Forward — to the Past? Re-thinking a Human Rights Museum0

• Analysis
• March 15, 2012

CIPS Policy Brief No.17, March 2012.
By DAVID PETRASEK, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

• The Canadian Museum of Human Rights has set itself a sound objective: to challenge and equip visitors actively to promote human freedom and

R2P Is Not a License for Military Recklessness0

• Analysis
• March 12, 2012

In the New York Times last week, Tufts University’s Alex de Waal penned an op-ed that scathingly criticized the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine and a group of people he calls “idealists.” In the article, he identified only two members …

In Defense of Invisible Children0

• Analysis
• March 12, 2012

The critics of the Invisible Children video have argued that the viral video, which astoundingly has had more than 36 million hits on YouTube, is overstating the importance of this now much-diminished group of thugs called the Lord’s Resistance Army, …

Reassessing the ‘Hearts and Minds’ Model of Counter-Insurgency0

• Analysis
• March 12, 2012

A couple of news items today bring forth contrasting visions of counter-insurgency success and failure. The first recounts the apparently quite successful reconstruction of Grozny; the second, the massacre of 16 Afghans by an American soldier. The contrast makes …

The Senkaku Islands: A Forgotten Flashpoint in the Western Pacific0

• Analysis
• March 12, 2012

The uninhabited Senkaku Islands of Japan, claimed by both China and Taiwan under the name Diaoyutai, may seem of minor significance to observers outside the region. These eight uninhabited islands have a land area of only 6.3 km² and …

Educational Exchanges and the Promotion of Human Rights0

• Analysis
• March 9, 2012

On Monday of this week, in a small graduate seminar at American University Washington College of Law (in Washington, DC), a beautiful, humble, passionate heroine explained the history of the fight for women’s rights in her country, Yemen, and shared …

The KONY2012 Campaign and Its Critics0

• Analysis
• March 8, 2012

Guest contributor: REX BRYNEN
Professor of Political Science, McGill University

In recent days, a social media-based campaign called KONY2012 has gone viral with worldwide calls for the arrest of Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). …

Exploring Global Governance Networks0

• Analysis
• March 7, 2012

How is global governance organized? For many complicated issues, governance is being pursued at multiple sites, by different actors, at different levels and, in many cases, across space in a messy transnational fashion. What, then, are fruitful ways of understanding …

Can NATO Rethink its Exit Strategy from Afghanistan?0

• Analysis
• March 5, 2012

CIPS Policy Brief No.16, March 2012.
By STEVE COLL, New America Foundation.

• The NATO transition plan for Afghanistan is based on faulty assumptions and must be rethought before time runs out.
• The international community must invest in a successful

Enrichment or Weapons: Where is the Red Line on Iran?0

• Analysis
• March 5, 2012

For all the expressions of friendship and support between U.S. President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, the two have different thresholds over what would lead them to attack Iran and different visions of how the issue of Iran’s potential …

Why the People Wanted Putin0

• Analysis
• March 5, 2012

The full article was published in the Ottawa Citizen on March 4, 2012.

‘Svobodnykh mest net” (“there are no free places”)! Of all my memories of the months I spent as a student in the Soviet Union, perhaps the most …

Assessing Iran: The Arab Spring, the Nuclear Issue, and Canada’s Response0

• Analysis
• March 2, 2012

CIPS Policy Brief No.15, March 2012.
By PETER JONES. 

• Iran’s internal situation is troubled and getting worse, but it is impossible
  to say how long the regime will last.
• The Arab Spring has left Iran a ‘net loser’ in terms