Another Great Season at CIPS

After several years of strategic hiring, the University of Ottawa now houses a very strong group of international affairs experts across its many departments and schools. Institutional reputations take time to build, but the university is already gaining global recognition as a centre for cutting-edge research, scholar-practitioner interaction, and public debate of international issues. CIPS’ mandate is to provide a focal point for this activity. This was another exciting year of growth and innovation at CIPS. In October we launched a blog that now features over 130 posts by experts at uOttawa and beyond. In an era of proliferating online media, when it’s hard to know where to turn for reliable analysis, it’s significant that the CIPS Blog is written exclusively by academic experts and experienced policy practitioners. Last week CIPS hosted a fascinating lecture by Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal, the last of a series of 72 international affairs events that we organized or cosponsored in the 2011-12 academic year. Since the Centre launched in early 2008, we have hosted more than 270 public lectures, along with numerous workshops, conferences and consultations. As a venue for discussion of global policy issues, CIPS is second to none in Canada. CIPS also continued to support the uOttawa research community by launching two new networks of researchers this year – the Security Studies Network and the International Theory Network – both of which will bring together scholars, students and practitioners. During the 2012-13 academic year I will be on sabbatical leave at another university and Prof. David Petrasek will serve as acting director of CIPS. Please contact him if you have any suggestions or questions. Let me take this opportunity to thank the CIPS staff, particularly Program Coordinator Cynthia Brassard-Boudreau and Publications Coordinator Natalie Brender, as well as CIPS Program Assistants Carl Hageraats and Erica van Wyngaarden, for the superb work they did over the last year. Stay tuned for a new season of CIPS programming in September! If you haven’t done so already, please sign up for our email newsletter to hear about upcoming events and new blogposts. A sampling of our events from the past year:

• Kofi Annan, Lloyd Axworthy and Chris Alexander panel on R2P

• Didier Bigo (Sciences-Po) on power in international relations

• Jean-Christophe Graz (Lausanne) on globalization

• Jennifer Clapp (Waterloo) on international food aid

• Steve Coll (New America Foundation) on next steps in Afghanistan

• François Crépeau (UN) on global migration

• Peter Katzenstein (Cornell) on civilizations in world politics

• Luis Moreno-Ocampo (International Criminal Court) on international justice

• Farah Pandith (US Govt.) on the campaign against hate

• Katia Papagianni (Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue) on peacebuilding

• Jonathan Paquin (Laval) on Canada and the Arab Spring

• Trita Parsi (Nat’l Iranian American Council) on the US and Iran

• William Schabas (Middlesex) on international criminal law

A sampling from the CIPS Blog:

• Rita Abrahamsen, ‘Conflict Minerals,’ Canada and African Civil Wars

• Jacqueline Best, The Austerity Trap

• Natalie Brender, R2P after Libya: A Cause Only the Morally Naïve Can Support?

• Craig Forcese, Fewer Eyes on the Spies: Going Backwards on Accountability

• Alexandra Gheciu, Stepping Up the Fight Against Somali Pirates

• Peter Jones, Enrichment or Weapons: Where is the Red Line on Iran?

• André Laliberté, La discrète commémoration du centième anniversaire de la Révolution chinoise de 1911

• Patrick Leblond, The World Economy in Turmoil

• Daniel Livermore, Time for a ‘Grand Bargain’ in a Foreign Policy Review

• Justin Massie & Philippe Lagassé, Quels chasseurs pour le Canada?

• Errol Mendes, A New Cold War on Democracy and Human Rights at the UN Security Council and Beyond?

• Costanza Musu, The Arab Democratic Wave and the Middle East Conflict: A Window of Opportunity

• Roland Paris, The New Canada: Fomenting Fear at Home and Abroad

• Matthew Paterson, Exploring Global Governance Networks

• David Petrasek, Oversold and Underwhelming: John Baird’s First Year on the Job

• Paul Robinson, Reassessing the ‘Hearts and Minds’ Model of Counter-Insurgency

• Scott Simon, ‘One China’ as Floating Signifier: The Benefits of Diplomatic Ambiguity

• Debra Steger, Harper and Obama at APEC: A New Focus on Asia or a Closer Canada-U.S. Relationship?

• Nasser Ary Tanimoune, Elle court, elle court, la rumeur à propos de la dévaluation du franc CFA

• Srdjan Vucetic, No Sweet Sixteen: International Policy in Dayton Bosnia