Author John Siebert Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 4 Winter 2014 Canada’s contribution to peace in Iraq and Syria and the challenge of Islamic State On October 3, 2014 a statement was sent by Project Ploughshares to the Government of Canada and parliamentarians on the proposed military mission to Iraq. Entitled “Short-term gain for long-term pain—Canada’s challenge …
World War I and Lessons for Contemporary Policy on War and Peace
Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 4 Winter 2014 Canadian War Museum Ottawa, ON 26-28 Sept. 2014 What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it. (G.W.F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of History) The Group of 78 and Project …
WW I and the struggle for democracy in Canada
Author Jamie Swift Kingston writer Jamie Swift is the author, most recently, of Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety, with Ian McKay. Their next book, The Vimy Trap, will explore the ways WW I is remembered in Canada. Swift is co-founder of www.peacequest.ca. Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 4 Winter 2014 A peace conference …
Largest Canadian military contractors win record orders in 2013-14
Author Kenneth Epps Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 4 Winter 2014 Canada’s military industry received record-breaking orders from domestic and foreign customers during fiscal year 2013-14, according to government sources. Prime contracts placed with Canadian-based companies by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) on behalf of the Department of National Defence (DND) and by the Canadian Commercial Corporation …
Short-term gain for long-term pain – Canada’s Challenge in responding to Islamic State
By John Siebert October 3 The expressed desire by Canada to act forthrightly and without ambiguity in the face of Islamic State (IS) atrocities is understandable. But 13 years after the horrific assaults of 9/11 we have enough experience with military interventions intended to combat terrorism to give us pause. A military response to a non-state group using terror to …
2015 Peace and Human Security Agenda: Dedicated mediation efforts: A new frontier for Canada
Author John Siebert Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 2 Summer 2014 Since the end of the Second World War, Canada has been a strong supporter of multilateralism to assist in the resolution of armed conflicts and to advance peaceful solutions to conflicts that could result in war. It may be strange, therefore, for people to realize that Canada’s Foreign Ministry, now …
2015 Peace and Human Security Agenda: Gender, human rights, and violent conflict
Author John Siebert Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 2 Summer 2014 In 2010, in response to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women and Armed Conflict and related UNSC resolutions, Canada created a national plan for implementing Canada’s commitment to enhance the capacity of women to participate in peace processes. UNSC Resolution 1325 established an international normative framework, on which Canada …
2015 Peace and Human Security Agenda: Canada and multilateral peace operations
Author Kenneth Epps Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 2 Summer 2014 Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan failed. The reasons will be debated for years to come. What is not debatable is that Canada’s combat escalation in Afghanistan corresponded to a major decline in Canadian commitment to UN peacekeeping operations. The completion of Canadian troop withdrawal from Afghanistan …
2015 Peace and Human Security Agenda: Completing the push for nuclear disarmament
Author Cesar Jaramillo Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 2 Summer 2014 More than 40 years after the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) came into force, there are still more than 17,000 nuclear weapons in existence, which are capable of destroying the biosphere and human civilization. The continued disregard by Nuclear Weapons States of the NPT obligation to disarm …
2015 Peace and Human Security Agenda: Canadian defence budget and procurement
Author Kenneth Epps Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 2 Summer 2014 When the Canada First Defence Strategy was announced in 2008 the government promised that nearly half-a-trillion dollars would be spent on the operations and equipment of the Canadian Armed Forces over a 20-year period. This budget did not include significant supplementary funding for the Canadian Forces …