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Abandoning Diplomacy with Iran: Why, and Why Now?0
- Analysis
- September 10, 2012
by John Mundy

Published in the Globe and Mail, September 10, 2012

No country suspends diplomatic relations with an adversary lightly. It signals that the possibility for future dialogue is over. While it is true that Canada has not …
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The New Interventionism: Promise and Reality 0
- Analysis
- September 5, 2012
First published by 3 Quarks Daily

The news is alarming: whole families killed in the mountain villages near Lebanon and massacres in Damascus; sectarian clashes between Christian, Alawite and Sunni communities risk a descent into full-scale civil war. The French …
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Theory and the City 0
- Analysis
- September 3, 2012
How many people do International Relations (IR) for a living in Canada’s Capital Region? To come up with an estimate, we counted full-time faculty who work in this semi-autonomous field of study at four universities in Ottawa and the neighbouring …
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The Measure of a CDS 0
- Analysis
- September 3, 2012
by Philippe Lagassé

First published on the Canadian International Council website.

A new Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) was appointed by the Governor-in-Council last week. Following a few months of speculation about who would be named, Cabinet decided on …
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The Olympics, and the Rise and Dangers of Private Security 0
- Analysis
- July 17, 2012
Today, Nick Buckles, the CEO of the world’s biggest private security company, will be questioned by the UK House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which is attempting to explain how G4S managed to bungle the Olympic contract quite so …
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Kenney’s Reforms Make More Sense than his Rhetoric 0
- 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 …
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Is Corruption the Cost of Saving Afghanistan?0
- Analysis
- July 12, 2012
Published in the Globe and Mail, July 11, 2012.

It was fitting that last weekend’s international donors’ conference on Afghanistan took place in Tokyo: The event resembled the city’s famous kabuki theatre, with its ritualized drama of grand gestures …
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The Future of Flying: A View from Farnborough 0
- Analysis
- July 11, 2012
All eyes are turning to the London Olympics—but for people in the aerospace industry, Britain’s biggest event this summer is the Farnborough International Airshow. At this event (the 48th iteration of the biannual show run by Britain’s defense and aerospace …
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Bev Oda’s Real Legacy at CIDA 0
- Analysis
- July 10, 2012
Media commentary has been remarkably lenient regarding Bev Oda’s record at the end of her five-year stint as Canada’s Minister of International Cooperation. Coverage has by and large ignored how, under her watch, the government systematically undermined both the fundamental …
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Towards an International Agreement on Syria?0
- Analysis
- June 29, 2012
Following a long conversation between Presidents Obama and Putin at the recent G20 Summit in Mexico, U.S. officials claimed that progress had been made in identifying areas where U.S. and Russian interests coincide. “We agreed that we need to see …
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Don’t Blame Obama for ‘Losing’ Canada 0
- Analysis
- June 29, 2012
Derek Burney and Fen Osler Hampson have well-deserved reputations as level-headed observers of Canada-U.S. relations. How, then, did they come to write an article so full of misjudgments on this subject?

The article in question, “How Obama Lost Canada…
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Thoughts on the Future of Intelligence Accountability in Canada 0
- Analysis
- June 29, 2012
The decision of the Harper government to close the Office of the Inspector General of CSIS and end its 28-year history opens a new and challenging chapter for the process of keeping watch over the Canadian security and intelligence community. …
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