Wallace Trains Canadian Foreign Affairs Office
James C. (Jim) Wallace, Lecturer in International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was featured as a presenter at a February event hosted by the Canadian government’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD).
“The event was hosted by the DFATD’s Trade Office in Ottawa, and was a training session focused on corporate social responsibility. I spoke and answered questions on religion as a variable in respectful stakeholder engagement,” Wallace said. “This was the first time that DFATD had included a ‘religion and culture’ component in their training for their trade commissioners.”
Trade representatives from 104 countries participated in the event. 41 percent of the countries where Canada does business are ranked high or very high on the Pew Center’s Social Hostilities Index, Wallace said.
Wallace has also been invited to be one of a handful of outside civilian guests to participate in a conference hosted by the U.S. Military’s Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) based in Miami. The conference is entitled “Religion Matters II”. It will be held April 20-23.
“It will deal with topics such as the strategic and tactical aspects of religion and culture in areas of troop deployment,” Wallace said. “The conference will be attended by representatives from all branches of the U.S. Military, NATO, UN Peacekeeping operations, and the militaries of over 10 countries.”
In June, Wallace will be participating in a similar conference in Toronto hosted by the Canadian Department of National Defense and the Canadian Forces College on “Religion and Conflict.”
Wallace is a Fellow with Boston University’s Religion Fellows Program under the aegis of the BU School of Theology and the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs. He is a consultant and entrepreneur as the founder and CEO of Lacuna Group International. For over 30 years he worked as a religious leader, as well as a government and political consultant in the United States and Canada.