Culture and strategy in the North American middle powers during the neoliberal era. The politics of strategic policy in Mexico and Canada, 1988-2015

Barrera Franco, Carlos Alberto (2021) Culture and strategy in the North American middle powers during the neoliberal era. The politics of strategic policy in Mexico and Canada, 1988-2015. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This is a study of the evolution of the strategic policy of Mexico and Canada during the advent and consolidation of neoliberalism in North America. The thesis examines the interaction between the various strategic approaches rooted in policy elites in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In the case of Mexico, the struggle between the historical nationalist doctrine and emerging continentalist practices is analysed. In the case of Canada, tensions between the liberal internationalist tradition, the Atlanticist strategic approach, and the renewed continentalist notion are evaluated. This dissertation pays special attention to the socio-political context in which foreign, trade, and security policies were formulated; as well as the cultural dynamics of the strategic decision-making process. The study reconsiders the responses of Mexican and Canadian policy elites to domestic and external pressures that occurred from 1988 to 2015. Based on a structuralist-constructivist approach focused on practice, this work provides a new interpretation of continuity and change in strategic policy before and after the political transitions of Mexico and Canada in 2000 and 2006, respectively. This thesis shows why and how the major strategic traditions of Canada and Mexico were gradually replaced by continentalist ideas, which were much more influential throughout this period than is commonly recognised. The result is a comprehensive reassessment of the foreign policy and security strategies of the middle powers of North America from an emerging perspective in the discipline of international history and international relations during a pivotal period in contemporary history: the neoliberal era.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: F History United States, Canada, Latin America > F001 United States local history; F History United States, Canada, Latin America > F1001 Canada (General); F History United States, Canada, Latin America > F1201 Latin America (General); J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History
• Supervisor's Name: Jackson, Professor Peter and Von Bulow, Dr. Mathilde
• Date of Award: 2021
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2021-82280
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 24 Jun 2021 07:45
• Last Modified: 19 Aug 2022 15:58
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.82280
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/82280