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Analysis

Can Canada Win a UN Security Council Seat?0
- 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 …
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Canada Will Pay the Price for Neglecting Foreign Policy 0
- Analysis, Repost
- June 10, 2020
Canada has benefitted from an incredible luxury for the past three decades: We have been able to make mistakes in major foreign and national security policy decisions, or neglect these matters, and suffer little to no cost. Most other countries …
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Disunited Democracies Cannot Face the Challenge of China 0
- Analysis, Repost
- June 7, 2020
The United States and its allies must agree on an approach to China with a clarity of purpose, resolve, and restraint. Because the China challenge will only grow over time.

After China violated Hong Kong’s legislative autonomy by imposing a …
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The Rohingya Genocide Is Far from Just a Dispute between The Gambia and Myanmar: Time for Canada to Join 0
- 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 …
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Self-Determination at a Turning Point: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Indigenous Nations of Formosa 0
- Analysis
- June 2, 2020
May 2020 was a turning point in East Asia. President Tsai Ing-wen (Democratic Progressive Party, DPP) was inaugurated to her second term as President of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Two days later, China’s National People’s Congress proposed legislation authorizing …
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Withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty Is a Short-Sighted Mistake 0
- Analysis
- May 27, 2020
President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty is motivated by a desire to play to the ideology of his political base at home, not by any reasonable national security rationale. This is ironic, given that the greatest …
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Protecting Canada: A Dangerous Justification for Foreign Aid 0
- Analysis, Repost
- May 25, 2020
Two prominent umbrella groups of Canadian development organizations – CCIC and CanWaCH – recently launched a COVID-themed campaign to drum up support for Canadian foreign aid. In doing so, they have embraced a nationalistic, threat-based case for aid that verges …
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COVID-19 Forces a Rethink of an Old Debate 0
- 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 …
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Israel-Palestine: Annexation Will Change Everything and Nothing 0
- 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 …
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Supporting African-Led Responses to COVID-19 0
- Analysis, Repost
- May 6, 2020
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 …
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Coronavirus Shows Why Canada Must Reduce Its Dependence on the U.S.0
- Analysis, Repost
- May 6, 2020
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 …
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Did University of Ottawa Grad Students Just Raise US $37 Million in Aid for Afghanistan?0
- Analysis
- May 4, 2020
Ok, that was a clickbait title. But what really happened is not so far off.

In my recent course on “Evaluation” my grad students and I worked on a systematic review of development aid to Afghanistan. Every year …
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