National Newswatch

The NATO Vilnius Takeaway: Managing the Perils of a Small World

Jul 13 2023 — Colin Robertson — Alliances are hard things to keep together, especially when they work on the consensus principle. Four years ago, President Emmanuel Macron accused the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of being “brain dead”. Then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Suddenly, the Alliance, first set up in 1949 “to keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, […]

Mr. Biden Came to Canada: Takeaways from the Visit

Mar 30 2023 — Colin Robertson — As presidential visits go, the nearly 30 hours that Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden spent in Ottawa last week was as good as it gets. And while the optics were so exuberant and the mood so jubilant that it may actually go down in history as the “Fun Summit”, the substantive takeaways attest to […]

Mr. Biden Comes to Canada

Mar 19 2023 — Colin Robertson — Meetings with an American presidents on Canadian turf present rare opportunities for Canadian prime ministers. The overnight visit this Thursday and Friday, March 23-24 — especially the face-to-face time that Justin Trudeau will have with Joe Biden — must be used as effectively as possible. Success means differentiating between the transactional and the important. Discussion […]

The Three Amigos Takeaway: What Got Done in Mexico City

Jan 12 2023 — Colin Robertson — The “North American idea” — closer collaboration for continental common good — got a boost this week when Canada’s Justin Trudeau, Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO as he is popularly known, and the US’s Joe Biden met for another North American Leaders summit (NALS) in Mexico City. Going forward, the challenge, as with […]

The Defining Moment of Ukraine—Values versus Interests, Democracy versus Autocracy

Sep 20 2022 — Colin Robertson — The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks the end of the post-Cold War period. Coming on the heels of the pandemic and the pressing urgency for action on climate change, inequalities within and between nations are exacerbated and key multilateral institutions like the UN Security Council and World Health Organization have proved inadequate to the challenges. […]

Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and the Taiwan Strait

May 31 2022 — Colin Robertson — The current Taiwan Strait deliberations of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (FAAE) could not be more timely, especially as they relate to Taiwan, China and the South China sea. The government should pay heed to the committee’s deliberations and integrate them into its long-promised, long-overdue, Indo-Pacific strategy. This […]

A Cold War Turns Hot: What Needs to Happen Now?

Apr 10 2022 — Colin Robertson — The global cold war between autocracy and democracy has suddenly turned hot. Unless we stop him, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will be the first in a series of such hot wars. Canada and its fellow democracies must now quickly deliver to Ukraine the weapons that can prevent that cascade. As many, including President Joe […]

American Democracy is Stronger Than its Enemies

Jan 4 2022 — Colin Robertson — So, is democracy in America done? About to be served out like Thanksgiving turkey? Much of the slew of commentary around the anniversary of the January 6th storming of the US Capitol takes as its theme, not without elements of smugness and schadenfreude, that the United States is spiraling downwards. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, […]

The Three Amigos: Getting North America in Gear Again

Nov 14 2021 — Colin Robertson — The North American idea gets a revival this Thursday in Washington when President Joe Biden hosts Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador for the first “Three Amigos” summit in five years. According to the White House, their meeting “will reaffirm their strong ties and integration while also charting a new path for […]

The G7 Cornwall: Back to Normal, with Key Upgrades

Jun 7 2021 — Colin Robertson — This coming weekend, the leaders of the advanced economies and leading democracies will meet at the Carbis Bay Hotel in a tiny Cornish seaside village in Britain’s most southerly county. While the agenda has evolved annually since its creation in 1975 (Canada joined in 1976) in the wake of the oil shock crisis, the G7 […]

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