North America Archive

A profile in The New York Times Magazine of Ben Rhodes, the Obama administration’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, has been the focus of attention in U.S. foreign policy and media circles since it appeared last week. There’s a lot of ground to cover in giving the article a critical reading, and little of it reflects positively on the author, David Samuels—or on the Obama administration, if not quite for the reasons Samuels claims. In a nutshell, Samuels uses what is ostensibly a profile of Rhodes, who is President Barack Obama’s speechwriter as well as one of his […]

It is time for the United Nations to start thinking seriously about Donald Trump, for the simple reason that Trump is thinking seriously about the United Nations. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee told the New York Times last week that he has been mulling some potential U.N. ambassadors. Having electrified the GOP, he hopes to have an equally stunning impact on U.N. diplomacy. “The U.N. isn’t doing anything to end the big conflicts in the world,” he noted with his usual acuity, “so you need an ambassador who would win by really shaking up the U.N.” This is likely to […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the potential impact on members’ economies. Last month, the C.D. Howe Institute, a research institute based in Toronto, released a report saying Canada would see modest economic gains from membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In an email interview, Patricia Goff, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, discussed the potential impact of the TPP on Canada’s economy. WPR: What are the expected economic benefits and potential downsides for Canada from the TPP, and who are the expected “winners” and “losers”? […]