Middle Power at Mid-Century
In the early 1950s, deputy under-secretary of state for external affairs, Escott Reid, inspired and led an ambitious project to produce a series of thematic papers “to focus and clarify our longer-range thinking on the objectives and the application of Canadian foreign…
Cold War Capers: or, The Pest from Budapest
Way back in the 1970s the Department’s Ottawa duty officer normally stayed at home and fielded calls forwarded by the Commissionaires at Fort Pearson. It was my great pleasure to have been volunteered as duty officer for the August bank holiday long…
The Power of Deterrence
In 2015, the world will be marking a notable anniversary, but one likely to be largely ignored
Cold Warrior
Note de la rédaction : « Tian Bei » ou « trésor céleste », tel était le nom honorifique chinois donné à Arthur Menzies, enfant de missionnaires canadiens en Chine qui devait devenir une sorte de missionnaire de la Chine au Canada.…
Whose Man in Havana? Adventures from the Far Side of Diplomacy
At the suggestion of bout, I have selected excerpts from three chapters in my book of memoirs Whose Man in Havana: Adventures from the Far Side of Diplomacy to be published by Penumbra Press in 2013. The book ranges through Latin America,…
Robert Parke Cameron
Born in Montreal, October 15, 1920, died in Ottawa, Ontario March 12, 2012, aged 91.
John Starnes: Portrait of a Very Canadian Diplomat
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Looking Back on the Cold War
I look back from time to time on my working life and ask myself what it was all about. I was in the foreign service for 40 years from 1953-93. Much of what I did in those years had something to do…
Getting the Message Out
f Canada’s Foreign Service Officers were to be described as the heart L. the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, then the Communicators, who kept the various elements linked, must surely be seen as the arteries which ensured safe and secure…
A Funny Thing Happened…
Recently I have been involved in what I am sure is a retiree passage, the attempt to winnow through the paraphernalia that accumulates over a career. This may be more difficult for former Foreign Service Officers because there is often some element…
