The Canadian International Council (Toronto Branch), in cooperation with the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, is pleased to announce the following event:

Presentation by Rt. Hon. Lord David Owen, former U.K. Foreign Secretary and former leader of U.K. Social Democratic Party, on Whether the U.K. Should Leave or Remain in the EU.

"Canada's Role in the Arctic: The Ongoing Debate" is a conversation with John Hannaford, Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet (Foreign and Defence Policy) at the Privy Council Office, and Thomas S. Axworthy, Chair of Public Policy at Massey College on Canada's Arctic Policy. They will make their comments to address: What is Canada's role in the Arctic? What should Canada's role be? 

Canada’s new Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs speaks on the challenges confronting her in her portfolio.

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.

A post-election conversation with the Hon. Lloyd Axworthy, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, who will reflect on Canada’s role in the world, drawing on his own experience making and articulating Canadian foreign policy, in the aftermath of the current federal election.

Dawn Berry, Cornell University, joins us as part of the Graham Centre’s Arctic Speakers Series, under the auspices of the Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program.

A distinguished biographer (F.D.R.; Eisenhower) turns his eye on a subject closer to the present. Join us for Jean Smith’s reassessment of America’s forty-third President, drawn from his forthcoming biography. In partnership with the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto.

Noted American journalist and author Rick Perlstein discusses the impact and legacy of America’s 40th President, as well as the shifting fortunes of the American Right Wing.

In his 2009 book, The Politics of Linkage, Brian Bow argued that the bases for cooperation and restraint in Canada-US relations had shifted after the 1970s, and that in future the bilateral relationship would be driven mostly by shifting transnational coalitions and inflexible domestic institutions. The Harper government’s approach to the relationship seemed to be based on a naïve aspiration to return to the early Cold War “special relationship,” and to have failed in ways that Bow’s argument would have anticipated. But the picture is a little more complicated than that, and Harper’s track record suggests some subtler lessons for Canada-US relations after the coming elections.

Please join the Bill Graham Centre as it hosts the first event in this year’s Arctic Speaker Series, in partnership with the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation. We are pleased to welcome David P. Stone, former Chair of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme and author of “The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger.” This lecture by Mr. Stone will look at how national and international scientific monitoring programmes have contributed to our present understanding of Arctic environmental change, and how this research has been successfully used to achieve international legal actions to lessen some of the activities and emissions behind climate change.

The application of Forensic Sciences to the investigation of cases of political/ethnic/religious violence involving the disappearances and killings of persons began in Argentina in 1984, and since then the practice has spread to nearly 40 countries around the world, meeting with various degrees of success.

As a young country and despite early military action overseas, Canada came of age on the world stage through an unwavering commitment to peace in the 20th Century. A self-assured Canada entered the new Millennium with a clear understanding of the threats of terrorism and other risks menacing its security. Nevertheless, our country remains firmly resolved to protect its people while developing opportunity and prosperity through trade and business development, the top priority of our government’s policies and foreign diplomacy. To achieve these goals, Europe – starting with France – is a strategic ally Canadians can’t ignore.

Between July 1914 and November 1918, signals intelligence was born. The type and number of messages intercepted every month for purposes of communications intelligence swelled from thousands of enciphered telegrams to and from foreign offices, to millions of cables, letters and radio dispatches, from diplomats, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and civilians, mostly in plain language or commercial codes. The best known element of signals intelligence during the First World War is work against the operational traffic of armies and navies, centring on cryptanalysis and traffic analysis, but overwhelmingly its largest form, and the area where it was most frequently used, lay in blockade and economic warfare. This instance also was perhaps the case in history where communications intelligence worked most fruitfully without the aid of cryptanalysis, and where open source material was most central to analysis. It is closer to the modern practice of communications intelligence than were the actions of naval and military siginters between 1914-18. This presentation addresses how communications intelligence affected economic warfare during the First World War, and victory in that struggle.

What are Vladimir Putin’s goals in the Ukraine and elsewhere? How dangerous is the current situation? What should NATO’s stance towards Putin be? Thomas Nichols of the US Naval War College explores these timely questions.

Five years ago hopes were high that the world was at last seriously headed towards nuclear disarmament. By the end of 2012, however, as reported in the inaugural State of Play report, much of this sense of optimism had evaporated. By the end of 2014, the fading optimism had given way to pessimism. New START was signed and ratified, but the treaty left stockpiles intact and disagreements about missile defence and conventional-arms imbalances unresolved. Nuclear weapons numbers have decreased overall but increased in Asia; nuclear-weapons programs in India, Pakistan and China have accelerated; North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests and the CTBT is yet to enter into force; and fissile material production is not yet banned. A comprehensive agreement on Iran eluded negotiators by the extended deadline of 24 November 2014 and the push for talks on a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East has stalled. Cyber-threats to nuclear weapons systems have intensified, outer space remains at risk of nuclearization, and the upsurge of geopolitical tensions over the crisis in Ukraine produced flawed conclusions about the folly of giving up nuclear weapons on the one hand, and open reminders about Russia’s substantial nuclear arsenal, on the other. Against this sombre backdrop, Nuclear Weapons: The State of Play 2015 by Gareth Evans, Tanya Ogilvie-White and Ramesh Thakur, provides an authoritative advocacy tool for governments, organizations and individuals committed to achieving a safer and saner nuclear-weapon-free world in the lead-up to the Ninth NPT Review Conference in New York in April–May 2015

Jessica Shadian discusses her recent book The Politics of Arctic Sovereignty: Oil, Ice, and Inuit Governance, the first in-depth account of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). Beginning with European exploration of the region and concluding with recent debates over ownership of the Arctic, the book unfolds the history of a polity that has overcome colonization and attempted assimilation to emerge as a political actor which has influenced both Arctic and global governance.

Chancellor Bill Graham begins the 2015 edition of Conversations with an evening with Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Elected in Winnipeg in December 2014, he has need of all the skills and expertise he gained at local, provincial and national levels in Saskatchewan to manage the many critical issues facing the AFN which are so important to Canadian society.  And yet, he remains hopeful of the opportunity for meaningful consultation with the federal government..

On February 3, Canadian World War II veterans were given the singular honour of being awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal. They fought in the First Special Service Force, a joint U.S.-Canada unit considered to be the precursor of the special operations forces on both sides of the border. Known as the “Devil’s Brigade”, this unit trained in martial arts, parachuting, and even mountain climbing. Many of them were lumberjacks, miners and other seasoned outdoorsmen. The University of Toronto will welcome FSSF veterans accompanied by serving members of the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (this regiment is currently serving in Iraq) on March 4. Come and meet the veterans and hear their history.

Rami Khouri, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, speaks as part of the series “Perspectives on a Changing Middle East.”

This event is for Graduate Students and Faculty members only. Registration is required for this event.

What has been accomplished under Canada’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council, which began in 2013? What is the Council’s role in an age of intense competition for the natural resources climate change is making accessible? What are the prospects for deepening international cooperation on arctic issues? And what are the implications for the Council of the West’s strained relations with Putin’s Russia? Terry Fenge, an expert on arctic, aboriginal, and environmental issues, addresses these questions.

Did Vimy Matter? Does Vimy Matter? The Easter Monday battle of Vimy Ridge won by the Canadian Corps holds a special place in the Canadian memory of the Great War. Why? What is it about Vimy that makes it memorable? Should it be? Did it matter militarily? Politically? In terms of troop morale? Or were there other contributions by the Canadian Corps that deserve to be recalled on Remembrance Day?

Brian Stewart takes an experienced foreign correspondent’s look back at daily media coverage of the drift into war through the summer of 1914. Using Canadian and international sources he analyses some of the lessons we can still learn from a day by day study of the dramatic diplomatic crisis as it enfolds in headlines and editorials.

Did the press of the time help provoke the war? Or is this one of the many myths still surrounding the most complex and perhaps most debated war in modern history? How much did journalists even know as war approached?

Mr. Stewart is particularly interested in what local papers reveal about attitudes in Toronto and throughout the nation as Canadians begin to realize the rumours of distant military mobilizations were fast turning into a clash of global giants without precedent in history. He will draw parallels with his own experience of the countdowns to war that he has covered and conclude with an overview of Canadian war coverage through to 1918.

The Margaret MacMillan lecture in international relations.

Nationalism, imperialism, an arms race, fears, hatreds, human folly. There are so many explanations for the war yet its outbreak remains a mystery. This lecture looks at the reasons why war came in 1914 and draws lessons for today.

This event was made possible by the generosity of Peter & Melanie Munk.