Crisis decision-making in Canadian foreign policy: Diplomatic representation in the Levant,1984–1986

Abstract

In 1985 the Canadian government closed its embassy in Lebanon and opened a mission in Syria. This realignment occurred amid charges from Lebanon and the Lebanese diaspora in Canada that the government was abandoning Lebanon at the moment of its greatest need and rewarding the malevolent Ba’ath regime in Damascus. The Canadian Department of External Affairs, under the leadership of Secretary of State Joe Clark, risked political fallout from this controversy—such as outrage from Lebanese and Israeli diaspora communities in Canada, injured relations with Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, and partial responsibility for the deteriorating human security situation in Lebanon—in favour of protecting the Canadian embassy staff from escalating violence in Beirut and seizing the opportunity to open a long overdue diplomatic presence in Damascus, Syria, from which the hard-line Ba'ath party dominated much of the region's politics.