International Relations

The security environment of the European continent has been steadily shifting over the past two decades resulting in the emergence of a new concept of collective security based on democratic principles, regional co-operation and partnership. With the collapse of Yugoslavia and the resulting conflicts of the 1990s, the question of where Serbia lies within this re-conceptualization of security has become increasingly evident as talks of enlargement of the European Union become more frequent and the democratic transition of the region becomes more pronounced. The 2009 National Security Strategy of the Republic of Serbia is the first and only strategic document of its kind for Serbia, representing a starting point for strategic development and continuous improvement of security policy with regards to the establishment of national interests and the identification of threats that challenge its survival.

Although the history of Kosovo is undoubtedly one that encompasses ethnic violence, attributing the fundamental dynamics and chief causes of the conflict from 1981 onwards to intrinsic hatreds engendered in Kosovo Serbs and Albanians is inaccurate, if not reckless. In order to precisely understand the eruption of ethnic violence, the conflict must be examined from another perspective altogether, reallocating the locus of analysis from idle deliberations about either group’s ‘right’ to the territory, to one that provides a succinct investigation of the more recent motivations behind the conflict. Through identifying the extent to which both groups summon history and myth to legitimize modern territorial claims, the constitutional and economic failures of Yugoslavia, and finally the rise of ethno-nationalist mobilization, this paper attempts to provide a comprehensive framework for interpreting the radicalization of both pro- and anti-independence movements in Kosovo, asserting that various socio-economic and structural failures are what led to such violent radicalization, rather than issues of irreconcilable ethnic identity.

In considering the international media’s recent representation of ethnonational conflicts, careless essentializations have been made in order to simplify these complex events by distinguishing ethnic groups through a binary of either helpless victims or aggressive perpetrators. Due to the ethnonationalist nature of much of the discourse that propagates this type of violence, most interpretations falsely assume domestic unity within these respective groups, ignoring the internal hierarchies which define themselves not only along lines of race or religion, but through the other, often overlooked, issue of gender. This analysis theoretically assesses the ways in which gender discourse has intersected with ethnically based nationalist developments in Yugoslavia through examining the varying positions of its women, arguing that only through a gender analysis of the instrumentalization of women during the conflict can a more complete understanding of its causes and consequences be facilitated.

In recent years, observers in both Canada and Brazil have pointed to the benefits of further developing relations between the two countries. Despite diplomatic efforts to promote productive interchange however, levels of trade – perhaps the most salient barometer of relationship health – have remained both modest and relatively stagnant. This is true, moreover, in spite of broad advances made by Brazil in particular in relationship building elsewhere. This paper seeks to explore the roots of this seeming paradox by examining the factors that appear to have facilitated the growth of diplomatic and trade relations between Brazil and partners other than Canada – specifically in Africa; relations rooted primarily in a strategy of “cultural approximation”. The potential role of cultural factors in promoting the Canada-Brazil relationship is then explored in this light, focusing on recent efforts to support enhanced educational and scientific interchange between the two countries.

Based on primary and secondary sources, this article analyzes the policy of the Mulroney government on humanitarian intervention in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1993. It finds that the Mulroney government chose to play a leading role in the international intervention in the former Yugoslavia, because doing so both allowed the government to implement its vision of a post-Cold War world order that aligned with its understanding of Canadian interests, and satisfied the demands and preferences of the Canadian public. At the same time, the Mulroney government stumbled into unanticipated situations in Yugoslavia, and failed to respond to them effectively. This led the government to reconsider the assumptions that had motivated its initial enthusiasm for intervention, and to commence a review of peacekeeping and intervention that it would not live to implement.

Paper Presented at the University of Toronto Political Science Undergraduate Research Colloquium 2015 organized by the Association of Political Science Students on January 14, 2015 at the Hart House Debates Room Submitted to T-Space on March 5, 2015

This paper challenges existing analyses of party cleavages in Sub-Saharan Africa which over-emphasise the centrality of ethnicity. Parties express ideological positions that reflect the socio-economic interests of specific regions, which, especially in Zambia, coincide with particular ethnic groups. We demonstrate this through an examination of party manifestos, policy documents and semi-structured interviews with members of two political parties in Zambia – the Patriotic Front and the United Party for National Development. These parties express clear normative ideas about social welfare, especially the role of the state in providing social assistance to the poorest. These ideological positions reflect the socio-economic interests of the ethnic groups and regions where support for each party is dominant. These are shaped by the ways in which these regions were historically incorporated into the colonial economy. In order to gain a better understanding of African politics, ethnicity ...

This thesis investigates the potential and emerging roles of the Social Economy at the level of global governance by examining how transnational civil society (TCS) has organized in an attempt to influence global policy-making. One of this study's principal aims is to glean insights into the dynamics of civil society coalitions, gaining a better understanding of how they combine the collective knowledge, resources and strengths of members and drawing out some of the "best practices" and challenges inherent in past civil society alliances. This study seeks to explore the complex nature of the relationships that exist among civil society actors and the unique challenges such groups face in forming partnerships by examining these relationships through

This paper is a compilation of studies undertaken by CSERP that focus on the relationship between the Social Economy and education. These papers were completed by researchers at CSEHub on the high school curricula in BC (Cormode, Smith and McKitrick, 2008), Manitoba (Amyot, Smith and McKitrick, 2009), Nova Scotia (Amyot and McKitrick, 2009) and one by the Social Economy Centre in Toronto on the Ontario high school curriculum (Fong, McKitrick and Smith, 2009). A final paper considers the role of ' ...

and the United States. Together, these eight states account for 48% of the global economy and 49% of global trade, hold four of the United Nations' five Permanent Security Council seats, and boast majority shareholder control over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The G6 (Canada and Russia excluded) originally met in Rambouillet, France in 1975 to discuss the economic impact of the OPEC oil crisis and the end of the US-dollar gold standard regime. In 1976, they were joined by Canada, with Russia gaining membership in 1998. Each year the leaders of these states meet at an annual summit in what is the most powerful and intimate meeting of global leaders anywhere in the world. Unlike other multilateral meetings, leaders at the G8 Summit meet privately behind closed-doors; there are no aides or intermediaries and there are few scripts of protocols. For some, the G8 is a concert of powers operating the most relevant center for global governance, with its flexibility and dynamism making it far more effective than the post-1945 institutions, namely the United Nations (UN). For others, the G8 is an unelected 'committee that runs the world,' an epicenter of global capitalism and neo-colonialism. In the past the G8 has discussed and made joint commitments on a variety of issue areas that relate to the international economy, nuclear disarmament, peacekeeping, terrorism, energy, development, climate change, and regional security. While there are disagreements over its intentions, few deny the reach and scope of the G8's influence and control. While originally conceived as an economic gathering, the G8 Summit has now become a major arena for international action on HIV/AIDS, weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), terrorism and global trade. Past G8 Summits have produced such landmark agreements as the 1995 reform of the World Bank and IMF, the 1999 Enhanced HIPC Initiative for debt relief, and the 2001 Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. 4 G8 Reform: Expanding the Dialogue Civil Society and Expanded Dialogue, G8 Research Group Executive Summary and Introduction The G8 as an institution has a lot of power, not because it represents a majority of the world's population, but because it is comprised of members from wealthy countries who can alter and create policies that affect the rest of the world. The G8 has come under continuous criticism for not being an inclusive or representative body. There have been calls for the G8 to reform, or to dismantle entirely to allow other multilateral organizations to take its place. Many see the G8 as an archaic cold war institution that does not reflect the current global situation. 1 Furthermore, the G8 does not include the two most populous countries in the world China and India and all of the member states are highly industrialized countries from the "North" with no representation from the Middle East, Latin America, or Africa. For its part, the G8 has taken some actions to address these concerns. Since the 2001 Genoa Summit, whenever dealing with a regional issue, such as African development, the G8 has extended invitations to a selective number of leaders from the particular region. In fact, since 2002, leaders from Africa have been invited to meet for short discussions with the G8 leaders during each summit. At the 2004 Sea Island Summit, the United States also extended this invitation to leaders from the Middle East to contribute to the creation of a "Broader Middle East Initiative." In 2003 at the Evian Summit, French President Jacques Chirac also invited the leaders of four emerging countries: China, India, Mexico and Brazil to participate in the G8's dialogue. On 28 March 2005, Tony Blair followed President Chirac's lead by extending an invitation to attend this year's summit in Gleneagles, Scotland to the four leading emerging countries and South Africa. More commonly, the hosting G8 country has invited leaders or ministers from other institutions to different Ministerial Meetings. In the past, the President of the European Commission, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Secretary-General for the United Nations have been asked to participate in these meetings and have been involved in some of the discussion at certain summits.

This thesis aims to expand scholarship on civil society and peace-building through exploration of civil society's experiences, perspectives, and practices in relation to the politics of peace-building and human (in)security in instances of victor's peace, using post-war Sri Lanka as case study. It adopts Human Security as an analytical approach calling attention to insecurities operating on and through Sri Lankans but also the nature of power dynamics underlying these insecurities based on the subjective and political nature of 'peace' itself. Embarking on a PhD has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. Both the happy and hard moments have been shared with many more people than it is possible to thank in this 'Acknowledgments', but to those family, friends, and colleagues both at the LSE and abroad that I have connected with over the last four years, it has been a great privilege to have you in my life and I thank you for the ways that you have enriched it. I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor, Mark Hoffman, for the guidance that he has provided throughout my doctorate and especially for his patience in reading through several rather lengthy drafts of this thesis! His natural good nature and calm demeanour have been appreciated much more than he is probably aware and I have greatly enjoyed and valued our conversations on Sri Lanka. To Dr. Leonie Solomons, without your counsel, mentorship, and constructive challenges this thesis would not exist in its current form. Our nightly chats whilst I was conducting fieldwork in Sri Lanka were amongst the most stimulating and thought-provoking I have had throughout this entire process. Words cannot sufficiently express what your support and assistance has meant to me and I am honoured to have you as a friend. I look forward to working together again in the near future. I am deeply indebted to the research participants who contributed to this study, particularly in Sri Lanka, who opened their lives, experiences, and struggles to me, sometimes with significant personal risk to themselves. I hope that I have been able to adequately capture your stories in this thesis. The time that I spent in Sri Lanka touched me deeply and changed me in ways that I am still just beginning to realise. The conversations I had, people I met, and adventures I experienced in this beautiful country will be with me forever. My PhD would not have been possible without the innumerable sacrifices made by my wonderful husband Eric. I thank him more than he will ever know for his willingness to uproot our lives in Canada and move across the ocean to the UK so that I could pursue my dreams, for his infallibly positive and encouraging attitude, and for being my partner throughout so much of this research. He has remained my sounding board, source of inspiration, and driving force when things got difficult that has enabled me to finish the thesis. Last, but certainly not least, a huge thank you to my parents for their 32 years of unwavering love and support in all of my pursuits and for always being a shoulder to cry on, an outlet to vent to, and a friend to laugh with and share the many amazing experiences that I have been fortunate enough to have on this journey. Thank you for always believing that I can do anything I put my mind to. Victor's Peace Sri Lanka 9.3 Examining the Nature of Victor's Peace in Sri Lanka 9.4 Using Human Security as Conceptual Framework 9.5 Conclusion: Limitations and Future Possibilities arising from the Thesis Appendix A: Research Methods victor's peace. In this respect, it is important to be clear that this thesis is about the and relationship between civil society and peace-building within a particular context (victor's peace) and that it is not a thesis about evaluating 'human security' 5 as a policy paradigm in which to respond to humanitarian crises. Rather this study seeks to demonstrate that Human Security represents a useful analytical framework for understanding and problematizing the roles and experiences of civil society in relation to the politics of peace-building in victor's peace as it contrasts with the notion and assumptions surrounding 'peace' itself. In this sense the notion of peace is seen to be subjective, political, and to reflect a typology of potential forms of peace, and although it is recognised that broadly speaking peace may refer to the end of organised violent conflict (Galtung and Jacobsen 2000), individuals and groups may continue to experience insecurity based on structural inequalities or because these actors express viewpoints that run counter to those expressed within the dominant discourses associated with the particular articulation and practice of peace being promoted. This study seeks to contribute to developing deeper understandings of the nexus between civil society-peace-building through analysis of the experiences and perspectives of civil society actors and their constituent members, and, the strategies they adopt in manoeuvring and navigating within the underexplored phenomena of 'victor's peace' as an outcome to civil conflict. It asks how are we to conceive of victor's peace and civil society in Sri Lanka: what do peace and security mean to these actors and what insecurities do they face, what are the experiences and perspectives of civil society as they relate to their practices concerning peacein the context of civil society peace-building that explores both daily experiences and constraints operating on and through people's daily practices. 5 This thesis agrees with Mary Kaldor's (2007) assertion that 'human security is about the security of individuals and communities rather than the security of states' (p. 182). Human security has, however, been conceptualised in a variety of different ways that can be traced back to the 1994 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme and has been the subject of much scholarly debate. These debates are discussed below in the section -Competing Visions of Human Security. Political (in)security human rights and electoral monitoring, protection of vulnerable civilians and communities, non-public and public advocacy and mobilizations, intermediation and facilitation, investigations, reporting, research, documentation, and public dissemination of information, and lobbying national and international policy-making bodies

This chapter enquires into the “tricky,” and at present somewhat ambiguous, nexus between social media technologies and business leadership by analyzing the roles and influence of social media in shaping leadership processes within the recent “social media uprisings” using the case study of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. It is argued that “social media mobilizations” have inherently taken up the emergent potentialities of social media technologies in redefining the scope of leadership along increasingly constructionist, relational, and solidarity network leadership dimensions, centring on leadership as processes of influence and interaction generation. This represents a decentring of formal leadership structures as informal communication networks are favoured that rely on emergent and organic groupings of actors adept at coming together and dismantling rapidly as required by the movement in autonomous, targeted, and sometimes “one-off,” actions and partnerships. However, rather than ...

Janel SMITH, Ministry of Health Until 2015 Canadian public health policy on opioids was criticized for being rhetorical, lacking clear definition, and falling foremost on the side of enforcement. This article examines how the 2015 election of a new federal government introduced an alternative approach to opioid injection drug use, framing opioids as public health and human rights issue within Canadian policy. This article assesses the government's commitment to a human rights approach to opioids and problematizes ambiguities in its approach. It raises questions about the politicized nature of the government's strategy and whether Canada's response remains caught between rights and rhetoric. Jusqu'en 2015, on reprochait à la politique canadienne de santé publique sur les opioïdes d'être rhétorique, de ne pas avoir de définition claire et de tomber avant tout du côté de l'application de la loi. Cet article examine comment l'élection en 2015 d'un nouveau gouvernement fédéral a introduit une approche alternative à l'utilisation de drogues injectables aux opioïdes, en encadrant les opioïdes comme des questions de santé publique et de droits de la personne dans la politique canadienne. Cet article évalue l'engagement du gouvernement à l'égard d'une approche des droits de la personne à l'égard des opioïdes et problématique les ambiguïtés dans son approche. Il soulève des questions sur la nature politisée de la stratégie du gouvernement et sur la question de savoir si la réponse du Canada demeure coincée entre les droits et la rhétorique.