BOOK LAUNCH | Alasdair Roberts - The Adaptable Country

McGill University Faculty Club, 3450 rue McTavish, Montreal, QC
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DETAILS AND REGISTRATION:

Join MISC and McGill-Queen’s University Press for a talk by Alasdair Roberts on his new book, The Adaptable Country: How Canada Can Survive the Twenty-First Century at the McGill Faculty Club.

Registration required: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-adaptable-country-book-launch-tickets-1030027418737

The talk will be followed by a Q&A and reception. McGill-Queens University Press will be selling copies of the book during the event.

Alasdair Roberts is professor of public policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the author of numerous books, most recently Superstates: Empires of the Twenty-First Century.

about the book

Shifting geopolitics, regional conflicts, climate change, and technology shocks: these are just some of the factors that will make the twenty-first century dangerous for Canada. Adaptability, the capacity to anticipate and manage dangers, is essential for the country to survive and thrive. But Canada is not as adaptable as it once was.

In The Adaptable Country Alasdair Roberts explains what this vital ability means and why we are currently falling short. Politicians, he argues, are overloaded and fixated on the next election. Governments no longer launch big projects to think about the future. Leaders have stopped meeting regularly to discuss national priorities. Technological changes have undermined journalism and the ability of citizens to talk civilly about public affairs. The public service has become less agile because of a decades-long buildup of controls and watchdogs. While in many ways Canada is a better country than it was a generation ago, it is also more complex and harder to govern.

The Adaptable Country outlines straightforward reforms to improve adaptability and reminds us about the bigger picture: in a turbulent world, authoritarian rule is a tempting path to security. Canada’s challenge is to show how political systems built to respect diversity and human rights can also respond nimbly to existential threats.