It was an honour to offer a eulogy to my mentor, David Malone, at his memorial yesterday. In preparing my remarks, I was reminded again of his extraordinary pen This damning assessment of our foreign policy in the early 2010s reveals enduring truths reviewcanada.ca/magazine/201...

Italians votes for the rule of law. This is democracies protect themselves www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Strong evidence to suggest that the U.S. State Department decision to relax its travel advisory for #Venezuela was politically motivated. Firing 100s of professional U.S. diplomats may lead to Americans dying due to deteriorating government professionalism travel.state.gov/content/trav...

Venezuela's new defence minister, General Gustavo Gonzalez ‌Lopez, issued orders to kill unarmed protesters when he was in the Interior Ministry. Any hope of a democratic transition is diminishing day by day as the Chavista regime consolidates under its new US patrons www.nbcnews.com/world/venezu...

"Realpolitik turned to realdummkopf" - Canada's incoherence over the #Iran war boiled down to its essence. thewalrus.ca/canada-backe... Better to base our #Iran strategy on Canada's actual interests, in coordination with Canada's actual allies. Even if that upsetting a hostile foreign leader

Years from now, Canada's foreign policy will be more shaped by our reaction to the #Iran war than the #Davos speech. That's why it's essential to achieve coherence to the Canadian position on the war. Here's how to start www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Having our own nuclear weapons and relying on those of allies are two different things. As the willingness of the U.S. to protect Canada shrinks, we need a new nuclear umbrella with allies who respect our sovereignty. Peter Jones lays out what that could look like. thewalrus.ca/canada-may-b...

The one constant in all attempts at regime change is tremendous amounts of violence. Take it from someone who saw the violence in both #Iraq and #Afghanistan years after odious regimes in both countries were toppled. My interview on @thecic podcast podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/n... #Iran

The one constants in attempts at regime change is tremendous amounts of violence. Take it from someone who saw the violence in both Iraq and Afghanistan years after regimes changed through foreign military interventions podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/n...

Sigh, diaspora politics continues to plague Canadian foreign policy. Why would a grouping of isolated South Pacific nations and one self-isolating European power be good partners for Canada? Because of the ethnic composition of Canada? Please get serious. www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

Astonishing naivete from the Globe and Mail with this morning's editorial: www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit... I can understand that relief at the death of a hated dictator might lead some to blithely ignore history. But to ignore awareness for that that history as mere "niceties?"

Signs of growing incompetence in U.S. diplomacy, after the purge of professionals these past few months. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026.... #Venezuela saw the same incompetence after Chavez purged the pros in the 2000s.

Canada has decided to dramatically reduce development assistance in 2028, effectively surrendering a source of national power. When threats to our citizens’ interests like pathogens are shared with others, we need to pool funds to fight them together. My argument to @theCIC event “When Aid Retreats”

The democracy movement in the U.S. needs to do much better than Gov Spanberger's response to the State of the Union yesterday. Your country's constitutional order has been overturned but the Democratic Party representative still touts an "exceptional" nation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMEW...

Trump used the State of the Union to boast about the oil seized from the new U.S. colony of #Venezuela with the cooperation of his Chavista allies.The number he claims to have taken is the equivalent of all the foreign revenues the country takes in over two months. The U.S. is bleeding Venezuela dry

With the growing human misery in #Cuba, this recent TV interview of mine is getting much more traction than I would have expected. Here it is ICMYI www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

Intriguing proposal by @globalbrief editor Irvin Studin: Embrace the Arctic Ocean as the venue for trade, culture and discovery and build the norms and institutions for the rest of the world to participate. Build the world we want to see in our own region www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02...

Si le Canada veut se défendre des menaces qui suivent l’effondrement de notre alliance avec les Etats-Unis, il faut engager la population canadienne entière dans la défence national - bien au delà des soldats et des experts en défence. Heureusement ha irons in pays avec une longue histoire guerrière

Pour faire face au menace américaine, Elisabeth Vallet propose que le Canada adopte la strategie des acacias Zimbabweenes : de se transformer dans un matière amère afin de convaincre le prédateur d’abandoner son attaque

Selon Charles-Philippe David, sous un président kleptocrate et néo-royaliste, les Etats-Unis anime à nouveau l’ordre westfalien. Tous ses anciens alliés alienés, les Etats Unis est maintenant devenu “la nation DISPENSABLE”

Selon @laura-julie.bsky.social dans la Presse hier, la militarisation du Canada avance plus rapidement que nos concitoyens le comprennent. Commençons donc à inclure le public dans les débats militaires et stratégiques. Je suis au College militaire royal Saint-Jean au sujet aujourd’hui

"En ce moment, sur la question de la défense, le gouvernement fédéral est l’équivalent d’une Mercedes neuve qui roule à vitesse maximale sur une Autobahn allemande. Tout le monde se tasse de son chemin sans poser trop de questions." www.lapresse.ca/actualites/c...

In his announcement of Canada's new Defence Industrial Strategy just now, PM Carney claims the goal is to build Canada's ability to act independently. Ambitious. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf-N... That is the hallmark of a great power, not a middle power.

“Canada must shift from a Euro-Atlantic to the Eurasian mindset” - former Amb to Jordan/Afghanistan/UAE at a CIC Toronto event

Hello Roman, Bob's Substack will provide part of the answer. In my remarks I focussed on the imperative of Venezuelan citizens regaining control over their government so that stability can finally return - without that the humanitarian crisis will continue and so will the theft of their oil revenues

@bobbyrae48.bsky.social wrote about our joint event on the crisis in #Venezuela and what it means for Canada's imperatives in a hemisphere where our sovereignty is under assault: open.substack.com/pub/bobrae48...

Looking forward to join Bob Rae in discussing the quasi-colonial relationship that #Venezuela finds itself in with the U.S. today at U of T billgrahamcentre.utoronto.ca/events/a-cha...

I think we shouldn't rule it out, but worth considering from General Eyre here. Reminded of the line from Too Big To Fail: "We don't want to import your cancer."

De notre evenement cette après-midi avec le @cdainstitute.bsky.social: www.lapresse.ca/actualites/n...

Should Canada be worried about a U.S. invasion? “We need to worry less about them sending troops across the border and more about political toxicity across it” as their political system degrades

Gen Eyre: not a proponent of permanent military bases in the Arctic, but “we need a series of lilypads that we can rely on to get capabilities up, and back to create a persistent but unpredictable presence in the North”

“We need more than a defence I industrial base, we need a defence intellectual base” to think through the new role we are taking on as a military power, says Gen Eyre

About to provoke a room full of folks who do defence stuff. @cdai and @benrowswell.bsky.social organized an event on whether Canada can fight beyond Canada without the US. Great views of Ottawa despite the dismal topic.

Former CDS Gen Eyre answering the question “Could Canada Go To War Without the U.S.” at our Catalyze4/@CDAInstitute event. For more perspectives on Canada’s way of warfare I invite you to subscribe to my Substack open.substack.com/pub/benrowsw...

What would it take to make Canada's military fully autonomous of the U.S.? We're committing the money, but change this profound will take hard decisions and tough judgement calls. We'll be exploring those in the first-ever event by my new firm Catalyze4 along with the prestigious CDA Institute today

I explained to Radio Canada that the Canadian left risks alienating the people of #Venezuela if the anti-U.S. message encompasses autocratic regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua. Real solidarity requires listening to Venezuelans and respecting their perspectives ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/premie...

Quick primer for the Canadian left: Venezuelans care deeply about democracy, so they detest the Cuban regime far more than the U.S. When Canadian socialists organized a rally and praised that two dictatorship I explained to Radio Canada they alienate Venezuelans ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/le-tele...

In today's CBC World Report, I pointed out the most notorious interrogation centre in #Venezuela remains open with hundreds of prisoners exposed to daily torture. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t.... Who's in control of that country again?

PM Carney has set a new primary objective for our foreign policy: strengthen sovereignty through new alliances. The work now begins to build them. It will involve all of us, as Canadians, encouraging the government to defy the U.S. where necessary and stand up when they bully others. No more silence

Register at www.torontomu.ca/news-events/...

After PM Carney's historic speech yesterday, let's not follow the Zeitenwende speech of Chancellor Scholz into a morass of feeble implementation. Tonight at @torontomet.bsky.social I'll share my ideas on the coalition Canada has the best chance of building to strengthen our country's sovereignty

With the U.S., Russia and China all renouncing the principle of sovereignty for smaller states, history suggests we will enter a world at war. Canada must get ready to fight wars once again. My thoughts on the Expert Series of the @cdainstitute.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/c...

So proud to be part of MCC Toronto, where the world's first legal gay marriages were consecrated 25 years ago. We commemorated the event yesterday with cheers, tears and a dedication to continue the fight for human dignity

Democracy defenders from around the world trading notes on how to fight authoritarians from Hungary to El Salvador. Up now: the founders of the No Kings movement fighting the authoritarian regime in the U.S.

How does Canada manage relations with a predatory U.S.? Our foreign policy establishment needs a profound reorientation. My thoughts on Edmonton radio 880 CHED pdst.fm/e/traffic.me...

Clever. After the 2020 election, President-elect Biden began communicating with the nation through a new "Office of the President-Elect" to signal certainty in the democratic transition. The legitimate leadership of #Venezuela is doing something similar: @voceriavzla

I was hoping to get through one January 11 without yet another uninformed hagiography of Sir John A MacDonald. Whitewashing does no justice to a country that increasingly knows its history and the harm he did to so many. Please try harder @globeandmail www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

This is the inevitable consequence of the U.S. attacking us all

Glad to hear that @canadiantom.bsky.social

I spent two stressful years living in Iraq after the U.S. violated that country’s sovereignty. I don’t know exactly how it will play out in Venezuela but I sense it will work out just as badly for our American friends. Canada can help, if we are ready to resume our traditional role there