Author John Siebert Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 2 Summer 2014 April 1 marked the end of Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan. It was Canada’s longest and costliest expeditionary war since Korea in the 1950s. It failed. And that failure has been evident since 2006. Far too much faith was placed in military options to defeat the Taliban and …
Why we failed Afghanistan
In Kitchener at “The Word on the Street” event September 21, Graeme Smith spoke about his new book, The Dogs Are Eating Them Now. Smith is a local lad from New Hamburg who broke the 2007 story about Canadian complicity in detainee torture in Afghanistan. His book’s dustcover notes that “Smith devoted more time to southern Afghanistan than any other …
Burney and Hampson on Canada and Afghanistan
No, the title isn’t wrong. Former Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Derek Burney and well regarded Carleton international affairs professor Fen Osler Hampson currently are in the news1 for their provocative article in Foreign Affairs, “How Obama lost Canada.”2 The gist of the article is that Canada’s relationship with the U.S. is deteriorating. Among the long list of examples and …
Familiar Opening Scenes: Libya is rid of Gadhafi, but will Canadian Forces soon be bogged down in another Afghanistan?
Author John Siebert The Ploughshares Monitor Autumn 2011 Volume 32 Issue 3 It may be churlish to begrudge Prime Minister Harper some self-congratulatory hyperbole for the Canadian military’s contribution to the civil war in Libya. On August 21, the rebel forces, supported by NATO airstrikes since March, swept the capital of Tripoli. Moammar Gadhafi and his regime were no longer …
What does success look like?
It’s a good question, and I have plenty of answers for it, but they never flow from my tongue as easily as I want them to. How do you know when you are successful? When one of your primary goals is to advance policies and actions that support a more peaceful world, it can be hard to know when you’ve …
Since We Can’t Beat the Taliban, Focus on Reconciliation
Author Ernie Regehr Published by The Globe and Mail online If Canada’s newly announced post-2011 military mission in Afghanistan is to amount to more than training Afghan forces for perpetual war, it needs to be accompanied by a parallel diplomatic surge in pursuit of a political settlement of the conflict. The Harper government’s continuing commitment to regional diplomacy is a …
Diplomacy and Reconciliation in Afghanistan
Authors John Siebert and Mike Hogeterp Speaking Notes Presentation to the House of Commons Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan by Mike Hogeterp and John Siebert for The Canadian Council of Churches 3:30pm – 5:30pm, November 17, 2010 Mr. Chair and Committee members: Thank you for the invitation to meet with you today. The brief before you, entitled, …
Finally, We’re All Talking about Talking to the Taliban
Author Ernie Regehr Published by Embassy, an Ottawa-based foreign policy weekly “I told you so” is an unbecoming political posture, but NDP Leader Jack Layton could certainly be forgiven such thoughts when the subject turns to negotiating with the Taliban. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government once thought it clever to ridicule Mr. Layton’s call for talks. He didn’t …
Testing “Whole of Government” in Afghanistan
Author John Siebert The Ploughshares Monitor Summer 2010 Volume 31 Issue 2 Canada is currently about five years into a live experiment in Afghanistan with a public policy approach called “whole of government.” It attempts to coordinate the many departments and agencies involved in international missions. A new government approach New machinery within the federal government has been created to advance …
Reintegration and Reconciliation in Afghanistan: In What Order and at What Price?
Author Ernie Regehr The Ploughshares Monitor Spring 2010 Volume 31 Issue 1 The guns of the US-led military surge were blazing with renewed zeal in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province in February. But off the battlefield, much of the talk and not a few questions focused on the merits of reintegration and reconciliation. Would the escalated fighting be an effective route to the …