Canada's hub for international affairs.

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The New Humanitarians
A weeklong series with the Globe and Mail profiling four big thinkers on the future of aid.
RTR1GEMU
Welcome to the 21st Century: The Corporatization of Aid
Growth won't always lead to development, argues Ian Smillie.
Young boy stands behind flag as he and his mother, supporters of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, wait for his arrival at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport
Iran: To Strangle or to Strike?
There are four uses for nukes. Simon Collard-Wexler wonders which one drives Ahmadinejad.
  • An opposition demonstrator throws a rock during rioting with pro-Mubarak supporters near Tahrir Square in Cairo Happy birthday Tahrir! Canadian correspondent for the BBC, Lyse Doucet, takes us back to the square.
  • Workers are seen at a construction site in Port-au-Prince CIDA is paying private contractors to build houses in Haiti. Dr. Samantha Nutt elaborates on her Globe op-ed.
  • Screen Shot 2012-01-22 at 11.13.31 PM Last year, Canada gave over $1.5 billion to poor countries - but which ones? The answers may surprise you.
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Roundtable

Paris, Welsh, Pratte, Chin and Hancock on international relations.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses the audience during a conference at the University of Havana

Stephen Harper’s Worrying Words on Iran

Is Prime Minister Stephen Harper preparing the Canadian public for a possible conflict with Iran? In two recent interviews (here and here), he has “raised the alarm” about the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran, which he views as the “world’s most serious threat to international peace.” Harper is right to be concerned about the possibility of Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons. Any proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is bad news, and there are few more odious regimes in the world than the one that has ruled Iran since the Islamic ...More
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The Think Tank

A thought lab for international affairs.

RTR1GEMU

Welcome to the 21st Century: The Corporatization of Aid

In the run-up to the first Republican primary in Iowa, Rick Santorum or Ron Paul or one of the other contenders said that the United States should cancel all foreign aid. “Why give money to them, when we have so many problems at home?” This recurrent argument, not at all restricted to Republican presidential hopefuls, appears whenever the economy is in a downturn, as though the industrialized world has learned nothing about how poverty in developing countries feeds pollution, disease, malignant ideas, and violence, ...More
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Readings

Opinion, reporting and research from around the world.

  • A sow covered city sign stands in front the congress center in DavosAt Davos, the region is king. Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer explains why the new economic order is a regional one - and why it won't solve climate change.
  • Ugandan officers serving with AMISOM 33rd Battalion walk on a hotel rooftop in the Yaaqshiid district of MogadishuSomalia is known for piracy and civil war. Are things about to change? It’s been 17 years, but the UN is back in Mogadishu.
  • An employee of natural cosmetics company is covered with molasses to protest against Canada's tar sands development during demonstration in ViennaAnti-Canadianism is becoming the new anti-Americanism: Slate's assessment of Canada's moves on tar sands and Kyoto.
  • Wikipedia webpage in use on a laptop computer is seen in this photo illustration taken in WashingtonThe Global Journal rates the top 100 best NGOs. The winner? The Wikimedia Foundation.
  • Pope Benedict XVI speaks with Canada's PM Harper during their meeting at the VaticanCanada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is about to establish an Office of Religious Freedom. The minister explains why.
  • Canada's Foreign Minister Baird speaks in the House of Commons in OttawaA Pacific nation? Not so, argue Derek Burney and Fen Hampson in their denunciation of yet another foreign policy review.
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Dispatch

The OpenCanada editors blog.

Earth from Space

The Global Village, Circa 2012

2011 marked the 50th anniversary of Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and Marshall McLuhan’s centennial. It was also the year in which the city eclipsed the state as the unit of international relations. Tahrir Square, Tunis, Hong Kong, Sau Paulo, Palo Alto – these were the loci of global change. Though one was an urbanist and the other a philosopher, Jacobs and McLuhan both predicted this shift. Jacobs’ urban writings and grassroots activism on behalf of the city are well documented, but McLuhan, too, took ...More
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Events

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Presidential Elections, TurkmenistanDate : February 12, 2012
World Day of Social JusticeDate : February 20, 2012