Measuring Canadian foreign policy

Abstract

In “Yearning for a progressive research program in Canadian foreign policy,” Jean-Christophe Boucher attempts to survey and evaluate the field of Canadian foreign policy (CFP) using Lakatosian theory-testing criteria. This short response raises a number of questions about Boucher’s approach, the most important of which is a challenge to his characterization of CFP as a specialized subfield of political science. Rather, it is argued, CFP should be understood as an interdisciplinary project, whose contributions should be evaluated in terms of multiple disciplinary practices and standards.