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Could a growing transatlantic rift regarding the use of military force outside Europe propel the political break-up of Canada? The first part of the paper argues that, in addition to its liberal-democratic values, Canada's bicultural national identity accounts for much of its Atlanticist international security policy. The second part of the paper examines the prevalence of this Atlanticist strategic culture in the face of two contemporary cases of transatlantic (dis)unity, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in order to assess the potentially disruptive nature of transatlantic discord on Canada's political unity. It finds, somewhat counter-intuitively, that transatlantic unity - rather than disunity - could more probably generate national unity crises in Canada in the event of continuing 'out-of-area' military operations undertaken by NATO allies. This is mainly because of a growing tendency among Quebec's sovereignist political elites' to mobilise Quebecers' distinct attitudes regarding overseas military expeditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I use the concepts of spectacle and symbolic subversion to analyze three student videos about the war on Iraq and consumerism. I argue that Debord's concept of spectacle provides a powerful theory for examining the erasure of histories and the obsession with the consumption of images. However, unlike Debord, I argue there is room for what Bourdieu calls “symbolic subversion.” Symbolic subversion is the act of deconstructing and reconstructing meanings of text. Symbolic subversion facilitates whole new patterns of association between items; in a hegemonic view the items do not connect, but through the act of symbolic subversion they can be explicitly connected. Although they did not name what they were doing symbolic subversion or spectacle, the dialogue between undergraduates studying to work in child- and youth-serving professions and high school students demonstrated a knowledge of what it means to engage with or use spectacle to subvert dominant meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prime Minister Jean Chretien considered his decision to keep Canada out of the Iraq War of 2003 as the best of his tenure. That move challenges the previous record of Canada's participation in war with the two Commonwealth countries to which it is most often compared, Australia and the United Kingdom; it was also an apparent departure in relations with the United States. This article, in its first section, argues that the 'decision' was belated and incoherent, and also, relatedly, one that lacked sufficient grounding in Canadian foreign policy traditions. The article hypothesizes in its second section on foreign policy options, arguing further that the Canadian government was unconstrained by expectations of the United States but also that it could have made an essentially cost-free decision, and one tied into a defensible interpretation of Canadian foreign policy traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes how American mass media's acquiescence to state propaganda, most glaring in the American campaign to invade Iraq, affected Canadian media coverage in the build-up to war. While the Canadian government ultimately opted-out of the American (mis)adventure in Iraq, this could not have been predicted by the press coverage of Canada's major dailies. Canadian press coverage in the build-up to the invasion of Iraq was similar, if not in degree then certainly in kind, to the coverage seen in their American equivalents. Wholly uncritical and deferential to state propaganda, the Canadian press failed to challenge the dubious claims of the Bush administration and in this failure defaulted in its responsibility to inform the public and provide alternative opinions. The transformation of the Canadian media is in large part attributable to the concentration of media ownership, and is part of an ongoing transformation of Canada's political function, from independent international actor to junior adjunct of the United States. In this presentation, some preliminary comments are made as to the relationship between media coverage of Iraq and Canadian public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Canada's approach towards the 2003 Iraq war. The Iraq war has resulted in a debate over the Canada-U.S. relations in a Changing Global Environment. The Canada-U.S. relationship stands at a crossroads. The most important disagreement in the relations was the Canadian debate over the 2003 Iraq war, and the ultimate decision to not support the U.S. and take part in the conflict. The war also revealed significant differences in the manner in which the two states believe that force can be used to resolve conflicts, and the conditions under which the use of force is appropriate.

Examines the state of the relationship between Canada and the U.S. Impact of the refusal of Canada to join the war against Iraq in 2003 on the U.S. government; Number of Canadian peacekeepers dispatched to Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; Information on the book "Ignorant Armies: Sliding Into War in Iraq," by Gwynne Dyer.