2009 DFAIT SYMPOSIUM PUBLICATION

A Very Modern Ministry? Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
This symposium took place on September 28, 2009
Convocation Hall, University of Saskatchewan

In June 2009, Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade marked its 100th anniversary, a signal milestone for a ministry that started life above a downtown Ottawa barbershop. But in today's world does Canada still need its diplomats? Its trade commissioners? Does it still need a Department of Foreign Aff airs and International Trade? And if so, what should it do? And how? This symposium brought together scholars, diplomats, and policy-makers to thrash out some answers. A morning roundtable critically examined some of the mythologies that surround Canadian diplomacy, explaining how Canada and its foreign and trade ministry got to where they are today. The lunch and afternoon sessions probed into Canada's contemporary foreign and trade ministry, setting out an agenda for change as DFAIT heads into its second century. 

Download September 28, 2009 Symposium Program

Download Publications/Presentations from the Symposium:

• The Foreign and International Trade Ministry of the Future by Leonard Edwards, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Canada
  
  
• Coming Off the Gold Standard by Greg Donaghy, Historical Section, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade,
  Government of Canada
  
  
• The End of Foreign Policy? The Long-Term Implications of the Reorganization of the Department of External Affairs, 1982-2009 by Kim Richard Nossal, Queen’s University