Almost One Year On: Lessons from the Arab Spring0

• Analysis
• November 25, 2011

Guest contributor: STEFAN WOLFF
Professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham, UK

When Mohamed Bouazizi, a jobless graduate in the provincial city of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia, about 200km southwest of the capital Tunis, set himself …

Canada and the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Let’s Not Get Overexcited Here!0

• Analysis
• November 24, 2011

At the APEC leaders’ summit that took place in Honolulu two weeks ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Asia would become the federal government’s new trade priority. As a result, he indicated, Canada would formally ask to join the …

A Pivotal Moment? U.S. Policy Towards Asia0

• Analysis
• November 21, 2011

This post first appeared on the CIC’s Roundtable blog at opencanada.org.

Is the United States “pivoting” its foreign policy towards the Asia-Pacific region, as prominent Obama administration officials, news reports, and commentators have claimed?

Daniel Drezner, a …

Global Issues, Colonial Mindsets: The Munk Debates0

• Analysis
• November 21, 2011

Imagine that a foundation in a small European country, perhaps Denmark, sponsors a high profile series of debates with the purpose of providing a “forum for leading thinkers to debate the major issues facing Denmark and the world.” Most people, …

The World Energy Outlook and North Pole Crocodiles0

• Analysis
• November 21, 2011

So the International Energy Agency (IEA) produced its annual World Energy Outlook this year. The central message seems to be: PANIC! IT MAY BE TOO LATE.

When a sober organisation full of technocrats and policy wonks screams panic, you know …

Science Diplomacy: What’s It All About?0

• Analysis
• November 18, 2011

CIPS Policy Brief No. 13 (November 2011).
By Daryl Copeland.

• Science diplomacy can play a critical role in addressing the complex transnational issues which feed underdevelopment and insecurity.
• Foreign ministries, multilateral organizations and science-based institutions are unprepared and ill-equipped to

The 800-Pound Panda in Obama’s Asia Speech0

• Analysis
• November 17, 2011

This post first appeared on the CIC’s Roundtable blog at opencanada.org.

Sometimes, the most interesting part of a political speech isn’t what is said, but what’s not said. On Thursday, President Barack Obama delivered an address to Australia’s Parliament …

UNDRIP: The Wrong Basis for Canada’s International Indigenous Agenda0

• Analysis
• November 17, 2011

Scott’s Simon recent blogpost on Canada and the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Persons got a central message right: the importance of Canada playing a strong role abroad in promoting indigenous rights and indigenous issues. And he’s right …

Taiwan and the UNFCCC: A Modest Proposal0

• Analysis
• November 14, 2011

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which entered force in 1994 and has been ratified by almost all countries, is the leading international institution working on climate change. The Conference of the Parties (COP) supervises implementation of …

R2P after Libya: A Cause Only the Morally Naïve Can Support?0

• Analysis
• November 11, 2011

Contrarianism is always useful for making a splashy headline—and it was perhaps that impulse that led journalist and author David Rieff to publish a New York Times op-ed this week with the ominous title “R2P, R.I.P.”. “At first glance,” he …