Content area
Abstract
This dissertation examines Canada's role within the Commonwealth, and is informed by the theory of middle power leadership. Middle power leadership is defined as the ability of a state to shape an international organization through the application of entrepreneurial and technical skills, with the exclusion of structural influences. This dissertation argues that Canada acted as a middle power leader in the Commonwealth. The concepts of middle power and middle power leadership theory are defined in the introduction of the thesis, and these terms are applied to Canada. Chapters one and two service the thesis by providing an overview of the Commonwealth, and examine Canada's role within this organization. Chapter one defines the Commonwealth as an organization, and examines the functions it performs, and chapter two illustrates Canadian foreign policy towards the Commonwealth since this organization's inception in 1931.
The substance of the thesis is presented in chapters three, four, and five, where three case studies exemplify Canada's role within the Commonwealth chronologically. Chapter three examines the role Canada played in building the modern structure of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Chapter four examines Canada's contribution in the development of Commonwealth states, and chapter five examines Canada's political role in maintaining the Commonwealth throughout the crises concerning Rhodesia and South Africa. The thesis concludes by finding that Canada did act as a middle power leader by shaping the Commonwealth, but it also indicates that Canada did exert a modicum of structural influence, distinct from the current theory on middle power leadership. This raises the question for future research if middle powers do perform a structural leadership role.