Archive for April, 2013
Tunisia’s bold gamble on democracy: ‘One day or another, we will win’
In December 2010, the Arab Spring erupted through the impervious soil of authoritarian rule in the Middle East. The Arab awakening drove dictatorial and nepotistic rulers from power, first in Tunisia and then Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Popular protests swept the region — Syria, Algeria, Morocco, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, and Sudan, with smaller demonstrations […]
Abenomics: Revitalizating Japan’s economy
Following last December’s general election in Japan, a coalition government was formed by the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito Party. LDP leader Shinzo Abe was elected as Japan’s prime minister to lead the coalition government. In his policy speech at the Diet (Japan’s national legislature) Jan. 28, 2013, he identified three major tasks […]
Helping Afghan women find their place in civil society
She was a small woman in an exquisitely embroidered Afghan jacket — but her message was powerful. When physician and activist Sima Samar came to Ottawa in 2010 to speak at the annual general meeting of the Canadian Federation of University Women, she made a lasting impression. The chairwoman of the Afghan Independent Humans Rights […]
Celebrating an epic journey, 400 years later
If you know more about Samuel de Champlain come September, you can thank the French Embassy. The embassy has been a key player in developing programs commemorating the 400th anniversary of the journey French explorer Samuel de Champlain undertook up the Ottawa River. The embassy wanted to breathe new life into this moment in history […]
Kyoto: ‘The silliest of high-minded gestures’
December 15, 2012 marked the end of what has been a less-than-stellar chapter in Canadian diplomatic history. No, I am not referring to the fact that Canada has pulled out of one of the silliest of the many high-minded gestures that increasingly characterize United Nations diplomacy. Rather, I am taking some satisfaction in Canada’s decision […]
China, the awakened giant
“China? There lies a sleeping giant. Let him sleep! For when he wakes he will move the world.” Although Napoleon Bonaparte made his prophecy about the eventual rise of China two centuries ago, it turns out he intuitively understood that one day China would, in fact, become a major force to be reckoned with on […]
It’s fear that causes war. Ask Thucydides
By Fen Osler Hampson and Len Edwards It is now a matter of official government policy that Canada sees itself as a nation of the Asia-Pacific in what many are now calling “the Pacific century”— a century that will be increasingly dominated by China and many of the emerging economies of the Asia-Pacific region such […]
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