Back to the Past? Canada and a Not-So-New World

Keynote address to the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS), Montréal, 14 November 2019 Let me begin by thanking Chris Kirkey and the Centre for the Study of Canada at the State University of New York, Plattsburgh, the sponsors of this ACSUS lunch, for asking me to speak to you today on Canada … More Back to the Past? Canada and a Not-So-New World

The Organic Nature of Trudeau’s Feminist Foreign Policy

When Justin Trudeau and his ministry was sworn in on 4 November 2015, considerable attention was paid to the gender equality of his first cabinet: fifteen men and fifteen women, the first gender-equal cabinet in Canada’s history. Trudeau’s pithy response when asked why he had taken this step — “because it’s 2015” — drew equal … More The Organic Nature of Trudeau’s Feminist Foreign Policy

Playing the Hostage Card: Meng Wanzhou & Michael Kovrig

On 1 December, as President Donald J. Trump and President Xi Jinping were meeting in Buenos Aires to discuss a mounting trade dispute between the United States and China, Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, deputy chairwoman and chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. of Shenzen, was on her way from Hong Kong to Mexico City. … More Playing the Hostage Card: Meng Wanzhou & Michael Kovrig

The Trump Cession and the Dismantling of American Hegemony

President Donald J. Trump has radically disrupted America’s place and role in global politics, accurately fulfilling the compelling characterization by The Economist of the 45th president as an “insurgent” inspired by a “demolition theory of foreign policy.” Some of the disruption has come from Trump’s bizarre and never-before-seen personal diplomacy. After all, we just don’t … More The Trump Cession and the Dismantling of American Hegemony

Canada and the “War without End” in Afghanistan

On August 21, President Donald J. Trump did something unusual: he reversed himself. For years he was of the view, as he put it in a tweet in November 2013, that “we have wasted an enormous amount of blood and treasure in Afghanistan…Let’s get out!” But this summer, he decided not only to keep the … More Canada and the “War without End” in Afghanistan