In the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, renowned public intellectual and scholar Stephen Clarkson asks whether North America ?exists? in the sense that the European Union has made Europe exist.

Clarkson?s rigorous study of the many political and economic relationships that link Canada, the United States, and Mexico answers this unusual question by looking at the institutions created by NAFTA, a broad selection of economic sectors, and the security policies put in place by the three neighbouring countries following 9/11. This detailed, meticulously researched, and up-to-date treatment of North America?s transborder governance allows the reader to see to what extent the United States? dominance in the continent has been enhanced or mitigated by trilateral connections with its two continental partners.

An illuminating product of seven years? political-economy, international-relations, and policy research, Does North America Exist? is an ambitious and path-breaking study that will be essential reading for those wanting to understand whether the continent containing the world?s most powerful nation is holding its own as a global region.

Stephen Clarkson is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Toronto, Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Endorsements/Review Excerpts

?Stephen Clarkson?s Does North America Exist? is an excellent, comprehensive, and encyclopedic examination of many important areas of public policy; a must-read for public officials in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as well as anyone interested in North American relations, globalization, and international relations.?

Shortlisted - PSA Prize in International Relations
#8211; Canadian Political Science Association

Introduction: Framing the Question

1. North America as Market and Community

2. NAFTA
   #8217;s Institutional Vacuum
3. NAFTA
   #8217;s Uneven Judicial Capacity
4. Transborder Labour Governance
5. Transborder Environmental Governance
6. Transboundary Water Governance

Part Two More Than Meets the Eye:
Market Reconfiguration at the Continental Level

7. The Role of Big Business in Negotiating Free Trade
8. Continental Energy (In)security
9. Agriculture: Beef, Wheat, and Corn

Part Three The Continent in Transition:
Further Reconfiguration under Globalizing Pressures

10. The Steel Industry
11. Textiles and Apparel
12. The Governance of Capital Markets

Part Four Not What Meets the Eye:
Global Governance in North America

13. The Banking Sector
14. Labelling Genetically Modified Food
15. Intellectual Property Rights and Big Pharma

Part Five Just What It Used to Be: Persistent State Dominance

16. Border Security and the Continental Perimeter
17. North American Defence
18. The Third Bilateral: The Mexico-Canada Relationship
19. The Security and Prosperity Partnership

Conclusion: Framing the Answer

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

In collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Review by Christopher Sands - Globe and Mail