East vs. West?
It has become the conventional wisdom that the world’s economic centre of gravity is tilting towards the Orient, which is emerging as the dynamic centre of the new global economy of the 21st century. It stands to reason that if Canada is…
The Asia Pacific: Canada’s destiny in the new millennium?
bdp: What are the basic objectives of Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific (CYAP)?
Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising, and the Arab World
I have read this book three times; twice in the course of preparing this review and once, earlier, when the author was awarded the Gelber prize. Mr. Makiya addresses questions that were troubling for those of us that worked in the Arab…
Human Rights and Trade Relations: A Personal Commentary
The Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. The Canadian Ambassador to China at this time remembers how the crisis was managed and offers his own personal views on human rights and trade relations.
Cruel and Inhumane Treatment
A recent ruling of the United Nations Human Rights Commission has created a stir in Canada, comparable to recent Supreme Court decisions on capital punishment in the United States. The UN has ruled that the current procedures in External Affairs and International…
World Population Growth and Population Movements: Policy Implications for Canada
Major decisions are facing Canada’s policymakers on the two great “people” phenomena of our time: rapid world population growth and mass movements of population. A huge UN Conference on Population and Development, almost on the scale of the UN Conference on Environment…
Letters // Correspondance
The following letter to the SSEA was copied to the Editor:
The Ghosts Among Us
The Department of External Affairs has made laudable strides in recognizing the particular problems placed on spouses of Foreign Service staff serving abroad. To its credit, it has been gradually implementing solutions as a result of both legal requirements and administrative means.…
When the Music Stops!
A strike brings out a number of sensitive issues in addition to the major point over which it is called, and the public service strike last fall certainly revealed a dark side at this Department.
No Balm in Gilead: A Personal Retrospective of Mandate Days in Palestine
In early 1948, Sylva M. Gelber left the Palestine she had come to as a young woman sixteen years before. Her dream of participating in the building of the Jewish National Home had been shattered by the gunfire and bomb explosions of…
