Grant Dawson’s analysis of political, diplomatic, and military decision making avoids a narrow focus on the shocking offences of a few Canadian soldiers, deftly investigating the broader context of the deployment in Somalia. He shows how media pressure, government optimism about the United Nations, and the Canadian traditions of multilateralism and peacekeeping all helped to determine the level, length, and tenor of the country’s operations. His findings will undoubtedly play a seminal role in informing scholarly debate about this important period in Canadian diplomacy and military engagement.
230 pages | © 2006
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 Food for Thought: Multilateral Humanitarianism and the Somalia Crisis to March 1992
2 The Canadian Forces and the Recommendation to Stay out of Somalia
3 “Do Something Significant”: Government Reconsideration of the Somalia Crisis
4 The Humanitarian Airlift Takes Flight
5 Sticking with the (Wrong) Peacekeeping Mission
6 Problems with the Expanded UN Operation
7 Robust Multilateralism: Support for the Unified Task Force
8 Unified Task Force: Canada’s First Post-Cold War Enforcement Coalition
9 Stay or Go? Weighing a Role in the Second UN Mission
10 The Canadian Joint Force Somalia: In the Field
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index