ALBERT LEGAULT and Michel Fortmann, the authors of A Diplomacy of Hope (McGill-Queen`s, 663 pages, $75 cloth, $29.95 paper), call it the first in-depth study of Canadian arms control and disarmament diplomacy. In-depth it most certainly is. Through more than 600 pages of sometimes burdensome detail, the book chronicles every major negotiation in the field from 1945 to 1988. Legault and Fortmann, political science professors at Laval and the University of Montreal, respectively, offer a varied body of material including the history of the 1968 NonProliferation Treaty, conventions on chemical and biological weapons, Canada`s role in outer space, and the yet to be concluded comprehensive test ban. Canadian foreign policy has generally favoured two means of peace-making, the authors argue: through force and through law. The former finds its roots in "scientific positivism," adheres to the realist school, and is nationalistic; the latter grew out of the Judeo-Christian social-justice tradition and is primarily "internationalistic." Canada`s participation in military alliances bespeaks a commitment to the first; its participation in the IN a commitment to the second. Legault and Fortmann suggest both methods are necessary. Yet surely this bloodiest of centuries has taught us that force does not create long-term peace; that peace can only come by means of negotiation, law, and diplomacy. Late in the book Legault and Fortmann implicitly accept this notion (at least with respect to Canada) when they say that our country "can best make her influence felt through the `peace through law` approach...." Mammoth and tireless, A Diplomacy of Hope draws on hundreds of bureaucratic memos but only infrequently blends these bits and pieces into useful generalization. More analysis - and fewer nuts and bolts - would have been appreciated.