Year in Review 2018

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20 December, 2018
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From our editors

With tension and intrigue between leaders of the United States, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and countless other countries playing out on the international stage, 2018 was another year of fast-paced headlines and unpredictability.

From a Canadian foreign policy perspective, much of 2018 was devoted to the renegotiation of NAFTA, now called CUSMA. Nevertheless, our editorial team made an effort to make sure important global issues didn’t fall completely off the radar. 

We took our readers to Mongolia and put a spotlight on the North Korean labourers that are forced to send revenue back home to the Kim regime. We explored at length what a feminist foreign policy looks like, and the Canadian government’s efforts to increase gender equality within its own ranks and abroad. We took a deep dive into the challenges facing a global leader we hear less of — UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. With violence at home, most notably a van attack in Toronto in April, we looked at the changing definitions of terrorism and extremism. And with continued interest in the Canadian approach to multiculturalism and immigration, we looked at both the good and the still-in-need-of-improvement sides to policy. 

With a federal election scheduled for next October, 2019 will be an important year to continue to shine a light on the angles and stories that further our understanding of foreign policy and its impact. As always, many thanks to our wonderful contributors and our many readers in Canada and around the world for your continued support in these efforts. 

Happy holidays,

Eva Salinas, Managing Editor
Catherine Tsalikis, Senior Editor

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Journalism in Canada has suffered a devastating decline over the last two decades. Dozens of newspapers and outlets have shuttered. Remaining newsrooms are smaller. Nowhere is this erosion more acute than in the coverage of foreign policy and international news. It’s expensive, and Canadians, oceans away from most international upheavals, pay the outside world comparatively little attention.

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