Op-Eds Archive
Asia-Pacific on a knife’s edge — what Canada should do
"Unlike the former Soviet Union, China is far too important an economic player in the global economy, including the public finances of the United States, to be contained or treated as an enemy," write CIGI Distinguished Fellow Fen Osler Hampson and Derek Burney, commenting on the intersection between Canada's economic and security policy toward the Asia-Pacific region.
For Egypt, the fiscal cliff is a real and present danger
"To say that Egypt’s economy is suffocating under the weight of a looming fiscal and political crisis is an understatement," argues CIGI Senior Fellow Bessma Momani. "Egypt is on the verge of a real fiscal cliff; if it goes over, the transition from authoritarianism to democracy will be fatally undermined."
It’s not just the drought treaty. Canada is vanishing from the United Nations
Commenting on the Canadian government's decision to withdraw from the United Nations Convention on Desertification, CIGI Distinguished Fellow Paul Heinbecker says "it is a major mistake to simply write off the institutions our parents and grandparents created, as if the current or next generation would have the wit, wisdom and will to do better."
So long, CIDA: Bringing aid to centre stage at DFAIT
"By becoming an integral part of DFAIT, and with at least one senior minister to call on, development assistance has a chance of being more relevant and more effective," according to CIGI Distinguished Fellow Fen Osler Hampson and Derek Burney.
The Tar Sands Disaster
"If President Obama blocks the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all, he’ll do Canada a favor," writes CIGI Chair of Global Systems Thomas Homer-Dixon.
Bringing Canada’s air travel fees down to earth
"To make air travel from Canada more affordable and more competitive, taxes and fees need to be reduced. That would help curtail the leakage, generate more traffic for Canadian carriers and make more money for Canadian airports and related businesses," say CIGI Distinguished Fellow Fen Osler Hampson and Derek Burney.
Can a breakaway movement reclaim Mandela’s legacy?
"Most observers inside and outside the ANC concede that its leadership of South Africa since Mr. Mandela’s presidency has been woefully inept and wildly corrupt. But can a well-respected physician, academic and businesswoman overcome the ANC’s historic and popular claims on voters?" writes Robert Rotberg, Visiting Fulbright Scholar at CIGI.
The search for post-2015 successors to the Millennium Development Goals
"The new agenda of 'One-World Goals' should be applicable to all — both developing and developed economies, as well as the emerging economies that have succeeded in bringing the majority of their population out of extreme poverty since 2000," writes CIGI Senior Fellow Barry Carin, outlining his project's proposed goals to replace the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.
Maritime Security and the Canada-China Relationship
"Maritime security has been a pillar of regional engagement strategies employed by China, Japan, and the United States," says CIGI Research Fellow James Manicom. "If Canada is indeed to be perceived as an honest broker and one that is independent of the United States – a necessary condition for Chinese engagement in the 21st century – it will need to engage multiple countries in the region."
The Most Important Lesson: Why the human cost of the Iraq War outweighs all others
The continuing debates over what Iraq has taught us – is intervention ever the right policy? Can the perils of “nation-building” ever be overcome? What does an effective counter-insurgency strategy involve? – are important, but their value is diminished when they forget what drives them: the human cost of the war, writes CIGI Senior Fellow Bessma Momani.
China’s Embrace of Africa
"If Africa is to prosper and her peoples to enter the global village, China’s sustained avarice for Africa’s resources will provide the means. If China falters, Africa loses," says Robert Rotberg. "But relations between China and Africa could also become even more mutually beneficial than they now are if China created jobs as well as royalty payments to countries and rulers, and if China supported rather than competed with embryonic African commercial entities."
Jean Chretien and the golden age that never was
"The claim that Canada is losing its place in the world is an old one," according to CIGI Distinguished Fellow Fen Osler Hampson and Derek Burney. "Foreign policy is more about doing than saying. Those who did little should say even less."