Graduate students present research insights to Global Affairs Canada

The Balsillie School's Turbulent Present, Uncertain Future maps global trends and recommendations for adaptive foreign policy.

Riddled with conflict, instability and social change, 2016 was a year that presented substantial policy challenges. Responding to rapid global changes, the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) has released “Turbulent Present, Uncertain Future: 2017 Global Trends Report” which provides research insights for Canadian foreign policy.

The anthology contains policy briefs prepared by the BSIA masters’ and doctoral students for the federal government’s Global Affairs Canada.

“From the protracted civil war in Syria to the Brexit vote and discord of the US presidential election, the past year was one of tremendous upheaval and turmoil in global politics” said John Ravenhill, Director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) in Waterloo. “For a country like Canada – which depends on international cooperation for its prosperity and security – this trend poses particular policy challenges.”

Turbulent Present, Uncertain Future is the final output of the 2015-16 CIGI Graduate Fellows program, a professional development program run by the BSIA in partnership with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Canada’s leading international affairs think tank.

Mentored by experts based at CIGI and BSIA, the students engaged directly with top items on Canada’s policy agenda, including: climate change, migration and displacement, arctic governance, trade with emerging economies, and humanitarian engagement.

The students presented their research findings to senior officials at Global Affairs Canada in Ottawa this past summer.

“Our report aims to accomplish three things,” said Ravenhill. “First, to identify new and emerging trends that could significantly impact the world in five to ten years’ time. Second, to offer new policy insights from the next generation of dynamic thinkers on matters of international affairs. And third, to make recommendations designed to help adapt Canadian foreign policy to the ever-changing global realities of the twenty-first century. Our students have done a masterful job at all three.”

Adapated from the original news story published by Balsillie School of International Affairs.