CANADA’S CHANGING ROLE IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

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Introduction
Canada considers itself as a ‘middle power’, which is not a great power, but still a state that is able to exercise some power (usually “soft power”) in the international sphere. This conception view Canada, and in particular its foreign policy behavior, as mostly ethical, peace-loving, and international law abiding. Participation in international organizations, promotion and advancement of international law has been a key priority in its external affairs (?) for both moral and pragmatic reasons, since the establishment of the United Nations in 1948. Undoubtedly, the role of Canada in international institutions was not the same through these 60 years.
This paper concentrates on the subject of Canadian foreign policy within international organizations on its key directions (human rights, peacekeeping and international aid), and, more specifically, on the topic of the changing role of Canada in these institutions. The thesis of this paper can be stated as follows !!!. Accordingly, the purpose of this work is to prove the thesis, and it will be achieved through completing following objectives:
1. to discover Canadian contribution to the international law concerning human rights;
2. to single out current challenges for Canada in the field of human rights protection;
3. to analyze transforming peculiarities of Canadian participation in peacekeeping operations during the 1956-2010 period;
4. to examine the trend of switch to peacebuilding;
5. to define Canada’s niche in international aid as well as predict the consequences of reductions in the number of its receivers.
The significance of this paper can be explained by the fact that participation in international organizations is beneficial for Canada in finding partners and...

... middle of paper ...

...fact that Canada ended up losing elections in the UN Security Council. As is well known, the UN Security Council consists of five permanent (The USA, Russia, the United Kingdom, China and France) and 10 non-permanent elected members from different regions of the world. Representation in the Security Council gives states the opportunity to participate in fixing global priorities and also strengthens its authority in the whole world. Canada was unpleasantly surprised by this defeat and, moreover, because it used to win these elections six times in a row before. The loss affected Canada’s international reputation seriously and aroused pointed criticism of foreign policy of Steven Harper’s government.
In short, cutting down of Canadian development assistance that stemmed from political and economic reasons, caused Canada’s failure at the UN Security Council elections.

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