St. Francis Xavier University is pleased to announce Dr. Asa McKercher has been appointed the Steven K. Hudson Research Chair in Canada-US Relations, an integral part of the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government at StFX. Dr. McKercher will also serve as an associate professor in StFX’s Public Policy and Governance program.
As the Steven K. Hudson Research Chair, Dr. McKercher will help develop policy-relevant knowledge needed to inform the Canada-US relationship and address emerging and future challenges in Canada-US relations.
Dr. McKercher is a specialist in Canada-US relations, Canadian foreign policy, US foreign policy, and politics and culture in North America. He has previously taught at Queen’s University, McMaster University, and the Royal Military College of Canada. He holds a PhD from Cambridge University.
Currently, he is editor-in-chief of International Journal, Canada's journal of global policy analysis, and is a Senior Fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, and a Fellow at the Queen’s Centre for International and Defence Policy. Additionally, he is the author or co-author of five books, three edited collections, and numerous articles and book chapters.
Dr. McKercher is looking forward to teaching at StFX, where he says small class sizes allow faculty to develop good working relationships with students. He will teach courses on public sector ethics and Canada-US relations in the Public Policy and Governance program and the History Department.
With Canada-US relations often in the news and many fraught issues currently in American politics and rising US nationalism, it is a particularly interesting time, Dr. McKercher says.
“It throws into doubt Canada’s even keeled and steady relationship it has enjoyed with the US,” he says, noting there is much debate on where Canadian relationships, ranging from trade and economic cooperation to the environment, will go.
Adding to the mix is much uncertainty in the air, with upcoming elections in both the US this year and in Canada expected in the next year. New governments could shape where things go, he notes. “A lot is in flux.”
While Dr. McKercher will focus his research on current day events, it will also be with an eye to history, looking ahead and looking back to understand how relationships have developed over time, including those between Atlantic Canada and the New England states.
Canada-US relations is a subject area that’s long intrigued him, starting after the events of 9/11. He remembers the tense time then between the neighouring countries.
“We’ve seen tension points before, but certainly right now, it is very tense.”
Dr. McKercher is looking forward to contributing to the academic life and outreach at StFX. The Mulroney Institute of Government, he says, is a great venue to host events and conferences, especially given how the late prime minister, the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, was so effective at building good relationships with the US. The institute itself, while still relatively new, is making a name for taking academia into the worlds of policy and politics.
