After deciding not to pursue a seat on the Security Council in the last round of elections, Canada has (quietly) declared its candidacy for a seat on the 15-member United Nations Security Council next time around.   Pursuing a seat on the Security Council is an important foreign policy decision for the Harper government, who balked (or chickened out) at the idea of competing for a seat in the last round of Council elections.  

Since the United Nations was founded in 1945, Canada...

Last week the President of Gabon died.   Omar Bongo had been Africa’s longest serving head of state, having been president of Gabon since 1967.   During his time as president, Mr. Bongo eliminated his political opponents either through co-option or crack-down.   For his dictatorial rule, Mr. Bongo was often referred to as a relic of Africa’s “strong-man” past.  

The death of Omar Bongo presents opportunities and challenges for Gabon.   Proponents of democracy argue that the president’s...

A few weeks ago I wrote about Canada’s approach to China, and the dilemma that exists between its business interests and human rights concerns in the country.   In this blog, I`m going to expand a little on those thoughts by discussing why engaging with China is so important for Canada.

From the interests at stake and the actors involved, it is clear that Canada’s China policy must account for both business and human rights interests.   As such, there is much continuity between a new...

An interesting comment on last week’s blog raised the question of timing when considering trying war crimes suspects in court.   This comment has had me thinking about the timing of another major event in post-conflict states: elections. 

Like the timing of war crimes trials, finding the right time to hold elections in post-conflict states is a question of considerable debate.   This is an issue that has been raised in a number of my graduate classes, and a question that my colleagues ...

It has been said that it is harder to get away with killing 1 man then it is to get away with killing 100,000 men. This was no more true than in the 20th Century when millions died at the hands of fanatics who were never brought to justice. However, in the past week, courts in Canada and Germany have taken steps to reverse this trend and bring war criminals to justice.

In Canada, the two-year trial of Desire Munyaneza, a former Rwandan shop owner, ended last week, with Mr. Munyaneza being ...

Stephen Harper has not visited China in the three-plus years that he has been Prime Minister of Canada.   Not merely an oversight, Harper’s absence from China has been deliberate and politically motivated.   Attempting to separate itself from previous Liberal governments that made economic relations with China a priority, the current Conservative government focuses more on China’s human rights record and less on diplomatic and economic relations.

Chinahas been angered by a number of...

Canadian politics was yesterday dominated by 3 political show trials.   In actuality, only one was a formal trial, but in reality, all 3 were equally superficial. 

In the first, Terry Kilrea, the key witness in the corruption trial of Ottawa mayor Larry O’Brien, faced his second day of questioning.   Larry O’Brien is accused of offering inducements to Kilrea, his chief opponent in the 2006 race for Mayor, to drop out of the race.

The second political exhibition of the day took place on ...

Has a ban against the Canadian seal hunt reached its tipping point?   Earlier this week, after many years of rhetoric and posturing, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban Canadian seal products.   The move follows increasingly negative press directed toward the seal hunt over the past number of years.  

Yet while protests against the Canadian seal hunt are nothing new, the kind of people involved in the protests are.   For long, this was a “cause” driven by...