Centre for Foreign Policy Studies

The Global Security Policy Program

Centre faculty and fellows are involved in ongoing research projects and practical initiatives which address the issues of peacemaking, peace-building, confidence-building, humanitarian intervention, and human security projects, with a particular emphasis on Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The Centre's global security policy program covers a range of activities, including: at least one annual conference and related research on NGO / military interaction in humanitarian and other foreign interventions; the continued promotion and sponsoring of Track II initiatives in the area of confidence-building, with a focus on ongoing projects in the Middle East and Asia; the teaching of at least one dedicated course on contemporary Western democratic approaches to civil-military relations; the continued publication of the highly popular "Ideas" series of Occasional Papers / Books; the provision of expert advice and testimony to Parliament, government departments, and the media; and, support to the Centre's Fall and Winter Seminar Series.

Under its Global Security pillar, the Centre has become the institutional home for the Child Soldier’s Initiative and for a major research and training focus on Conflict Affected Children and Youth. It is a core institutional partner in a new, Dalhousie-based Network Centres of Excellence – Knowledge Mobilization grant on “Children and Youth in Challenging Contexts”. For more information the Centre’s work on Conflict-Affected Children and youth, contact the Deputy Director, Dr. Shelly Whitman: cfpsddir@dal.ca.

The Centre is also a partner in the Dalhousie-based, interdisciplinary PIRACY project, funded by the TK Foundation and managed by the Marine Affairs Program. For more information on the PIRACY project, click here.

New & Upcoming Publications:

This is the third volume of the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies' highly acclaimed and well received issue-and-debate series addressing contemporary topics in security and defence studies. Twenty-five scholars and policy-makers respond to Michael Friend's intriguing article about the search for WMD in Iraq. Even prior to the 2nd Iraqi war, non-proliferation has been the foremost concern discussed throughout international diplomacy. From the treaties we sign to control it, to the intelligence we use to verify it, to the pre-emptive actions we take to prevent it, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has become the foremost threat to international peace and stability. The contributors to this volume debate the merits of arms control treaties, address the short-comings and increased requirements of the intelligence community, and address whether a viable international system can be founded upon a doctrine of pre-emptive war. The result is an informative and policy relevant contribution to the foremost security issue of the new security environment.

WITH THE SAME ALACRITY as the felling of the Berlin Wall, the destruction of the attacks on September 11th marked the beginning of a new political era. In After 9/11: Terrorism and Crime in a Globalised World, over twenty policy-practitioners and academics from around the world engage in analysing the foremost issues and debates which confront us all in this troubling new global epoch of international terrorism and transnational organised crime. From determining how we should attempt to understand this new era and strive to shape it, to how we should go about behaving towards each other in it, After 9/11: Terrorism and Crime in a Globalised World critically examines those issues which impact all our lives, through our security to our mechanisms of government to our very social values.

THIRTY-SEVEN OF THE WESTERN WORLD'S FOREMOST journalists, policy practitioners and academics provide their commentaries on one of the most pressing issues facing the world of international relations today: the "unstoppable" unilateralism of American foreign policy and the "immovable" adherence to multilateralism practiced by the rest of the world. Compiled from the "uniquely Canadian perspective," the volume addresses the issue of independence in the face of an ideologically driven "hyperpower" and how multilateralism and unilateralism are (and should be) employed to both influence America and fight the plague of terrorism.