The Canadian International History Committee / Comité d'histoire internationale du Canada
Publication Notice | Challenge the Strong Wind: Canada and East Timor, 1975-99. David Webster. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2020. In 1975, Indonesian forces overran East Timor, just days after it had declared independence from Portugal. Canadian officials knew the invasion was coming and initially endorsed Indonesian rule. The ensuing occupation of the Southeast …
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Publication Notice | The Good Fight: Marcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy. Brendan Kelly. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2019. Before official bilingualism was established in 1969, francophones were scarce in the Canadian public service. Marcel Cadieux was one of the few, becoming arguably the most important francophone diplomat and civil servant in Canadian history. …
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Publication Notice | A Samaritan State Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Foreign Aid. Greg Donaghy and David Webster. Eds. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2019. Canada’s foreign aid programs are an area of ongoing interest, yet there is little knowledge of Canada’s 70-year aid history, the historic forces that have shaped Canadian aid policy, and …
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Publication Notice | Canada on the United Nations Security Council: A Small Power on a Large Stage. Adam Chapnick. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2019. As the twentieth century ended, Canada was completing its sixth term on the United Nations Security Council, more terms than all but three other non-permanent members. A decade later, …
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Call for Papers Canadian Historical Association Annual Meeting Western University London, Ontario 1-3 June 2020 In June 2020, Western University in London, Ontario will host the 99th annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association. This year’s Program Committee has elected not to designate a conference theme. Instead, all are invited to submit proposals in English …
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The “military-industrial complex” (MIC) is defined as an informal alliance between a nation’s military and defence industries. The term gained popularity following President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address in January 1961 in which he warned Americans about the powerful “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry” and its potential for acquiring “unwarranted …
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Publication Notice | Resisting Rights: Canada and the International Bill of Rights, 1947–76. Jennifer Tunnicliffe. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2019. From 1948 to 1966, the United Nations worked to create an international bill of rights that would provide a common standard for human rights protection around the globe. Canadians celebrate their country’s central …
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By Asa McKercher, Royal Military College of Canada | As several recent articles attest, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is experiencing a renaissance of sorts. Although he left the Prime Minister’s Office amid scandal and historically low approval ratings – indeed in the election held soon after his departure, the Progressive Conservative Party was …
Continue reading Listening in on Brian Mulroney and George H.W. Bush
Publication Notice | Canada and the World since 1867. Asa McKercher. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. This book is a history of Canada's role in the world as well as the impact of world events on Canada. Starting from the country's quasi-independence from Britain in 1867, its analysis moves through events in Canadian and global …
Publication Notice | Fighting with the Empire: Canada, Britain, and Global Conflict, 1867–1947. Steve Marti and William John Pratt. Eds. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2019. Canadians often characterize their military history as a march toward nationhood, but in the first eighty years of Confederation they were fighting for the British Empire. From 1867 …
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By David Webster, Bishop's University | Seventy years ago, delegates from Canada, the United States and ten European governments fulfilled the dream of many policymakers in Ottawa as they signed the North Atlantic Treaty. Signed on 4 April 1949, the pact marks the birth of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formalized a little bit …
Continue reading How a colonial dispute almost stopped NATO from forming
(Le message en français suit.) The Historical Section (PORH) is pleased to sponsor a two-day conference on the history of women and Canada’s international history on the theme, Breaking Barriers, Shaping Worlds: Women and the Search for Global Order, 1919-2019. Linking past and present, this symposium will explore how Canadian women have influenced Canada’s …
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Members of the Canadian Foreign Intelligence History Project (CFIHP) have begun a Petition to ensure the proper archiving of historical records, including intelligence files. Please read and consider signing at this link. Petition to Justin Trudeau Whereas: The Government of Canada promotes values of transparency and openness through the provisions of the Access to Information …
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The Canadian Foreign Intelligence History Project invites paper proposals for a one-day workshop on the history of Canadian foreign intelligence to be held in Ottawa on July 10, 2019. Paper topics might include (but are not limited to): The management structures governing foreign intelligence in Canada The organizations involved in foreign intelligence collection and analysis …
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Publication Notice | The Selected Works of George R. Lindsey: Operational Research, Strategic Studies, and Canadian Defence in the Cold War. George R. Lindsey; edited by Matthew S. Wiseman. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019. During a government career that spanned nearly the whole of the Cold War, George Roy Lindsey gained a reputation as …
Publication Notice | Enduring Alliance: A History of NATO and the Postwar Global Order. Timothy Andrews Sayle. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019. Born from necessity, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has always seemed on the verge of collapse. Even now, some sixty years after its inception, some consider its foundation uncertain and its …
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There is an exciting new historical research resource available online. Canada Declassified is a digital repository of government records declassified under the Canadian Access to Information Act. The holdings span the whole of the Cold War period from 1945 through 1991, the vast majority being government records declassified by the Access to Information and Privacy …
Publication Notice | Undiplomatic History: The New Study of Canada and the World. Asa McKercher and Philip Van Huizen. Eds. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019. When the field of Canadian history underwent major shifts in the 1990s, international history became marginalized and the focus turned away from foreign affairs. Over the past decade, …
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Contemporary International History is a highly popular graduate program at outstanding universities, and undergraduate courses in the field are often filled first. Popular histories and even academic studies of wars since 1939 occupy frequently appear on bestseller lists, and filmmakers seek out spy stories and tales of international intrigue. Yet within the university, particularly in …
Continue reading State of the Field Conference: Contemporary International History
Publication Notice | Reassessing the Rogue Tory: Canadian Foreign Relations in the Diefenbaker Era. Janice Cavell and Ryan M. Touhey. Eds. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2018. The years when John Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservatives were in office were among the most tumultuous in Canadian history. Variously branded as a populist, maverick, and “Rogue Tory,” …
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By Andrew Zhao, University of Toronto | This blog post accompanies the release of a digital briefing book, created in May 2018 by a team of University of Toronto undergraduate students participating in the Jackman Humanities Institute's Scholars-in-Residence research program. Part of an ongoing series, Canada Declassified's digital briefing books include key documents from recently …
Continue reading Concept of Operations in the Event of Unlimited Nuclear War, 1957–1963
By Alexandra Southgate, University of Toronto | This blog post accompanies the release of a digital briefing book, created in May 2018 by a team of University of Toronto undergraduate students participating in the Jackman Humanities Institute's Scholars-in-Residence research program. Part of an ongoing series, Canada Declassified's digital briefing books include key documents from recently …
Continue reading US Investigation of Canadians During the Second Red Scare, 1953-1957
By Daria Mancino, University of Toronto | This blog post accompanies the release of a digital briefing book, created in May 2018 by a team of University of Toronto undergraduate students participating in the Jackman Humanities Institute's Scholars-in-Residence research program. Part of an ongoing series, Canada Declassified's digital briefing books include key documents from recently …
Continue reading Canada, NATO, and Global Strategy: 1952–1953
By Andrew Zhao, University of Toronto | This blog post accompanies the release of a digital briefing book, created in May 2018 by a team of University of Toronto undergraduate students participating in the Jackman Humanities Institute's Scholars-in-Residence research program. Part of an ongoing series, Canada Declassified's digital briefing books include key documents from recently …
Continue reading Preparing for the Warm War: Implications of a Defeat in Korea, 1950–1951
By Daria Mancino, University of Toronto | This blog post accompanies the release of a digital briefing book, created in May 2018 by a team of University of Toronto undergraduate students participating in the Jackman Humanities Institute's Scholars-in-Residence research program. Part of an ongoing series, Canada Declassified's digital briefing books include key documents from recently …
