Canada's hub for international affairs.

Baird
Baird Wins Over a Skeptic
Stephanie Carvin is almost sold on an Office of Religious Freedom, but still has a few questions outstanding.
Harper Davos
Do We Need a Foreign Policy Review? Afraid So…
Jennifer Welsh challenges Derek Burney and Fen Osler Hampson.
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The New Humanitarians
A weeklong series with the Globe and Mail profiling four big thinkers on the future of aid.
  • North American leaders If the new global order is regional, then Canada needs a continental vision, argues Robert Pastor.
  • Workers are seen at a construction site in Port-au-Prince CIDA is paying private contractors to build houses in Haiti. Dr. Samantha Nutt elaborates on her Globe op-ed.
  • RTR1GEMU Why is CIDA paying mining companies $6.7 million? Ian Smillie describes the corporatization of aid.
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Roundtable

Paris, Welsh, Pratte, Chin and Hancock on international relations.

Harper Davos

Do We Need a Foreign Policy Review? Afraid So…

A number of commentators, including former Canadian ambassador to Washington Derek Burney and Carleton University professor Fen Osler Hampson, have recently lamented the Harper government’s decision to engage in a review of the country’s foreign policy – with the end result likely to be a new “Foreign Policy Plan.” These critics call on Canada to focus on “doing” foreign policy, rather than “talking” about it, particularly if that talking involves any mention of Canadian values. Call me a sucker for punishment, but I believe we ...More
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The Think Tank

A thought lab for international affairs.

Baird

Baird Wins Over a Skeptic

In a passionate and direct speech to London’s Commonwealth Society on Jan. 23, Foreign Minister John Baird made it clear that human rights will be a centrepiece of the Harper government’s foreign-policy agenda. Although nothing in the speech was particularly new (the establishment of an Office for Religious Freedom was a campaign promise and Baird passionately defended LGBT rights at the Commonwealth in November of last year), Baird’s address was a summary of the approach he and the Conservatives are developing ...More
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Readings

Opinion, reporting and research from around the world.

  • A sow covered city sign stands in front the congress center in DavosAt Davos, the region is king. Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer explains why the new economic order is a regional one - and why it won't solve climate change.
  • Ugandan officers serving with AMISOM 33rd Battalion walk on a hotel rooftop in the Yaaqshiid district of MogadishuSomalia is known for piracy and civil war. Are things about to change? It’s been 17 years, but the UN is back in Mogadishu.
  • An employee of natural cosmetics company is covered with molasses to protest against Canada's tar sands development during demonstration in ViennaAnti-Canadianism is becoming the new anti-Americanism: Slate's assessment of Canada's moves on tar sands and Kyoto.
  • Wikipedia webpage in use on a laptop computer is seen in this photo illustration taken in WashingtonThe Global Journal rates the top 100 best NGOs. The winner? The Wikimedia Foundation.
  • Pope Benedict XVI speaks with Canada's PM Harper during their meeting at the VaticanCanada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is about to establish an Office of Religious Freedom. The minister explains why.
  • Canada's Foreign Minister Baird speaks in the House of Commons in OttawaA Pacific nation? Not so, argue Derek Burney and Fen Hampson in their denunciation of yet another foreign policy review.
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Dispatch

The OpenCanada editors blog.

Earth from Space

The Global Village, Circa 2012

2011 marked the 50th anniversary of Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and Marshall McLuhan’s centennial. It was also the year in which the city eclipsed the state as the unit of international relations. Tahrir Square, Tunis, Hong Kong, Sau Paulo, Palo Alto – these were the loci of global change. Though one was an urbanist and the other a philosopher, Jacobs and McLuhan both predicted this shift. Jacobs’ urban writings and grassroots activism on behalf of the city are well documented, but McLuhan, too, took ...More
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Events

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Presidential Elections, TurkmenistanDate : February 12, 2012
World Day of Social JusticeDate : February 20, 2012