Adam Chapnick's Newsletter - June 2024
Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter. I hope to use it to update you on what I’ve been thinking and speaking about, where I’m speaking next, and people and issues that have caught my attention.
I’ve been a different sort of busy over the last three months because I haven’t been in the classroom very much. The Canadian Forces College provided fulfilling opportunities to speak with Canada’s Special Envoy for the Indo-Pacific as well as a group of officers from the Israeli Defense Forces. The production process for my textbook with Asa McKercher continued, and a fall release feels increasingly real. I also spent quite a bit of time preparing my courses for August. I have a new case study on the Freedom Convoy to try out and a lot of new readings for next year’s senior cohort. With the junior cohort, there’s a new assignment that includes an option for using generative AI. We’ll see how that goes…
Publications
Although it didn’t feel like I was particularly productive scholarly-wise, the delay between when you write something academic and when it actually appears makes it look like I have been quite busy. A commentary I wrote a very long time ago, “Some Personal Reflections on Teaching Through the COVID-19 Pandemic at the Canadian Forces College” finally appeared in Canadian Military Journal. Thanks to the great work of my colleague, Eric Ouellet, the revised French version of Academic Writing for Military Personnel, Manuel de rédaction à l’usage des militaires, nouvelle edition was released by the University of Ottawa Press. I wrote a review essay about Kim Richard Nossal’s book, Canada Alone, for the Dorchester Review. Canadian Foreign Policy Journal published a back-and-forth between Jeremy Wildeman and I about the future of Canadian foreign policy called “Canada at a Crossroads in Twenty-First-Century Global Affairs: Or, An Independent Canadian Foreign Policy for What?” And just last week, I wrote a commentary for the website The Line titled “Yes, there is a rules-based international order,” which explains my position on the recent International Criminal Court prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants in the Middle East. By my next newsletter, I hope to be able to report on a review essay for the Literary Review of Canada and the essay on foreign policy and Canadian elections that I mentioned in my last update.
Blog
I keep trying to blog at least once a month. In March, I wrote about the toxic and abusive behaviour and that is causing a growing number of politicians to opt out of politics. In April, I responded to an accurate yet also scathing account of the state of the Canadian Armed Forces that was published on the US War on the Rocks website. And last month I offered thoughts on Paul Wells’ new book about Justin Trudeau.
In the Media
I spoke to The Hill Times twice: once about planned cuts to the budget of Global Affairs Canada and then later about the state of the Canadian foreign service more generally.
Presentations and Speeches in the Community
Since I haven’t been teaching, I have been speaking in the community quite often. I spoke (separately) to the Esso Annuitant Club – Toronto North and the Credit River Probus Club about Canadian foreign policy, and to the Probus Men’s Club of Brampton about Canadian defence policy. Thanks to the kind invitation of Marie-Eve Desrosiers, I contributed a paper “The Middle Power: 25 Years On,” at a workshop in Ottawa about the rise of authoritarian middle powers. And after a pandemic-induced delay of more than three years, I participated in a touching conference celebrating the career of my PhD supervisor, Robert Bothwell, at the University of Toronto.
Upcoming Talks
The summer tends to be slower, and I don’t have any talks lined up for the next few months. If you, or your organization, is looking for a speaker, you can contact me here. You can find a list of topics that I speak about here.
What I’ve been Reading
In addition to Paul Wells’ new book, I was very much hoping to read Loleen' Berdahl’s For the Public Good: Reimagining Arts Graduate Programs in Canadian Universities. As I type this, Chapters-Indigo tells me that it’s on its way, and I’m looking forward to reading it, along with new books by Stephen Maher on Justin Trudeau and Andrew Lawton on Pierre Poilievre.
Scattered Thoughts
I’ve been struggling recently with the idea of encouraging young people to pay more attention to politics. Typically, if you want someone to try something new, you might encourage them to sample it. Unfortunately, when it comes to politics, that can be a really bad idea. Encouraging a young person to read one newspaper, or listen to one podcast, or follow one thinker on social media sounds good in theory, but there is a real risk these days that if they get excited, their opinions will have been framed in such a strongly partisan way that it will be hard for them to escape tunnel vision. I’d really like to ask them to read three newspapers, or listen to three podcasts (from three different points of view), etc. But three is a huge ask, and not a reasonable one for most. So I’m not sure what we can do, other than to point folks to more balanced analyses - of which there seem to be fewer these days.
My ongoing research has been focused on two ideas: the origins of the office of the National Security and Intelligence Advisor (because we really don’t know much about it) and the gradual shift of the structural locus of power in Canadian diplomacy from Global Affairs Canada (and its predecessors) to the Prime Minister’s Office. I hope to have more to say about both issues in the coming months. I’ve also been thinking a lot about academic conferences and how they need a refresh. I hope to write something on that soon.