In the early 1990s North America was the vibrant centre of an increasingly democratic and revital- ized western hemisphere. The United States and Canada were close allies working together to im- plement a bilateral free trade agreement and build an integrated manufacturing and export economy. By the late 2000s, the economic and diplomatic ties between the two countries were strained as policies stagnated or slipped backward and pass- ports were needed to cross the border for the first time in history. By 2017 the US planned to wall off its border with Mexico and nafta was slated for renegotiation. In Strangers with Memories John Stewart com- bines an insider’s knowledge, a mole’s perspective, and a historian’s consciousness to explain how two countries that spent the twentieth century building a world order together drifted so quickly apart in the early years of the twenty-first – and how that world order began its current shift. Assessing the major forces and events in North America’s devel- opment between 1990 and 2010, this book also details changes at the US embassy in Ottawa dur- ing those years and its relationship with US con- sulates in Canada and with the State Department’s Canada desk. Explaining how Canada’s influence in the world depends on the US and has radically diminished with the decline in US diplomacy under presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, Stewart gives valuable advice on how Canada should handle its foreign policy in a much less stable world. From the viewpoint of a Canadian with a front- row seat to two decades of US-Canada relations, Strangers with Memories chronicles Canada at the apogee of American power. John Stewart, director of policy and research at the Canadian Nuclear Association, spent twenty years as an economist and manager inside the US embassy in Ottawa. “Strangers with Memories is thoughtful, wide- ranging, and fluidly written. I was especially impressed with the author’s accuracy in capturing both the mood and detail of the complicated US- Canada relationship despite the number of topics and period of time he covers.” Stephen R. Kelly, Duke University 1 M Q U P F A L L 2 0 1 7 P O L I T I C A L S T U D I E S Strangers with Memories The United States and Canada from Free Trade to Baghdad john stewart Foreword by John Manley Like estranged best friends, two democracies go from sharing their dreams to forget- ting what they had in common – and wondering if they can still trust one another. S P E C I F I C AT I O N S September 2017 978-0-7735-5140-4 $34.95T CDN, $34.95A US, £29.99 cloth 6 x 9 248pp eBook available