East Timor and the Human Security Agenda

What does the crisis in East Timor say about Canada's use of Human Security Agenda introduced by Lloyd Axworthy, ( canada's foreign minister at the time) in the mid 90's. How can Safety for People go wrong? How can defending civilians around the world go wrong?

It did go wrong and Canada provided only a measly 250 infantry troops to the international effort. Although the Human Security Agenda is idealist if we examine Canada's contribution from a Realist perspective we can see that the Human Security Agenda does not work. It is a good idea but does not work in practicality.

Realist Analysis, Canada can defend its interests by sending only 250 troops. This low amount of troops shows that Canada just sent troops for the sake of saying we went to help in East Timor. This keeps Canada's reputation with the international community clean and keeps government lobbyists quiet. The lobbyisits were pushing for world peace and intervention in East Timor but a large amount of troops in East Timor would annoy Indonesia who happens to be a large trade partner. The 250 troops sent by Canada seem to keep everyone happy except for the country of East Timor which happens to be the only thing the Human Security Agenda was supposed to be helping out.

In conclusion the Human Security Agenda is full of fail and surrounded by realism, Canda must approach its foreign policy much differently.

T.S. Hataley & Kim Richard Nossal, " The Limits of the Human Security Agenda: The Case of Canada's Response to the Timor Crisis, "Global Change,Peace & Security( Vol.16,No.1.February 2004)