The Canadian International History Committee will be hosting its annual business meeting at the 2025 Congress/Canadian Historical Association meetings on Tuesday June 3 between 12:00 and 13:00. The meeting will take place in the Limberlost Building Roome 531 (WFL-531) of the Waterfront Campus of George Brown College. We hope to see you there. Tuesday June 3, 2025 …
Category: Canadian Eyes Only
All volumes of DCER have been digitally re-scanned
The Historical Section and the Jules Léger Library at Global Affairs Canada are pleased to announce that, in collaboration with the Canadian Research Knowledge Network, every volume in the Documents on Canadian External Relations (DCER) series has been digitally re-scanned. Using the latest technology, the legibility of the text and the quality of the images …
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CFIHP: Accessing Historic Records on Intelligence and International Affairs
CFIHP will be hosting a symposium on “Accessing Historic Records on Intelligence and International Affairs” on 5 May 2023, at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa. Below is the event poster providing details of the symposium. Researchers working in the field of intelligence and international history in Canada face two daunting challenges: locating …
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CFP: 2023 North American Society for Intelligence History (NASIH) Conference
Deadline extended to 9 January 2023 -- Call for Papers: North American Society for Intelligence History Annual ConferenceUniversity of Calgary, July 20-23, 2023 The North American Society for Intelligence History (NASIH) is pleased to announce a call for papers for its third conference to be held at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, July …
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Alan Barnes to the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
On October 23, 2022, Alan Barnes gave a presentation to the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics on the challenges facing historians. Barnes is co-leader of the Canadian Foreign Intelligence History Project and a previous contributor to Canadian Eyes Only. Presentation by Alan Barnes Canadian Foreign Intelligence History Project Mr. Chairman, members of the …
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Susan Colbourn on Euromissles
Canadian Eyes Only editor Susan Colbourn recently reflected on the process of writing and publishing her new book, Euromissiles: The Weapons that Almost Destroyed NATO. Here is the link to Colbourn's post: http://www.susancolbourn.net/blog/2022/11/15/ready-to-launch
“Gems from NATO:” the Canadian War on Jargon in the North Atlantic Alliance’s Formative Years
Sam Eberlee, University of Toronto | The benefits of NATO membership have never been more apparent. But being a part of the North Atlantic alliance has always come with certain unique challenges, not least of which has been reaching consensus among members. NATO has always seemed on the verge of internal collapse. Hidden in Library …
Publication Notice: CIHC Members Publish New Research
Asa McKercher, “How reliable an ally?”: Surveying American power and credibility after the fall of Saigon—and Kabul," International Journal. Advance online access. Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/00207020221115438 Abstract: The withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, and the subsequent collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government in August 2021, raised doubts in the United States and abroad about the limits …
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Studying Canada’s Cold War? Go East, young scholar … and maybe skip Ottawa
Simon Miles It all started with a finding aid. Trawling through the finding aids at Romania’s Arhivele Naţionale, I came across a run of files on Canadian assistance to the Romanian nuclear program. I knew that Romania’s Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant runs on a CANDU reactor provided by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, a deal …
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Adam Chapnick on Liberals’ Indo-Pacific Strategy
Adam Chapnick Last week, when the Canadian government announced that it had formed a committee of experts to advise on the development of its forthcoming Asia-Pacific Strategy, I tweeted out a rather flustered response: Not one #historian on this list. Will the political level ever learn? Liberals appoint committee of experts to help build Indo-Pacific …
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A Country Without a History?: Dispatches from a Stuck Historian
Susan Colbourn Access is the coin of the realm for historians. We rely on access to the records of individuals and agencies, using everything from scraps of paper and archived emails to meeting minutes and position papers. Where possible, we often hope to gain access to those intimately involved with our subject of research to …
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John W. Holmes Book Series in Canadian Foreign Policy
The John W. Holmes Book Series in Canadian Foreign Policy This open-access book series, to be published by the University of Calgary Press in partnership with the Centre for International Governance Innovation, honours and celebrates the intellectual legacy of John Wendell Holmes (1910-1988), one of Canada’s foremost diplomats and foreign policy educators. In the words …
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PRISONERS OF THE PAST? A Conversation about History and Policy
TIM Sayle: Well, folks, here we go. I’ve looked at a contemporary (or future) policy problem and tried to draw on some lessons from the past to inform my thinking and recommendation. I’m talking about my National Post op-ed, “Canada’s new NATO role should be defending North America.” I noted that I think NATO is …
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Just What are They Trying to Protect?: Redactions to Records on Intelligence and International Affairs and the Writing of Canadian History
By Alan Barnes In recent decades, Canadian historians have become reliant on the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) process for the release of government historical records. This was not supposed to happen: when the Access to Information Act (ATIA) was passed in 1983 it was not intended to replace the existing mechanisms for declassifying …
Historical Research Officer: Global Affairs Canada
Global Affairs Canada is hiring a Historical Research Officer. Reporting to the Head of the Historical Section at Global Affairs Canada, the Historical Research Officer contributes to the Section’s research and outreach programs designed to promote greater understanding of the history of Canadian diplomacy and international relations, including such flagship research projects as the Documents …
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“‘Posting a chap’: Attaching a Canadian intelligence officer to British intelligence in Cold War Germany”
Timothy Andrews Sayle, University of Toronto | This is a short description of a minor episode – a small snapshot of Canada’s intelligence history. On one hand, it is little more than a factual description of correspondence between offices in London and between London and Ottawa, all of it making arrangements for a Canadian to …
Greg Donaghy: Remembering a Scholar, Mentor, and Friend
*Please post a comment or memory at the bottom of this page if you wish to write a short message about Greg. -- By Asa McKercher, Royal Military College of Canada On 1 July 2020, Greg Donaghy died. The director of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto and …
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Remembering Gregory Owen Donaghy, September 8, 1961 – July 1, 2020
The Canadian International History Committee/Comité d'histoire internationale du Canada is deeply saddened by the passing of historian Greg Donaghy, a long-time mentor, colleague and friend to our entire community. Greg Donaghy joined the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History as Director on 1 July 2019, after serving as Head of the Historical Section, Global …
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Brendan Kelly (The Good Fight) Wins 2020 John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize
The CIH/HIC is delighted to share the news and offer its congratulations to historian Brendan Kelly, recently named winner of the 2020 John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize for The Good Fight: Marcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy. The Good Fight is published by UBC Press as part of its vibrant C.D. Howe Series in Canadian Political …
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Listening in on Brian Mulroney and George H.W. Bush
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 …
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How a colonial dispute almost stopped NATO from forming
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 …
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Launch of Canada Declassified
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 …
Concept of Operations in the Event of Unlimited Nuclear War, 1957–1963
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 …
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US Investigation of Canadians During the Second Red Scare, 1953-1957
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 …
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Canada, NATO, and Global Strategy: 1952–1953
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 …
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