Centre for International Policy Studies – Canada's leading centre for analysis and debate of international affairs.

Sovereignty and Settler Colonial Worldmaking
Many assume state sovereignty to be a settled fact. As the basis for our international system of sovereign states, it represents some of the firmest ground on which we have built our societies. However, critical engagements with sovereignty point to the delusion of this way of thinking. Moreover, settler colonial states, such as Canada, further highlight the tensions contained by our assumptions over sovereignty’s settledness: Indigenous peoples continue to affirm their own underlying claims to authority.

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2025 Annual Report
Wondering what happened at CIPS in 2025? Our annual report has just been released! Learn more about the research that took place, the events that were held, the blogs written, and so much more!

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Blog - How Tensions in the Middle East Affect Africa’s Economy, Security, and Geopolitics
Since 28 February 2026, the Middle East has experienced sustained hostilities following United States and Israeli strikes against Iran and subsequent retaliation by Iran. Iranian missile and drone attacks have been reported across several countries in the region. Leaders across Africa have already expressed alarm.

Read the blog by Chris Begealawuh
Blog - A Canadian’s Past, Present and Future with China
Almost fifty years ago, I arrived in Shanghai as a member of the Fudan University class of ’77. I was the first foreign student admitted to the Philosophy Department’s History of Ancient Chinese Thought Program since the Sino-Soviet split of 1961. My thesis advisor, Yan Beiming—a prominent figure on the conservative side of China’s 1920s New Culture Movement—had just returned to campus. Now an elderly professor, he had endured years of imprisonment and torture as Fudan’s “number one object of attack” during the 1966–1976 Cultural Revolution.

Read the blog by Charles Burton

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A Canadian’s Past, Present and Future with China 0
- Analysis, Events, External
- March 10, 2026
Past: The Promise of Reform Almost fifty years ago, I arrived in Shanghai as a member of the Fudan University class of ’77. I was the first foreign student admitted to the Philosophy Department’s History of Ancient Chinese Thought Program since the Sino-Soviet split of 1961. My thesis advisor, Yan Beiming—a prominent figure on the

By Charles Burton
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