Russian military recruitment poster in the streets of Saratov. Photo by Gulmira Amangaliyeva/openDemocracy. I used to have some respect for elements of the Western media. While that respect has eroded gradually over time, it has been its coverage of the war in Ukraine that has finally destroyed what hope I
Continue readingAuthor: Alexander Hill
Canadian Dimension: Official enemies and Western ‘Newspeak’ on Israel-Palestine
Protesters, one holding a Palestinian flag, gather in London’s Trafalgar Square, October 14, 2023. Photo by Alisdare Hickson/Wikimedia Commons. When reading the Western press I sometimes feel like I am in a Nineteen Eighty-Four-esque world where George Orwell’s ‘Newspeak’ is the official language. One word in particular elicits that feeling
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Bakhmut and the limits of historical parallels
Photo by the 93rd Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army showing a destroyed Bakhmut during the winter of February 2023. Photo courtesy the Armed Forces of Ukraine/Facebook/Wikimedia Commons. The media loves historical parallels. They can supercharge an argument through their suggestion that history might repeat itself. They are also emotionally
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Self-determination in Ukraine should cut both ways
The Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia, Bulgaria, a day after it had been painted in the colours of the Ukrainian national flag. Photo by Vassia Atanassova/Wikimedia Commons. There has been an awful lot written in the Canadian and wider Western press since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine about how
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: We need statesmanship, not politics, to end Ukraine war
Minister of Defence Anita Anand, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly at the 2022 NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain. Photo from Twitter. As a military historian I am always seeing parallels between past events and those taking place today, including the war in Ukraine. Parallels between
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: What happened to Canada’s foreign policy?
United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti. UN photo by Logan Abassi/Flickr. Before coming to live in Canada after being offered a job at the University of Calgary in 2004 I didn’t have all that many ideas about what it means to be Canadian. Although it was a struggle to tell the
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