iPolitics
No sign of grand strategy in the government’s uninspired global blueprint.
Month: November 2012
Coming up short: No sign of a grand strategy in Canada’s “secret” foreign policy plan
The leak of a draft Canadian foreign policy plan, first reported nationally on 19 November, was treated breathlessly by the media and hyped as a major story.
By way of contrast, the event has generated something of a yawn from members of the commentariat.
Insofar as that lacklustre response reflects what we know of the apparently insipid content of the paper, it is unsurprising. The need to embrace trade and economic opportunities in emerging markets, while continuing with efforts to advance Canadian interests in the USA, is hardly the stuff of revelation.
So, too with the requirement to manage carefully the pursuit of Canadian objectives in countries where fundamental values may not align.
Still, the appearance of this document, the status of which remains uncertain, is not completely without significance. The absence of consultations during its preparation suggests serious problems of governance, not least an over-reliance on secrecy and control. Moreover, the issues that are not covered in the plan may be more significant than those that are.
Canada needs to remember Afghanistan
Globe and Mail
With Remembrance Day approaching, Canadians should reflect on their country’s role in this continuing conflict.
Canada in Afghanistan: The Need to Remember, and Lessons Unlearned
Editor’s note: A version of this article appears in today’s Globe and Mail.
Remembrance Day is approaching.
Despite some 160 dead, several thousand wounded, and perhaps tens of thousands afflicted with continuing psychological disorders, the extent to which Canada’s long and costly engagement in Afghanistan has faded from the public mind is striking.
Major questions, ranging from the handling of detainees to the decision to pursue aggressive counterinsurgency warfare in Kandahar, remain unanswered.
Yet there is no appetite, particularly at the political level, for a searching retrospective.
Absent a full public enquiry into Canadian involvement, it may be that the most that can be salvaged from over a decade of war will be the possibility of avoiding similar mistakes in the future.
Could a virtual community help save the planet?
iPolitics
Using new media to bridge the performance gap in international science and technology.
Could a Virtual Community Help Save the Planet? Using New Media to Bridge the Performance Gap in International Science and Technology
It is hardly news that the world is beset by a bewildering array of complex and difficult challenges, ranging from how best to manage the global commons, to diminishing biodiversity, to resource scarcity. Most of these pressing issues have a major scientific and technological (S&T) component, both in terms of generating the problems and in the search for solutions.
In the age of globalization, S&T cuts all ways. That much is clear. Yet at a time when humanity’s needs have never been greater, our collective capacity to innovate, to organize and to cooperate internationally in response seems grossly inadequate. Whether the subject is climate change, weapons of mass destruction, pandemic disease or ecosystems collapse, across a wide spectrum of unaddressed threats we seem to be approaching a tipping point beyond which recovery may be impossible.
Not least because the risks of failure are catastrophic, the arguments favouring efforts to improve performance are compelling.
But that’s an inconvenient truth, and neither governments nor markets are listening.