Posts tagged as:

Cold War

Heteropolarity, Security and Diplomacy: Not the Same Old, Same Old

January 16, 2012

Almost a decade ago, at an annnual conference of the International Studies Association, I heard my colleague James Der Derian from Brown University use the word heterpolar to describe the new world order. I had not come across the term before, and was uncertain as to its precise meaning. Still,  it struck me at the [...]

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The Retreat From Internationalism – Part II

November 29, 2011

In the last entry, I tried to illustrate how changes in domestic Canadian politics, in combination with the imposition of capacity reductions on the Department of Foreign Affairs, had contributed to a turn away from this country’s internationalist traditions. Today, I continue that line of inquiry with an exploration of the profound shifts in the [...]

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Defence Policy, International Security and the Military: Time to Talk

May 16, 2011

South of the border, there have in recent years been a growing number of voices expressing serious concern over the militarization of American life.
I certainly share that sentiment.
Is an F-16 fly over and trooping the colours  really appropriate for the opening of the Super Bowl?
The USA is apparently becoming the Praetorian pole in an increasingly  [...]

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Days of Future Past – Part I

March 31, 2011

Editor’s Note. A few days ago I received an email from one of my younger brothers. While cleaning out some old files, he came across a paper which I had sent along for comment back in the spring of 1993. It was entitled At the Crossroads and had been [...]

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Looking Forward, Looking Back: Cautionary Vignettes

January 17, 2011

The outset of a new year, and indeed, of a new decade, is as good a time as any to pause and reflect.  As far as I can determine, the roiling, whirling forces of globalization which have been dominant for at least twenty years continue to cut all ways.
Consider, for instance, this initial sampling:

Long-serving Tunisian [...]

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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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