Canadian geopolitical culture: Climate change and sustainability

Considering recent formulations of geopolitical culture in combination with concerns that environmental change be included in contemporary geopolitical analysis, this paper examines the implicit geopolitical formulations in recent Canadian federal political discourse both in Stephen Harper's Conservative government and the subsequent Liberal administration. Contrasting earth system science ideas about global transformations with Canadian nationalist rhetoric concerning petroleum production and notions of unlimited resource extraction as parts of national identity sharply highlights the contours of Canadian identity. If sustainability is to be taken seriously, the official nationalist formulation will have to be drastically changed, but as the widespread rejection of the LEAP manifesto suggests, such ideas of a sustainable mode of globalization have yet to substantially influence Canadian political discourse, despite the rhetorical support offered to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau.     

Moving Mountains: Community and Resistance in the Isle of Harris, Scotland, and Cape Breton, Canada

Drawing on poststructuralist political ecology, the narratives of two struggles about siting a superquarry are examined to elucidate the complex articulations of community, nature, resistance and identity in play in public debates. Focusing on the discursive formulations of the quarry in the expert language, as well as in the arguments of both local proponents and opponents of the quarries, shows the importance of ontological categories in "environmental" siting disputes. In Harris, these themes rearticulate the histories of dispossession, crofting and religion, as well as complex layers of geographical identity in the various claims to community. In Cape Breton, the rethinking of aboriginal Mi'kmaq identity was stimulated by revived interest in the religious traditions linked to the sacred site near the proposed quarry. In light of these findings, the complexity and active rearticulation of local "community" as political resistance are emphasised and the difficulties of thinking about sustainability highlighted.     

Book reviews

Australian Politics

Scott Bennett, Affairs of State: Politics in the Australian States and Territories (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1992) pp.230. $24.95 ISBN 1 86373 093 1.

Verity Burgmann, Power and Protest: Movements for Social Change in Australian Society (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1993) pp.302. $24.95 ISBN 1 86373 211.

J.R.G. Butler (ed.), Federalism and Public Policy, Intergovernmental Grants and Health Care Financing (Canberra: Federalism Research Centre in association with National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, 1991) pp.141. $12.95 ISBN 0 7315 1119 0.

Frank Farrell, Themes in Australian History: Questions, Issues and Interpretation in an Evolving Historiography (Kensington: University of NSW Press, 1992) pp.221. $24.95 ISBN 0 86840 212 5.

James A Gillespie, The Price of Health: Australian Governments and Medical Politics 1910–1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.358. $49.95 ISBN 0 521 38183 5.

Barry Jones, Sleepers, Wake! Technology and the Future of Work (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1990) pp.285. $16.95 ISBN 0 19 553146 9.

Roger McDonald, Reflecting Labor: Images of Myth and Origin Over 100 Years (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1991) p.49. $7.50 ISBN 0 642 10537 5.

Terry Newman, Hare‐Clark in Tasmania: Representation of All Opinions (Hobart: Joint Library Committee of the Parliament of Tasmania, 1992) pp.319. $39.95 ISBN 0 7246 3876 8.

Peter Vintila, John Phillimore and Peter Newman (eds), Markets, Morals and Manifestos: Fightback! and the Politics of Economic Rationalism in the 1990s (Perth: Institute for Science and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, 1992) pp.274. $18.95 ISBN 0 86905 233 0.

Michael Howard, ’Fightback!’ or Setback? The Cuts to Public Expenditure in the Hewson Package (Sydney: Public Sector Research Centre, University of New South Wales, 1992) pp.134. $15.00 ISSN 10348 569X.

Comparative and International Politics

John Allen, Peter Braham and Paul Lewis (eds), Political and Economic Dimensions of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992) pp.440. $37.95 ISBN 0 7456 0962 7.

Ian Bellany, A Basis for Arms Control (Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1991) pp.155 $n.p. ISBN 1 85521 051 7.

Henry Brandon (ed.)? The Future of U.S.‐European Relations: In Search of a New World Order (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1992) pp.177. $19.95 ISBN 0 8157 1058 5.

Alison Broinowski, The Yellow Lady, Australian Impressions of Asia (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992) pp.260. $39.95 ISBN 0 19 553382 8.

Robert L. Canfield (ed.), Turko‐Persia in Historical Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.256. $120.00 ISBN 0 521 39094 X.

Henry Frendo, Party Politics in a Fortress Colony: the Maltese Experience 2nd ed. (Valetta, Malta: Midsea Publications, 1991) pp.243. $n.p. no ISBN.

Gwendolyn Gray, Federalism and Health Policy: The Development of Health Systems in Canada and Australia (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991) pp.281. $Canl9.95 ISBN 0 8020 6862 6.

Susan Kaufman Purcell and Robert M. Immerman (eds), Japan and Latin America in the New Global Order (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992) pp.163. SUS9.95 ISBN 1 55587 316 2.

St John Kettle and Stephanie Dowrick (eds), After the Gulf War: For Peace in the Middle East (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1991), pp.134; $9.95 ISBN 0 949138 69 X.

Andrew Ross (ed.), The Military Significance of the Gulf War (Canberra: Australian Defence Studies Centre) pp.79. $10.00 ISBN 0 7317 0191 7.

Ronald T. Libby, Protecting Markets: U.S. Policy and the World Grain Trade (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992) pp.152. $US26.50 ISBN 0 8014 2617 0.

T.B. Millar and James Walter (eds), Asian‐Pacific Security After the Cold War (London: Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, University of London, 1992) pp.125. £8.50 ISBN 1 85507 044 8.

John Morrison, Boris Yeltsin. From Bolshevik to Democrat (Melbourne: Penguin, 1991) pp.303. $16.95 ISBN 0 14 017062 6.

Cornelia Navari (ed.), Conditions of States: A Study in International Political Theory (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991) pp.228. $ 39.95 ISBN 0 335 09667 0.

V. Spike Peterson (ed.), Gendered States: Feminist (Re)Visions of International Relations Theory (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1992) pp.225. $US16.95 ISBN 1 55587 328 6.

Edith Rogovin Frankel, Jonathan Frankel and Baruch Knei‐Paz (eds), Revolution in Russia: Reassessments of 1917 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.434. $145.00 ISBN 0 521 40523 8.

B. Guy Smith, The Politics of Taxation: A Comparative Perspective (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.338. $39.95 ISBN 1 55786 211 7.

Ramesh Thakur (ed.), The South Pacific: Problems, Issues and Prospects (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1991) pp.232. $49.95 ISBN 333 55704 2.

Political Theory and Methodology

Perry Anderson, A Zone of Engagement (London: Verso, 1992) pp.384. $39.95 ISBN 0 86091 595 6.

Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust (Cambridge: Polity, 1991) pp.338. $34.95 ISBN 0 7456 0930 9.

Paul Buhle, Marxism in the USA (London: Verso, 1991) pp.302. $34.95 ISBN 0 86091 547 6.

Hal Draper (edited and with an introduction by E. Haberkern), Socialism from Below: Essays Selected (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1992) pp.282. SUS25.00 ISBN 0 391 03732 3.

Richard E. Flathman, Wilful Liberalism: Voluntarism and Individuality in Political Theory and Practice (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1992) pp.232. SUS15.35 ISBN 0 8014 9955 0.

Norman Frohlich and Joe A. Oppenheimer, Choosing Justice: An Experimental Approach to Ethical Theory (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992) pp.258. SUS45.00 ISBN 0 520 07299 5.

Agnes Heller and Ferenc Feher, The Postmodern Political Condition (Cambridge: Polity, 1991) pp.167. $32.95 ISBN 0 7456 0929 5.

George Armstrong Kelly, The Humane Comedy: Constant, Tocqueville and French Liberalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.262. $120 ISBN 0 521 41227 7.

David Keyt and Fred D. Miller Jr (eds), A Companion to Aristotle's Politics (Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.407. $45.00 ISBN 1 55786 098 X.

Chantal Mouffe (ed.), Dimensions of Radical Democracy (London: Verso, 1992) pp.254. $ 34.95 ISBN 0 86091 556 5.