The Way I See it

(A link to this article was provided in the Newsletter of the Canadian Association of Defence Organizations on 6 July: www.cdainstitute.ca) President Trump’s letter to a number of NATO Allies in the lead-up to the Alliance Summit on 11-12 July, warning them that America is running out of patience as regards their failure to jack up their defence spending is a cheap shot, but a shot nonetheless. It needs to be taken seriously. NATO defence spending is about more than one-digit

Some thoughts on the impact of a Brexit victory for the future of the European Union. The UK referendum on whether Great Britain stays in the European Union (EU) would be an exacting test for the Union under any strategic circumstances. Coming as it does at a time when EU members are engaged in a number of regional wars, overwhelmed by refugee flows, and only gingerly recovering from a colossal financial crisis, Brexit could be the straw that breaks the Union’s back. Great B

Putin’s objectives in Syria have as much or more to do with Russian concerns about developments in the former Soviet Union as with the situation in and around Syria. But the overall thrust of his Syrian campaign can have an impact well beyond that. First and foremost, Putin is trying to project power abroad in an effort to compensate for the fading effectiveness of the model of growth and governance that have been associated with his now fifteen years at and near the pinnacle

In 2005, a UN World Summit that brought together governmental leaders from around the world agreed on a statement that broke new ground in the obligations of states and inter-​state relations. As theretofore, states were to have the primary responsibility for protecting their populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. The statement also recognized that the international community had a responsibility to assist a conflicted state in m

More than new security measures will be necessary if Western countries are going to have any prospect of reducing the threat of terrorism of the kind on display in Paris. The mass murders in Paris on 7 January, plus a flood of other similarly inspired actions by jihadists in France and in several other western countries in their aftermath, have been followed by calls for further-reaching measures to monitor potential terrorists and neutralise them before they go into action.