Posts tagged as:

armed force

Libya: Lingering Doubts

October 29, 2011

From the outset of the Libyan episode, there have been ample grounds for reservation. Both the manner in which events have unfolded, and also the longer-term implications, are troubling.
Objections to the lack of public debate, to NATO’s tendency to reach for the gun before exhausting all alternatives to the use of armed force, to [...]

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Canada and the world post-9/11: What has been learned?

September 10, 2011

Looking back over decade since 9/11, what events and developments stand out globally? Among others:

The ongoing Global War on Terror and associated Western military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The hollowing out of the middle class, the financial crisis and the continuing Great Recession.

The lost opportunities to support non-violent political reform during the Arab Spring.

9/11 changed [...]

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Libya and the World after Gadhafi: Preliminary Thoughts

August 31, 2011

It is perhaps premature to propose potential conclusions and lessons learned in the immediate wake of the rebel victory over the Gadhafi regime. On the surface, it appears that NATO support for the rebellion assisted materially in achieving the objective of ridding Libya of a widely detested dictator.
In terms of success, this would seem to [...]

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Science Diplomacy: New Day or False Dawn?

June 15, 2011

A few weeks ago in Oslo, Norway, in the company of about 40 other invitees from around the world, I attended an OECD “experts” meeting, sponsored by the Norwegian and German Ministries of Education and Research, on the subject of Science, Technology, Innovation and Global Challenges.
The workshop was predicated upon the shared realization that if  [...]

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Five Potential Pitfalls of Western Military Intervention in Libya

March 22, 2011

In a posting penned a couple of weeks ago, I expressed serious reservations  over the growing prospect of a Western military intervention in Libya. A political and diplomatic resolution would have been far preferable.  It remains a mystery in Western capitals how the unenthusiastic consideration of a no-fly-zone somehow morphed, with minimal public or political [...]

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Diplomatic Surge? Part II – The things we carry

February 22, 2009

I would attribute the running down of diplomacy in recent years to a trio of developments related to the carry-over from the Cold War of certain habits of mind, or intellectual baggage, which have been hoisted into the globalization age from the preceding era. In a nutshell, in the face of the complex threats and [...]

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Diplomatic Surge? Part I – From buzz to becoming

February 13, 2009

These should be heady days for diplomats. After a long stretch languishing in relative obscurity, the willingness to explore diplomatic alternatives to the use of armed force in the pursuit of international policy objectives has become suddenly, well, fashionable.
The arrival of the Obama administration, and especially Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President [...]

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