The caution and unwillingness to make unsupportable commitments that nor-
mally characterized Canada's conduct in the Middle East are typical of Canada's
approaches in other turbulent regions. The foregoing sketches of Canada's pol-
icy on specific issues and of Canada's relations with various parts of the world
illustrate other aspects of Canada's foreign policy. Observers with different per-
spectives still agree that Canadian diplomats tend to be cautious and pragmatic,
raising their voice only when Canada has a particular source of expertise and
strength.

However, the Canadian government has taken the initiative on occasion; such
moves are often guided by a general international, rather than an exclusive
national, interest. An example was Secretary of State for External Affairs Paul
Martin's promotion of a "package deal" to admit a large assortment of nations
into the United Nations in 1964. Canada's bold proposals on arms control have
been supported by its technological expertise in this field, including verification
procedures.

A revulsion against nuclear weapons has characterized the Canadians' inter-
est in peacetime defense matters, about which they otherwise have relatively lit-
tle concern compared with people in many other countries. On nuclear matters,
in fact, Canadians, like their fellow North Americans on other issues, tend to
employ rhetoric that borders on preaching. With no intention to acquire nuclear
weapons themselves, the Canadians have depended on persuasion to prevent
proliferation and to slow down the arms race. While sharing the same values
regarding human rights, Canadians have been less willing than Americans to try
to tie reforms in other countries with trade issues. In the still relevant words writ-
ten some decades ago by the historian Edgar McInnis, Canadian foreign policy
exhibits an "inescapable sense of limitation" and of "ambition tempered by real-
ism," and a "shrewd sense of the possible." From its experience with Britain's
sideshow wars, Canada learned to stay out of the wars of the United States. The
Vietnam War showed that Canada did not have to become a belligerent in an
"American war", but could play a modest part in moderating it. In recent years
the game of high politics has been played with little or no Canadian participa-
tion; "foreign policy" for Canadians means primarily "foreign economic policy."

Those aspects of Canada's outlook can be seen in the methods 52 customar-
ily employed in foreign affairs. A stress on law and diplomacy and the preference
for using international organizations, especially the United Nations, have typi-
fied the Canadian way to deal with problems on the international scene. By

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