On Thursday, November 20, we were pleased to host the third and final virtual lecture of our 2025 Cold War Series with Dr. Kevin Spooner. Dr. Spooner is Professor of North American Studies and History at Wilfrid Laurier University, where he is also the Director of the Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada. His research expertise is in the history of Canadian foreign policy, particularly Canada’s contribution to international peacekeeping and Canadian relations with Africa.
Dr. Spooner’s talk, Canada, Africa, and Peacekeeping in the Cold War, looked at the role of colonialism and North-South divides in shaping Canada’s role in peacekeeping during the Cold War.
He touched on how Canada became a willing and capable contributor of armed forces personnel to the United Nations towards peacekeeping, and the outward perception of the country being a reliable middle power — Canada provided about 80,000 soldiers to the UN for peacekeeping during the Cold War, which was more than any other nation.
But the country’s involvement was not without debate and shortcomings, including its own complicity in racism and colonialism, and evolving peacekeeping priorities and budgets from changing prime ministers, combined with ongoing institutional challenges of the UN Security Council in dealing with the ideological rivalries and Cold War politics at play between East and West member countries.
Canada’s peacekeeping role waned towards the end of the Cold War, continually intertwined with politics around race and colonialism.
Thank you to Dr. Kevin Spooner for this insightful look into Canadian stories from the Cold War. You can watch a recording of the virtual lecture here:
Dr. Kevin Spooner is Professor of North American Studies and History at Wilfrid Laurier University, where he is also the Director of the Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada. Kevin received his MA and PhD in Canadian History from Carleton University, after also studying at Trent and Queen’s Universities. Contributing to the development of North American Studies at Laurier, Kevin served as program coordinator from 2009 to 2014 and currently teaches core courses for North American Studies and upper-year courses in aspects of the history of Canadian foreign policy for the History department. His research expertise is in the history of Canadian foreign policy, particularly Canada’s contribution to international peacekeeping and Canadian relations with Africa. Canada’s place in the world, from the 1940s to the 1960s, remains an important focus of his writing; his current manuscript project explores the impact of decolonization on Canadian relations with Africa, during the governments of John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson.
Website: https://studyofcanada.ca/
We invite you to learn from other events in our 2025 Speaker Series:
- Cold War Workers, with Dr. Isabel Campbell
- Military Research in the Early Cold War, with Dr. Matthew Wiseman