New Releases by Michael Byers

Explores the environmental, safety, and security challenges facing humanity's rapid expansion into Space and proposes actionable solutions.

"There are many reasons to be concerned about the F-35, including its still incomplete and unproven character, its relatively slow speed and limited manoeuvrability, and the considerable cost risks associated with its acquisition, operation and sustainment. This report focuses on just one reason for concern. ... The F-35 has only one engine. This fact alone renders it problematic for use in Canada's Arctic and extensive maritime zones"--

"In June 2010, the Harper government announced the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS), a long-term plan to renew the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) fleets. It projected a cost of $35 billion for replacement vessels, plus refit-and-repair work amounting to an additional $500 million annually. ... In November 2013, the Auditor General of Canada reported that the full cost of the NSPS would be approximately $105 billion.7 This higher figure included 30 years of life-cycle costs, such as salaries, fuel, and ammunition. Life-cycle costs are necessarily approximate since the price of fuel and other commodities can fluctuate, and unexpected technological advances can require updates to communication, sensor and weapon systems. The Auditor General did not examine the accuracy of the Harper government's projected acquisition costs"--pages 5-6.

Sets out the international law relevant to the Arctic, from Indigenous peoples to environmental protection to oil and gas exploration.

In December 2005, then opposition leader Stephen Harper promised "three new heavy naval ice breakers" and "a new combined military civilian deep water docking facility in the Iqaluit region." However, since Mr. Harper became Prime Minister in February 2006, the project has repeatedly been delayed. It now seems possible that he could leave office before a construction contract for new Arctic vessels is signed. Furthermore, the "three heavy naval ice breakers" have been scaled back to "Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships" (A/OPS) -- essentially, vessels that are supposed to combine the coastal patrol role of the existing, inadequate and soon-to-be-decommissioned Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels (MC DVs) with a new security role in the Arctic. Unfortunately, the result is a compromise ship that is not very good at either role.

In Intent for a Nation, Michael Byers argues that it is time for a clear-eyed appreciation of our strengths and weaknesses, of all we have and all we could be. A whole series of world events-the waning of US credibility; the increasing value of natural resources; the brain-gain; the ever-increasing interdependence of peoples, countries and continents-have combined to put Canada center stage in a new world order. Instead of emulating our increasingly isolated neighbor, we should be advancing the Canadian model, an idealistic, fiscally prudent, socially progressive vision that has never looked so good. Intent for a Nation is a fundamentally optimistic, informed and opinionated overview of where Canada stands in the world and what aggressive public policies are needed to carry the country forward in an ever more competitive and volatile world. Here is a book urging Canadians to rediscover their national self-confidence, to find the courage to dream great dreams-and make them happen.

It's 1928. Alan Barber is in love with his best friend's girl. Clyde Tombaugh is stuck at home farming crops – about as far from his dream of becoming an astronomer as is possible. But by 1930, Alan will be enthralled in his life's greatest romance, and Clyde will have made one of the most significant astronomical discoveries of the twentieth century. Based on a true story, this is an incredible tale of love, ambition and the fullest sweep of human emotion. Filled with a wondrous cast of fascinating characters and set in the last, vibrant days of the flapper era, it's a novel that will leave you as awestruck as the clear night sky.

A novel of ambition and obsession centered on the race to discover Pluto in 1930, pitting an untrained Kansas farm boy against the greatest minds of Harvard at the run-down Lowell Observatory in Arizona In 1928, the boy who will discover Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh, is on the family farm, grinding a lens for his own telescope under the immense Kansas sky. In Flagstaff, Arizona, the staff of Lowell Observatory is about to resume the late Percival Lowell's interrupted search for Planet X. Meanwhile, the immensely rich heir to a chemical fortune has decided to go west to hunt for dinosaurs and in Cambridge, Massachussetts, the most beautiful girl in America is going slowly insane while her ex-heavyweight champion boyfriend stands by helplessly, desperate to do anything to keep her. Inspired by the true story of Tombaugh and set in the last gin-soaked months of the flapper era, Percival's Planet tells the story of the intertwining lives of half a dozen dreamers, schemers, and madmen. Following Tombaugh's unlikely path from son of a farmer to discoverer of a planet, the novel touches on insanity, mathematics, music, astrophysics, boxing, dinosaur hunting, shipwrecks—and what happens when the greatest romance of your life is also the source of your life's greatest sorrow.

A topical and informed primer for the most urgent yet least understood geopolitical issue of our time; Arctic sovereignty. Who actually controls the Northwest Passage? Who owns the trillions of dollars of oil and gas beneath the Arctic Ocean? Which territorial claims will prevail those of the U.S., Russia, Canada or the Nordic nations and why? And, in an age of rapid climate change, how do we protect the fragile Arctic environment while seizing the economic opportunities presented by the rapidly melting sea ice? In the highly readable book Who Owns the Arctic, Michael Byers, a leading Arctic expert and international lawyer explains the sometimes contradictory rules governing the division and protection of the Arctic and the disputes that remain unresolved. What emerges is a vision for the Arctic in which co-operation, not conflict, prevails, and where the sovereignty of individual nations is exercised for the benefit of all.

In this unique and highly readable book, written for the intelligent layperson, one of the world's leading experts in international law uses historical case studies to examine the basis on which war is waged and how the global legal environment shapes current events. The international rules governing the use of military force are under unprecedented scrutiny following the removal of Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein in wars not sanctioned by the United Nations (UN). Michael Byers' authoritative book addresses five broad issues: u.n. Security Council authorization, self-defence against terrorism, pre-emptive war, humanitarian and pro-democratic intervention, and the protection of civilians and combatants during armed conflict. His conclusion is that the global legal environment matters and its influence is often understated and undervalued. War Law is an informative and stimulating read about these continually divisive, critically important issues.

This wise and richly symphonic first novel by the award-winning author of "The Coast of Good Intentions" is a thoroughly contemporary family drama that hinges on a riveting medical dilemma.

A collection of stories set in the Pacific Northwest. The story, In Spain, One Thousand and Three, describes the sexual reawakening of a mourning widower, while in Settled on the Cranberry Coast, a man meets a girl he once pined for, now a grandmother.

This book explains the most foundational aspect of international law in international relations terms.