Canada’s latest defence daydream
Army reservists during routine training. Photo courtesy Canadian Armed Forces. Talk of war is in the air—at least among senior defence officials. Brigadier-General Brendan Cook, the Royal Canadi...
Paul Robinson
Pete Hegseth’s dangerous warrior fantasy
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth meets with the National Guard at the Washington DC Armory, August 22, 2025. Photo courtesy Pete Hegseth/X. “We became the woke department, but not any…
Squaring an impossible circle of peace and insecurity in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump flanked by some of their respective delegations during the 2025 Russia–United States Summit in Anchorage, Alaska. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. Now that the dust ...
Why the Trump-Putin summit is unlikely to ‘ripen’ peace in Ukraine
Ukrainian national flags flying over the Yatsevo Cemetery in Chernihiv. Photo by Stas Yurchenko. Two weeks ago, on July 28, American political scientist William Zartman passed away. Famous for i...
The empty case for Canada’s 5% defence pledge
Mark Carney speaks at the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, June 25, 2025. Photo courtesy Mark Carney/X. The priorities of our political leaders can be very hard to understand.…
The use and abuse of Russia’s ‘Great Patriotic War’
Moscow Victory Day parade, 2020. Photo courtesy the Kremlin/Wikimedia Commons. On May 9, Russians will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, or as they…
Can Trump’s Ukraine peace plan succeed?
Despite all the diplomatic back-and-forth, Ukraine and Russia remain far from even the most basic agreement for a permanent ceasefire in the war. Photo courtesy the Armed Forces of Ukraine/Facebook.…
Inching closer to an uneasy peace in Ukraine
Ukrainian soldiers with a captured Russian T-90M Proryv tank in the Kursk region. Photo courtesy Ministry of Defence of Ukraine/Wikimedia Commons. In December 1990, Serbian rebels declared indep...
The foreign interference report’s great anticlimax
Commissioner Justice Marie-Josée Hogue speaks to reporters after the release of the final report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions in Ottawa.…
Canada’s vassal status on full display with return of Trump
Donald Trump, on his first day as president during his second term signing executive orders, and taking press questions on January 20, 2025 in the Oval Office. Photo by the…
What is the West’s end-goal in Ukraine?
Damaged apartment block in Kyiv. Photo by Oleksandr Ratushniak/UNDP Ukraine/Flickr. Back in 1997, when Canada still had a more or less independent foreign policy, the Canadian government celebra...
Canada’s ‘New Red Scare’ is profoundly undemocratic
The cover of the The Communist Threat to Canada, a booklet published by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in 1947. In the past decade, a disturbing phenomenon has arisen in…
Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’ faces sobering realities
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on September 26, 2024. Photo courtesy Volodymyr Zelensky/X. ...
Ukraine rolls the dice on Kursk incursion
Photo by Madeleine Kelly/ZUMA Press The war in Ukraine keeps throwing up surprises. For the past few months, the news has been almost universally bad for the Ukrainians. The Russian…
In Ukraine war’s shadow, cracks emerging in European consensus
Image by natanaelginting/Freepik As the election excitement heats up in the United States, increasing concern is visible in some quarters about the likely effect of the election on Ameri...
Far-eastern promises
Portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are displayed side by side in Pyongyang, June 19, 2024. Photo courtesy KRT/Reuters. A few years ago, it…
The West’s double standards on Georgia’s ‘foreign agents’ bill
Protesters in Tbilisi, Georgia, April 9, 2021. Photo by Eval Miko/Vecteezy. The Republic of Georgia has not enjoyed a stable life in the 30 years or so since it gained…
Putin is here to stay, whether the West likes it or not
Vladimir Putin is interviewed by Russian TV presenter and propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov in the Kremlin in March 2024. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. As elections go, the presidential contest that took…
An endgame in Ukraine may be fast approaching
The military situation today is very different from that of a year ago when commentators were predicting that final victory was within Ukraine’s grasp. Photo courtesy the 148th Separate Artillery…
Lenin: a centenary reflection
Statue of Lenin in Nohra, Germany. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. “Ленин жил. Ленин жив. Ленин будет жить.” “Lenin lived. Lenin lives. Lenin will keep on living.” This popular slogan reflected…