With our troops now committed until 2011, The Unexpected War exposes the poverty of Canadian foreign policy, arguing that Canada’s various military missions in Afghanistan have been ad hoc in nature and made on the basis of political calculations—often flawed—about Canadian–American relations. Drawing upon interviews with key decision-makers and advisors, and a first-hand account by a former Defense Ministry insider, the book offers a gripping account of how Canada became embroiled in a new kind of war—fighting insurgency in a failed state.

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JANICE GROSS STEIN is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and the Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a member of the Orders of Canada and of Ontario. Her most recent publications include The Cult of Efficiency (2001), Street Protests and Fantasy Parks (2001), and The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar (2007) (co-author). She was the Massey Lecturer in 2001 and has been awarded the Molson Prize by the Canada Council for outstanding contributions by a social scientist to public debate. An Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Janice lives in Toronto.