Steve Coll’s Sobering Vision of Afghanistan’s Future: Event Report

• March 1, 2012

On February 27, Steve Coll (President of the New America Foundation and Pulitzer Prize-winning author) gave a strikingly clear and sobering analysis of problems afflicting the U.S. exit strategy from war in Afghanistan. His opening premise was a moral one: …

The New Canada: Fomenting Fear at Home and Abroad

• February 4, 2012

Why base policy on facts and evidence when you can exploit fear instead? It doesn’t take a psychologist to know that fear is a much more powerful motivator than boring old rational argument. Political scientists have long studied the use …

Armies without Borders? Legal Questions on Canada-U.S. Military Cooperation

• January 25, 2012

The Ottawa Citizen reported today that Canada and the United States are in the final stages of negotiating a “new Canada-U.S. military agreement that will set down each country’s roles and responsibilities should North America be attacked”. The details are …

Time for a ‘Grand Bargain’ in a Foreign Policy Review

• January 21, 2012

Officials are grinding away at a foreign policy review in the Lester B. Pearson building in Ottawa, although the motives appear unclear and the parameters are not yet public. But the time is right, since the Harper Government’s majority in …

Tap Immigrants to Help Shape Foreign Policy

• December 20, 2011

By Tom Axworthy, John Monahan and Natalie Brender

Published in the Globe and Mail, December 20, 2011.

As Canada’s focus on Libya shifts from the drama of regime change to the challenges of peace building and reconstruction, could the …

Canada-U.S. Perimeter Plan: From Aspiration to Action?

• December 8, 2011

Yesterday, Canada and the United States announced a security and economic cooperation plan similar in style and substance to the 2005 Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). It’s worth recalling, therefore, that the SPP died of neglect shortly …

Libya: The Real Work is Only Beginning

• November 30, 2011

The Government last week paid tribute to Canadian Forces who served in the recently-concluded NATO mission in Libya. It was a welcome gesture to those who serve Canada abroad, often with little or no recognition at all. And it was …

Un énoncé conservateur de politique étrangère

• November 28, 2011

par Justin Massie

Suite aux élections de mai, le ministre des Affaires étrangères, John Baird, s’est vu confier la tâche de réviser la politique actuelle et d’élaborer un nouveau document avec l’espoir de permettre à Ottawa de mieux anticiper l’environnement …

Harper and Obama at APEC: A New Focus on Asia or a Closer Canada-U.S. Relationship?

• November 17, 2011

Was the Prime Minister’s statement at the APEC Summit of Canada’s interest in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations a sign of a new export strategy focused on Asia or a move away from our close trading relationship with the …

Honing Canada’s Approach to Interventions

• November 16, 2011

By Roméo Dallaire and Philippe Lagassé

Published in Embassy Magazine, November 16, 2011.

Canada and its NATO allies performed admirably during their recent intervention in Libya. They acted to prevent a predatory regime from potentially committing a mass atrocity; …