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Canada’s Trudeau Avoids Poking U.S. “Grizzly Bear”

By David Ljunggren and Rod Nickel  February, 2017 OTTAWA/WINNIPEG (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking a low key approach to dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking to avoid clashes while indirectly signalling the two leaders’ differences to a domestic audience. Insiders acknowledge the cautious strategy could anger progressives whose support helped bring Trudeau to power in 2015 but say for now, he has no choice but to hold fire: Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States and could suffer if it is targeted by Trump. “Why poke a grizzly bear while it’s

Russia’s Military Buildup Focuses on Arctic

By Andrew Osborn  February, 2017 MURMANSK, Russia (Reuters) – The nuclear icebreaker Lenin, the pride and joy of the Soviet Union’s Arctic great game, lies at perpetual anchor in the frigid water here. A relic of the Cold War, it is now a museum. But nearly three decades after the Lenin was taken out of service to be turned into a visitor attraction, Russia is again on the march in the Arctic and building new nuclear icebreakers. It is part of a push to firm Moscow’s hand in the High North as it vies for dominance with traditional rivals Canada,

Pins are out for the Trump balloon

JONATHAN MANTHORPE: International Affairs January 20, 2017 Even as the inaugural party hangovers still throb in Washington, leaders in other capitals are dreaming up ways to discover what kind of blow-hard Donald Trump is. He has given them plenty to work with over the last couple of years with his ignorant and intemperate outbursts. But it matters to everyone whether there is any substance behind Trump’s rabid self-promotion: his opiate of choice. The core question is whether the century of the United States imperium is at an end. It was in the winter of 1918-1919 during the peace talks in

Thailand’s Game of Thrones enters new era

A woman walks past a portrait of Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun at a department store in central Bangkok, Thailand January 13, 2017. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha JONATHAN MANTHORPE: International Affairs January 14, 2017 While people in the United States grapple with having done exactly what the Founding Fathers railed against and have elected a cartoon version of George III, the entrenchment of authoritarian democracy is going much more smoothly in Thailand. Mind you, in Thailand the country’s aristocracy and its military leaders have been busy for 10 years creating a managed democracy. And the whole charabanc risked sliding off the road

Human Rights: There’s an App for that

JONATHAN MANTHORPE: International Affairs January 7, 2017 At the heart of one of the most effective and simple human rights campaigns of recent years is a box on a roof in Beijing. In its quiet way, that box has confirmed for the Chinese people what they instinctively knew; that their government lies to them consistently about the state of the country. It has also been an instigator of a middle class protest movement that has sent the ruling Communist Party scurrying to respond. Indeed, it is easy to imagine scenarios in which that unassuming rooftop box trips a chain of

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