Democracy, Donald Trump and the Canada-US Security Community

Abstract

This article examines Canada-US relations through their shared membership in a pluralistic security community (PSC). While the bilateral relationship has been turbulent for decades, the Trump presidency has damaged the Canada-US PSC by (1) exacerbating a decades-long trend of weakened shared identity and mutual trust between Canadians and Americans, and (2) undermining the democratic norms and institutions that uphold American domestic stability and Canadians’ expectations of peaceful change. Assessing the combined implications of the decline in shared identity, mutual trust and democratic stability, I argue that the Canada-US PSC cannot endure if the United States does not also consider Canada's national and security interests or if the United States itself poses a threat to those interests. Given current trends, the future absence of war in North America may reflect American domination over a weaker and dependent Canada rather than their continued membership in a bilateral PSC.

Developing a Canadian Indo-Pacific geopolitical orientation

“…During the latter's tenure, there were a plethora of debates in academic and government circles about whether and how to adapt the entirety of Canadian foreign policy to dealing with the possibility of drift and antagonism becoming more dominant features in the US-Canada relationship if the US increasingly became less liberal and more hostile to its traditional allies and partners. 16 These types of analyses in Canadian foreign policy discussions have largely disappeared since Biden's assumption of the presidency. 17 However, it remains to be seen if the latter was an aberration or not, given uncertainties about the trajectory and effects of ongoing domestic political polarization and debates about its hegemony which may alter how the US pursues global affairs with allies and institutions moving forward.…”