Master of Persuasion: Brian Mulroney’s Global Legacy
By
Based on unprecedented access—interviews with key players, diaries, memos, and so forth—the first book to document Brian Mulroney’s impressive foreign policy record, from NAFTA to the collapse of the Soviet Union, climate change to the release of Nelson Mandela.
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney led and lifted Canada’s voice and influence in world affairs to unprecedented heights. He understood better than many of his predecessors that Canada’s power and influence derived from a solid grasp of our vital national interests, and a purposeful commitment to pursuing those interests and values on the world stage. With full access to key players and new documentation, Fen Osler Hampson brilliantly tells how Canada succeeded in advancing its national interests on trade, the environment, national security, and the elevation of democracy and human rights under Mulroney’s leadership.
Through negotiation and the deliberate cultivation of close personal links with other world leaders and figures, including Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterrand, Nelson Mandela and many others, there were significant achievements that serve Canadian interests to this day. Efforts to combat acid rain, repair the ozone layers, and to champion climate change, long before it became fashionable, surprised and satisfied many ardent advocates on the environment.
Perhaps most important of all, Brian Mulroney put to bed the long-standing myth that Canada could not be a respected international player if it was seen as being too close to the United States. In sharp contrast to his predecessor, he argued that the path for global influence for the country began with a principled and trusted dialogue with Washington, one that other world leaders noticed.
As Canada’s present government navigates its own course in choppy international waters, there is much to be learned from our finest hour on the international stage some three decades ago under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
ISBN-10: 0771039077
ISBN-13: 978-0771039072
About the Author
FEN OSLER HAMPSON is Chancellor’s Professor at Carleton University and Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Global Security and Politics Program at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. He is the author/co-author of twelve books on Canadian foreign policy and international affairs and co-editor of twenty-eight volumes. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and is also a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Toronto.
Other Published Books by Fen Osler Hampson
