The Quebec-United States Relationship: Political, Security, Economic, Environmental and Cultural Dynamics

Québec’s engagement with the United States is the most significant and consequential point of interaction amongst all its international activities.  This new, edited book volume seeks to explore the many ways in which Quebec engages with the United States, including political exchange, border issues, trade, business and investment, transportation, immigration, cultural links and identity, the role of energy transmission and natural resources, and environmental considerations. As a sub-national actor pursuing a wide range of paradiplomatic bilateral and multilateral initiatives directly involving the U.S., our book both explores and explains what, when, why and how Québec has chosen to engage the United States while examining the fundamental issues that lie at the heart of the relationship.  Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary in focus, this edited collection of essays, titled The Québec-United States Relationship: Political, Security, Economic, Environmental and Cultural Dynamics, features the work of scholars who think deeply about Quebec-U.S. relations. Each contribution considers contemporary policy relevant issues; in so doing, this collection examines and emphasizes the background, scope, and impacts of policy decisions. This is an open access book.

Christopher Kirkey is director of the Center for the Study of Canada and Institute on Quebec Studies at State University of New York at Plattsburgh.  A scholar of comparative foreign policy and international relations theory, he has been a professor at Bridgewater State University (1993-2001), Columbia University (2002-2012), and SUNY Plattsburgh (2002 Present).  Recent works include (with Richard Nimijean) The Construction of Canadian Identity from Abroad (2022, Palgrave Macmillan); the co-edited 2020 issue on Quebec (with Frédérick Guillaume Dufour) of the Journal of Eastern Townships Studies [Vol.50 Fall 2022]; (with Michael Hawes and Andrew Holman) Canada in 1968: A Year and its Legacies (2021, University of Ottawa Mercury Series); the book chapter (with Hawes) “The Trump Administration and Canada: America First,” in Timothy M. Gill, ed., The Future of U.S. Empire in the Americas (Routledge, 2020);  theAutumn 2019 co-edited special issue (with Hawes) of the London Journal of Canadian Studies; the June 2019 special issue (co-edited with Hawes, Konan, and Chun) of the American Review of Canadian Studies [Vol.49 No.2] on “Indigenous Peoples: Sovereignty, Sustainability, and Reconciliation;” Canadian Foreign Policy in a Unipolar World (co-edited with Hawes) [Oxford University Press, 2017]; “The Quebec Election of April 2014: Initial Impressions,” London Journal of Canadian Studies (Vol.32 December 2017); a second edition (co-edited with Gervais and Rudy) of Quebec Questions: Quebec Studies in the Twenty-First Century [Oxford University Press, 2016]; the co-edited June 2016 special issue (with Stéphane Paquin and Stéphane Roussel) on “Quebec and the World” of the American Review of Canadian Studies [Vol.46 No.2]; the Winter 2015-2016 special issue (co-edited with Gervais and Rudy) of Québec Studies; the co-edited special issue (with Tony McCulloch) of the British Journal of Canadian Studies [Vol.28 Issue 2, September 2015]; and, “Systemic Forces and Canadian Foreign Policy,” (with Michael Hawes) in Readings in Canadian Foreign Policy: Classic Debates and New Ideas [Oxford University Press, 2015].  He is currently working on several book projects (co-edited and sole authored).  Dr. Kirkey serves on the editorial board of the American Review of Canadian Studies, the International Journal of Canadian Studies, and the London Journal of Canadian Studies.  He is co-editor of the Journal of Eastern Townships Studies, and serves as Past President of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS).

Frédérick Gagnon is Full Professor, Holder of the Raoul Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic Studies, and Director of the Center for United States Studies and of the Center on Multidimensional Conflicts at the University of Québec in Montreal. He is also Global Fellow at the Canada Institute of the Wilson Center. He was Visiting Fulbright Chair at SUNY-Plattsburgh and UC Berkeley (2014-2015), Fulbright grantee at UMASS-Amherst (2005), Visiting Scholar at the Canada Institute of the Wilson Center and at the Center for American Politics and Citizenship of the University of Maryland (2006), Visiting Scholar/Professor at the Center for Canadian-American Studies of Western Washington University (2008), and Visiting Professor at Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas (2022). He has published books on Canada-U.S. Relations, Donald Trump’s foreign policy, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the U.S. Congress, U.S. government and political institutions, the impact of 9/11 on U.S. international relations, Hollywood movies and the U.S. national security state, and on the theories of U.S. foreign policy. One of his latest books, titled Alliances and Power Politics in the Trump Era: America in Retreat? (edited with Maud Quessard and Frédéric Heurtebize), was published by Palgrave in 2020. In 2024, Gagnon also published L’Amérique d’abord, le Canada ensuite. Les relations canado-américaines de Donald Trump à Joe Biden at Presses de l’Université de Montréal (edited with Christophe Cloutier-Roy). This book traces the evolution of Canada-U.S. relations under the Trump and Biden presidencies, through various case studies. Gagnon’s scholarly articles have appeared in journals such as Foreign Policy Analysis, Études internationales, Canadian Review of American Studies, European Review of American Studies, Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, Québec Studies, Politique américaine, and Intelligence and National Security. He is a recognized expert in the Québec and Canadian media, where he regularly comments on U.S. politics and issues in Canada-U.S. relations.

Stéphane Paquin holds the Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership Université (UQTR-ENAP) and tenured professor at the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP) where he is the director of GERIQ (Groupe d’études et de recherche sur l’international et le Québec). He has received numerous awards, including a Canada research Chair in International and Comparative Political Economy, a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Québec Studies, State University of New York at Plattsburgh. He was also selected in 2008 in the International Visitor Leadership Program of the US government.  In 2014, he was the President of the local organizing committee of the World congress of political science  Montréal-2014 (IPSA). He has taught in many universities including Northwestern University in Chicago and Sciences Po in Paris. He has written, co-written or edited 35 books including Theories of International Political Economy (Toronto, Oxford University Press 2015) and many more books and articles about paradiplomacy and the international relations of non-central governments. He has also published in several journals like International Journal, International Negotiation, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, Nationalism & Ethnic Politics, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Revue canadienne d'administration publique, Revue internationale de politique comparée and Études internationales.