I am an international historian who works on international organizations, 20th century global trade, the British Commonwealth, Canada’s engagement in world affairs, and global order.  When I was a student, diplomatic history focused on the most powerful nations, the pursuit of power, and conflicts and wars. But I have always been interested in the efforts of people, groups and governments – including those of smaller countries - to cooperate, although cooperation went hand-in-hand with competition, disagreement and zero-sum thinking.  These interests have guided my research for the last thirty years.  In my first book, Redefining the Bonds of Commonwealth 1939-1948 (2002), I explain how Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African independence was advanced during the Second World War by redefining partnerships and expectations in the British Commonwealth.  In Parties Long Estranged (co-edited with Margaret MacMillan, 2003) the contributors examine the interactions between and parallel developments of Canada and Australia, two self-described middle powers that are often relegated to footnotes in histories of international affairs.  In A Global History of Trade and Conflict since 1500 (co-edited with Lucia Coppolaro, 2013), the contributors examine how the pursuit of trade has sparked violence, coercion, repression, conflict, and wars.  Dominion of Race (co-edited with Laura Madokoro and David Meren, 2017) examines the impact of race-thinking on Canada’s involvement in world affairs. 

My recent work has focused on global order and global governance. In GATT and Global Order in the Postwar Era (Cambridge University Press, 2020), I explore the institutional and international history of a significant but incompletely understood organization through case studies of the Cold War, the EEC and regionalism, agriculture, and development. I explain how economic and political factors and objectives defined trade policies, relations, and negotiations, explore the dynamic between nationalism and internationalism, show that the liberal order was progressive and conservative, fluid and rigid, and demonstrate that there were multiple and competing visions of global order. Read More about GATT and Global Order in the Postwar Era here and here. My latest book is Rebuilding the Postwar Order: Peace, Security and the UN-System 1941-1948 (Bloomsbury, 2023) https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/rebuilding-the-postwar-order-9781472534774/. I explain how civil society and governments of the wartime allies conceived of peace and trace the international negotiations and conferences that later resulted in the United Nations, UNRRA, the IMF, World Bank and GATT, the FAO and WHO, UNESCO, and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. I use a multilateral approach, connect wartime ideas to earlier peacemaking efforts, and reveal support for, as well as resistance and alternatives to, the emerging postwar order. I explore the tensions between national sovereignty and international responsibility, national security and individual well-being, principles and compromises, morality and power, privilege and justice.

I am currently working on two new projects. The first is a history of a global discourse on peace during the Second World War; it tracks ideas about peace and their circulation in wartime. The second project explores the way officials and participants talked about liberal trade in GATT and what they actually did: economic theories and trade policies and practices did not align, although that did not mean they were incompatible.

My work has also been published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, The International History Review, Journal of Cold War Studies, and International Journal, as well as in many edited collections.