Canada's leading centre for analysis and debate of international affairs.
- Home
- Philip Leech
Philip Leech
-
-
Articles
-
Views
-
Author's Posts
What WE Need Now: Simplicity, Clarity, Accreditation, Scrutiny
- Analysis
- July 30, 2020
As the WE scandal goes from bad to worse, even WE founders Craig and Marc Kielburger have admitted the need for serious change. As WE’s corporate sponsors flee for the exit, the drumbeat of demands for change intensifies. WE …
READ MORE
A Genuine Human Rights-based Approach for Our Post-pandemic Future
When many governments are still willing to trade the lives of the vulnerable for the economic gains of the wealthiest, we need a human rights-based approach to our post-pandemic world.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world we knew. It …
READ MORE
Amadou Gon Coulibaly : La mort de l’héritier et candidat présidentiel
- Analysis
- July 29, 2020
La mort du Premier Ministre Amadou Gon Coulibaly, le 8 juillet 2020, a plongé la Côte d’Ivoire dans une incertitude politique sans précédent. Sa mort conduit non seulement à un rebattage des cartes au sein du RHDP (Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes …
READ MORE
The West Bank’s Fate Is Unknown as Netanyahu Stalls on Annexation
It’s mid-July, two weeks after what many in the international media believed was Israel’s start date for the annexation of large parts of the West Bank.
Many commentators, including me, tried to predict the next move by Israeli Prime Minister …
READ MORE
Que faire des amis autoritaires du Canada ?
Peu avant l’élection des nouveaux membres non-permanents du Conseil de sécurité le mois dernier, le Premier ministre Justin Trudeau s’est entretenu avec le Président rwandais Paul Kagame. Le communiqué canadien produit à la suite de cette rencontre décrivait la relation …
READ MORE
Human Rights Are Universal – Except If They Might Offend Someone?
It is shameful enough for a Canadian museum to deliberately hide its LGBTQ2+ content from certain visitors. However, when the museum in question is dedicated to human rights, such a decision is ten times more offensive and actually betrays the …
READ MORE
Canada lost its bid for a UN Security Council seat. That’s a blessing in disguise
- Analysis
- June 20, 2020
A cold shower is a good thing. It has the immediate benefit of bringing one to one’s senses.In that way, Canada benefited this week in full view of the United Nations General Assembly as we lost a long-anticipated vote for …
READ MORE
COVID-19 Lays Bare the Pseudo-Science of the Index Industry
- Analysis
- June 18, 2020
Which country was best prepared in 2019 to handle a pandemic? According to the Johns Hopkins Global Health Security Index, the United States showed the highest level of “preparedness for epidemics and pandemics” out of 195 countries and territories. …
READ MORE
Can Canada Win a UN Security Council Seat?
- Analysis
- June 15, 2020
On June 17, 2020, Canada will seek election to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as one of the ten non-permanent members. If successful, Canada will serve as one of five countries elected this year for a two-year term ending …
READ MORE
The Rohingya Genocide Is Far from Just a Dispute between The Gambia and Myanmar: Time for Canada to Join
- Analysis
- June 3, 2020
While the Rohingya continue to endure an ongoing genocide both inside and outside their homeland, several international legal mechanisms churn slowly in parallel.
The last two weeks have seen moments of progress. First, an Argentinian court decided to consider an …
READ MORE
COVID-19 Forces a Rethink of an Old Debate
- Analysis
- May 18, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a test of the preparedness of countries’ public health and governance systems. As countries diverge in their strategies to fight the epidemic, we have more and more opportunities for learning about what works and …
READ MORE
Remembering David Petrasek
- CIPS
- May 15, 2020
We have lost a wonderful colleague and friend. David Petrasek, associate professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) and former director of the Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS), died on Monday after a long, hard-fought …
READ MORE
Israel-Palestine: Annexation Will Change Everything and Nothing
- Analysis
- May 14, 2020
On 29 April, Israelis celebrated the 72nd anniversary of the foundation of their state, while at the same time, on ‘Land Day,’ Palestinians mourned the Nakbah (catastrophe), which remembers the ethnic cleansing of some 700,000 people from their land in …
READ MORE
Supporting African-Led Responses to COVID-19
The virus that causes COVID-19 has now reached Africa, a few weeks after it hit Europe and North America. Many analysts fear that the virus’s impact on the continent is nothing less than a “time bomb”, due to …
READ MORE
Coronavirus Shows Why Canada Must Reduce Its Dependence on the U.S.
Canadian foreign policy has long embraced both a deep continental relationship with the United States and a devotion to liberal internationalism. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the time has come to re-evaluate our approach.
While Canada has been able …
READ MORE
CIPS Special: What We Are Reading During Lockdown
- Other
- April 16, 2020
As a break from our normal – more serious – fare we asked CIPS‘ distinguished members to tell us about books they’re currently reading. We asked for one academic book and one novel. Some of our members also included recommendations …
READ MORE
Time to Get the Two Michaels Home
- Analysis
- April 10, 2020
The advent of the COVID19 pandemic puts fresh pressure on the Canadian government to end the impasse that continues to hold two Canadians imprisoned as hostages in a Chinese jail. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have now been in prison …
READ MORE
Gaza’s Ongoing and Potential Calamity
- Analysis
- April 6, 2020
The first Palestinian fatality from COVID-19 was on 26 March. A sixty-year-old woman from Biddu, north of Jerusalem passed away as a result of the virus. By the end of March, some 117 people tested positive for the disease, though …
READ MORE
The SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: Lessons for International Development
- Analysis
- April 3, 2020
The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has gone global, transcending the traditional categories of North and South, “developed” and “developing” countries. While most international media coverage focuses on China, Europe and North America, the implications of the pandemic for the developing countries and …
READ MORE
Watching the Watchers: The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians in Action
- Analysis
- April 1, 2020
The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) has had a brief and tumultuous life. It was under the gun from the start; once its authorizing legislation was passed in the summer of 2017 it had to get up …
READ MORE
(Viral) Sands in the Wheels of Commerce? COVID-19 and the Future of International Economy Transactions
- Analysis
- March 30, 2020
When William Shakespeare coined the phrase ‘Beware the Ides of March’ in 1599, it is unlikely that he was considering how prophetic his words would appear just over 400 years later. When the history of the second decade of the …
READ MORE
The Globality of Community-Based Conservation in Namibia
- Analysis
- March 27, 2020
Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) has emerged as a critical technique of resource governance in Southern Africa. It is intended to give control over specific natural resources such as freshwater, forests and forest products and wildlife populations and their habitat …
READ MORE
China’s Coronavirus Victory?
- Analysis
- March 18, 2020
President Xi Jinping’s surprise visit to Wuhan—the epicentre of the global COVID-19 pandemic—on March 10 is a clear sign China’s party-state now believes it has the new coronavirus under control. Moreover, it is a signal China’s leaders believe their political …
READ MORE
Teaching the Field of International Relations in Canada: A Focus on Journals
- Analysis
- March 11, 2020
The comprehensive examination is a rite of passage for those seeking PhDs in North America, laying out an intimidating list of the most important works in one’s field of study. The comprehensive examination process is a formative experience in multiple …
READ MORE
The NPT Turns 50: A Mid-life Crisis?
- Analysis
- March 4, 2020
On March 5, the (Nuclear) Non-proliferation Treaty will turn 50-years old. Whether this will be an occasion for celebration or lamentation is an open question. The NPT’s once-in-five-year review conference will take place at UN HQ, April 27-May 22, and …
READ MORE
Understanding Canada’s Middle East Policy in a Tumultuous 2020
- Analysis
- March 3, 2020
The new year began with two major crises in the Middle East, both of which have impacted Canadian policy and interests. First, the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani by the US in Iraq precipitating the downing of Ukraine Airlines …
READ MORE
Quelle nouvelle structure de gouvernance pour l’Arctique?
- Analysis
- February 13, 2020
At the end of January, the Arctic Frontiers conference, held in Norway, organized a discussion on the future of governance in the Arctic region. Some voices were raised to demand new regional structures of decision-making; these echo the wishes of …
READ MORE
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at Global Affairs Canada
- Analysis
- February 12, 2020
Justin Trudeau’s government starts its second mandate with a new look: slightly more subdued; more engaged on pressing national issues; seemingly less prone to putting communications ahead of policy, and more inclined to political realism rather than the naïve sloganeering …
READ MORE
Disarmament Diplomacy in the Age of Putin and Trump
- Analysis
- February 11, 2020
UN officials are not usually given to overstatement, which makes the recent assessment by the UN’s top disarmament diplomat that “the barriers to the use of nuclear weapons are lower than they’ve been since the darkest days of the Cold …
READ MORE
The Double-Edged Sword of Trafficking in Niger
- Analysis
- February 4, 2020
As African migrants continue to endure deadly voyages across the Mediterranean, efforts to curb this flow have centred on countries like Niger through which they transit.
Along with irregular migration, Niger is a trafficking hub for a range of substances …
READ MORE
What Are the Benefits and Pitfalls of ‘Data-Driven’ Peacekeeping?
- Analysis
- January 9, 2020
The UN is committed to improving peace operations by making them more ‘data-driven,’ but the move toward systematic data analysis comes with practical, ethical, and political challenges.
UN peace operations face a variety of problems, but one of the most …
READ MORE
Killing Suleimani: The Tricky Business of Predicting What Comes Next
- Analysis
- January 6, 2020
The killing of Iranian General Qassem Suleimani has triggered the writing of a plethora of op-eds and think-pieces. Many of these make bold predictions without, in fact, providing a great deal of factual basis to support them. In reality, it …
READ MORE
What Do Canadians Think of China and the US?
- Analysis
- December 18, 2019
There’s support for contact with China despite worries and uncertainties and a lack of trust in the US, a University of British Columbia survey finds.
Amidst the diplomatic crisis affecting Canada-China relations that has followed the arrests of Huawei chief …
READ MORE
Tunisie: Élection de Kais Saïed. Quel projet pour quelle réalité politico-juridique?
- Analysis
- December 13, 2019
Constitutionaliste de formation, Kais Saïed a remporté haut la main les élections présidentielles tunisiennes en récoltant 72% de l’ensemble des votants (57%). L’exercice électoral était digne d’une grande démocratie comme en témoignent les observateurs nationaux et internationaux. Cependant, de nombreuses …
READ MORE
Is the Iranian Empire Striking Back? Lessons from the Collapse of the Soviet Union
- Analysis
- December 6, 2019
Exporting the communist revolution was a defining mission of the Soviet Union. But in practice, this translated into redirecting massive amounts of resources away from the domestic sphere, where they were desperately needed, towards consolidating the USSR’s influence over other …
READ MORE
Causes and Results of Recent North Korea-US Negotiations
- Analysis
- December 3, 2019
In September 2017 US President, Donald Trump, and North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un were engaged in a furious interchange of insults and threats. However, less than a year later “Little rocket man” – as Trump called Kim in a speech …
READ MORE
Priority One: Saving the Canadian Foreign Service
- Analysis
- November 28, 2019
The Canadian foreign service is in desperate condition. If the Trudeau government hopes to achieve its foreign policy objectives, its first priority should be a wholesale reform of Global Affairs Canada that focuses on the rejuvenation of the foreign service. …
READ MORE