The Transatlantic Divide over Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and its Impact on Canada’s National Unity.

Could a growing transatlantic rift between France, the United States and the United Kingdom regarding the use of military force outside Europe propel the political break-up of Canada? Scholars have posited a direct link between Canada’s binational (French and English) composition and its Atlanticist grand strategy. Two cultural hypotheses account for this link. First, Canada’s socio-demographic composition, mainly populated by immigrants from France and the United Kingdom during the 18th and 19th centuries, has fostered a sense of collective identity between Francophone and Anglophone Canadians and their respective countries of ethnic origin. Combined with its inevitable North American geographical location next to the United States, these socio-historical backgrounds help explain Canada’s attachment to a quadrilateral Atlanticism. Second, France’s strong influence over Québécois’ attitudes regarding the use of force, and a similar Anglo-American sway over English Canadians, further explain the prevalence of this Atlanticist grand strategy since the second half of the 20th century. The institutionalization of these relationships within NATO and the UN Security Council, moreover, have entrenched a multilateralist strategic culture in Canada, which sought, with the establishment of these international institutions, to reduce to a minimum the potential for division within Canada’s three “natural” allies. A significant transatlantic split could spark divisive debates between Canada’s two “founding nations,” and worst, lead to the political break-up of the country. National unity imperatives, in other words, motivated the Canadian federal government to adopt a moderate, consensus-seeking multilateral strategy.This paper empirically tests these two cultural hypotheses from a reverse angle. It examines whether the varying threat perceptions between France, the United States, and the United Kingdom surrounding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could generate a national unity crisis in Canada along ethno-cultural lines. Evidence reveals the existence of diverging strategic subcultures within Canada -- in Québec, Alberta, and to some extent in Atlantic Canada -- which could be politically mobilized to further advance separatists political movements, but have yet failed to do so, even in Québec. These regional divides within Canada nevertheless illustrate the potentially disruptive nature of the allegedly growing transatlantic gap between France and the United States’ regarding the use of force. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]