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Record W1965568136 · doi:10.1177/002070200005500202

The Canadian Middle Power Myth

2000· article· en· W1965568136 on OpenAlex

Why this work is in the frame

A frame that forgets how it found something cannot be audited. These are the routes that admitted this work.

aboutThe title or abstract carries a Canadian signal from the geographic lexicon.
no affNo Canadian affiliation: this work is invisible to an affiliation-only frame.
No Canadian affiliation. An affiliation-only frame, the usual design, would never have seen this work. It is one of the works that make the case for inverting the frame.

Bibliographic record

VenueInternational Journal Canada s Journal of Global Policy Analysis · 2000
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldSocial Sciences
TopicCanadian Policy and Governance
Canadian institutionsnot available
Fundersnot available
KeywordsMiddle powerNationalismForeign policyInternational relationsRhetoricPoliticsPolitical sciencePower (physics)SociologyPower politicsPolitical economyLaw

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

THE RHETORIC OF 'MIDDLEPOWERHOOD' has dominated Canada's external political identity since the Second World War. Middle-power status has been used to justify a voice in international organizations, leadership in international initiatives, and consultation with Canadian officials on matters of concern to the international community. Canada has used the middle power concept to further its foreign policy aims and to promote nationalism through an internationally recognized identity.For all its importance, 'middle power' is rarely defined, and limited explanations are never specific. This vagueness is deliberate and conceals a striking reality: Canada's status as a middle power is a myth. The history of middlepowerhood uncovers a tradition of Canadian rhetoric crafted to justify the attainment of disproportionate influence in international affairs.(f.1) This subtle process of nationalist self- promotion had its genesis in 1942 when diplomat Hume Wrong introduced the functional principle, and it continues to be manifest in the Canadian human security agenda today.In 1933, David Mitrany legitimized the concept of functionalism in international relations, evaluating the potential for a successful world government by dividing the world into two types of states: great and small. Recognizing that some of the smaller states were increasing in strength, and seeking to ensure successful and co-operative international governance, he proposed to acknowledge the differing capacities of the smaller powers through 'a functional structure of political authority.'(f.2)Mitrany's ideas undoubtedly influenced Hume Wrong when he wrote to Norman Robertson, the undersecretary of state for external affairs, about Canada's role and status in the direction of war and the shaping of peace during inter-allied World War II negotiations: 'the principle, I think, is that each member of the grand alliance should have a voice in the conduct of war proportionate to the general war effort. A subsidiary principle is that the influence of the various countries should be greatest in connection with those matters with which they are most directly concerned.'(f.3) Wrong's 'functional principle' was narrower than Mitrany's 'functionalism.' It stipulated that individual small-state involvement in international affairs should be based upon certain conditions: the relevance of the state's interests, the direct contribution of the state to the situation in question, and the capacity of the state to participate.(f.4) Wrong did not intend to contest the role of the great powers - their inherent right to influence over all aspects of global governance was conceded. The principle was to apply to all remaining states. There were indeed two tiers of powers in the international system. However, some of the smaller powers deserved greater relative status predetermined by three criteria: relevance, contribution, and capacity. Functional powers were small powers. The functional principle was a 'functional' means of differentiating between smaller states, based on their relative capacities at a specific time.The tenets of the functional principle helped elevate Canada's status within the international community during World War II. Canada became a leading non-great power. It had a functional voice in the shaping of international relations. Over time, however, that was not enough. With the war coming to a close, Brooke Claxton, the minister of defence, proposed to extend the principle beyond its original meaning: 'the nations of the world must come to think of representation in terms of function rather than status.'(f.5) Claxton hoped to change the power structure.Great powers had formal status that would soon be recognized in the charter of the United Nations. Regardless of the state of the French economy, the British military, or Soviet political stability, the three remained great powers. Great-power status was differentiated objectively. It hardly fluctuated, and it allowed certain states to maintain a disproportionate influence in international affairs. …

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Full frame distilled prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.001
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.001
Version: codex-gemma-dda1882f352aValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesScience and technology studies, Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Not applicable · Consensus signal: Not applicable
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: none
Teacher disagreement score0.885
Threshold uncertainty score1.000

Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0010.001
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.001
Bibliometrics0.0000.002
Science and technology studies0.0020.000
Scholarly communication0.0010.000
Open science0.0020.000
Research integrity0.0000.000
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0020.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.009
GPT teacher head0.293
Teacher spread0.284 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it