Talking to the Taliban

• October 18, 2021

As the Taliban swept across Afghanistan this summer, the capital cities of the provinces fell like a house of cards. Kunduz fell by August 8. Herat, Lashkar Gah, and Helmand followed within a few days. As the news of the …

CIPS Best Blog Award 2021: Public Voting Now Open

• October 13, 2021

Last year we launched our first ‘Best Blog Award’ competition. While the principal motivations behind the competition were to (a) offer up an engaging experience for you, dear reader and (b) draw some more attention the expertise and hard work …

Retrotopian Desires and Gender in Right-Wing Populism

• October 10, 2021

Former US President Donald Trump in 2016 justified his plan to build a wall at the United States’ Southern Border to keep out Mexicans (many of whom implied he were rapists). This motif forms part of Trump’s strategy to “Make …

We Must Avoid An Isolated, Impoverished, Unstable Afghanistan

• October 6, 2021

After the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, I consistently argued for a comprehensive, UN-facilitated peace process, encompassing all the internal Afghan parties to the conflict, including the Taliban and the regional and other actors implicated in the conflict, …

What’s next for Germany after Merkel

• October 4, 2021

Just days after Canadians took to the polls, Germans, too, elected a new parliament. Having lead Germany for sixteen years, Angela Merkel was not on the ballot again: the end of an era in German politics and the arrival of something …

UN Peacekeeping and the Kindleberger Trap

• September 27, 2021

For close to a decade, the UN has been under the double pressure of a high number of fatalities and pressure from member states to cut costs, particularly from the United States. Since 2013, the UN has not launched a …

How Individuals Matter in UN Peacekeeping Human Rights Policy

• September 23, 2021

Debates about UN peacekeeping have increasingly come to revolve around the ‘protection of civilians’ (POC) in both policy and academic spheres. These debates are undoubtedly crucial and have important real-life consequences. At the same time, the focus on …

Federal election: How the next government can build a stronger foreign service

• September 17, 2021

In the current federal election, foreign policy is getting very little attention, despite Canada’s implication in many global crises and long-standing concern from all directions about Canada’s place in the world, its image and whether or not it …

“C” is for climate platform: Grading the major national parties’ climate plan

• September 17, 2021

This summer may mark a potential turning point in Canada’s collective climate consciousness: In June, the country witnessed an unprecedented “heat dome” in the Western half of the country. The town of Lytton, BC, hit 49.6°C, completely shattering the country’s …

New Opportunities for Local Engagement at the Human Rights and Peacebuilding Nexus

• September 15, 2021

Despite ongoing calls from academics, activists, and peacebuilders globally, United Nations and other international peace operations remain largely top-down, directed by the interests of funders rather than based on the needs and knowledge of conflict-affected communities. Yet, while often significantly …

Foreign Aid and the 2021 Federal Elections

• September 14, 2021

The 2021 federal election campaign has paid very little attention to Canadian foreign aid. The main parties’ platforms, however, contain some important signaling about what might lie in store after September 20.

During the last campaign, in 2019, the Conservatives …

Vingt ans après, qu’est-ce que le renseignement aujourd’hui?

• September 14, 2021

Au fil des années, la lutte contre le terrorisme s’est imposée comme un enjeu opérationnel et politique en Europe comme en Amérique du Nord. Le renseignement y joue un rôle important, permettant aux professionnels de la sécurité de revendiquer une …