by Gerd Schönwälder
Values have been critical drivers behind the foreign policy making of Canada’s current and past governments, both Conservative and Liberal. However, the Harper government’s use of values-based foreign policymaking does not meet three criteria that would ensure …
READ MOREMembers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are grappling with big decisions as they prepare for their September summit in Wales. What stance should they adopt towards Russia? Should they keep the alliance’s doors open to new members? And what …
READ MOREIn previous posts, I presented charts illustrating the recent decline in Canadian military spending as a percentage of GDP, and comparing Canada to other NATO and G7 countries.
This post examines regional patterns in global military spending.* The charts …
READ MOREPublished on OpenCanada.org, June 17, 2014
The Canadian Conference of Defence Associations Institute’s Strategic Outlook (SO) 2014 published in February has nearly been dated by developments taking place around the world. In light of recent events, I examine some …
READ MOREOn the June 14 election day, Afghans again delivered an anti-Taliban verdict. Despite the strong Taliban offensive preceding the day, 7 million Afghans (60% of registered voters) cast their votes. True, the euphoria that dominated the first round was absent; …
READ MOREThis chart might come as a surprise to some Canadians. Canada’s defence spending as a percentage of GDP has decreased since 2009 and is now lower than it was when the Conservative government took office. Although, as I noted in …
READ MOREBy Rieky Stuart and Stephen Brown
Published on the McLeod Group Blog, June 10, 2014
The Canadian government’s recent Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Summit in Toronto has not lacked for cheerleaders, especially NGOs receiving funding under the …
READ MOREAfghanistan is getting ready to go to a second round of polls on June 14. The fairly peaceful first round (despite some irregularities and scattered violence in the outlying provinces) symbolized Afghans’ interest in supporting a democratic process to elect …
READ MOREIn March 2014, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, appointed ten independent policy experts to a panel and asked them to provide advice on the future of the transatlantic bond. The panel included a …
READ MOREPublished on openDemocracy.net on June 7, 2014
The Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein (“Prince Zeid”), has just been nominated as the next United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The outgoing High …
READ MOREIn a 1991 article published in the Journal of Communications, Robert Entman of the George Washington University examined how the American media framed international news. He compared coverage of two similar events: the shooting down of Korean Airlines Flight …
READ MOREPublished in the Globe and Mail, June 3, 2014
As Prime Minister Stephen Harper heads to Europe for the G7 summit and anniversary of D-Day, the gap between Canada’s outspoken rhetoric and its diminishing capabilities in international affairs is …
READ MORE