CIDA’s Underspending: The Minister’s Explanations Don’t Add Up0

• Analysis
• April 28, 2014

While global foreign aid reached an all-time high in 2013, the Canadian government’s contributions fell by over 11%. Among the 28 industrialized countries belonging to the Development Assistance Committee, only debt-ridden Portugal cut aid more drastically than Canada. Not …

The Ottawa Forum: Rethinking Canada’s International Strategy0

• Analysis
• April 27, 2014

It’s been almost a decade since Canada conducted a foreign policy review.

The Ottawa Forum on May 23-24, co-organized by CIPS and the Canadian International Council, will bring together some of Canada’s most insightful “next generation” policy thinkers and most …

Afghanistan’s 2014 Election: A Referendum Against the Taliban0

• Analysis
• April 8, 2014

April 5 was the day of Afghanistan’s historic election, a milestone in its history. I saw men and women, young and old, lined up in the rain-damped city to vote from dawn to dusk, exercising their democratic rights.  In 50 …

The Putin Book Club0

• Analysis
• April 3, 2014

“We must love all nations as we love our own,” writes Russian philosopher Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov in his 1897 book The Justification of the Good. The “greatness and value” of nationality, he claims, lies “not in itself taken in …

Understanding the Great War0

• Analysis
• April 1, 2014

Published in the Ottawa Citizen, March 31, 2014

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie on June 28, 1914 set off a chain of events that a few weeks later led to an all-out war involving virtually …

Pre-Election Reflections from Kabul0

• Analysis
• March 31, 2014

On April 5, the people of Afghanistan will vote in their third national election since 2001—a hundred million-dollar effort financed by international donors. The air is filled with anticipation and hope, albeit tempered with grave concerns held by both the …

Coming Soon: A Truly Global Human Rights Revolution?0

• Analysis
• March 31, 2014

Published on the openGlobalRights Blog, March 31, 2014 

There is an unmistakable fin de régime sentiment to much current thinking regarding international human rights. Conferences and discussion forums convene to debate ‘the future of human rights’, with implicit in …

With Russia Out of the G8, What About the G7 and G20?0

• Analysis
• March 25, 2014

Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Prime Minister Harper has insistently demanded that Russia be expelled from the G8. But what sort of G7 will survive that action? And what happens to the G20?

For now, the situation was resolved at …

Europe Will Wake Up, and Putin Can Expect a Harsh Response0

• Analysis
• March 25, 2014

Published in The Globe and Mail, March 19, 2014

There are many aspects to the current struggle over the future of Crimea which pose serious difficulties for an international community that would like to respond firmly. On the one …