Analysis

NAFTA is the Wrong Venue to Govern Digital Trade
- September 14, 2017
By Susan Ariel Aaronson and Patrick Leblond Diplomats from Canada, Mexico, and the United States are thinking about the website where you met your soulmate, and the cloud service where you store your photos. In an increasingly digital economy, policy makers are regulating cross-border information flows more than ever, and North American free-trade agreement talks are no

By Patrick Leblond
China, Economy, International Trade, Technology
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Canada Needs a Wait-and-See Approach on Afghanistan
- September 1, 2017
By Lindsay Rodman Will US President Donald Trump’s new plan for Afghanistan pull Canada back into a war that many deem a “lost cause”? Mr. Trump explicitly invited other nations to contribute in support of his new plan. Although Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated clearly that there are no plans to reintroduce Canadian troops into

By CIPS
Canadian Foreign Policy, International Security, USA
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Crowded Out by “Big Man” Politics, Kenyan Women Still Struggle in 2017 Elections
- August 21, 2017
by Gabrielle Bardall, PhD, CIPS Research Associate For all its progressive constitution, high-tech society, and exceptionally resourced Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Kenya is the worst performer in the East African Community (EAC) regarding women in parliament. These failures have been attributed to a lack of political will to enforce laws designed to bolster

By Gabrielle Bardall
Africa, Democracy, Gender
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The US Has Much to Gain in Embracing Freeland’s Free-Trade Approach
- August 16, 2017
On 14 August, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland outlined Canada’s objectives for renegotiating the North American free-trade agreement in view of the negotiations that began on 16 August. Freeland was optimistic about the real possibility of modernizing NAFTA in a way that would not only improve trade and investment flows across the North American continent

By Patrick Leblond
Canadian Foreign Policy, International Trade, USA
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China’s Republican Flag: A Conundrum for Canada–Taiwan Relations
- July 30, 2017
China’s Republican flag — the French-inspired tricolore representing nationalism, democracy, and peoples’ livelihood in Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of the People — was the national flag of all of China from 1928 until the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. After 1949, Cold War politics kept both flags flying internationally. Since

By Scott Simon
Asia, Canadian Foreign Policy, Democracy
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Why NAFTA’s Chapter 19 is Worth Fighting For
- July 29, 2017
Canada has reportedly drawn a “red line” over Chapter 19 as the US calls for NAFTA renegotiations. That’s a good thing. Even before the negotiations to revise and modernize NAFTA begin on 16 August, a red line has been drawn in the sand between Canada and the United States: Chapter 19, on the “Review and

By Patrick Leblond
Economy, International Trade, USA
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US Demands Won’t Lead to the NAFTA of Our Nightmares
- July 22, 2017
On July 17, the United States Trade Representative Office published the Trump administration’s detailed objectives for renegotiating the North American free-trade agreement. Contrary to President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about NAFTA in the past, the objectives document’s overall tone is very much in line with a much-needed modernization of NAFTA. Notwithstanding some protectionist objectives and measures

By Patrick Leblond
Economy, International Trade, USA
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A New G-20 for a Leaderless World
- July 14, 2017
The US retreat from leadership of liberal multilateralism could open a policy space for new members within a reformed G-20. The 2017 G-20 summit, normally dull and technical, emerges as a key transition point in global power relations. G-20 participants were wary after a painful confrontation at the May G-7 meeting. The Six had

By John Sinclair
Canadian Foreign Policy, Europe, Russia, USA
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The Case of Omar Khadr
- July 13, 2017
The Omar Khadr case is again front-page news following the settlement of his longstanding lawsuit against the Canadian government. The news has elicited a wide range of comments from the usual suspects. I was among a small group in Foreign Affairs Canada who dealt with the Khadr case from 2002, when he was captured at

By Daniel Livermore
Defence and Intelligence, Human Rights, International Law, International Security
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CETA after Opinion 2/15: Legal Clarity or Confusion?
- July 13, 2017
By Jens Ladefoged Mortensen Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen The EU’s trading partners must wonder what goes on inside Europe. What does it take to get a trade deal done? True, trade negotiations are notoriously complex. The CETA agreement took over seven years to negotiate. The controversial investment chapter was unilaterally revised by

By CIPS
Europe, International Trade
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After Abdication
- July 9, 2017
By Peter Marcus Kristensen University of Copenhagen American observers of international affairs are currently enmeshed in a debate on the uncertain future of the “US-led liberal international order.” This is, of course, spurred by the election of President Trump and his nationalist and isolationist “America First” strategy. Trump’s wavering approach to alliance commitments, skepticism towards

By CIPS
China, USA
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NATO: A Liberal Alliance in an Increasingly Illiberal World?
- July 9, 2017
By Alexandra Gheciu Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa In recent weeks, we have witnessed a number of developments designed to signal NATO’s persistent — arguably reinvigorated — role as the key security institution of the transatlantic community of liberal democracies. For instance, on 29 June NATO Defence Ministers met to

By Alexandra Gheciu
International Security, Russia, USA
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