Following the Americans to the Persian Gulf

This book is a detailed analysis of foreign policy formulation in Canada and Australia. It utilizes the Gulf crisis as a case study and vehicle for comparing these two geographically distant but politically similar middle-powers. The time span considered is from August 1990 to January 1991 - that is, from the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to the commencement of Operation Desert Storm. Many intriguing issues and questions are considered in this study. What are the official avenues by which Canada and Australia ostensibly develop their foreign policy? How much influence does any one group or nation have on this process? How wedded are the decisions made in the two countries to the special interests of other countries? How aware are Australian and Canadian citizens of the critical process of foreign policy formulation and the pressures that bend the process in one direction or another? How eager are the leaders and statesmen of the two countries to have unofficial influences and connections made known? Ronnie Miller here examines different facets of the foreign policy decision-making procedure - which range from historical precedent within each country and political personalities and personal ties to public response and activism . The Canadian and Australian policy-making process is explored within the context of unfolding international events. The global commitments and behaviors of the two countries are understood as being influenced by numerous internal and external tides and eddies - many of long-standing nature, some new and startling. By comparing the directions the two nations took when confronted by the "crisis in the Gulf," Miller helps readers to more fully appreciate the complexity and subtlety of foreign policy formulation and global politics in general. The foreign policy political landscape of each country and the forces that shape it are highlighted when seen against the backdrop of escalating domestic difficulties, nasty political jealousies and competitions, and international events that can only be described as seismic in intensity. The political topography is buckling and bending in the face of such international "earthquakes": the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the emergence of a new world order, the rise of new, hungry, international economic forces, and America's uphill struggle to retain its preeminence. How Canada and Australia are attempting to withstand and temper these forces - and, in fact, benefit from them through practical and canny foreign policy machinations - is the substance of this book