Michael Byers on Politics

In Syria, small gestures won’t be enough

By Michael Byers and Joshua Freedman

National Post, February 23, 2012

On Friday, delegates from a group of countries calling themselves the “Friends of Syria” — including Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird — will meet in Tunis to co-ordinate pressure against Bashar al-Assad’s despotic and besieged Syrian regime.

Diplomats from the Arab League, France, U.K., European Union and United States will be present, along with representatives from the Syrian National Council (SNC) — an opposition group that is lobbying hard to be recognized as the legitimate government of Syria. In this regard, the SNC points to the precedent of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), which was recognized by more than 60 nations before Muammar Gaddafi was removed from power in October 2011. But history shows us that recognizing opposition groups is fraught with risk, particularly when, as in Syria, they’ve failed to establish control over territory or speak with a united voice.

Toward a Canada-Russia Axis in the Arctic

Why Canada and Russia should unite to support a common position against the US in advancing certain Arctic claims

Michael Byers, Global Brief, February 6, 2012

Unlike the Antarctic, a continent surrounded by oceans, the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continents. Most of the Arctic Ocean coastline belongs to the world’s two largest countries – Russia and Canada – each of which also owns territory on either side of a series of contested, and increasingly ice-free, Arctic straits.

Canada considers the Northwest Passage to be internal waters. Russia takes the same view of the Northern Sea Route. Both countries recognize that the thinning and melting of the Arctic sea ice pose environmental and security risks at the same time that they create economic opportunities in the form of increased shipping and access to natural resources. Both take the view that their domestic laws provide the best bases for protecting and developing their Northern coastlines. And both face a single, common source of opposition to their claims – namely, the US. All of this should beg the question: why have Russia and Canada not bolstered their respective positions by recognizing each other’s legal positions?

Thou shalt purchase F-35s

Julian Fantino’s faith-based defence procurement offers clarity and efficiency.

Michael Byers & Stewart Webb

 

"We will purchase the F-35. We’re on record. We’re part of the crusade. We’re not backing down."—Julian Fantino, associate minister of national defence, Fort Worth, Texas, Nov. 8, 2011.

Julian Fantino brings clarity and purpose to his new role as associate minister of national defence.

 Thanks to the introduction of faith-based procurement, the Harper government can now ignore the complexities and inefficiencies of design specifications, equipment testing, contract tendering, specified industrial regional benefits, etc.

From now on, decisions on new equipment for the Canadian Forces will be divinely ordained, and channelled to Canadians through Mr. Fantino’s divine connections.

Russia, Canada neighbours? Seabed territorial push could bring borders together

Randy Boswell, PostMedia News, February 14, 2012

Two Canadian legal scholars have published a study showing how the push by northern nations for extended seabed territory in the Arctic Ocean could soon find Canada negotiating a maritime boundary with a new next-door neighbour: Russia.

Most of Canada's borderlands and boundary waters separate this country from the United States, including Alaska in the northwest corner of the continent. Canada also has maritime boundaries with Denmark (between Ellesmere Island and Greenland) and France, which oversees the tiny islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon south of Newfoundland.

But the possibility that Canada and Russia might one day share a border has, until now, seemed unimaginable given the vast ocean distances separating the two countries, and the relatively modest 370-kilometre (200-nautical-mile) offshore zone within which nations are permitted to exercise exclusive jurisdiction and resource rights.

But a recently revealed oddity arising from a Beaufort Sea boundary dispute between Canada and the U.S. — along with the advent of a UN treaty allowing countries to claim ownership over extended continental shelves lying beyond the current 200-mile limit — has highlighted how Canada and Russia could be on a cartographic intercept course somewhere north of 80 degrees latitude.

The surprising scenario is laid out in a lengthy article published this month in the academic journal Ocean Development & International Law and co-authored by University of British Columbia geopolitics professor Michael Byers, a leading Canadian expert on Arctic sovereignty issues, and his PhD student, James Baker.

Harper's Economic Agenda: Michael Byers, John Ibbitson and Brian Lee Cowley debate

 

February 1, 2012, TVO The Agenda with Steve Paikin