Dispatches
The Philippines’ tourism boom
A tropical wind breezes by as a Filipino banca boat cuts through the turquoise waters of Bacuit Bay, throwing sprays of water into the air as it veers towards the majestic limestone cliffs on the horizon. Under the clear blue sky, it almost feels as though infinity is near. Bacuit Archipelago features 45 islands, islets, […]
Africa’s healthier than ever
Africa’s current one billion or so residents are healthier than they have ever been, thanks to medical science, special attention to chronic disease remediation in several key countries and the efforts of several American philanthropic enterprises. Life expectancies are up and morbidity is mostly down, allowing Africans to work more productively, enjoy more leisure and […]
How China’s Belt and Road project affects global security
China’s Belt and Road Initiative has several purposes for the emerging superpower: To increase its access to global trade, international development and strategic investment, to up its diplomatic engagement, to isolate Taiwan by buying away the few international friends it has left and to build a constellation of military bases and presence around the world […]
CANZUK anyone?
Today’s pundits and scholars no longer speak of “liberal international order,” but rather of an increasingly fragmented world, built around a handful of centres of power, most of them decidedly illiberal. This has prompted some conservatives to call for greater co-operation and co-ordination among “the English-speaking peoples,” to use Winston Churchill’s mid-20th-Century phrase. In Britain, major […]
Africa inks its own trade deal
There is a second rush to Africa. This time, it is not the imperial rush that led to the partition of the continent in 1884 among Europe’s big powers. Instead, the second rush is for mutually beneficial partnerships with a continent now increasingly seen as the next frontier of global progress and prosperity. Africa’s economic […]
Where the world trades
Trade agreements have been a foreign policy goal for Canada and many other nations worldwide. Laura Neilson Bonikowsky looks at the 10 largest in terms of dollar value and population. It’s true that money — in the form of trade — makes the world go ’round. Trading between civilizations began about 5,000 years ago, increasing […]
Africa’s vanishing animals
Note: This is part two in a series of two. Africa’s animals are being driven towards extinction, largely because of Chinese-sponsored poaching, but also because of rising Indigenous human populations and their pressure on available grazing land. As we saw in my last column (“Killing Off Africa’s Iconic Animals, Summer, 2019) elephants and rhinoceroses are […]
Five foreign policy priorities
Diplomat magazine asked all five federal party leaders to provide us with their top five foreign policy priorities in advance of the October election. Note: The Liberals didn’t give us five priorities, choosing instead to send a few paragraphs. We’ve run them as we received them. ANDREW SCHEER Conservative Party of […]
Hong Kong nears an abyss
Distinguishing facts from propaganda during two months of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong is difficult, but important realities now appear clear. The government of China solemnly agreed to special status for Hong Kong in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. It promised a “high degree of autonomy,” and declared that democracy, the rule of law and […]
Iran’s tumultuous history
An earlier movement to establish democratic national governance in Iran was derailed in 1953 when a U.S.-backed coup toppled the elected Mosaddeq government in a dispute over an oil company’s nationalization. The ensuing monarchy of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, which became increasingly autocratic, was overthrown by a revolution in 1979 that was […]
Recent Comments