Enter the Annotator
With the implementation of Tactical Review /!, HQ has gone beyond a traditional focus on financial restraint and personnel reduction, to a new focus on policy conformity through interactive commentary applied by central agencies on all written materials. With some reluctance, bout…
The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 / The Secret History of MI6: 1909–1949 / GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain’s Most Secret Intelligence Agency
Three exceptional books were published in the past year on British intelligence. Logging in at 600 to 1,000 pages each, these are not for the faint of heart. However, they are a must-read for those who want to understand the world of…
African Chronicles – A Memoir
In the 1960s the Honourable and Reverend Walter McLean was the first field director and senior advisor for CUSO in West Africa, minister of the Presbyterian Church, chaplain to the University of Nigeria, and a peace envoy between the government of Eastern…
The Ambassador’s Camel: Undiplomatic Tales of Embassy Life
satie entree The Ambassador’s si Camel: Undiplomatic Tales of Embassy Life, a new book by David Holdsworth, tells a lot about life in the Foreign Service through the deft use of humour. In time, it may well enter the canon of formative…
PAFSO Awards – Celebrating Excellence // Les Prix de l’APASE – Reconnaissance de l’excellence
On Thursday, June 9, 2011, 280 colleagues and guests gathered to celebrate excellence in the Canadian Foreign Service at the PAFSO Dinner and Awards presentations held in the Panorama Room of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The Pipe Major of the…
Bill Warden
The aged Warden VW camper was full of kids and assorted pets when it was overtaken by a police cruiser. Bill stopped, opened his window and the policeman said “Did you know that you were travelling at 100 km per hour in…
Robert Elliott
Born at Vibank in southern Saskatchewan on August 4, 1928, Robert took his secondary schooling in Regina and his B.A. in political science and history at the University of Saskatchewan in 1949. Sponsored by two of his university teachers, he attended a…
David Reece
Born in Winnipeg on Saint Valentine’s Day, 1926, of a Welsh father and an English mother, David took his secondary schooling at Ravenscourt and began his university education in 1943 at the University of Manitoba. In May 1944 he joined the Canadian…
Diplomacy: It’s Not Rocket Science
Or so we are often told. And those who so tell us have a point, but not the one they believe they are making.
Why Diplomacy is Changing: Susan Johnson Examines our Tradecraft
bout de papier took the opportunity to chat with the American Foreign Service Association’s President, Susan R. Johnson, on a recent visit to Ottawa. She spoke to audiences ranging from the Canadian International Council to PAFSO members, interspersed with liaison at Ottawa’s…
