
Members 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 role, if any, should NATO play beyond Europe? In March, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh
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In 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 below indicate that defense expenditures have been going up in every region of the world except
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Published 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 of the key international policy developments for the Canadian government to consider in the weeks and
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On 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; yet Afghans turned up in numbers as large as before. The voter turnout represents a
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