Kandahar, Afghanistan was maximum Canada. Canada’s longest war and biggest military operation since the Korean war took our government to its limits of military and civilian capacity — and political will too. What did that look like and feel like to those who were there? What are the lessons we can’t afford to forget the next time our country is called upon to serve in the epicentre of a geopolitical crisis? Tim Martin the last RoCK (Representative of Canada in Kandahar) and author of Unwinnable Peace is proud, mad and sad. Let him tell you why.

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*A light lunch will be provided for those who register and attend in person.

Biography:

A career diplomat, Tim has led in the epicenters of geopolitical crises from Somalia to Kandahar. He was the Horn of Africa foreign policy officer during Canada’s Somalia mission and saw the crisis unfold in both Mogadishu and Ottawa. When Canada established diplomatic relations with the Palestinian authority, Tim went to Ramallah to open and head up Canada’s Representative Office to the West Bank and Gaza. He was there for three years from the high point of the peace process to the eruption of the second intifada. In Nairobi he tracked the pillaging of Congo resources in the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide and went on to be Chairman of the Kimberley Process to ban blood diamonds.

A career diplomat, he has served as Ambassador to Colombia and Argentina.  He was the last Representative of Canada in Kandahar, Afghanistan (RoCK). Leading a joint Canadian/US provincial reconstruction team of over 100 civilian and military personnel, Tim was responsible for delivering governance, development, humanitarian assistance, prison reform and police training alongside the NATO military mission in Kandahar— homeland of the Taliban.

Now dedicated to writing, Unwinnable Peace follows his debut political thriller, Moral Hazards.