The Canadian International Council (CIC) is pleased to welcome Michael Petrou as Editor-in-Chief of Open Canada starting today.
Originally launched by the CIC in 2011, Open Canada has become an award-winning, highly influential digital publication with the mission of engaging everyday Canadians in national conversations on global affairs. Under the direction of Michael Petrou, Open Canada will serve as a platform for civic engagement in an area increasingly affecting the lives of everyday Canadians – international affairs. The CIC gratefully acknowledges the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a non-partisan think tank, for its role as publisher of Open Canada from 2015 to 2019.
As a journalist and historian, Michael Petrou has won three National Magazine Awards and has reported across the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and Europe. Petrou studied at the University of Oxford’s Saint Antony’s College and was the 2018 Martin Wise Goodman Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Prior to his appointment as Editor-in-Chief, he served as a fellow-in-residence in Carleton University’s Global and International Studies program and an adjunct research professor in its Department of History. His 2012 book, Is This Your First War? Travels Through the Post-9/11 Islamic World, won the Ottawa Book Award for non-fiction. Petrou has also served as a fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies and the Canadian International Council. At a time of historic transitions and global transformations, Michael Petrou is a key addition to the Canadian International Council’s digital publication Open Canada. According to CIC President Ben Rowswell, “with a vision of cultivating a two-way conversation with Canadians across generations and from all walks of life, Michael Petrou will bring a fresh approach to the national conversation on Canada’s foreign policy.” Petrou states he “is excited about the promise that Open Canada offers to connect Canadians to international affairs at a time when that is more urgent than ever.” He goes on to say: “I imagine Open Canada as akin to a public square in which analysts, scholars, writers, and readers interact, debate, and generate new ideas about international affairs and Canadian foreign policy.”
The CIC | The mandate of the Canadian International Council is to give citizens a voice in global affairs. Carrying on the 92-year-old legacy of its predecessor the Canadian Institute, International Affairs, the CIC is a non-partisan, grassroots, and citizen-centred organization with 17 branches across Canada, from Halifax to Prince George. The CIC is a forum where everyday Canadians convene, discuss, influence, and shape foreign policy.