Ethnic Diasporas and the Canada-United States Security Community focuses on three diasporas and their impact on North American security relations, the Irish and Germans, which were mainly in the US, and the Muslim diaspora, which is based in both countries. The book begins by examining the evolution of North America from a zone of war to a zone of peace (i.e., a security community), starting with the debate over the nature and meaning of the Canada-US border. It then assesses the role of ethnic diasporas in North American security, looking as to whether ethnic interest groups have been gaining influence over the shaping of the US foreign policy. This debate is also valid in Canada, especially given the practice of federal political parties of catering to blocs of ethnic voters. The second section of the book focuses on three case studies. The first examines the impact of the Irish Americans on the quality of security relations between the US and the UK, and therefore between the former and Canada. The second looks at an even larger diaspora, the German Americans, whose political agenda by the start of twentieth century attempted to discourage Anglo-American entente and eventual alliance. The final case concentrates on the debates around the North American Muslim diaspora in the past two decades, a time when policy attention turned toward the greater Middle East, which in many ways constitute the “kin community” of this politically active diaspora. This comparative assessment of the three cases provides contextualization for today’s discussion of homegrown terrorism and its implication for bilateral security cooperation in North America.  

"Haglund focuses on ‘ethnic diasporas’ and their relation to the regional security of the US and Canada.  His ‘historically oriented analysis’ is meant to foster "defining locational information," which in the case at hand means understanding the relationship between demographic patterns and ‘the origin and evolution of the Canada-US security community.’  The book is devoted to the influence that ethnic diasporas have had ‘over the evolving pattern of security relations between the US and Canada.’  The first two chapters discuss the transition of North America from a colonial ‘zone of war’ to a modern ‘zone of peace’ and are followed by a third chapter devoted to the question of ethnic interest group influence on US foreign policy.  The next three chapters treat the specific cases of Irish, German, and North American Muslim diasporas within a Canada-US comparative framework.  The author's summary comment on reviewing the historical record is that the problem the Irish and German American diasporas posed to regional security in effect ‘solved itself’; it is far from clear whether this pattern will hold in the case of the ‘current challenge’ of the Muslim diaspora. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections." - CHOICE

"His [the author's] prose is both precise and colorful . . . [This] gripping narrative . . . is [an] often forgotten passages of American history, [which] gives this book an interest which should far exceed the circles of political scientists alone." - Etudes Internationales