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Fen Osler Hampson and Stephen M. Saideman, eds. Canada Among Nations 2015: Elusive Pursuits: Lessons from Canada’s Interventions Abroad Centre for International Governance Innovation

Reviewed by: Aaron Ettinger, University of WaterlooIt is uncommon for an academic book review to begin with the cover art but the 29th volume of Canada Among Nations is worthy of mention. Gracing the front is the image of a special operations soldier with parachute in full bloom, slightly above a treeline, with a snow-capped mountain in the distance. Exactly what the paratrooper will encounter on the ground is not clear. It is a clever visual representation of the challenge of intervention and the purpose of this volume. Elusive Pursuits serves as a comparative evaluation of Canadian interventions in the post-Cold War era, a period that saw Canada in (or above) Afghanistan, Bosnia, East Timor, Haiti, Kosovo, Libya, Somalia, and at present, Iraq-Syria. Elusive Pursuits is intended to provide lessons learned for that paratrooper and the policymakers that will send him drifting to the ground the next time, wherever and whenever that may be.The volume is inspired by the formal end of the Afghanistan mission in 2014, which looms large in the Canadian consciousness. Or, to be more precise, what looms large is the deadly 2006-2011 period of counter-insurgency in Kandahar. This informs the scope of "intervention" laid out in the editors' introduction, which defines it narrowly as "the use of force to affect the domestic dynamics of another country, with the broad aim of contributing to international peace and security" (3). It is for the best, however, that the contributors do not strictly adhere to this definition. After all, Canada's experience with "intervention" is much broader than the introduction lets on. Thus, Elusive Pursuit's principal strength is the broad perspective it takes on intervention and the insights that flow from diverse scholarship on the issue. The individual contributions in this volume cover a wide expanse of issues that serve to remind readers of the scope and implications of Canada's interventions over the past 25 years. There are chapters on Canada's recent high-profile combat experiences in Iraq/Syria, Kandahar, and Libya, but also on diplomatic responses to the Arab Spring, security sector reform initiatives in Haiti, and the disastrous peacekeeping and aid mission in Somalia, the consequences of which still linger. Furthermore, there are up-to-date analyses of how Canadian government institutions and society have evolved during the post-September 11 era.Undoubtedly, though, the most ambitious and controversial chapter in Elusive Pursuits tries to articulate the Harper Doctrine on military intervention by schematizing the operational code that informed Stephen Harper's "duty-driven internationalism." Authors Derek Burney, Fen Osler Hampson, and Simon Palamar make the important observation that Harper's interventions appeared to mimic the humanitarian and multilateral impulses of liberal internationalism, but his pathways to military intervention are entirely different. …