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From the archives

The Treaties

Ottawa negotiated in bad faith

Making a Scene

Experimental film is ready for its close-up

A More Sentimental Man

Michael Ondaatje’s late style

Sylvia Ostry

Sylvia Ostry is Distinguished Research Fellow at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto.

Articles by
Sylvia Ostry

In Defence of Ambiguity

What if economic transparency is not all it is cracked up to be? January–February 2006
A few years ago, in his weekly New York Times column on language, William Safire provided exalted status to the word “transparency.” Widely used in the “diplolingo” of arms control, financial crises, etc., etc., it has also become an icon of civil society. So a book dedicated to diminishing this exalted status and ennobling ambiguity is very intriguing…