CIPS Podcasts

The term ‘Critical' is seemingly ubiquitous in the academic research in international relations and related fields. In this episode of CIPS POD, host Srdjan Vucetic and guests, David Murakami Wood Hager and Ben Jaffel discuss what ‘critical' means to them in the context of intelligence studies. Srdjan Vucetic teaches at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA-ÉSAPI), University of Ottawa. Research interests in international politics, foreign & defence policy, and the Yugoslav region. Co-Coordonnateur du Réseau en théorie internationale du Centre d'études en politiques internationales (CÉPI-CIPS). David Murakami Wood is the Director of the Surveillance Studies Centre, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, and most importantly the Incoming Professor of Critical Surveillance and Security Studies in the Dept of Criminology at uOttawa. He's also Co-editor-in-Chief at the international, interdisciplinary, open access, peer-reviewed journal of Surveillance & Society. Hager Ben Jaffel is the CIPS Research Associate for 2021-2022. She holds a PhD in International Relations from King's College London and specializes in the sociology of intelligence with a focus on police forces and Europe. Her first monograph Anglo-European Intelligence Cooperation: Britain in Europe, Europe in Britain (Routledge, 2019) explores Britain's intelligence relations with Europe, by investigating the lived experiences of police personnel involved in counter-terrorism in European countries and EU internal security agencies.

Photo by Kirill Sharkovski on Unsplash (CC) Intro music: “England” by Pictures of the Floating World (CC) Host: Prof. Srdjan Vucetic (https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/1025) Guests: Prof. Ailsa Henderson (https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/ailsa-henderson) Prof. Richard Wyn Jones (https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/330709-wyn-jones-richard) Dr. Ben Wellings (https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/ben-wellings) Check out: “Englishness: The Political Force Transforming Britain” - https://global.oup.com/academic/product/englishness-9780198870784?cc=ca&lang=en&

In this podcast, Jeffery Howard and Issac Taylor join Patti Tamara Lenard in considering the ethical questions that are raised by the pursuit of counter-terrorism policies in democratic states.  Jeff is an associate professor of political theory at University College London, and is currently on a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship.  His current project focuses on how to combat the varieties of harmful content online, including terrorist propaganda, hate speech, and disinformation. Isaac Taylor is an Associate Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Stockholm University.  Isaac's research interests are in moral and political philosophy, and particularly focus on how governments can pursue the security of their populations both effectively and ethically. His book, The Ethics of Counterterrorism (New York: Routledge, 2018), looked at what moral principles should guide state actors in their efforts to prevent terrorism.  The podcast is moderated by Wesley Walk, who is a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Wesley writes and comments extensively for the Canadian and international media on issues relating to intelligence, national security and terrorism. Learn more about our speakers: Patti Tamara Lenard https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/988/profile Wesley Walk https://cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca/en/biography/wesley_wark Jeffery Howard https://www.ucl.ac.uk/political-science/people/dr-jeffrey-howard Issac Taylor https://www.su.se/english/profiles/izta7912-1.513533

With the US as an all-powerful neighbour and main trading partner, Canadian analyses of the US elections are naturally focused on what’s at stake for Canada and Canadians. But the November 2020 elections are also eagerly watched in other parts of the world, where the outcome could have important implications. With this series of podcasts, CIPS shifts the spotlight away from Canada to ask what’s at stake in the US elections for other regions of the world and for international cooperation more generally? In the sixth and final episode, Thomas Juneau asks what’s at stake for the Middle East in the forthcoming elections. His guests are Farea al-Muslimi and Dina Esfandiary, who together provide a thought-provoking and comprehensive analysis of the region’s past, present and future relationship with the US. For more information on our host and guests: Thomas Juneau: https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/1028 Farea al-Muslimi: https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us/our-people/farea-al-muslimi Dina Esfandiary: https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwizz6Cr77bsAhUMWs0KHTnPDaoQFjABegQIBRAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.belfercenter.org%2Fperson%2Fdina-esfandiary&usg=AOvVaw1RqJU3-gLo0K5FDN9bi_4y

With the US as an all-powerful neighbour and main trading partner, Canadian analyses of the US elections are naturally focused on what’s at stake for Canada and Canadians. But the November 2020 elections are also eagerly watched in other parts of the world, where the outcome could have important implications. With this series of podcasts, CIPS shifts the spotlight away from Canada to ask what’s at stake in the US elections for other regions of the world and for international cooperation more generally? In this episode CIPS’ In the fifth episode, Alexandra Gheciu is joined by Rebecca Adler-Nissen and James Sperling to discuss the impact of the Trump Presidency on the EU and NATO, and to ask what the future holds for these two organizations depending on who becomes the 46th President of the United States. For more information on our host and guests: Alexandra Gheciu: https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/806/profile Rebecca Adler-Nissen https://images.ku.dk/people/rebecca/ James Sperling https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.researchgate.net/profile/James_Sperling/amp

With the US as an all-powerful neighbour and main trading partner, Canadian analyses of the US elections are naturally focused on what’s at stake for Canada and Canadians. But the November 2020 elections are also eagerly watched in other parts of the world, where the outcome could have important implications. With this series of podcasts, CIPS shifts the spotlight away from Canada to ask what’s at stake in the US elections for other regions of the world and for international cooperation more generally? In this episode CIPS’ Christopher W. Bishop talks to Shan Huang and Tosh Minohara on the topic of US policy towards and relations in Asia. For more information on our host and guests: Shan Huang is Deputy Managing Editor of Caixin Media, China's leading business and financial news service, where he oversees all international reporting.  He has also served as a visiting fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, and a senior research associate at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.  He received his B.A. from Peking University, and holds an M.A. in political science from the University of Notre Dame. Tosh Minohara is Professor of US-Japan Relations at the Graduate School of Law and Politics, Kobe University where he also holds a joint appointment with the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies. He received his B.A. from University of California at Davis, and holds a Ph.D. from Kobe University. He also is the founder and chairman of the Research Institute of Indo-Pacific Affairs (RIIPA). In addition, he is a senior advisor to the consulting firm KREAB. He has been a visiting professor to many universities, of which the most recent has been to Jagiellonian University, Poland. Christopher W. Bishop is Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in Canada and a research associate at the University of Ottawa Centre for International Policy Studies.  A career U.S. Foreign Service Officer, he is currently on a leave of absence from the Department of State.  He previously served at posts in China, Japan, and Taiwan, as well as in Washington, where he was Special Assistant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and later Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton.

With the US as an all-powerful neighbour and main trading partner, Canadian analyses of the US elections are naturally focused on what’s at stake for Canada and Canadians. But the November 2020 elections are also eagerly watched in other parts of the world, where the outcome could have important implications. With this series of podcasts, CIPS shifts the spotlight away from Canad a to ask what’s at stake in the US elections for other regions of the world and for international cooperation more generally? In this episode CIPS’ Michael Williams speaks with Dr Michelle Bentley (Royal Holloway, UK) and Prof Brendon O’Connor (University of Sydney, Australia) on the topic of the US’ ‘Special Relationship’ with both countries. For more information on our host and guests: Prof Michael Williams: https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/959 Dr Michelle Bentley: https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/michelle-bentley(7cf349f5-bb36-46e8-8810-fa792348242c).html Prof Brendon O’Connor: http://www.ussc.edu.au/people/brendon-oconnor

With the US as an all-powerful neighbour and main trading partner, Canadian analyses of the US elections are naturally focused on what’s at stake for Canada and Canadians. But the November 2020 elections are also eagerly watched in other parts of the world, where the outcome could have important implications. With this series of podcasts, CIPS shifts the spotlight away from Canada to ask what’s at stake in the US elections for other regions of the world and for international cooperation more generally? In this episode CIPS’ Prof. Rita Abrahamsen hosts Prof Gilbert M Khadiagala (University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) and Dr Comfort Ero (International Crisis Group) For more information on our host and guests please see the following: Prof Rita Abrahamsen: https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/996/profile Prof Gilbert Khadiagala: https://www.news.uct.ac.za/features/uct-africa-month/-article/2020-05-21-professor-gilbert-m-khadiagala Dr Comfort Ero: https://www.crisisgroup.org/who-we-are/people/comfort-ero

With the US as an all-powerful neighbour and main trading partner, Canadian analyses of the US elections are naturally focused on what’s at stake for Canada and Canadians. But the November 2020 elections are also eagerly watched in other parts of the world, where the outcome could have important implications. With this series of podcasts, CIPS shifts the spotlight away from Canada to ask what’s at stake in the US elections for other regions of the world and for international cooperation more generally? In this episode CIPS’ Dr. Ryan M. Katz-Rosene, hosts a discussion on the environment with Dr. Jessica Green (University of Toronto) and Dr. Matto Mildenberger (University of California Santa Barbara) Find more details about our host and guests here: Dr. Ryan M. Katz-Rosene: http://ryankatzrosene.ca/ Dr. Jessica Green: https://green.faculty.politics.utoronto.ca Dr. Matto Mildenberger: https://www.mattomildenberger.com/ you can also find Matt’s book here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/carbon-captured

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically and rapidly transformed our lives. It’s killed tens of thousands around the world, while the number of confirmed infections is in the millions. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has confirmed that all major economies have now entered a recession. Further, according to the International Labour Organisation, the pandemic is expected to wipe out the equivalent of nearly 200 million jobs worldwide as more than 4/5 of workers around the world are now in countries affected by some measure of lockdown. Workers in the informal sector - nearly 2/3 of the world’s labour force- are hardest hit and require income support just to survive. By the end of March nearly 1 million Canadians applied for Employment Insurance in one week - representing nearly 5% of the workforce and a new record. Similarly, record-breaking job losses are a reality across all five continents, while governments spend - or are promising to spend - truly eyewatering amounts of cash in an attempt to stop the bottom entirely falling out of our national and world economies. To try and get a grip on what this means in this podcast, CIPS’ blog editor, Philip Leech-Ngo, talks to two of the foremost experts in Canada’s political economy, CIPS’ own professor Jacqueline Best and Carleton University’s professor Randall Germain.

Betsy Fischer Martin, a former producer for Meet the Press, is an Emmy-winning journalist and TV news executive. Currently she is an Executive in Residence at American University’s School of Public Affairs and the co-host of Bloomberg Politics’ Masters in Politics Podcast. She also founded her own consulting business, Fischer Martin Media, where she specializes in providing media training to corporate executives.

CIPS presents: A Conversation with Professor TV Paul by CIPS - uOttawa - CÉPI

Virginia Eubanks, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany, SUNY, discusses her new book. Since the dawn of the digital age, decision-making in finance, employment, politics, health and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Today, automated systems—rather than humans—control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor. Automating Inequality systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America. The book is full of heart-wrenching and eye-opening stories, from a woman in Indiana whose benefits are literally cut off as she lays dying to a family in Pennsylvania in daily fear of losing their daughter because they fit a certain statistical profile.

Professor of public policy at Duke University and author of "The Peacemakers: Leadership Lessons from Twentieth-Century Statesmanship", Bruce W. Jentleson discusses his new book which presents thirteen profiles in statesmanship that reveal how transformative leaders, at pivotal moments in history, reshaped the modern world. At a time when peace seems elusive and conflict endemic, "The Peacemakers" makes a forceful and inspiring case for the continued relevance of statesmanship and diplomacy.

The Killing Season examines one of the largest and swiftest instances of mass killing and incarceration in the twentieth century—the shocking anti-leftist purge that gripped Indonesia in 1965–66, leaving some five hundred thousand people dead and more than a million others in detention. Challenging conventional narratives, the book argues that the killing was the product of a deliberate campaign led by the Indonesian Army. It also details the critical role played by the United States, Britain, and other major powers in facilitating the mass murder and incarceration – and the more than 50 years of silence and inaction that followed. The Killing Season also engages wider theoretical debates about the logic and legacies of mass killing and incarceration, as well as the histories of human rights, US foreign policy, and the Cold War. Geoffrey Robinson is a Professor of History at UCLA where he teaches and writes about political violence, genocide, human rights, and mass incarceration

Wendy Wong discusses her book, "The Authority Trap," with Oskar Thoms.

This talk focuses on Robert Henry’s research with Indigenous men and women who were involved in street gangs. Through modified photovoice methods, Robert examines the ways in which Indigenous men and women engage in street lifestyles, where the street gang becomes a site of survivance challenging settler colonialism. Linkages between Canada, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and Australia will also be examined to understand how settler colonialism impacts Indigenous street gang involvement. Robert Henry, Ph.D., is Métis from Prince Albert, SK and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, in the Department of Sociology. Robert’s research areas include Indigenous street gangs and gang theories, Indigenous masculinities, Indigenous and critical research methodologies, youth mental health, and visual research methods. Working closely with community partners, he published a collection of narratives from his Ph.D. research titled, Brighter Days Ahead (2014). Robert has also published in the areas of Indigenous masculinity, Indigenous health, youth subcultures, and criminal justice.

This book contends that practices are perhaps the most fundamental building-block of social reality. What then would social scientists’ research look like if they took this insight seriously? The book argues that to be effective, social-scientific inquiry requires the detailed empirical study of human practices. At the same time, it makes a case for the central place in social theory and the philosophy of the social sciences of a well-developed practice theory. To be sure, conventional research in the social sciences has always investigated regularities of human behaviour; yet its core assumptions, the author argues, leave it ill-equipped to cope with essential features of the phenomena it investigates. This book is thus devoted to examining what these generic features of human practices are. In the process, it also explores how practices are constituted; how they can be identified, characterised and explained; how they function in concrete contexts; and how they might change across time and space. Noting that existing versions of practice theory often face important analytical problems, the book attempts to construct a new, systematic account from the ground up. Along the way, it illustrates its arguments with many concrete examples from the history of war, politics and intellectual currents in Europe, as well as from various domains in the social sciences and everyday life. Kevin McMillan is an Associate Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa and co-coordinator of the International Theory Network (ITN). His research interests include IR theory, modern and early-modern international history, the evolution of the European states system since 1648, history of international thought, governance, practice theory and the philosophy of the social sciences.

Interview with Human Rights advocate and rookie MP Garnett Genuis

Conversation between Julian Go from Boston University & Kevin McMillan from the University of Ottawa.

The Arab World is currently undergoing rapid changes wrought by the ongoing Arab uprisings and the proliferation of violence and insecurity therein. For most researchers in/of the region, approaches in traditional security studies are insufficient and problematic in a context in which multiple and diverse forms of insecurity are present and expanding. This presentation will introduce a project that seeks to bring into conversation and productive dialogue the field of Critical Security Studies and researchers working in/on the Arab region. As such, it is premised on two assumptions that are of relevance to encouraging such dialogue: first, that the field of Critical Security Studies is missing important insights relevant to the field that could emanate from the region, and, second, that researchers working in/on the region are in need of frameworks, critical vocabularies, methodologies, and approaches that foster a critical appraisal of the security discourses and practices that have emerged in the Arab region. Samer Abboud is an Associate Professor of International Studies at Arcadia University, just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a Senior non-resident Fellow at the Center for Syrian Studies at St. Andrew’s University. He is the co-author (with Benjamin Muller) of Rethinking Hizballah: Authority, Legitimacy, Violence (Ashgate, 2012) and the author of Syria (Polity, 2015), which explores the dynamics and evolution of the Syrian conflict.

This paper reflects on two funded research projects examining how science and ethics shape the development and deployment of border security technologies in the EU. It examines the different phases of research, development, testing, deployment and maintenance of border security technologies in order to see how different practitioners (e.g. computer engineers; border guards) engage with these material devices. Central to both these studies is the particular way in which the technologies used at border crossings expose broader tensions between mobility and security. I am interested in exploring what that tension reveals about the changing relationships, encounters and negotiations between human and non-human agents. Debbie Lisle is a Reader in International Relations at Queen’s University Belfast. Her current research explores the intersections between travel, culture, security, mobility, visuality, materiality and technology.

Despite the signature of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan in 2015, the humanitarian and economic situation on the ground remains dire. What is the state of peace implementation today? How is the economic crisis affecting the people? What are the prospects for justice and reconciliation in that context? Nicholas Coghlan has been Canada’s resident representative in South Sudan since 2012, first as Head of Office and then as our Ambassador. Prior to that he served in Khartoum, Bogota and Mexico City. He has published several books including Far in the Waste Sudan (2005) and Winter in Fireland (2011).

After almost 60 years of war, Colombia may be on the verge of peace. On November 2012, the Colombian Government and the guerrilla group FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia) began formal peace talks. The parties have advanced in four of the five main points on the agenda and have set for themselves a deadline of 23 March 2016 to reach a final agreement. Talks with the smaller remaining guerrilla group ELN (National Liberation Army) have also advanced and negotiations may start soon. What is the content of the agreements being negotiated with FARC, particularly on transitional justice issues (e.g. compensating victims of human rights violations and addressing the impunity of violators)? What are the prospects for their implementation, given the history of Colombia past peace processes? How could Canada contribute to peace with justice in Colombia?

Charles Lister is a Fellow at the Middle East Institute, where he focuses on terrorism, insurgency and sub-state security threats across the Middle East. He is also a Senior Consultant to The Shaikh Group’s Syria Track II Initiative, within which he has managed over two years of face-to-face engagement with the leaderships of over 100 Syrian armed opposition groups. Charles was formerly a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar and before that, the head of MENA at the London-based IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre. Lister will be discussing his new book, The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency which was published in the UK in November 2015 (Hurst Publishers) and in the U.S. on 1 February 2016 (Oxford University Press). He is also the author of Profiling the Islamic State (Brookings Institution Press, 2015).

The increasing reliance on private military and security companies in contemporary conflict and peacekeeping raises a host of new issues for feminist scholars and activists. In recent years, a new set of critical gender scholarship has emerged that examines gender as a central aspect of security privatization. In parallel, the private security industry has begun to pay more attention to gender and women in an attempt to improve its legitimacy. In this talk, I outline some of the sites where we can “see gender” in private security, from debates on accountability and regulation, to gendered divisions of labour, and the remaking of civil-military relations more broadly. Maya Eichler is Canada Research Chair in Social Innovation and Community Engagement and assistant professor in the Department of Political and Canadian Studies and the Department of Women’s Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University (Halifax). Her research interests lie in feminist international relations theory, gender and the armed forces, the privatization of military security, and post-Soviet politics. She has published the book Militarizing Men: Gender, Conscription, and War in Post-Soviet Russia with Stanford University Press (2012) and recent articles in Critical Studies on Security, Citizenship Studies, and the International Journal. Her edited volume Gender and Private Security in Global Politics was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. Her current research focuses on the politics of veterans and the transition from military to civilian life in Canada. She serves as an Associate Editor for the International Feminist Journal of Politics.

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) are one of the most important trends in contemporary social policy in countries in the South, having become the standard model for delivery of social services. CCTs have been praised by their promoters due to the low cost of delivery, their relatively high impact on reducing inequality, and their positive effects on women. Many feminist researchers, on the other hand, have suggested that CCTs—particularly those that specifically target women—are based on some contradictory assumptions about the nature of female empowerment. In particular, can women be empowered by entrenching an unequal division of labour? And what are the costs of these programs with respect to who women expend their labour? This presentation explores these debates in the context of Bolivia, Argentina, Egypt, Namibia and South Africa. Susan Spronk is associate professor in the School of International Development and Global Studies. Her research focuses on the experience of development in Latin America, more specifically the impact of neoliberalism on the transformation of the state and the rise of anti-privatization movements in the Andean region. Her latest research project examined the role of public sector unions and social movements in promoting the democratic reform of public water utilities in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. Melisa Handl is an Argentine lawyer and PhD student at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests include gender, development and international human rights. Her PhD research investigates whether CCTs contribute to gender equality in Argentina.

Traditional theories about the origins of imperialism focus on political elites, either in the metropole or the periphery, asking whose interests drive imperial rule. Through an exploration of American Empire in the Pacific, this paper argues that imperialism may be reflective of the agents who navigate between societies rather than those with influence within metropole or colony. Specifically, this paper analyzes the origins of American imperialism in Samoa from 1872 through 1899. It shows that local concerns, about pigs and about papists, led unusual figures with little influence to play outsized roles in shaping international politics. In doing, it proposes a theory about the conditions under which imperialism is likely to occur in regions where there is no significant interest by the metropole or the colony in establishing imperial relationships. Eric Grynaviski is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University. His book, Constructive Illusions (Cornell University Press), won the 2015 Jervis-Schroeder Award from the International History and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. His work has appeared in the European Journal of International Relations International Theory, International Organization, and Security Studies.

Under what conditions do states shift inconsistently between acts of cooperation and conflict that is, engage in volatile foreign policy behavior? Even fierce rivals such as India and Pakistan often alternate inconsistently between military clashes and bilateral trade or security agreements. Yet IR studies often overlook volatility in foreign policy, focusing instead on what makes relations either more cooperative or more conflictual. This talk will present a theory of volatility in foreign policy behavior that hinges on the interaction between dynamics unfolding both at the domestic and the international level: the unbridled competition among domestic groups to rip off the benefits of certain foreign policy paths and a state’s relative power superiority. Eleonora Mattiacci is the Karl Loewenstein Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science at Amherst College. Her research focuses on the determinants of volatile foreign policy behavior, with a specific focus on climate change and nuclear proliferationation.

The Global War on Terror launched in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States has had a series of perverse effects. At its most egregious, it has licensed the return of torture and political assassination (now known as ‘targeted killing’), as well as the widespread degradation of personal privacy. Closely tied to these effects has been a growing militarisation of Western societies. In Canada this militarisation has been most noticeable in public acts, such as the designation of a stretch of Canada’s busiest highway as ‘the Highway of Heroes’, and the escalating presence of the military at sporting events. It is, however, a much more widespread phenomenon. This talk begins to explore the militarisation of Canadian society in and through its popular culture, jumping off from an analysis of two particular artefacts: an ‘award winning’ CBC Radio drama, Afghanada, and a children’s book, Road to Afghanistan, which is distributed by Scholastic Books to schools across the country. David Mutimer is Professor of International Politics and Chair of the Department of Political Science at York University, and is the Founding Editor of Critical Studies on Security. His research considers issues of contemporary international security through lenses provided by critical social theory, as well as inquiring into the reproduction of security in and through popular culture. Much of that work has focused on weapons proliferation as a reconfigured security concern in the post-cold war era, and has tried to open possibilities for alternative means of thinking about the security problems related to arms more generally. In the past few years this programme of research has concentrated on small arms and light weapons. More recently he has turned his attention to the politics of the global war on terror, and of the regional wars around the world presently being fought by Canada and its allies. He also writes about the history and sociology of Critical Security Studies.

Richard French is Professor and holder of the CN – Paul M. Tellier Professor of Business and Public Policy at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Realism is often misunderstood as encouraging a passive or fatalist attitude toward progress in human affairs: pessimism as resignation. An examination of the some of the most penetrating thinkers in the pessimistic tradition shows otherwise. A common tradition of pessimism and tragedy reveals a world-view which insists on the imperative of struggle in the face of the odds, and on the dignity and self-respect engendered by such efforts. Excellence and value are contingent, but their pursuit is not. Realism, pessimism and tragedy are not inherently corrosive of activism; they conceive themselves simply as a superior mapping of the territory to be traversed by the activist.

Thomas Juneau is an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. His research focuses mostly on the Middle East, in particular on Iran, Yemen, Syria and US foreign policy in the region. He is also interested in Canadian foreign and defence policy and in analytical methods. He is the author of Squandered Opportunity: Neoclassical realism and Iranian foreign policy (Stanford University Press, 2015), co-editor of a forthcoming book on strategic analysis in support of international policy-making, and co-editor of Iranian Foreign Policy since 2001: Alone in the world (Routledge, 2013). Discussant: Jeffrey Simpson, Globe and Mail The Islamic Republic of Iran faced a favorable regional environment after 2001, especially in the wake of the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Iran attempted to exploit this window of opportunity by assertively seeking to expand its interests throughout the Middle East. It fell short, however, of fulfilling its longstanding ambition of becoming the dominant power in the Persian Gulf and a leading power in the broader Middle East. Today, Iran is not a fast-expanding regional hegemon, as one often hears, but is rather a mid-sized regional power frustrated at not reaching its ambitions. In this presentation, Juneau will discuss his recent book, Squandered Opportunity (Stanford University Press), in which explores the causes and consequences of Iran’s failed and costly policies. He argues that even though Iran has the potential to emerge as a dominant regional player, the brittle nature of its power and the intervention of specific domestic factors have caused its foreign policy to deviate, sometimes significantly, from optimal outcomes.

Bessma Momani is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and a 2015 fellow at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. In the West, news about the Middle East is dominated by an endless stream of reports and commentary about civil war, sectarian violence, religious extremism, and economic stagnation. But do they tell the full story? For instance, who knew that university enrollment in the war-torn Palestinian territories exceeds that of Hong Kong, or that more than a third of Lebanese entrepreneurs are women? Change is on its way in the Middle East, argues Bessma Momani, and its cause is demographic. Today, one in five Arabs is between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. Young, optimistic, and increasingly cosmopolitan, their generation will shape the region’s future. Drawing on interviews, surveys, and other research conducted with young people in fifteen countries across the Arab world, Momani describes the passion for entrepreneurship, reform, and equality among Arab youth. With insightful political analysis based on the latest statistics and first-hand accounts, Arab Dawn is an invigorating study of the Arab world and the transformative power of youth (published by UTP Insights).

JEAN-FRÉDÉRIC MORIN, Université Laval. 9 novembre 2015 Présenté par le CÉPI et le Réseau en économie politique internationale (RÉPI). Les organisations-frontières dans les complexes de régimes : une analyse des réseaux de l’IPBES: Les complexes de régimes sont des ensembles d’institutions dont les mandats se chevauchent partiellement. Puisque les tensions sont fréquentes entre ces institutions, la recherche actuelle tente d’identifier des stratégies permettant de les atténuer. De récents développements en théorie des régimes, en études des sciences et des technologies et en analyse des réseaux sociaux indiquent que des « organisations frontières » – une forme d’organisation jusqu’à récemment ignorée par les Relations Internationales – peuvent éventuellement réduire les tensions au sein des complexes de régimes en générant des savoirs perçus comme crédibles, légitimes et pertinents. Dès lors, cette présentation évalue la capacité la nouvelle Plateforme intergouvernementale sur la biodiversité et les services écosystémiques (IPBES) à intégrer les différentes institutions qui composent le régime de la biodiversité. Les résultats obtenus sont mitigés, relevant à la fois des améliorations par rapport aux organisations précédentes, mais aussi des défaillances persistantes.

The Initiative aims to find sustainable governance solutions for the Old City of Jerusalem, probably the most sensitive issues in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Our initial efforts identified the needs of stakeholders (symbolic, religious, security, economic, political and social) and posited a set of alternatives to meet them. We concluded that an effective and empowered third party presence was imperative in the Old city, along with the need to maintain its physical integrity. We developed the concept through a process of detailed consultations and research, working with a stellar group of experts, academics, former officials and policymakers.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, ''China's New Foreign Policy Priorities'' Centre for International Policy Studies, University of Ottawa, October 7, 2015. Since Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012, China’s foreign and security policy has become more assertive by the day. Aiming to turn China into a global leader and full-fledged naval power, the new Chinese leadership is clearly prepared to take more risks in order to challenge the U.S. domination of the Western Pacific and return “Asia to the Asians”. Simultaneously, the Xi administration has become more active on the world stage, trying to appear not only as a challenger to the status quo but also a builder of new international norms. As its economic growth slows and its reform plan faces fresh challenges, can China deliver as much as it has promised? Can it really reshape the world economic order, lead the reorganisation of Asia’s diplomatic and security order, and replace the U.S. as the hegemon of East Asia and the Western Pacific? Are the U.S. and its Asian allies (particularly Japan) ready to let this happen? Is Obama’s ‘rebalancing’ strategy an appropriate response to China’s new ambitions? And what other actors can contribute to peace, stability and prosperity in the region? Jean-Pierre Cabestan is Professor and Head of the Department of Government and International Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University. He is also Director General of the European Union Academic Programme in Hong Kong, as well as associate researcher at the Asia Centre, Paris and at the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China in Hong Kong. His most recent books include La politique internationale de la Chine. Entre intégration et volonté de puissance; China and the Global Financial Crisis. A Comparison with Europe (co-edited with Jean-François Di Meglio & Xavier Richet); Secessionism and Separatism in Europe and Asia. To have a state of one’s own (co-edited with Aleksandar Pavkovic); Le système politique chinois. Un nouvel équilibre autoritaire; and Political Changes in Taiwan Under Ma Ying-jeou. Partisan Conflict, Policy Choices, External Constraints and Security Challenges (co-edited with Jacques deLisle).

PANELISTS: Nadia Abu-Zahra, School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa Jamie Liew, Immigration Lawyer and Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa Michael Molloy, Part-time Professor, and former Senior Fellow, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa Agnieszka Weinar, Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence and Visiting Scholar at Metropolis international and Center for European Studies, Carleton University. MODERATOR: Patti Lenard, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa. Many are calling the Syrian civil war the worst humanitarian disaster of our time. Millions of refugees have escaped Syria in search of refuge, and millions more are internally displaced, from a conflict that shows no sign of slowing. The global community is struggling to respond effectively to the urgent needs of these profoundly vulnerable people. The experts speaking at this panel will provide a range of perspectives on the Syrian refugee crisis. Panelists will each speak for 10 minutes to provide an overview of the Canadian and European responses, as well as Syria’s neighbours’ responses, then we will be open for questions from the audience.

Philippe Beaulieu-Brossard is a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (University of Ottawa). His research enquires the politics of knowledge in and on the Middle-East. His current project investigates the translation of critical ideas in military organizations (Israeli Defense Forces, US Army and Canadian Forces). Philippe completed a Ph.D. in International Relations at the University of St-Andrews in the United Kingdom in December 2014. His thesis developed a methodology and method to analyse relationships between theory and political-practice in specific issues. Philippe relied on this methodology to reveal how IR knowledge production was involved in the Iranian nuclear crisis (1998-2014). Philippe recently published on reflexivity and actor-network theory in International Relations and, on smart power/soft war in US-Iran relations in the International Studies Journal. Post-positivist approaches became gradually popular in International Relations (IR) from the late 1980s onwards. This phenomenon was not isolated. In the meantime, the least expected post-positivist concepts found influence and application in the least expected institutions: military organizations. This conference reveals how this became possible through the story of systemic operational design (SOD) in Israel between 1995 and 2015. SOD is a methodology to design military operations. SOD promoted, to name just a few, a non-linear understanding of the battle space, a decision-making process based on deconstruction/reconstruction and command based on the clash of ideas among equals rather than hierarchy. What does this story tell us about military science making in the 21st century and what are the implications involved in using post-positivism for military purposes? This conference will seek to answer these questions through interviews conducted with 20 IDF defence scientists, military instructors and commanding officers in May and June 2015.