In Praise of Short Books

For some of us, the pleasure of reading lies not just in the insights of the authors, but even more so in the thoughts they inspire in our wandering minds. For this latter purpose, a thought-provoking short book may, all in all, be more satisfactory than a long one offering too many intellectual tangents.

Both Michael Small’s The Forgotten Peace: Mediation at Niagara Falls, 1914 and George Anderson’s Fiscal Federalism: A Comparative Introduction do a masterly job of provoking thought, much more than might seem likely on first appraisal of their slight (if handsome) appearance. Each has been published by a university press in Canada, and very stylishly so, particularly Small’s volume. Both feature that indispensable adjunct to a scholarly text, even a short one: a useful index. They both seek to illuminate the policy implications of every paragraph they propose.

Small’s book deals with a completely forgotten international conference held in 1914 on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, involving one of the few cases in which the United States has allowed third parties to mediate a dispute of its own with another government, in this instance that of Mexico. The self-appointed mediators were Argentina, Brazil and Chile (rapidly dubbed the ABC powers), then as now the most significant Latin American countries other than Mexico itself. Infused by a tide of optimism that the peaceful settlement of disputes could triumph in the 20th century following the Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907 that had promoted mediation and arbitration as key instruments to this end, several innovative approaches were attempted in international conflict resolution prior to the outbreak of World War One. The new Pan-American Union (founded in 1910, and the forerunner of today’s Organization of American States) was even open to outside mediation of internal disputes (and this on a continent long attached to the sovereignty of states and, in principle, non-interference in their internal affairs).

The U.S. was the principal external party to Mexico’s internal turmoil between 1910 and 1920, with President Woodrow Wilson road-testing his notions on international relations in the laboratory of Mexico’s civil war. Small quotes Wilson:

In their practical application, these sentiments produced deep antipathy in Wilson for Victoriano Huerta, then dictator in Mexico City, and sympathy for the rebel forces of the “constitutionalist” faction led by Venustiano Carranza and his military commander Pancho Villa. But U.S. intervention through a variety of stratagems—diplomatic manoeuvring (not least to neutralize the British preference for business as usual with Huerta), imposition and then lifting of an arms embargo, occupation of the port of Veracruz—proved unsuccessful in face of headstrong local actors. When the ABC powers offered to mediate, Wilson accepted.

For a variety of reasons, not least proximity to Washington, Niagara Falls was selected as the venue for the ensuing mediation conference, Ottawa’s neutrality arguing for the Canadian side of the border. Canada’s foreign policy was then handled by Britain even after the founding in 1909 of a small Department of External Affairs reporting directly to the Canadian prime minister. Ottawa communicated with those involved in the mediation through the British ambassador in Washington as best it could. None of the British actors involved were much seized by the need to consult Ottawa or to keep it abreast of the conference, which unfolded over several desultory weeks during the summer of 1914. The conference failed and the fighting in Mexico continued. But this mediation attempt tells us much about Latin America, its often vexed relations with Washington, and the ebb and flow of idealism in American foreign policy.

We Canadians tend to know too little about Latin American history. Small’s The Forgotten Peace helps fill the void. It reminds us of the relative stability over the past century in Latin America, dominated as it was by entrenched, highly educated, self-serving and wealthy elites in states, the borders of which have not moved much since 1900. Mexico, with its tormented history of revolution, dictatorship and democratic decay until quite recently, is in some ways an exception to the pattern. It escaped the spectacularly failed military dictatorships of so many Latin American countries of the 1960s to 1980s, but largely stagnated under the grip on power throughout much of the 20th century of the amusingly titled Institutional Revolutionary Party. Because these countries share our hemisphere, which Canadian governments have from time to time, and certainly currently, proclaimed as a priority for Canadian foreign policy, it is useful to know more.

In 1914, Canada existed more on the map than in the imagination of the rest of the world. That time seems very remote, before its fighting record in World War One, its economic expansion in the inter-war years and then its major contributions to the allied cause during World War Two created for Ottawa a meaningful place in international relations. Canada began to emerge as an independent international actor with its own foreign policy instruments in the 1930s and completed the invention of its international identity in the 1940s (not least by establishing a wide resident diplomatic network in Latin America during World War Two). Its power relative to that of others peaked in the mid to late 1940s. But, subsequently, its influence increased through leadership and diplomacy on key issues, successive prime ministers and key cabinet ministers seeking to add to the lustre. Today, because of the historically sudden reversion to significance of China and India (after decades of often painful internal struggle in the wake of several centuries of submission to the West) and the emergence as major powers of countries such as Brazil, Canada looms less large. It will take a focused program of action to adapt to and overcome these new realities, including in Latin America. But it is not clear Canadians really yearn for this, with our media fuelling individual narcissism and an obsession with coverage of primarily local or human rather than global interest.

Small, a former Canadian ambassador to Cuba, writes beautifully. The book’s footnotes are finely wrought. The production design, with art nouveau graphic touches, is superb—indeed, the best I have seen in any book, short or long, in some time. The volume contains amusing annexes—not least political cartoons from the time (playing on biblical as well as contemporary themes and displaying a sophistication many of today’s cartoonists would admire).

There are fields in which Canada is much studied internationally. George Anderson, building on an earlier volume on the basics of federalism, here highlights the fiscal dimensions of federalism. A former senior deputy minister in Ottawa, today he leads the Forum of Federations, an independent international institution, originally sponsored by Canada, to encourage the growth and exchange of knowledge on this varied form of constitutional democracy. The forum, a modestly scaled initiative with significant international resonance, has attracted among its partner countries not just western states (Switzerland and Germany, for example), but also emerging powers such as India, Brazil and Mexico. Its work is highly relevant to war-torn countries moving toward federal systems such as Iraq and Sudan. A number of Canadians, such as political scientist David Cameron, have done important work under its aegis in Sri Lanka. The forum represents a valuable Canadian contribution to international cooperation.

Anderson’s topic is well chosen. Interest is intense, particularly in the developing world, in how financial resources are best gathered and then distributed at various levels of government in order to enhance citizen welfare (and to combat endemic corruption). Some months ago, India’s powerful Finance Commission visited Canada to study in depth how our fiscal practices might be useful to the constantly evolving Indian Union. (This followed on an earlier major contribution by Canadian revenue experts in advising India on how to enhance its revenue collection, this being a pre-condition for serious self-generated as opposed to externally funded economic development.)

In fewer than 100 pages, Anderson, an elegant, pellucid writer, outlines the strengths and potential vulnerabilities of federal fiscal arrangements, expenditure models, tax regimes and intergovernmental transfer models, concluding with useful chapters on broader economic management and wider institutional matters in federations. Throughout, he draws on apposite examples from Nigeria to Ethiopia, Canada to Mexico. This excellent short book represents a dagger pointed at the heart of many longer tomes on the same subject, as most readers will find here everything they need to know at entry level on the topic of fiscal federalism, as will policy makers. That said, it also represents an invitation to delve into the topic in greater depth elsewhere. Canada’s academic and policy-oriented literature is particularly rich in this dimension of constitutional law and administrative practice.

Short books are no substitute for complex works advancing challenging arguments, necessarily at greater length. But they can be a delight in piquing curiosity and provoking thought. These two brief volumes meet that standard admirably.