Sitting on a Powder Keg
One of the defining characteristics of globalization is its tendency to produce winners and losers by polarizing communities – economically, socially, and politically – within and between nations....
View ArticleQuestioning the Wisdom of Foreign Intervention
It is perhaps premature to propose much in the way of conclusions and lessons learned in the immediate wake of the rebel victory over the Gadhafi regime. On the surface, it appears that NATO countries...
View ArticleDiplomacy, Journalism, and the New Media
Much of what is new in contemporary diplomacy may one way or another be attributed to the emergence of the internet. Over the space of about 20 years, it has displaced other venues as the principal...
View ArticleDiplomacy in the Digital Age
Today, the contributors to a recently released collection of essays -assembled under the title Diplomacy in the Digital Age and edited by Janice Stein – will gather in Toronto to discuss former...
View ArticleNo Time To Celebrate Victory in Libya
The NATO military engagement in Libya ended on Oct. 31, amid great celebration in participating capitals and much favourable commentary in the popular media. Is this warranted? From the outset of the...
View ArticleCanadian Public Diplomacy, Then and Now
I have recently been reviewing Diplomacy in the Digital Age, a collection of essays prepared in honour of Allan Gotlieb, a former Undersecretary of State for External Affairs and Canada’s ambassador in...
View ArticleA Future for Public Diplomacy?
In a recent article on The Mark, I demonstrated that the paradigm for the delivery of Canadian international policy shifted fundamentally during the 1980s and ’90s. Over the course of those years,...
View ArticleConnecting the Dots
Iraq. What a stark reminder of how short the road is between heresy and received wisdom. Even in today’s mainstream press, the majority view is that the intervention in Iraq was a barely veiled...
View ArticleThe Incredible Shrinking Canada
I am now approaching the end of my sojourn in London, some comments about which were referenced here. While away, I have even managed to get a bit of Canadian press. After almost a month away, I must...
View ArticleA Diminished Canada
Over the past few days, there has been some commentary in the mainstream and electronic media about the hard reality of this country’s ever-diminishing place in the world. Still, such observations have...
View Article
