It Won’t Come Easy

Power is shifting from the North Atlantic to the Asia- Pacific and the era of state-centricity has ended with the emergence of a multiplicity of new actors in an increasingly heteropolar world. [...] These influential interests are served by the persistence of the global war on terror, under whatever guise, and the related perpetuation of the politics of fear.20 When thinking about the foremost risks facing the planet, the received wisdom suggests that people everywhere should all be afraid, very afraid, of religious extremism, political violence and terrorism. [...] Vaughan Turekian, the science and technology advisor at the U. S. State Department and former head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (AAAS) science and diplomacy program, has launched a raft of innovative initiatives.49 The SESAME Synchrotron project in Jordan is co-managed by a group of countries not known for their habits of co-operation — Palestine, Israel, Turkey and [...] It is equally important to underline that much of the science diplomacy conducted since the end of the Cold War has been related to weapons programs, or their location and dismantling.53 The internationally certified cessation of certain weapons-of-mass-destruction (WMD) programs in Russia, Libya, South Africa, Argentina, Ukraine and Kazakhstan was both necessary and desirable, and represent SD mi [...] Or why not choose one or two other issues from the remainder of the sprawling compendium of wicked issues in order to make our mark and demonstrate — through diplomacy of the deed — that beyond the profusion of alternative facts, fake news and deliberate distortion there is a way forward and that Canada cares?