To hear Prime Minister Stephen Harper talk about Canada's foreign policy and our cachet in the United Nations, it's all been a matter of what have we done lately? The answer seems to be not much for many years.

In the halls of the United Nations, it's a diplomat's game, where negotiations, peace accords and treaties dominate the agenda. It's in those assembly areas where some Canadian cachet was built, starting with Lester B. Pearson's 1956 model of peacekeeping to resolve the Suez Crisis that earned him a Nobel Prize.

But on the ground, in the world's hot spots, Canada has fallen short of late. And if a lack of military might translates into less power at the United Nations, then Canada has lost a lot of ground.

Until now.

Canada sent soldiers to Afghanistan in 2002 to assist U.S. forces. Now, they are leading the fight against the Taliban and enforcing security in the country's south. The government is also pouring money into the country, committing some $1 billion from 2001 to 2010 for humanitarian aid, security and reconstruction.

"The United Nations assistance mission in Afghanistan is the UN's single largest special political mission," Harper said in his maiden speech at the United Nations on Sept. 21.

"It is also, by far, Canada's biggest and most important overseas engagement. So the UN's mission is Canada's mission."

The Afghanistan mission, political scientists say, is helping Harper lay the groundwork for a new foreign policy and establishing Canada as a country that is at the negotiation table, in the thick of the hot spots and a firm ally to the United States.

"It's certainly raising Canada's leadership role once again in the United Nations and the world community where we used to have an important leadership role," Harper said of the Afghanistan mission in an interview with CBC TV's The National when Parliament resumed in September.

Robert Bothwell, the director of the international relations program at University of Toronto, said the Afghanistan mission puts Canada back in the spotlight.

"Really what Harper is saying is Canada's position in the world is relative to its military power and also its ability to intervene in a tangible way in international affairs," Bothwell said.

Or, in Harper's words, "Canada intends to be a player."

The 1990s a 'disappointment'

The United Nations has long been used to showcase and define foreign policy. Pearson, before he was prime minister, solidified Canada's role by pushing for peacekeeping when he waded into the Suez crisis with a plan for a peacekeeping force with might.

In the past decade, Liberal prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin arrived in New York to tout their projects and interests, from a landmine treaty and the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse-gas emissions to sending help to troubled areas such as Zaire and the Darfur region of Sudan.

But when it came to helping push effective UN peacekeeping and military missions, their successes were limited at best.

In 1995, in an appearance before the UN General Assembly, Chrétien said, "For 50 years, the United Nations has symbolized Canada's highest hopes for a world at peace." He noted that the UN should be able to "react more quickly to crises," this following the bloodiest year in the Rwandan genocide. It was in Rwanda where Canadian Gen. Romeo Dallaire, as head of the ill-fated United Nations mission, was rendered powerless by the organization's inaction while 800,000 people died.

And then there was Somalia. Ottawa sent 900 soldiers to the war-torn country to restore order. In the span of a few days in 1993, Canadian soldiers killed two Somalians who had broken into their camp. The incidents erupted into a scandal back in Canada and eventually led to the disbanding of the Airborne Regiment.

"It would be fair to say that Canada's participation in peacekeeping in the 1990s was generally a disappointment," Bothwell said. In his assessment, the Somalia operation "completely failed."

When Paul Martin addressed the United Nations as prime minister in 2005, he called for action in Darfur and pushed for action through multilateral institutions. He touted for a so-called L20, an expanded version of the G8 that would be able to allow political leaders to act on global issues.

Now, that idea barely gets a mention and the slaughter continues in Darfur, which is still before the United Nations.

"Where Darfur is concerned unless some power is willing to invade the Sudan and take Darfur away from the Sudanese government, there isn't a hope," Bothwell said.

Now Harper has signalled his intent to put Canada's military front and centre. That increasing military role, along with his hard stance against terrorism, helps distinguish him from his Liberal predecessors.

Harper's policy: 'the most striking change' since 1945?

Harper may well point Canada's foreign policy to a new direction. While Canadians will recall Chrétien's defining decision to not support the U.S.-led Iraq war, Harper has indicated more of a willingness to side with the Americans.

Errol Mendes, a professor at the University of Ottawa and a former advisor to the UN in the Martin government, told CBC.ca that Canada's foreign policy is undergoing a "rebalancing," to be closer to the United States and Australia.

"I do see a change and it may well be the most striking change in Canadian foreign policy since 1945," Bothwell said. He thinks that Harper will tend to work more in an alliance with countries such as Britain and the United States.

"I think he will say Canada's material interest, Canada's ideological interest, places us squarely in that camp and we will behave as an ally."