{"id":137,"date":"2024-11-13T14:45:32","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T19:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/?post_type=cu_people&p=137"},"modified":"2024-12-04T15:51:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T20:51:16","slug":"alexandra-bugailiskis","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/people\/alexandra-bugailiskis\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandra Bugailiskis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Assistant Deputy Minister for Europe, the Middle East and the Maghreb, Global Affairs Canada<\/strong>
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science (\u201979)<\/strong>
Master of Arts, International Affairs (\u201992)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1982, NPSIA student Alexandra Bugailiskis joined the then-Depart\u00adment of External Affairs. She had finished her coursework\u2014but not her Master\u2019s thesis\u2014when in 1984 she was off to her first posting in Ghana. She remembers seeing empty store shelves as Ghana struggled economically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen word came that there was sugar, you would drop what you were doing and find a way to get to the head of the line,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following her experience in Ghana, Ms. Bugailiskis worked on the successful campaign for Canada\u2019s election to the UN Security Council, which led to a project that changed the course of her career\u2014assisting Namibia with its transition to independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking in the UN division was one of the high points of my career. I travelled to Namibia for six weeks to assist our mission in preparing for and observing the UN-sponsored elections,\u201d says Ms. Bugailiskis, who received the first Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) Award for her work on Namibia.  It was presented to her by Joe Clark, then Foreign Minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her time there, she says she witnessed the changing face of peacekeeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was less about the military and much more about preparing for peace through policing, community engagement and awareness,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Namibian experience inspired her to return to NPSIA, write her thesis on the operation, and finally graduate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a fabulous opportunity to refresh those policy and theo\u00adretical underpinnings,\u201d says Ms. Bugailiskis, who worked closely with Professor Fen Hampson. \u201cI was also able to offer a reality check to many of the bright but less experienced students in the program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also convinced her of the need for a larger game plan for governance in countries that were transitioning to democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t reconcile the warring factions, you are only delaying the inevitable,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing this now in Iraq and Syria. We need to defeat ISIS, but we need to address the underlying sources of conflict, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Bugailiskis has first-hand knowledge of the situation in Syria: she was Canada\u2019s Ambassador to Syria from 1997 to 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the time, Syria was like the eye in the storm: there was conflict all around, but not in Syria,\u201d she says. \u201cThe people were incredibly hospitable, generous and open to the world. I learned the definition of generosity from them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten years later, everything had changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been devastating to see the Syrian people treated as a source of terror,\u201d says Ms. Bugailiskis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why, after being the recipient of Syrian generosity as ambassador, Ms. Bugailiskis was so delighted to support the government\u2019s program to bring more than 40,000 Syrian refugees to Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud to see the incredible generosity of Canadians who have opened their doors when so many others are expressing fear,\u201d says Ms. Bugailiskis, who also served as Canada\u2019s Ambassador to Cuba and Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She credits her colleagues at Global Affairs Canada\u2014many of whom are NPSIA alumni\u2014for their dedication to this work. She says working abroad has provided them with a greater appreciation for their country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really humbling when you see Canada through other people\u2019s eyes because you realize how highly regarded we are,\u201d she says. \u201cYou also realize how fortunate we are. That\u2019s why we need to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":536,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Alexandra","cu_people_last_name":"Bugailiskis","cu_people_initials":"AB","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[25],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-137","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-alumni"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"Former Ambassador\/High Commissioner to Italy, Malta, San Marino, and Albania","cu_people_degree":"","cu_building":"","cu_people_office_num":"","cu_people_pronoun":"","cu_people_designation":"","cu_people_email":"","cu_people_phone":"","cu_people_phone_ext":"","cu_people_linkedin":"","cu_people_bluesky":"","cu_people_twitter":"","cu_people_instagram":"","cu_people_facebook":"","cu_people_website":"","cu_people_orcid":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_people"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/137\/revisions\/138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_type?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"cu_people_expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_expertise?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}