Strategic Friends

Canada's relations with an independent Ukraine have been resilient despite the many challenges associated with post-Soviet transition, highlighting the special" nature of the relationship. But this also denotes change in Canada's foreign policy towardsUkraine as Conservative and Liberal governments alike variously sought to adapt and contend with uncertainty that accompanied transition. Focusing on the differences and similarities between governments and widely held assumptions about Ukrainian-Canadian influence, Bohdan Kordan examines how systemic factors, national interests, and leadership perspectives shaped Canada's foreign policy toward Ukraine as it was tested. He advances the argument that Canada's foreign policy responded to change and that forces at work provided the occasion for unprecedented policy preferences and innovation to take place. Nevertheless, traditional parameters and constraints - alliance obligations for example - continued to shape Canada's relations with Ukraine, accounting for continuity in Canada's foreign policy. A Part Together investigates the nature and evolution of the Canada-Ukraine relationship and the dynamics at work. In the process it helps to reveal the undercurrent of contemporary Canadian foreign policy and with it a better sense of the developments that have shaped Canada's response in an age of change and uncertainty."--