Who are the #cdnfp Twitterati?

Last month, Foreign Policy magazine produced The FP Twitterati 100, a list of the 100 top foreign policy voices on Twitter. The list made a splash and got us thinking about a Canadian version.

Over the past year, Twitter has become a hub for international affairs discussion and debate in Canada. It has reinvigorated dialogue and helped to democratize a discourse too often limited to backrooms and ivory towers. It provides a place for conversation, as well as a unique window into the world of the reporters, writers, thinkers and doers who collectively make up Canada’s foreign affairs voice.

Drawing on Juliet O’Neill’s much broader Canadian foreign policy list, we identified individuals driving the foreign affairs discussion in Canada. The list below is a start, and we will continue to update, so please send us voices that you think are missing. Periodically check in on the “CIC Follows…” feature on the opencanada.org homepage to see how “The OpenCanada #cdnfp Twitterati” evolves.

Here’s to foreign policy in the 21st century!

The OpenCanada #cdnfp Twitterati

Journalists / Writers:

Matt Aikins (@mattaikins): Harper’s Magazine’s eyes and ears in Afghanistan. Aikins’s feed trends whenever something blows up in Kandahar (i.e. frequently).

Nahlah Ayed (@NahlahAyed): The CBC’s Middle East correspondent. Don’t expect retweets, but the most continuous flow of updates from that part of the world.

Lyse Doucet (@bbclysedoucet): Canadian-born presenter for BBC World News. Like Frum, her scope goes far beyond the 49th parallel, but she has mastered the tricks of the tweet.

Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah): A Muslim-Canadian voice whose tweets are major value-added to the Canadian foreign policy discussion.

David Frum (@davidfrum): May be more US-focused than the rest of our Twitterati, but as exceptional at tweeting as his mother was at talking.

Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein): Canada’s Twitter-century Émile Zola, the queen of the incendiary expertly keeps j’accuse to the character limit.

Kris Kotarski (@Kotarski): The Calgary Herald‘s traveling tweep, Kotarski stampedes through a broad range of issues, many social media related.

Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon): The Globe’s South Asia correspondent, MacKinnon is master of the retweet and a self-professed tweet wanderer.

André Pratte (@apratte): Poetic posts from the editor-in-chief of La Presse place Canadian federalism in the context of international integration and globalization.

Stephanie Nolen (@snolen): The Globe’s voice in South Asia, Nolen has mastered the art of conversing in 140-characters and is not afraid to trade in her press accolades for colloquialisms.

Susan Sachs (@susansachs): The Globe’s Afghanistan post, there are always exciting things happening around Sachs – and her feed is the best way to hear about them.

Doug Saunders (@DougSaunders): The Globe’s European bureau chief, Saunders specializes in frequent updates that blend the probing with the political (and, oftentimes, personal).

Graeme Smith (@smithjournalist): The Globe’s man in the Middle East, Smith compensates for irregularity of posting with robustness.

Mercedes Stephenson (@CTVMercedes): Canada’s Realist takes her security-focused view of the national interest to the microblog.

Sonia Verma (@soniaverma): The Globe’s Middle East correspondent, Verma curates a feed that offers key intel on who is making news in the region (and who will feature in forthcoming pieces).

Geoffrey York (@geoffreyyork): The Globe’s Africa correspondent, his is the feed to follow on Africa – and, by extension, Chinese economic interests.

Academics & Think Tankers

Chris Blattman (@cblatts): A Canadian based at Yale, Blattman’s feed is an essential read for anyone interested in developmental economics.

Stephanie Carvin (@StephanieCarvin): A Canadian professor at Royal Holloway, Carvin has found the perfect twitterhythm, balancing her own tweets with retweets, conversing with others, and posting frequently.

Jennifer Jeffs (@Jenjeffs): The Canadian International Council President’s feed expands beyond her Latin America focus, and never goes too íntimo.

Philippe Lagassé (@pmlagasse): A Canadian defence policy expert based at U of O, Lagassé puts conversation above curation, offering Canadians a portal into academic discourse about military affairs.

Emmett MacFarlane (@EmmMacfarlane) If Pierre Berton were reincarnated as a foreign policy expert in the Twitterscape, the Harvard Law (and soon to be UVic)-based MacFarlane would be he: prolific but on point.

John McArthur (@mcarthur): When he’s not tweeting to fundraise, Canadian CEO of Millennium Promise McArthur keeps his followers abreast of the latest developments in developmental economics.

Errol Mendes (@3mendous): A law prof at U of O, Mendes’s Twitter feed lives up to the professorial glasses in his avatar pic.

Taylor Owen (@taylor_owen): Fellow at the Liu Institute for Global Issues and the senior editor of our very own www.opencanada.org, Owen’s pulse beats #cdnfp.

Roland Paris (@rolandparis): The comprehensiveness and caliber of Paris’s feed matches that of his career; his conversations with top American academics push #cdnfp global.

Stephen Saideman (@smsaideman): An American based at McGill, Saideman @replys with vigour, and is actively engaged in the Canadian foreign policy discourse on Twitter.

Mark Sedra (@msedra): A CIGI expert on Afghanistan and security, Sedra adeptly annotates his reading list based feed.

NGOs

Scott Gilmore (@Scott_Gilmore): Attwicted, the head of Peace Dividend Trust miraculously manages to fill his feed with tinyurl’s you won’t want to miss.

Robert Greenhill (@RobertGreenhill): Former CIDA Prez and now director of World Economic Forum, best for a source during Forums; otherwise, too twanquil for our liking.

Kyle Matthews (@kylecmatthews): The man behind Roméo Dallaire’s Will to Intervene project, Matthews’s feed will make you want to ditch your TweetDeck and do something!

Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna): The co-founder of Canadian Lawyers Abroad, a “Tuesdays with Morrie” feel with a feminist, humanitarian intervention and legal bent.

Samantha Nutt (@SamanthaNutt): A portal into what it is like to be the founder of War Child North America but keep it

Ben Peterson (@jhrben): The Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights does #rightsmedia right.

George Roter (@geroter): The Engineers without Border’s Founder takes his architectural prowess to the tweet, balancing activism with information.

Diplomats (Current and Former)

John Baird (@JohnBairdOWN): Harper’s minister of foreign affairs has taken as quickly to tweeting as he did to the Libyan rebels.

Daryl Copeland (@GuerrillaDiplo): More first-person than third person, but a worthwhile tracker of the former diplomat’s (re)thinking of international relations.

Ben Rowswell (@benrowswell): Formerly Canada’s representative in Kandahar, this www.cloudtostreet.org founder is one of DFAIT’s sole tweeters, and is thinking through the intersection of cyberspace and diplomacy.

Gordon Smith (@GordonSmithG20) The former G-everything Sherpa and DFAIT DM has channeled his passion for social media into Twitter patronage.

Photo Courtesy Gage Skidmore