Facing the Biggest Challenges of Our Generation
- Analysis
- December 18, 2018

Writing last week in the Globe and Mail (“Canada and the Middle East – A reality check”), Derek Burney and Fen Hampson aim to “set the record straight” regarding the Harper government’s diplomacy in the Middle East. Their effort …
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In A Thousand Farewells, her memoir of covering civil unrest and war in the Middle East, Canadian reporter Nahlah Ayed writes about the striking reception her citizenship received in that region. The Winnipeg-born daughter of Palestinian immigrants, Ayed found …
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A January 2nd op-ed in the Globe and Mail (republished in the CIPS Blog) on the current foreign policy of the Conservatives generated a lot of responses. Many were supportive, and others were quite critical. That is …
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In the fall of 2013 the Government of Canada finally announced that it had finalized (sort of) an agreement with the European Union for a comprehensive trade and economic agreement. I say “sort of” since all that was released was …
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A foreign policy comprises many things. Interests, however defined, often dominate. But values must also be present if that policy is to be more than a series of transactions. Canada has always been a curious country when it comes to …
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by Gerd Schönwälder
When the Harper government made the interests of Canada’s business community its top foreign policy priority last month, effectively sidelining traditional Canadian concerns such as democratic development, good governance, or human security, some observers were quick to …
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The benefits of the Conservative government’s recently signed trade deal with the European Union are going to be unknown for some time. It will take an army of economists, lawyers and political scientists to assess the pros and cons of …
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When a private citizen holds a world view filled with forces of light and darkness, with heroes and villains and mystical bonds tying fates together, that’s generally her own business. When that person is the Prime Minister of Canada, however, …
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By Colin Robertson, Vice President, Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute
Stephen Harper aims to position Canada as a ‘rising power’. While protecting our privileged access to the USA, Canada under Harper’s leadership actively seeks new markets for our goods …
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Canada’s “principled” foreign policy keeps running into problems in Bahrain, the Gulf monarchy that violently suppressed pro-democracy protests in 2011.
When Foreign Minister John Baird visited the country in April, he made no public comment about Bahrain’s repressive practices, including …
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In anticipation of the December 5th book launch of the Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy, CIPS posed the following question to former Prime Minister Paul Martin (who will be speaking at the event): “What does the recently announced DFATD …
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by Philippe Lagassé
Canada’s military training mission in Afghanistan will end in 2014. When the Canadian Forces are next sent overseas, members of Parliament will likely vote on the mission. The Conservative government has made it a point to consult …
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