July 28, 2020, WEBINAR – Canadian Foreign Policy: Time For A Re-Set?

July 28, 2020 – 1:00-2:00 p.m. (EDT, GMT-4)

Online Registration

Tickets:
$10.00 – Suggested
or Free 

Outline

On June 17, Canada lost its bid for a seat on the UN Security Council, the second time in a decade that it has tried and failed to do so. This event has stoked debate about Canada’s standing in the UN, and much self-searching about the role Canada plays (or should play) on the world stage. The world of 2020 is fundamentally different from the postwar world of 1950 when the foundations of Canada’s foreign policy were laid. Lamentably, the threat of nuclear annihilation remains. But the climate crisis poses an additional existential threat to the planet. And Canada is no longer the leading peacekeeper and aid donor that it once was. The Canadian foreign service is understaffed and under-resourced to meet the challenges of today. All that being so, a review of Canada’s foreign policy is overdue. This webinar will take stock of emerging global and national realities, along with Canada’s international aspirations and capabilities, in thinking about the shape of foreign policy in the decades ahead. Just as important, perhaps, it will consider how a sweeping review of our foreign policy should be structured, to make it open and inclusive, and not simply a dialogue among foreign policy experts.

Moderator

Margaret Huber

Community leader, former diplomat, mentor. Director (and past president) of the Canadian International Council’s National Capital Branch and Harvard Club of Ottawa. Advisory Board member of Samara Centre for Democracy and of Pharos Global Health Advisors. Former Ambassador in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. During extensive diplomatic career, worked closely with international organizations including the United Nations, the European Union, the International Olympic Committee, the Asian Development Bank and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Strong believer in life-long learning (graduate McGill University, uOttawa, Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program, Institute of Corporate Directors. Fellow of Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative).

Speakers

Peggy Mason, President of the Rideau Institute on International Affairs

A former Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament to the UN (1989-1995), and an expert in the political/diplomatic aspects of UN peace operations training (1995-2014), Peggy Mason is now the President of the Rideau Institute, an independent, non-profit think tank focusing on policy research and advocacy in foreign, defence and national security policy. She is active in many NGO’s including the Canadian Pugwash Group (Vice-Chair), Group of 78 (Past Chair), World Federalist Movement – Canada (past Board member), and the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Advisory Board member). A graduate of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Common Law, she was inducted into its Honour Society in 2003. For her work on nuclear disarmament she received the 2016 Leadership Award from Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

Daryl Copeland

Daryl Copeland, Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, Senior Advisor for Science Diplomacy at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Vienna), and Fellow at the University of Montreal’s Centre for International Studies and Research (CERIUM) is an analyst, author, educator and consultant specializing in the relationship between science, technology, diplomacy, and international policy. His book, Guerrilla Diplomacy: Rethinking International Relations, was released in 2009 by Lynne Rienner Publishers and is cited as an essential reference by the editors of Oxford Bibliographies Online. He has also published 13 book chapters and over 200 articles in the scholarly and popular press, is a member of the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal’s International Advisory Board, and an Editorial Board member of the publication Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. From 1981 to 2011 Mr. Copeland served as a Canadian diplomat with postings in Thailand, Ethiopia, New Zealand and Malaysia.

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