How US Actions are Seen in the Middle East

Top notch, albeit unfortunately true, commentary. Worthy read. - R.O.

How US Actions are Seen in the Middle East - Gatestone Institute
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3965/syria-us-actions

"How to Be a Leader" - My Interview in the UTSC Commons Magazine

In January I had the great honour of being jointly interviewed with my dad for a feature article on "How to Be a Leader" in the University of Toronto Scarborough's 'Commons' magazine. Check it out on pages 7-8 here, or read it copied below. - R.O.
Magazine Source URL: http://read.uberflip.com/i/119514

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Lieutenant Governor of Ontario The Honourable David C. Onley and his son Robert on what it takes to become a leader.

The Honourable David C. Onley (left) and Robert Onley.

The Honourable David C. Onley (BA, 1975), Ontario's 28th Lieutenant Governor, has held many leadership roles over his career in broadcasting and public service. His Honour's son, Robert Onley (BA, 2009), is an articling law student, a former student council president and a member of Youth Diplomacy, an international youth think tank. Both are proud UTSC alumni, so UTSC Commons asked them to sit down in His Honour's office at Queen's Park to explore the concept of leadership.

His Honour: When was the first time you realized somebody was a leader?

Robert Onley: In school, when I realized my sixth-grade teacher Mr. Hazlewood was influencing the way I was thinking.

HH: When I was student council president at Scarborough College (now UTSC) our principal was Wynne Plumptre. He was a remarkably dignified gentleman, a scholar and a diplomat. This was at a time in the early 1970s of great student activism. And there were many laudable attempts by the administration to reach out to student groups and involve students in the decision-making process. Principal Plumptre did this with great aplomb. He was a real conciliator. I remember being conscious of the fact that he was practicing a form of leadership that I found enormously impressive.

RO: A great leader creates opportunities for people. And if you want to lead, it's up to you to seize these opportunities. Universities can provide opportunities for people to exercise skills they might have deep inside them. That's huge. Leaders understand that if you don't have the opportunities, you'll never realize your potential.

HH: You learn bits of leadership as you go along. My late father, Robert's grandfather, was a navigator in WW2 with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Many of my Dad's friends had fought in the war. These were amazing guys. They flew Lancaster bombers and Hurricanes and Sunderlands. These guys were decision makers, and when they came home they moved into various leadership positions in society. I'm not sure how much of leadership can be taught, but I'm sure a good portion of it is something you can learn.

RO: We've transformed the way our generation rallies around causes and exhibits leadership. We'll never displace the old notions of political leadership and government, but the ability of young people to quickly coordinate and connect on ideas... we need to harness that for good. For three years I've been a part of Youth Diplomacy, an international NGO that runs G8/G20 Youth Summits. One year the summit was in Paris and I represented Canada as the Minister of Defense. This was, for me, a staggering event, a week-long set of negotiations with my counter-parts from the G8. We had some of the most intense debates over nuclear-proliferation policy, Iran, Libya, defense spending, piracy. And at the end of it we collaborated using Skype, Google Docs and Facebook Messenger to draft a communiqué that summed up the positions we could agree to. In a matter of five days we produced a mini-essay that consolidated the collective wisdom of the G8 youth. Here's what makes that so mind-blowing: for the first time in history, the leaders of tomorrow are already communicating with each other today. This is unprecedented. The rules of the game have changed.

HH: A leader still has to lead, though. The principles of leadership are still the same: you have to inspire people. You have to convince them that they can trust you to make the right decisions even when they don't fully agree with it, whether that's in the boardroom, in cabinet or in the prime minister's office. From my experience, one of the great leadership skills is the capacity to listen to other people. As long as people are being listened to, and they know their input is valued and appreciated, they'll follow you.

RO: A good leader is also able to find and keep the right people.

HH: That's crucial. You just can't do it yourself. If you try to, you won't succeed. History is littered with presidents and prime ministers who tried to do it all by themselves.

RO: As a leader, I don't just want "Yes" people. I want people who will stand up to me or make me sit down and listen. You need a counterweight, someone who puts you in your place a little bit. Because if you don't have that, you risk trampling the roses.

HH: There is such a thing as a born leader, but born leaders can still bomb out if they don't choose the right people or have the right skill sets.

RO: And if you're lucky, you might have good leaders at home, in your own family. I've always been inspired by how much my Dad has accomplished in his life. Having battled polio at a young age, and having fought through it all the way to today... I've always felt that if he can do that, with his condition, imagine what I can do! I have an unrivalled sense of optimism in my own capabilities because I see what can be done.

HH: Well, I was inspired by my Dad, but also inspired by my mother. She was the one who taught me how to be a pit-bull, to fight to get things fixed. When my grandmother came down with Alzheimer's in 1974, nobody knew what it meant. So my mother said, "Well then, we need to have an Alzheimer's Society." So along with another lady she founded the very first chapter of the Alzheimer's Society. That wasn't political or military leadership, but it was leadership.

RO: In the end, leaders are doers. They get stuff done. They say, "this is wrong," or "this needs to change" and they just make it happen. That's where universities come in. By presenting opportunities for students to engage with the world, UTSC can help create immense change. If you live intentionally and take opportunities and make decisions, you can do so much. That's what being a leader is all about.

Published by the Prince Arthur Herald

Very pleased to report that my latest article "The Socially Networked Future of International Diplomacy" has just been published by the Prince Arthur Herald in Montreal. Click here to read it.
Always appreciate feedback. Hope you enjoy! - R.O.

The Socially Networked Future of International Diplomacy

By: Robert D. Onley
In a world enveloped by unsolvable crises, national leaders of the Boomer Generation continue to practice politics and diplomacy using methods little changed over the centuries. Responding to their stasis, a new flock of 20-something student leaders – the “Facebook Generation” – are spearheading efforts that will forever reshape the dynamics of international diplomacy and global governance.

This stark contrast in methods was seen as one Middle Eastern government after another fell to popular uprisings this spring. Arab leaders who had viewed Facebook and Twitter as mere "websites" were blindsided by the organizing and unifying power of social networks.

But the inherent ability of these networks to mobilize people into action came as no surprise to the Facebook Generation, whose young leaders deployed the networks' tools as digital weapons and brought down the dictators.

While the Arab Spring will be remembered for the Internet’s effectiveness in instigating short-term ground-level political change, the long-term transformation of international diplomacy and the networked future of global governance was on display at the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit, held in Paris, France in early June.

At the Youth Summit, aspiring world leaders from the most economically powerful nations on earth met each other, exchanged ideas, and debated serious global problems in a professional, high-profile setting. Unlike the upbringings of their forebears, these young leaders are digitally connected, instantaneously communicating, and constantly updating each other on their personal, political and educational progress.

Critically, they have established permanent online networks of highly engaged, driven students who seek to bring change to the world, and who remain connected long after the Youth Summit is over. It is this transformative reality that is far more potent than the Arab Spring protests; a diplomatic sea change which will have deep ramifications for the future global order.

Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris

Renaissance 
Paris, June 2011.

160 university students from all over the world gather at the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris for the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit. The event, organized by a French non-profit initiative aptly called 'Youth Diplomacy', was planned entirely by undergraduate and graduate students.

The 5th annual Youth Summit sought to cultivate global dialogue between youth leaders through intensive negotiations over international affairs. Among the keynote speakers opening the event were the newly appointed Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, as well as an address by Christophe de Margerie, the President and CEO of Total S.A., one of the world's largest oil companies. Adding a layer of geopolitical credibility, Youth Diplomacy secured formal sponsorship for the Youth Summit from the Office of the French President Nicholas Sarkozy.

Beyond simply mimicking their respective national government's policies, the organizers encouraged delegates to propose their own innovative solutions. By week’s end the delegates had collaboratively drafted a consensus “Final Communiqué” of realistic proposals, a 54-page document which was then presented to the French Presidency and the actual leaders of the G8.

A Universe of Change
While international youth leadership events are nothing new, unlike any other era, social networking websites allow today's brightest youth to continue their dialogue, share their knowledge, and interact together on a daily basis. All of this is happening now, well before any of them enter into positions of real political power.

Critically, these up-and-coming world leaders understand that the influence of street-level social unrest only goes so far. What is needed is the genuine decision-making authority that comes with political office. These aspiring statesmen and women recognize that combining the organizational capability of social networks with their global networks of fellow young leaders will altogether reshape the future of global power and diplomacy, by equipping leaders with extraordinary communication tools.

The result is that social networks will soon become, in and of themselves, an additional lever of diplomatic power to world leaders. Tomorrow’s leaders, who today are establishing genuine international relationships through simulated diplomatic environments, will be able to leverage relationships from their youth that they cultivated over the coming decades.

Think about that for a moment. What if Barack Obama and Muammar Gaddafi had met 25 years ago and had been Facebook friends ever since?

Knowledge as power
The likelihood of such a scenario may be slim, but the plausible by-products of a such a relationship are as follows.

Tomorrow's world leaders will know more about each other than ever before. Like no other time, regular users of Facebook are provided – free of charge – with a deluge of personal, social and educational information about anyone they have ever added as a friend on the network. In many cases, this information is available for everyone that they have effectively ever met. (If you have added someone on Facebook that you only met once, raise your hand.)

Whether it is the latest degree, achievement, or new employer, Facebook allows for the completely legal “monitoring” of friends’ professional developments. By using Facebook just as the typical user does, sharing periodic life updates, Facebook Friends can know effectively everything that you, and concurrently, they, are doing and have done.

Intelligence briefing notes, the product of exhaustive research and once an indispensable primer for international negotiations with rival diplomats, could wind up becoming redundant relics of the pre-social-networked era of diplomacy.

Accordingly, relationships will be nurtured outside of regular diplomatic circles. Delegates at the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit in Paris warmly greeted returnees from the previous year's Summit in Vancouver. Like old friends, they had kept abreast of each other’s latest news, published articles and global travels – all through Facebook and Twitter.

Many of today's young leaders, including almost all of those who aspire to political office, are members of the jet-setting, globe-trotting crowd. Some delegates in Paris had even met up in far-off locales during the year in between Youth Summits – yet another externality facilitated by cheap travel and immediate communication tools.

While other delegates had not physically seen each other in over a year, the steady communal, ongoing dialogue enabled by social networks helped create a comfort and familiarity that only deepened the genuineness of their now renewed personal interactions in Paris.

Mental, digital shift
Empowering all of this is the fact that Facebook is effectively hard-wired into the day-to-day existence of tomorrow’s future leaders. Teenagers and 20-somethings possess a fundamental grasp of how Facebook “participates” in their daily lives.

Facebook’s all-pervasiveness is manifest in the hyper-connected reality of perpetual communication with --and information from-- anyone they have ever known. The social networks’ infiltration into the lives of the 'Facebook Generation' is due primarily to that fact that the Generation has literally grown up with the unprecedented power of instantaneous digital interaction.

For today's crop of young leaders, Facebook launched at the beginning of their undergraduate studies, allowing the sharpest among them to utilize the Groups feature to great effect when organizing campus events, clubs and parties.

But it is the omnipresence and ease-of-use of these technologies that will also enhance international dialogue in the near future. Facebook and Twitter are apps on every smartphone, and this will increasingly be the case as smartphones inevitably become ‘normal phones’. Facebook’s recently released Messenger app for iPhone and Android allows any user, anywhere in the world, to immediately contact anyone they have in their social network. And unlike international text messaging, Messenger’s chat feature is completely free.

Beyond Facebook, Twitter’s unique ability to #hashtag ideas, Tweet @ other users and their followers (thus bringing the Tweet to the attention of the 'targeted' user) is an instant accountability mechanism that today’s Boomer leaders are late to recognize, but one that tomorrow's leaders innately grasp. As these websites evolve and expand, so too will their abilities.

Gala dinner at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris

Hacker's delight
There are undeniably serious concerns regarding the security and privacy of Facebook, the legitimacy of social news outlets like Twitter, and their overall vulnerability to hacking. Recent scandals and security breaches have emphasized this, most notably the abhorrent hacking by Rupert Murdoch's "News of the World" paper.

However, the social networks are no more vulnerable than any other website. In fact, neither has ever been publicly hacked or catastrophically exploited. Broadly, every website on the Internet is subject to potential attack. The ongoing efforts of the hacking group ‘Anonymous’ to knock out the websites of major transnational corporations emphasize this ruthless reality.

Except given that ‘Anonymous’ concurrently supports opposition movements around the globe by hacking “enemy” government websites, it seems unlikely that the world’s highest profile hacking group would target the very social networks that pump oppressed protestors with the lifeblood needed for their movements to survive.

Move Beyond Sharing, into Shaping
The challenge for Facebook and Twitter is to move beyond merely lumping people into an interconnected universe filled with massive Groups and Events. Simply providing pages with common interests does little to push regular users to do anything more than read articles, watch videos and look at photo albums.

But Facebook can and must create legitimate social change, simply because it has the capability to instigate genuine discussion on global issues. What is required is motivated thinking.

In order to evolve beyond merely 'sharing', users should have the ability to opt-in to a "Dialogue" channel, one where "Strangers" (not Friends) with similar interests all over the world can comment on identical articles, ideas and proposals which have been mutually shared by several different people.

Often incredibly insightful comments and ideas on shared articles are forever “lost” on the Walls of Facebook users, whose ideas will never escape the restrictive confines of their profile's individual security settings. These lost ideas represent a tragedy for the progression of collective global discourse, and are untapped resources in the pursuit of tangible, results-oriented dialogue.

OneMidEast.org is an excellent example of a platform for constructive cross-cultural debate, featuring opposing views on contentious issues, presented on equal footing. Google's recently launched "Ideas" think-do-tank (in Google parlance) is another effort at encouraging discussion on intractable, real world matters.

The great advantage Facebook has in developing a similar platform, of course, is that it can exploit its exponentially larger userbase. With so many deeply troubling global problems requiring immediate action (just read the news), Facebook's competitive advantage cannot be wasted by simply staying complacent as an outlet for sharing silly YouTube videos and gawking at friends’ party pictures. Future generations cry out that Facebook’s 750,000,000+ users do far better than this with their time.

Facebook has already invaded the entire Internet, allowing users to log-in on practically every website imaginable, letting users "Like" pages and comment publicly on news articles using their personal profile. Such an unrivalled, ever-present platform for constructive communication with strangers can be taken a full step further, through the establishment a permanent think-tank structure for global dialogue, one that is operated within and populated by the entire Facebook universe and all of its shared content.

Only then can the overwhelmingly inane, narcissistic nature of Facebook today, be overhauled into a substantial, altruistic vehicle for shaping solutions to the myriad issues plaguing the planet.

Start now
Indeed with great power comes great responsibility. Possessing the largest, most influential websites in the world, Mr. Zuckerberg and his friends at Twitter and Google are burdened with, and challenged to begin, establishing a positive, lasting legacy using the very behemoths they now control.

Tomorrow's future leaders are ready to join them in this effort, today. Indeed, as the G8/G20 Youth Summit showcases, they have begun this dialogue by establishing influential networks of student leaders who are already initiating change. These young minds have been raised in an era where technological limits simply do not exist.

One spark and one Tweet started a revolution that is still sweeping the Middle East. The capacity to achieve has never been greater. Let’s get to work.
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Robert D. Onley represented Canada as the Minister of Defence at the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit. Robert is a UTSC graduate (Honours Bachelor of Arts, 2009) and a freelance writer in Toronto. He is the President of the Students' Law Society at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law. Follow @RobertOnley on Twitter.

© 2011 Robert Onley, World Assessor.com


Click here for the Official G8/G20 Youth Summit Website.

My Interview on CJAMFM in Windsor discussing G8/G20 Youth Summit

Interested in representing Canada abroad? This morning I was interviewed on Windsor Law's radio show Ipso Facto by my colleagues at Windsor Law on CJAMFM (99.1) in Windsor. I discussed my experience at the G8/G20 Youth Summit in Paris, France as the Canadian Youth Minister of Defence, and shared my thoughts on youth diplomacy and negotiations.

You can listen to the interview here, with the show intro starting at 2:40 and my interview at the 7:30 mark.
Direct link: http://cjamlog1.cjam.ca/mp3dirnew/290-Ipso_Facto-20110629-0800-t1309330800.mp3

Special thanks to Chelsea and Maddy for a great interview. Check out the Ipso Facto blog and CJAM.ca, the University of Windsor's radio station. Enjoy!
- R.O.

Canadian Defence Policy at the G8/G20 Youth Summit

Check out my position paper written for the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit which was held in Paris, France from May 29 to June 3. Using this paper as a foundation, I lobbied for Canadian defence interests in the G8 Ministers of Defence Committee. In my paper, I focus particularly on the nuclear proliferation threat posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran and the consequences if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

Full link: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B56cVZO3CDLXMmRkMWRlZDEtNWIwYy00NGU0LTk5MDAtZWViZWY3NDRhYmM3&hl=en_US&authkey=COLqmagJ

Ministers of Defence Committee - Samuel Leval (France), Jeff Rohde (USA), Andy Johnson (UK), Leo Axthelm (Germany), during negotiations at the G8/G20 Youth Summit in Paris, France

Also, for anyone interested in reading what the future youth leaders of the G8 and G20 think about the most pressing global issues, click here to read the entire Final Communiqué drafted by each of the respective Committees of the G8/G20. The Defence Committee's final consensus document starts at page 39, which greatly reflects my successful lobbying efforts on behalf of the Government of Canada.

Appreciate any feedback. - R.O.

Sitting Down to Negotiate – Day 3 of the G8/G20 Youth Summit

My third blog post on the intensity of negotiations in the Ministers of Defence committee, as published by the official University of Toronto Scarborough blog. - R.O.

Sitting Down to Negotiate – Day 3 of the G8/G20 Youth Summit

The Defense Committee (far right: Rob Onley)

The G8/G20 Youth Summit offers an unparalleled opportunity for university students to enter a world known only to the highest ranks of global governments. Canada’s army may be small in direct comparison to our G8 friends, but within the context of the G8, Canada’s voice is equal, unlike the exclusive UN Security Council.

Given this influential role, I took a stance on defense policy that was arguably broader than the Canadian government can actually enact and represent in reality. Nonetheless, the Ministers of Defense bore the heaviest moral and consequential burden at the G8 Youth Summit. As the military leaders of the world’s strongest democracies, we are tasked with addressing issues which threaten the overall peace and stability of the world, while simultaneously possessing the overwhelming military capacity to intervene and defend the lives of innocent human beings, as recently seen in Libya.

Canada is a peaceful nation that is promoting and helping to create stability through a number of military and defense missions abroad. Canada is well-respected internationally with much global goodwill. These missions include the NATO-ISAF operation in Afghanistan, the NATO-led air campaign against the Gaddafi regime in Libya and the rebuilding effort in Haiti.

The Western world is at the most dangerous crossroads of recent history. With revolutions sweeping the Middle East, arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden dead and the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran in the very near future, the Defense Ministers of the G8 are confronting the most uncertain future it has ever faced. The time has come for resolute decision-making. Rather than draft idealistic, unrealistic and far-out solutions that will only ‘kick the can down the road’, I believed in strong policy statements that were actionable, so that these issues are not still issues one day later in my life, should I end up working in a similar role.

When negotiations over strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) began, I opened by arguing that the very existence of the NPT was at stake, and called for policy that “Guaranteed the Survival of the NPT.” In line with the Canadian government, I stated that if Iran develops nuclear weapons in direct defiance of the NPT provisions, then the world faces the grave risk of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. In a region that has seen so much instability in so many countries, the last thing the international community needs is the widespread development of the globe’s most deadly weaponry.

While agreeing to this ‘survival’ theme was simple, achieving consensus on how to actually “stop” Iran from developing nuclear weapons presented a massive hurdle for our negotiations. In reality, Iran and the Western powers have attempted several rounds of negotiations, designed to reach an understanding on the nature and extent of Iran’s nuclear program. The Iranian government has continually denied it is seeking nuclear weapons, while the Western powers, notably the United States, have viewed Iran’s program with deep suspicion, based on a variety of intelligence gathered by the IAEA in its inspections.

Deciding how to proceed with diplomacy was difficult, simply because the negotiation process has dragged on for decades. Some see a negotiated settlement as a dead end. However, on the flip side, no one at the G8 Youth Summit was arguing that the only solution is to use military action to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

Instead, the G8 Youth Ministers of Defense worked exhaustively on developing a “Grand Bargain”, designed to entice the Iranian government to come to the negotiating table with open hands and come clean about its nuclear intentions. In return, the G8 presented Iran with a massive package of economic, social and technological incentives to fully normalize relations with Iran and promote the creation of mutual trust, understanding and peace. This is the only path toward peace.

Through nearly two full days of negotiation, we, the G8 Youth, were finally able to reach consensus on this Grand Bargain. Along the way, nearly every possible realistic method of enticing Iran to negotiate was discussed, analyzed and critiqued. In the end, the G8 concluded that if indeed Iran was only developing peaceful nuclear energy, then they would absolutely have to come to the negotiating table, open up their nuclear program to full inspection, and in doing so, put to rest all fears that they are developing nuclear weapons. Any other response, even non-response, would be deemed conclusive evidence that Iran was in all likelihood covertly developing nuclear weapons.

This was the proposal set out in our final communiqué: whether or not the real G8 nations will present Iran with a similar offer remains to be seen. As the Youth Ministers of Defense, we can only hope that the real G8 is reading our work and taking note. The alternative — the death of the NPT — would represent the beginning of a dark period in world history, as other nations race to develop their own nuclear arsenals.

In my next post, I will assess the impact of the G8/G20 Youth Summit on networking and the influence of youth leaders.

The Start of Negotiations at the G8/G20 Youth Summit

Here's my second blog post from the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit, as published by the official University of Toronto Scarborough Blog last week. - R.O.

Youth International Dialogue – Negotiations Begin - 7 June 2011

As a political science graduate from UTSC, I often read of international negotiations about grave global issues throughout my studies. From the UN Security Council debates leading up to the War in Iraq, to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conventions, nation states seek consensus on serious issues. However divisions, mistrust and self-interested policy proposals often lead to failed talks that do not produce tangible results.

As the Youth Ministers of Defense began negotiations on Day 2 of the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit, the challenge was to reach consensus on arguably the most serious global peace and security concerns: stopping nuclear weapons proliferation; stabilizing Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Korea; and ending piracy on our global seaways. Complete reform of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s efforts was also high on our list of agenda objectives.

Of these issues, the agenda was dominated by a comprehensive reassessment of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in the context of the Iranian nuclear program. In the real world, negotiations with Iran over possible military dimensions of their nuclear energy program have stalled repeatedly over the last eight years. Concerns about Iran achieving nuclear “breakout” potential are driving other nations in the openly express fear about the prospect of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.

Each youth delegate’s position on the agenda topics had been discussed and debated online through Google Groups in the months leading up to the event. By analyzing the topics independently and critically examining each other’s proposals prior to the Youth Summit, we had narrowed down our potential agenda in an effort to avoid unnecessary arguing at the actual event in Paris.

As the Canadian Minister of Defense, I expressed a deep desire to see the G8 Youth extensively examine national policy on the counter-terrorism campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Given that the Government of Canada has already committed to a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in July 2011, I lobbied my delegate colleagues to agree to a comprehensive post-combat reconstruction plan. Generally we reached consensus on the best way forward for the people of Afghanistan and our respective governments.

As negotiations over Pakistan, North Korea and Iran progressed, I was surprised at how closely we began to follow our national government’s actual stated policies. While we were in no way required to mimic our governments’ positions, the youth delegates showed an obvious degree of pride by standing up for their own national policies. Nonetheless, numerous concessions were made in the interest of achieving positive consensus. NATO allies including Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United States formed a bulwark within the G8 defence discussions, providing a strong, if not united front in reaching consensus.

Once the basic agenda preparations had been completed, we began to use Google Documents, connected via a laptop to a projector, to collaboratively draft our consensus decisions for the final communiqué. This process of simultaneous editing provided an incomparably efficient and transparent way of reaching an accord. All eight delegates could see each and every word as it was written, and likewise could object to any wording that they deemed controversial.

By infusing our confident grasp of modern communications and productivity technologies, the majority of our negotiations were rightly focused on the heart of the agenda issues. When talking about the proliferation of nuclear weapons, this was critical to ensure that we wasted no time on minor form and syntax issues.

In my next post, I’ll delve into to the most contentious aspects of our discussion and give an inside perspective on just what it means to ‘compromise’ in international negotiations.

Blogging for UTSC at the G8/G20 Youth Summit

My first blog post for U of T Scarborough is now live!
http://uoftscarborough.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/utsc-alum-has-experience-of-a-lifetime-at-2011-g8g20-youth-summit/
- R.O.

The 2011 Canadian Delegation at the Canadian Embassy in Paris, France, for the G8/G20 Youth Summit.

Tweeting for UTSC at the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit

On Saturday I will be travelling to Paris, France for the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit, to represent Canada as the Minister of Defence.

Given all that is transpiring in the Middle East and internationally, this is an incredibly exciting time to be discussing global affairs with potential future leaders of the most powerful nations on earth. After my experience at last year's Youth Summit in Vancouver, I can confidently state that the delegates selected for the event are some of the most accomplished, intelligent and well-read people I have ever met.

It is an honour for me to be among these fellow student leaders, as we seek to reach consensus and compromise on the most pressing issues facing the world community. Further, as a graduate of the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), I am pleased to announce that I will be blogging and Tweeting about my experiences for UTSC while at the Youth Summit in France. I hope to provide current and future students an inside perspective on negotiations, and encourage these students to aspire to achieve their full potential.

The Canadian Delegation has been actively meeting and preparing over the last two months in the lead-up to the Youth Summit, and I look forward to meeting each of them. Check out my article published in the Windsor Star based on my experiences at last year's Youth Summit. Bon voyage everyone! - R.O.

Minister of Defence for Canada at the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit

I am very pleased to announce that I have been selected to represent Canada as the Minister of Defence at the 2011 G8/G20 Youth Summit being held this May in Paris, France. I am looking forward to representing Canadian interests at this international gathering of graduate student leaders from around the world, especially at such an interesting time globally.

Check out the Canadian delegation here.

After participating in last year's G8/G20 Youth Summit in Vancouver as the Minister of Finance, I know I will bring principled leadership experience to our discussion. I cannot wait to return to Paris after visiting last spring, and will be sure to write updates about my experiences there as it happens.
-R.O.