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Natalie Brender
Publications Coordinator and Research Associate, CIPS
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How Do Global Norms Bear on Reconciliation with Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples?
- Analysis
- June 3, 2015
This week, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Justice Murray Sinclair, released its preliminary findings from a five-year inquiry into the terrible era of residential schools for Aboriginal children in Canada. These findings, and the surrounding public discussion, touched …
READ MOREThere’s Weirder Stuff Than Niqabs at Stake in the Citizenship Oath
- Analysis
- March 30, 2015
It was reported with mild fanfare this week that new rules of royal succession have come into effect, with all Commonwealth countries now assenting to give girls equal standing in the British monarchy’s line of succession. However, a group of …
READ MOREAn Alliance Above Politics? Israel Tests Diaspora Strategists
- Analysis
- February 12, 2015
At first glance, Israel’s current relations with Canada and the United States, two of its closest allies, could hardly seem more divergent.
Last week’s surprise resignation by foreign minister John Baird gave rise to days of media coverage noting the …
READ MORELast Year’s CIPS Blog Highlights, Part 4: Soldiers and Spies
- Research
- September 29, 2014
In this final installment of the CIPS Blog Greatest Hits 2013-14, we turn to the topic of Soldiers and Spies. It spans a range of military and security controversies that arose both in Canada and globally. They include new powers …
READ MORELast Year’s CIPS Blog Highlights, Part 3: International Development
- News
- September 22, 2014
Following a turbulent period for Canada’s international aid program—one that saw the folding of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) into the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—the 2013-14 year saw CIPS bloggers reflecting on both Canada’s own development …
READ MORELast Year’s CIPS Blog Highlights, Part 2: New Global Threats
- News
- September 16, 2014
Here at CIPS we are pleased with the flurry of blog posts that our expert authors have submitted in the new academic year: more than a dozen in the past two weeks alone – and more in the works. This …
READ MORELast Year’s CIPS Blog Highlights, Part 1: Harper’s Foreign Policy
- News
- September 7, 2014
Last academic year—our third year of publication—CIPS Blog presented a sterling lineup of posts on topics spanning the globe, with a particular focus on Canadian foreign policy. Below, and in successive newsletters this fall, we’ll be presenting highlights from the …
READ MOREThe Use and Abuse of Diversity in Canada’s Foreign Policy
- Analysis
- July 2, 2014
In late May of this year, the Ottawa Forum delivered a sparkling lineup of speakers who proposed new directions for Canada’s international policy. A recurrent theme of the forum’s discussions, in the words of co-organizers Taylor Owen and Roland Paris, …
READ MORENine New Takes on Canada’s International Future
- Analysis
- June 2, 2014
On May 23-24, CIPS and the Canadian International Council (CIC) co-hosted the Ottawa Forum, which brought together a remarkable array of presenters, commenters and attendees to the University of Ottawa to discuss the future of Canada’s international policy. The …
READ MOREIn Dispute with Muslim Organization, PMO Wrong to Allege Skeletons in Closet
- Analysis
- February 27, 2014
Published in the Toronto Star, February 26, 2014
Never forget: these are charged words for Canada’s ethnic or religious groups when it comes to keeping alive the memory of historical atrocities “back home.” But they’re also charged words, in …
READ MOREPassports Are Powerful Tools
- Analysis
- January 10, 2014
In A Thousand Farewells, her memoir of covering civil unrest and war in the Middle East, Canadian reporter Nahlah Ayed writes about the striking reception her citizenship received in that region. The Winnipeg-born daughter of Palestinian immigrants, Ayed found …
READ MOREShining Light on Harper’s Darkling Mideast Outlook
- Analysis
- December 12, 2013
When a private citizen holds a world view filled with forces of light and darkness, with heroes and villains and mystical bonds tying fates together, that’s generally her own business. When that person is the Prime Minister of Canada, however, …
READ MORETwo Tweets on Iran That Speak Volumes About Ottawa
- Analysis
- November 26, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, November 25, 2013
As months of negotiations between the “P5+1” world powers and Iran concluded on Saturday night with the announcement of a deal struck in Geneva, Canada’s role at this historic moment was …
READ MORECanadian Foreign Policy for Dummies
- Analysis
- November 12, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, November 11, 2013
So it’s come to this: not only are Canadian citizens being dumbed-down by political parties who treat them as narrow-minded consumerist taxpayers, but now the leading lights of Canada’s journalism establishment …
READ MOREWill a New Minister Fix Canada’s Ideas-free Immigration Policy?
- Analysis
- October 23, 2013
The disloyalty is shocking. Waves of migrants arrive at a country’s shores seeking economic opportunity, a higher quality of life for themselves and their children, or refuge from political uncertainty — only to return to their home countries or move …
READ MOREHoly Fools of Diplomacy in the Harper Era
- Analysis
- October 8, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, October 7, 2013
In detective novels, the most swaggering posture is a hard-boiled one, wise to the ways of the world and expecting venality at every turn. The same holds true in diplomacy, commonly …
READ MOREWhen Prodigal Jihadis Come Home
- Analysis
- October 1, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, September 30, 2013
It’s getting to be a familiar theme that Canadians’ global origins and global mobility can intersect frighteningly with currents in Islamist terrorism. Two Canadians were killed in this month’s Al Shabab …
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Event report: Ahmed Rashid on Pakistan’s Next Chapter
- Analysis
- September 19, 2013
On September 12, journalist and author Ahmed Rashid spoke at CIPS on Pakistan’s current challenges and its prospects for coming years. The present situation, he declared at the outset, is grim. Three separate insurgencies are causing mayhem; the economy is …
READ MORESyria and Obama’s Flawed Logic of Message-Sending
- Analysis
- September 4, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, September 4, 2013
In announcing his plan last Saturday to put the prospect of Syrian intervention to a Congressional vote, President Obama posed a ringing question to his domestic and global audience: “What message …
READ MOREReal Women Attack on Baird a Lesson for Multicultural Canada
- Analysis
- August 9, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, August 8, 2013
Just for a change of pace, here’s a news story you did not read about this week:
“A collective statement by traditionalist Sikh, Muslim and Jewish groups attacking Foreign Affairs Minister …
READ MORECanada’s Brave New World of Digital Diplomacy
- Analysis
- June 18, 2013
Is it diplomacy, propaganda or subversion? There’s a question of naming going on these days in Canadian diplomacy, amid our government’s high-profile feud with Iran. It starts from a seemingly minor venture that opens up into something quite major: the …
READ MOREDoes Canadian Diplomacy Need an Office of Religious Engagement?
- Analysis
- June 12, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, June 10, 2013
Depending on your view of Canada’s recently opened Office of Religious Freedom, you may or may not welcome the likelihood that a related idea from the U.S. State Department will be …
READ MOREMigrants’ Global Ties Challenge Canada to Make Big-Picture Policy
- Analysis
- June 7, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, June 6, 2013
The American writer Maya Angelou was referring to deep matters of the heart when she said, “You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, …
READ MOREDuffy, China, Syria: Weighing the Scales of Scandal
- Analysis
- May 21, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, May 21, 2013
Mike Duffy, China, Syria: one of these things is not like the others. For starters, only the first (along with the inimitable mayor of Toronto) has riveted the attention of most …
READ MOREHarper Government ‘Pandering to Diasporas’? Not So Fast, Pundits
- Analysis
- May 8, 2013
It’s looking likely that Prime Minister Harper will boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Sri Lanka this November, due to that country’s deteriorating human rights and governance record. If so, Canada may be alone among …
READ MOREDoes the World Exist (in Canada’s Foreign Policy)?
- Analysis
- April 23, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, April 22, 2013
Rarely do questions of metaphysics, epistemology and foreign policy intersect. The past seven years of foreign policy under Prime Minister Harper and his various foreign ministers, however, suggest that the government …
READ MORECanada to Immigrants: Get Ready for your Unwanted Close-up!
- Analysis
- March 26, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, March 26, 2013
Lots of good news these days if you’re hoping to break into show biz: British music mogul Simon Cowell is now accepting YouTube auditions for his global talent search. And the …
READ MOREWhose Freedom Counts in Canada’s Middle East Policy?
- Analysis
- March 18, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, March 18, 2013
The profusion of official statements the Harper government issues to recognize Canadians’ diverse ethnic and religious holidays suggests a deep-seated love of all that is festive and momentous. But for the …
READ MORECanada Must Do Much More to Promote Ethical Mining
- Analysis
- March 11, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, March 11, 2013
Recent months have seen heated debate about CIDA’s venture into funding partnerships between Canadian mining companies and international development NGOs. Earlier in March, CIDA Minister Julian Fantino told a gathering of …
READ MOREConservatives’ Empty Symbolism on Citizenship Honours No One
- Analysis
- February 25, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, February 25, 2013
…READ MOREEarlier this month, the House of Commons finished the second reading of a private member’s bill (“An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act, Honouring the Canadian Armed Forces”) that would revoke
A Headhunter’s Nightmare at Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom
- Analysis
- February 18, 2013
Published in the Toronto Star, February 18, 2013
Despite the recent papal drama in Rome, the Catholic Church isn’t the only religion-focused body with prominent personnel troubles. In Ottawa, the Harper government has spent the last year dealing with …
READ MOREDiasporas in Foreign Policymaking: Just Another Ploy of Neoliberal Multiculturalism?
- Analysis
- February 5, 2013
Recent weeks have seen a brief revival of discussion in print and elsewhere on the question of whether Canadian multiculturalism is passé. This latest round of debate has shed little new light on the topic, having consisted chiefly of anecdotes …
READ MORECanadian Foreign Policy Going Astray? Fall Highlights from the CIPS Blog
- Analysis
- December 20, 2012
Many sustained themes in the CIPS Blog this term concerned the Harper government’s foreign policy in the Mid-East, at the UN and in its larger vision of Canada’s place among nations.
The semester started off with a critique by CIPS …
READ MOREKeeping the Hard Questions Hard: Reflections on Policy Critique
- Analysis
- November 30, 2012
Punditry, like bread, is best consumed fresh—but occasionally, some quickly-skimmed pundit’s lines will lodge in the brain and take on profound depth as they age over the next days or weeks.
That’s what happened when I read a recent article…
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Only Two Cheers for Religious Freedom
- Analysis
- October 15, 2012
The full article was published in the Ottawa Citizen, October 15, 2012
Discussing democracy in his 1938 essay “What I Believe” E. M. Forster provocatively writes that “(t)wo cheers are quite enough: there is no occasion to give three.” …
READ MOREEvent Report: Discussion on the Will to Intervene
- Analysis
- October 1, 2012
On September 24, CIPS (in conjunction with the Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies at Concordia University) presented a panel discussion in honour of the Will to Intervene Day, which was proclaimed in the City of Ottawa by Mayor Jim Watson. …
READ MOREKenney’s Reforms Make More Sense than his Rhetoric
- Analysis
- July 14, 2012
Published in the Ottawa Citizen, July 14, 2012.
If you were throwing an open house party, would you trash-talk the guests to your neighbours? Probably not. It’s strange, then, that even as the Harper government aims to sustain Canada’s …
READ MOREA Role to Reclaim: Canada as Honest Broker
- Analysis
- May 8, 2012
Speaking on Middle East issues at an Ottawa synagogue in April, interim Liberal leader Bob Rae noted that the current impasse in peace talks between Israel and Palestinians offers an opening for constructive Canadian engagement. On his recent trips to …
READ MORERobert Cox on ‘The Decline of the West’ Revisited: Event Report
- Analysis
- April 3, 2012
On March 28, eminent York University professor Robert Cox delivered a CIPS talk on “‘The Decline of the West’ Revisited: Future World Order and a Dialogue of Civilizations”. He began by noting that the current economic crisis in Europe and …
READ MOREExploring the Potentials of NGO-Corporate Partnerships for Development
- Analysis
- March 28, 2012
A recent article by Princeton professor Anne-Marie Slaughter about new diplomatic initiatives at the U.S. State Department may induce an acute case of policy envy in many Canadian readers. Under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as Slaughter describes, U.S. diplomacy …
READ MORESteve Coll’s Sobering Vision of Afghanistan’s Future: Event Report
- Analysis
- March 1, 2012
On February 27, Steve Coll (President of the New America Foundation and Pulitzer Prize-winning author) gave a strikingly clear and sobering analysis of problems afflicting the U.S. exit strategy from war in Afghanistan. His opening premise was a moral one: …
READ MOREEvent Report: Peter Katzenstein on Civilizations in World Politics
- Analysis
- February 8, 2012
On February 2, eminent international relations scholar Peter Katzenstein (of Cornell University) spoke to an overflowing CIPS audience on the theme “Beyond the West: Civilizations in World Politics”. Having edited three volumes on world civilizations and international politics, Katzenstein began …
READ MORELet’s Look in the Right Place for Proof of Citizen Allegiance
- Analysis
- January 27, 2012
Sometimes magical thinking pops up in the most unexpected places—like the recently-revived complaints about dual citizenship that have arisen around the candidacy of Thomas Mulcair (a dual citizen of Canada and France) for the NDP leadership. On Mulcair’s account, …
READ MOREEvent Report: The Arab Spring, One Year Later
- Analysis
- January 24, 2012
On January 18, a CIPS discussion panel brought together Omar Ashour (Exeter University and Brookings Doha Centre), Barak Barfi (New America Foundation) and Peter Jones (University of Ottawa) to take stock of events in countries affected by the ‘Arab Spring’ …
READ MORECSR Funding is the Least of CIDA’s Woes
- Analysis
- January 19, 2012
A column in today’s Ottawa Citizen describes new levels of politicization, ineffectiveness and obfuscation at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). None of this is particularly surprising, since that agency’s misfortunes—largely due to its successive political masters—have been well-known for …
READ MORETap Immigrants to Help Shape Foreign Policy
- Analysis
- December 20, 2011
By Tom Axworthy, John Monahan and Natalie Brender
Published in the Globe and Mail, December 20, 2011.
As Canada’s focus on Libya shifts from the drama of regime change to the challenges of peace building and reconstruction, could the …
READ MOREMost Impressive IA Reads of 2011
- Analysis
- December 16, 2011
In my role as CIPS Blog editor, I’m happy to present what is probably not the first, and likely won’t be the last, ‘best-reads’ list that you’ll be seeing this year. However, it does have the virtue of being distinctive …
READ MORER2P after Libya: A Cause Only the Morally Naïve Can Support?
- Analysis
- November 11, 2011
Contrarianism is always useful for making a splashy headline—and it was perhaps that impulse that led journalist and author David Rieff to publish a New York Times op-ed this week with the ominous title “R2P, R.I.P.”. “At first glance,” he …
READ MOREDiaspora Voters, Canadian Voters: What Roles?
- Analysis
- October 11, 2011
In a recent Globe and Mail column, Jeffrey Simpson notes that the Harper government’s pro-Israel stance is likely responsible for a shift of Jewish Canadians toward the Conservatives, who were supported by 52% of Jewish voters in the last election. …
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