Vina Nadjibulla: In their Economist essay, Carney and Stubb reject both “wishful multilateralism” and cold realpolitik in favour of what they call values-based realism: a foreign policy that remains committed to freedom, human rights, sustainability and solidarity, while recognizing that not every country with which Canada must work will share all of those values.
…
It is an effort to construct a new foreign policy framework for the world now taking shape, or, to coin a phrase, building the foreign policy while engaging in it. The prime minister is arguing that the emerging order will not be organized around one dominant power or one universal institution.
Canada’s task is to define its interests, identify the strategic capabilities it needs, and assemble the partnerships required to advance them, per his concept of “variable geometry”…