs has never been more intense. South Korea is represented in 191 countries, Germany in 153, Turkey in 136 and little Norway with its four million inhabitants in 81.

The situation is no nicer in international organizations. The number of employees in Canada’s representation at the United Nations is now one of the lowest among G7 partners and competitors: 25 employees compared to 60 to 150 employees in the other six G7 members: Germany, Italy, USA, France, Japan and the United States Kingdom. While the working document makes some recommendations to strengthen Canada’s presence, it does not set out a goal aimed at bringing it closer to the system deployed by our allies. The lack of human resources can directly impact Canada’s chances of campaigning well to win a seat in key international forums such as the Security Council.

The initiative to transform the way Canadian diplomacy is practiced is a first step in restoring the country’s credibility. However, it cannot be content with being an administrative exercise in tightening the screws, repainting the walls or connecting our diplomats to the latest and greatest technologies. It must be accompanied by ideas about the importance to be attached to Canada’s actions on the international stage. The release of the Indo-Pacific strategy last year was a step in that direction for that region of the world. Much remains to be done for other regions.

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