Turtle Patrol in Trinidad
At first we did not see anything. Then our point man, outlined in gray, slowly sank to his knees and signaled for us to do the same. Some dozen of us, about ten meters behind on a wet beach in northern Trinidad,…
La Pérestroïka : « une affaire canadienne »
C’est ainsi qu’Alexandre Nicholaevitch Iakovlev caractérisait le grand mouvement de révolution tranquille qui a balayé l’Europe de l’Est et l’URSS à la fin des années 80. En effet celui qu’on appelle souvent le « père de la Pérestroïka » s’est trouvé sur…
A Slow Waltz with Madame Gromyko
The music stopped. I was to dance with the woman before me. We fumbled for a moment. One of us would have to be the man! To the strain of sweet violins, I swept her into my arms for a slow waltz.…
Stockholm Remembered
In the past two decades the word “environment” has acquired many meanings and all of the human, political, economic, financial, social and scientific attributes of a challenging public issue. It comprises, for example, the preservation of the biosphere, the conservation of the…
Alone in North America
“When Canada is gone, the world will mourn,” said an eminent Canadian citizen at the Conference on Canadian Foreign Policy in Toronto last winter: His words were repeated by other speakers and aptly reflected the somber, quietly despairing mood of the Conference,…
Through the Korean Looking-Glass
“We may be the first Canadian officials to visit Pyongyang since the Korean War,” said my enthusiastic companion, Gordon Houlden, who had just managed to manoeuvre himself to be the first off the plane so as not to be deprived of his…
The Old Street Singer
In the heart of the stinking slum there is a small oasis of hope. Behind the mottled stucco and ragged geraniums, on a small crowded veranda, a group of society’s rejects sit happily in the tropical winter. The sunshine filters through the…
Life after the Foreign Service
Life after the Foreign Service is good — in fact marvellous.
Lester Pearson and the UN Secretary Generalship, 1953
The inclusion of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s name on the official list of candidates to succeed former United Nations Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar during last fall’s Security Council deliberations was not the first time that a Canadian had been formally…
Cultural Diplomacy: A Question of Government Policy
On March 17 last, I gave a lecture at the University of Victoria to the students of a course on cultural policy on the theory and practice of cultural diplomacy, or, as it is more generally called, international cultural relations. The main…
