Stephen Saideman: In the Middle East, assigning blame is a political act — often a futile one
CBC, 15 January 2020
War itself generates dire unintended consequences - something all sides forget until their own people die.
Stephen Saideman: Why Trump's call for an expanded NATO presence in the Middle East will be a hard sell
CBC January 11
Defence analyst says allies aren't in a rush to start 'cleaning up Trump's messes'
Stéphane Roussel: Que faut-il surveiller sur la scène politique internationale en 2020?
Faut-il redouter un embrasement dans un Proche-Orient devenu au fil des ans et des conflits une véritable poudrière ?
Frank Desoer en discute avec Laura-Julie Perreault, éditorialiste à La Presse, Jocelyn Coulon, chercheur invité au Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches internationales de l’Université de Montréal et ancien conseiller politique auprès de l’ancien ministre des Affaires étrangères Stéphane Dion et Stéphane Roussel, directeur du Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur les relations internationales du Canada et du Québec (CIRRICQ. En outre, l’année 2020 sera marquée par de nombreux autres enjeux géopolitiques
Stéfanie von Hlatky: Canada and the Consequences
Tensions are escalating between the U.S. and Iran - but Canada has a role in neighboring Iraq, too. Prof. Stéfanie von Hlatky of Queen's University talks about about that, and more, with the CBC's Natasha Fatah.
Stephen Saideman on Afghanistan
What went wrong in Afghanistan? Our MPs don't seem to be in a hurry to find out
Knocking NATO: Strategic and institutional challenges risk the future of Europe’s seven-decade cold peace
A joint Policy Paper from The School of Public Policy and the Canadian Global Affairs Institute
by Anessa L. Kimball
Abstract
Despite providing European stability through collective defence and crisis management in an exclusive club, NATO faces persistent challenges from strategic insecurities complicated by recent institutional uncertainties. The club’s structure permits several goods-producing schemes, depending on how individual contributions combine, the qualities associated with a good’s publicness (i.e., its possible substitutes or how it excludes benefits from non-members) and partner differences in capacity and willingness. NATO faces challenges from Russia ranging from cybersecurity and media manipulation to overt and covert military pressures. Recent deployments sink costs and tie hands, reassuring commitment credibility, and are essential given the uncertainty generated from U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambiguous commitment to Article 5, compounded with the effects of Brexit on alliance politics and burden-sharing. Given the conjunction of strategic insecurities and institutional uncertainties, it is convenient to knock NATO, but rational institutionalist theory (RIT) is optimistic. RIT argues that the club’s design permits strategic adaptation to new contexts and insecurities, but partners must signal commitment credibly to prevent uncertainties about cohesion. RIT favoured enlargement to shift burdens, and data confirm that the Americans, British and Germans shifted burdens to others, including Canada. Moreover, any alternative to NATO is costly for less-endowed partners facing direct defence pressures. Canada’s role as a broker of compromise and its willingness to make its commitments credible places it in future missions, regardless. Canadian leadership in reassuring and socializing new partners in Operation Reassurance offers an opportunity to retain its objective and subjective position as a key partner.
