Valuing Reputation and Prestige: Canadian Foreign Policy and the International Criminal Court

How do we explain the behavior of states when they appear to be engaged in normative international actions that carry some cost in terms of their material interests? This essay examines the relevance of reputation and prestige for Canadian foreign policy and, in particular, the role of these concepts in relation to Canada's leadership over the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It argues that Canadians and Canadian policymakers care about their country's international reputation and are motivated by the desire to gain prestige. Ottawa's decision to support enthusiastically the creation of an international criminal court demonstrates how the interaction of the Canadian self-identity as a good international citizen and the desire to be recognized as such translates into foreign policy.     

The money tree: Exploring central bank digital currency blockchain imaginaries

Central banks worldwide are developing, piloting and launching new central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). As the hub for the central banking community, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) promotes a curiously botanical CBDC imaginary. From ‘money flowers’ to ‘tree trunks’ and a ‘strong canopy’, This helps to naturalize CBDC without clarifying its sociopolitical implications or envisioned monetary future, such as geopolitical tensions and financial fragmentation, new modes of financial interaction or the strengthened role of central banks. While omitting the paradoxes and ambivalences of CBDC, the imaginary of the BIS structures the enfolding discourses and allows the bank to function as a think tank for financial policy-making.