Foreign Policy

  • Human Rights Triage

    Human Rights Triage

    Peter Stockland

    August 13, 2013

    Either the fine people at REAL Women of Canada missed that particular memo with its deeply conservative emphasis on constancy and prudence, or they suffered a temporary lapse in memory before issuing a terribly wrong-headed media release last week. The release publicly criticized Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird for his public criticism of Russia's abuse of a) the basic human rights of homosexual people, and b) by extension, the basic human rights of all people. It then went further and accused the minister of abandoning conservative principles to advance his personal agenda at the expense of Canadian taxpayers. The clear implication was that he has a personal interest in Uganda homosexuality. At best, that would be the great unreported allegation of our time. At worst, it is ad hominem untrue innuendo unworthy of REAL Women and its ever-stalwart president, Gwen Landolt.

    Mother always said never let down true old friends to chase after false new friends waiting to let you down.

    Either the fine people at REAL Women of Canada missed that particular memo with its deeply co...

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  • Reasonable Accommodation in Reverse

    Reasonable Accommodation in Reverse

    Robert Joustra

    April 26, 2013

    It is time, therefore, for religious communities to take a hard look at reasonable accommodation in reverse: not just as a "rights" flag to wave from our foxholes, but as a productive push for social and cultural conversation, and accommodation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Religious freedom is making bigger and bigger waves in the stormy seas of Canadian politics of late. It's not just that an Ambassador was appointed in February, although that's a fair hat tip to certain concerned constituencies. There also seems to be a ris...

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  • Gaming Out the Ambiguous Morality of Apocalypse

    Gaming Out the Ambiguous Morality of Apocalypse

    Robert Joustra

    April 19, 2013

    Gaming is not a bad way to think about the renaissance in geek culture. Gaming, or game theory, is fundamental to a whole range of forecasting. From domestic to international politics, to pop culture and cult sensations, gaming is at the heart of some of our favourite past times. NBC's Revolution is one big game theory experiment: if all the power shut off, how would people respond? Or AMC's The Walking Dead: what are the social and moral dynamics of post-apocalyptic survivors? Right down, of course, to Max Brooks' unsurpassed World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, great if only because of its use of actual, rather than caricatured, foreign policy paradigms.

    "So, can my son, in good Christian conscience, head-shot a zombie to save the town?" You can take that answer to the bank. Kevin Schut, professor at Tr...

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  • Not Ideology but Character: Long Live Maggie Thatcher

    Not Ideology but Character: Long Live Maggie Thatcher

    Peter Stockland

    April 9, 2013

    I have my own memories of Maggie, having been such an infatuated Thatcherite for much of my adult life.

    If journalism is, as G.K. Chesterton so brilliantly said, saying "Lord Jones dead" to people who didn't know Lord Jones was alive, then the outpouring of commentary about Margaret Thatcher amounts to saying "Iron Lady dead" to people who have forgotten what...

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  • Welcoming the End of "Government Compassion"

    Welcoming the End of "Government Compassion"

    Ray Pennings

    March 27, 2013

    Those who know more about foreign aid and development than I do should debate the details regarding the dissolution of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) into the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT). But the idea of structuring government involvement in foreign aid so that it coheres with foreign policy and trade objectives, while increasingly relying on non-governmental relief organizations to provide relief to those in need, is one that compels me. There are two ways to evaluate a change of this nature. Critics of the change suggest it is politically motivated by a government not as committed to poverty alleviation and human rights. The government argues the restructuring will allow for more focus, efficiency, and leveraging of funds for maximum impact. Interestingly, the government's position is supported by former Liberal Minister Lloyd Axworthy as "bold and admirable," suggesting that the motives may not be as sinister as the critics say. Whether this will lead to more coherence and efficiency is, of course, not yet knowable.

    It seems, in principle, a healthy refocusing of our social architecture.

    Those who know more about foreign aid and development than I do should debate the details regarding the dissolution of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) into ...

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  • Are Missionaries the Henchmen of Empire?

    Are Missionaries the Henchmen of Empire?

    Robert Joustra

    February 15, 2013

    In some sense, says Andrew Preston, it is. There were missionaries who were hardcore imperialists. But based on his research, and primary historical accounts, he argues that these missionaries were actually the exception, not the rule. He says, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    It's long been accepted that missionaries are the ideological henchman of empire—maybe not by the missionaries themselves, but by much of the public. Just last week the Globe splashed the Christian ministry Crossroads across its front page for its li...

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  • Religion and Realism in Canadian Foreign Policy

    Religion and Realism in Canadian Foreign Policy

    Brian Dijkema

    February 12, 2013

    That is not a quote about Stephen Harper. That is a quote from Denis Stairs referring to Canada's golden boy of foreign policy, Lester B. Pearson. Yes, that Lester Pearson; the same one that won a Nobel Peace prize back in '57. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair suggests that CIDA's partnering with religious organizations, specifically Christian ones, contributes to a Canadian foreign policy marked by "more religion, less nutrition." Today he went even further, suggesting that religious relief and development organizations were "completely against" Canadian values. He says: "We don't understand how the Conservatives can ... subsidize a group in Uganda whose views are identical to those of the Ugandan government."

    "The manse, it seems, was a formative force in External Affairs as powerful as academia."

    That is not a quote about Stephen Harper. That is a quote from Denis Stairs referring to Canada...

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  • The Peril of Christian Humanitarianism

    The Peril of Christian Humanitarianism

    Robert Joustra

    February 1, 2013

    In many ways, it is neither wrong nor entirely mystifying why one religious group would draw attention to the abuses or suffering of their co-religionists. Christian groups draw attention to the suffering of other Christians in part because they are often more naturally familiar with these groups, as a result of global networks, but also because there is an implicit self-identification with the victimized.

    It is only just beginning to come to light that one of the most powerful forces for global good can be the formal and informal networks of faith-based and religious organizations. These are the people that are, in the words of CBC correspondent Brian Stewar...

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  • Needed for Rebooting Conservative Aid Policy: Less Fox, More Foxes

    Needed for Rebooting Conservative Aid Policy: Less Fox, More Foxes

    Robert Joustra

    January 11, 2013

    During the Cold War, the party of Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Reagan was strongly anticommunist, but these presidents took foreign policy seriously and executed their grand strategies with a healthy degree of tactical flexibility. Since 9/11, however, Republicans have known only one big thing—the "global war on terror"—and have remained stubbornly committed to a narrow militarized approach.

    "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing" -Archilochus

    American foreign policy rock star Dan Drezner ...

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  • Pressing Upon the Imagination of the Cynical

    Pressing Upon the Imagination of the Cynical

    Robert Joustra

    January 3, 2013

    It's hard not to feel cheated at Christmas, a supposed revolution of rest and revitalization, which in truth is often characterized as frenetic and feverish.

    @igollert - viewing Earth is THE favourite astronaut hobby. I think the coolest things are lightning, the Bahamas, volcanoes and aurorae.— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) ...

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  • Bring on that Foreign Policy Review

    Bring on that Foreign Policy Review

    Robert Joustra

    December 13, 2012

    But if this renewed emphasis on partnerships is going to be carried out effectively, the typically closed-door conversations of the government are going to have to go public. You can't talk about public-private partnerships without inviting public-private dialogue. Something like a coherent picture needs to painted of the diversity of foreign policy considerations, and the often disparate departments and interests which are making them.

    Ottawa's foreign policy community has long been divided on the effectiveness of formal, often long-winded foreign policy reviews. At the Canada International Council, ...

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  • Stealth Fighter Fever

    Stealth Fighter Fever

    Robert Joustra

    December 7, 2012

    First, it is a chance for Public Minister Rona Ambrose to showcase procurement done right. The fighter procurement process has been the responsibility of Minister Ambrose since last spring, following Ferguson's audit. Her handling, together with that of veteran senior bureaucrat Tom Ring, of the government's much-lauded ship-building contract process in the fall of 2011 has branded her as the key person to turn this procurement process around.

    Me thinks he doth protest too much. Pundits furiously tweeted at Andrew MacDougall in the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday night, as the government scrambled to ...

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  • Wishing for a Secret Agenda

    Wishing for a Secret Agenda

    Robert Joustra

    November 21, 2012

    Have a closer look at what the leaked documents say. We see the Prime Minister's intended plan to diversity trade to emerging markets. This has been true since even before the collapse of Keystone, and what Fen Hampson at Carleton University called the Americans' "silly season", also known as an election.

    For Christmas this year, I'm wishing for a secret agenda—the kind everyone kept promising me was coming, only to disappoint me over and over. Now, we have "leaked" documents...

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  • Day-After Musings

    Day-After Musings

    Ray Pennings

    November 7, 2012

    * * *

    It takes more than a day for partisan emotion to adjust to reality. For the 49% of Americans who voted Republican yesterday, today is a combination of disappointment, anger, and fear. The divide in America is real and stark. Gender, ethnicity, and urbanizat...

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  • Pseudo-Historic Patriotism

    Pseudo-Historic Patriotism

    Peter Stockland

    November 6, 2012

    Sweet relief will come from the cessation of hostility toward the Harper government's inexplicable, tax-paid publicity campaign to lionize the packet of fratricidal Sassenachs who jumped back and forth across an imaginary line firing muskets and waving swords at each other 200 years ago. Canadians will once again peaceably turn on their televisions or amble through the public prints without being affronted by some advertising copy writer's thimble-deep conceptualization of our history.

    I am approaching an age where it simply doesn't pay to wish the future here faster. Still, the looming end of 2012 is a moment devoutly to be wished if only because it will mean the War of 1812 is at long last over.

    Sweet relief will come from the ce...

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  • The Kung Fu Panda Problem: Gangnam Style goes Global

    The Kung Fu Panda Problem: Gangnam Style goes Global

    Robert Joustra

    October 26, 2012

    Now none other than Fareed Zakaria has weighed in on Gangnam Style, arguing its success is culturally iconic for the pluralist South Korean society. In an interview with Evan Osnos, Osnos says that the reason that South Korea could produce something as off the mainstream, and frankly as bizarre, as Gangnam Style is because of the high prize of parody. Gangnam Style, as almost no one with the internet needs to be told anymore, pokes fun at a class of Korean pop and high society. It's the safe for work equivalent of America's Lonely Island. It's the evidence of a society that knows how to make fun of itself, of a culture at ease with its own idiosyncrasies.

    The global sensation gangnam style has swept the globe in recent months, and even the Cardus office, if in uneven waves of enthusiasm. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has ...

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  • Why Criticism of Religion is So Necessary

    Why Criticism of Religion is So Necessary

    Richelle Wiseman

    September 26, 2012

    Should criticism of religion be allowed, particularly when it can lead to such violent reactions?

    After two weeks of riots across the Muslim world, ostensibly due to an offensive amateur YouTube video which insults the Prophet Muhammad, many people across the non-Muslim world might agree that the reaction to the offense far exceeds the offense itself. T...

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  • A Smart Pre-Emptive Move

    A Smart Pre-Emptive Move

    Janet Epp Buckingham

    September 13, 2012

    It has been an interesting week, watching this drama unfold. Last Friday, I was copied on the press release from Minister Baird's office that Iranian Embassy staff were being expelled. "Canada's position on the regime in Iran is well known. Canada views the Government of Iran as the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today." At the same time, Canada closed its embassy in Iran, citing fears for safety and security. Canada thereby cut diplomatic relations. Groups came out supporting and denouncing Canada's unilateral action. The Raging Grannies protested the embassy closure on Monday. They are always up for a good protest. Meanwhile the Canadian Friends of a Diplomatic Iran held banners at the Lester B. Pearson Building in support of the move. In a subsequent press release, they basically said, "It's about time." They focused on Camps Asharaf and Liberty, and President Ahmadinejad's abysmal human rights record. The Canadian Friends also hinted that the Iranian Embassy in Canada threatened Iranian ex-pats in Canada. Having watched people in the embassy taking photos of protesters, this seems to me like a very real threat. There are about 120,000 people in Canada of Iranian origin.

    The flag is down at the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa. I know this because I work across the street.

    It has been an interesting week, watching this drama unfold. Last Friday, I was copied on the press release from Minister Baird's office t...

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  • The Caspian Sea Monster

    The Caspian Sea Monster

    Robert Joustra

    July 27, 2012

    Iranian instability is one push factor, but so is the growing power of oil states around the Caspian, post-Soviet republics hung-over on the Kremlin's kool-aid: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. Newfound petrodollars are funding more aggressive posturing on oil reserves, and ultimately setting the stage for a global first: a Caspian arms race.

    A sea monster is rising from the black, oil slick lagoon of the Caspian Sea. Discoveries of oil reserves are sparking an arms race between Russia, Iran, and several former Soviet Republics. Russia and Kaz...

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  • America Is Not The Greatest

    America Is Not The Greatest

    John Seel

    July 19, 2012

    Aaron Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award-winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Charlie Wilson's War, The Social Network, and Moneyball. He has presided over some of the greatest moments in TV and he did it again recently in the opening episode of The Newsroom.

    "Why is America the greatest country in the world?" a coed asks the assembled media pundits on season opener of HBO's The Newsroom.

    Aaron Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award-winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works ...

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  • The Third Option

    The Third Option

    Robert Joustra

    June 28, 2012

    As Canadians, it's important we dampen the fires of mean spirited panic at this shift in trade strategy. It is neither new nor radical. In 1972, Mitchell Sharp—Trudeau's Secretary of State for External Affairs—proposed what has famously been called his Third Option. The impulse at that time was to weaken Canadian cultural and economic dependence on the United States in the interest of safeguarding Canadian identity.

    Canada is nervous about depending on America. No surprise there, we live in a time when America is nervous about depending on America, so why shouldn't its foreign allies feel the same? The United States doesn't do itself any favours, mind you, when—as two ...

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  • Time to Think

    Time to Think

    Robert Joustra

    May 11, 2012

    "How it Went Down" tells a different story, maybe even an encouraging one, about how large scale bureaucracies and enormously powerful personalities and institutions can collaborate to produce precise, calculated results. These are not the adjectives that jump to mind for the American government, but Allison's piece is a touchstone for those who believe, rightly it turns out, that provided enough motivation modern governments can function swiftly, deftly, and intelligently in a modern media environment.

    In Time's latest issue, Graham Allison chronicles the timing and decisions leading up to the raid and killing of Osama bin Laden. "How it Went Down" is a pop analysis by a...

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