The Story Three months after stepping into power, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party face one of their first major governance controversies, over their continued support of a controversial $15 billion (Cdn) arms deal to Saudi Arabia. The deal represents the largest contract to export manufactured goods in Canadian history, and will employ an…
Ed. Note: Happy New Year to all PineTreeRepublic citizens! As a brief personal aside, I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read, like, share, and perhaps even comment on the posts that have appeared on this blog over the past year. I started this project just under a year ago out of…
The Nov. 13 attacks in Paris have prompted world leaders to focus on defeating the Islamic State, or Daesh (referred to in this post as ISIS), to a level of determination rarely seen on global issues. The Group of 20 (G20) summit held in Turkey just a week after the events, in which leaders from 20…
As chance would have it, two weeks ago I began working on a review of the book ISIS: The State of Terror, by Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger. The main theme of my review was that, while the book provided some interesting context on the rise of the Islamic State and the evolution of global terrorism, it…
Ed. Note: Last week, we began a three-part series exploring one Syrian’s experience immigrating to Canada. Canada’s role in the refugee crisis has become the subject of a national conversation since the photos of three-year old Alan Kurdi emerged, as it was later revealed that his aunt had attempted to bring the family to Canada.…
Ed. Note: On Wednesday, Sept. 2, the world woke up to a startling image of a three-year old Syrian boy, lying face down and lifeless on the Turkish shore near the town of Bodrum. Over the next day, we learned that Alan Kurdi’s father attempted to bring his family to Greece through a perilous five-kilometer…
The Story As Major League Baseball reached its annual deadline for trading players last week, exchanges with much more far-reaching consequences were taking place in the Greater Middle East. On July 23, the United States signed an agreement with Turkey, Syria’s northern neighbour, to use the Turkish air base of Incirlik to launch air strikes against Islamic…
The Story On Sunday, June 7, Turks voted in a general parliamentary election whose results will likely ripple across the greater Middle East. Surprisingly, Turkish President (and longtime Prime Minister) Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s centre-right Justice and Development Party (AKP) was dealt a relative defeat in winning far fewer seats than expected. While the party retained the highest number of…
The Story On Thursday, May 14, President Barack Obama hosted a one-day summit at his Camp David retreat for U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf. Drawing senior government officials from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, the summit was organized against the backdrop of a looming deal between the United…
Good morning Pine Tree Republic citizens! In our Front Page News features, I share 3-5 of the top news stories from the past week and discuss the broader global context in which they occurred. Each post concludes with questions to follow in the coming days and weeks to better understand how today’s news shapes tomorrow’s world. As always,…
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