{"id":334,"date":"2024-11-14T21:15:38","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T02:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/?post_type=cu_people&p=334"},"modified":"2024-12-06T14:03:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T19:03:09","slug":"peter-boehm","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/people\/peter-boehm\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Boehm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Deputy Minister of International Development, Global Affairs Canada<\/strong>
Master of Arts, International Affairs (\u201878)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a student in the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) in 1978, Peter Boehm was working on his master\u2019s research project, which compared the foreign policy agenda of Pierre Trudeau to that of Lester Pearson. On a whim, he thought he\u2019d send a letter about his research to then-Prime Minister Trudeau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never expected a response and then a three-page letter arrived from the Prime Minister. I was thrilled,\u201d recalls Dr. Boehm, who includ\u00aded the response in his final paper. \u201cLittle did I know, I would end up working for his son.\u201d
In fact, Dr. Boehm is not only Deputy Minister of International Development, he\u2019s also Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s personal representative at international summits\u2014a \u201csherpa\u201d, as they\u2019re called.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe sherpas prepare the way to the summit\u2014the language, the documents, the communiques\u2014so the leaders know the various positions in advance,\u201d says Dr. Boehm, who made several trips to Japan in preparation for the G7 summit there in May 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s coordinated numerous summits under four different prime ministers. His experience? Expect the unexpected.
\u201cWhenever there\u2019s a crisis, you don\u2019t know where it\u2019s going to go. It could be terrorism or a plunge in the markets,\u201d he says. \u201cI am there to provide the best advice I can by looking at the issues from all sides and then presenting the options. Once they\u2019ve decided, we implement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of Dr. Boehm\u2019s expertise comes from his experience with almost every imaginable file\u2014from malaria to cross-border security to Indigenous issues. It\u2019s also drawn from his 18 years living abroad as a member of the Foreign Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of my first assignments was in Havana, where I lived for three years with a young family. At that point, I was still struggling to fig\u00adure out what this career was all about,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIf you had told me then that I would someday be a deputy minister, I wouldn\u2019t have believed you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only did Dr. Boehm work in Cuba, Costa Rica and the U.S. embassy, he also served as Canada\u2019s Ambassador to Germany, as well as Ambassador to the Organization of American States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no better job out there. You go abroad, you represent your country and you have that stimulation of changing your job every couple of years. You get a fresh start,\u201d says Dr. Boehm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he couldn\u2019t have imagined eventually being an ambassador or a deputy minister, Dr. Boehm says the seeds were planted during his time at NPSIA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was pivotal in terms of what I ended up doing, even though I didn\u2019t know it at the time,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI developed the intellectual curiosity and the research skills to put a project together, which I now draw on for memos to Cabinet or submissions to the Treasury Board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His experience in NPSIA also helped him win a Commonwealth Scholarship to the University of Edinburgh, where he earned his PhD in History. That, in turn, led to his first position in the Foreign Service. Dr. Boehm says he didn\u2019t have a concrete plan for the fut\u00adure. Rather, he kept following his interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was some stumbling, but I knew I was interested in Cana\u00addian foreign policy, so I kept taking the assignments that interested me. That led me to where I am today,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those assignments also changed the way he perceived his country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you go abroad and look back at Canada, you realize that we truly live in a great country. It sounds sentimental, but I realized how much we can do in the world for those who are not as privileged as we are,\u201d says Dr. Boehm. \u201cI feel fortunate to have had that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":604,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Peter","cu_people_last_name":"Boehm","cu_people_initials":"PB","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[25],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-334","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-alumni"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"Canadian Senator (Independent)","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\/334","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\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/334\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_type?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"cu_people_expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/npsia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_expertise?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}