Denis Winfield Stairs

Background

Denis Winfield Stairs was born on September 6, 1939, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to Henry Gerald and Freda (Winfield) Stairs.

Education

In 1961, Stairs received a Bachelor of Arts from Dalhousie University. In 1964, he received a Bachelor of Arts from Oxford University, and a Master of Arts in 1968. In 1969, Denis received a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.

Career

From 1966 to 1970, Denis Stairs began to work as an assistant professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then he works there as an associate professor from 1970 to 1975, and professor of political science in 1975. From 1971 to 1975, Denis also was a director of the Center for Foreign Policy Studies, then department head from 1980 to 1985, and vice president of academic and research from 1988 to 1993. In 1979, Stairs was a member of the board of directors at the Atlantic Council of Canada. He also was a member of the council at the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada from 1981 to 1987 and a member of the research council at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research from 1986 to 1997.

Achievements

• Stairs is most commonly known as the contributor to books, including An Acceptance of Paradox: Essays on Canadian Diplomacy in Honor of John W. Holmes, edited by Kim Richard Nossal, Canadian Institute of International Affairs (Toronto), 1982; NAFTA and Sovereignty: Trade-Offs for Canada, Mexico, and the United States, Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, DC), 1996; Leadership and Dialogue: Canada among Nations 1998, Dalhousie University Center for Foreign Policy Studies (Halifax), 1998; “Of Medium Powers and Middling Roles,” in Statecraft and Security: The Cold War and Beyond, edited by Ken Booth. Cambridge University Press, 1998; and “Lester B. Pearson and the Meaning of Politics” in Pearson: The Unlikely Gladiator, edited by Norman Hillmer, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999. Contributor to periodicals, including Policy Options, Canadian Foreign Policy, and International Journal.
  
  In 2004, Denis received a Distinguished Scholar Award from the International Studies Association and in 2006 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Pearson: The Unlikely Gladiator

    (In this collection of essays marking the centenary of Pea...)

    1999
  • Statecraft and Security: The Cold War and Beyond

    (This book shows how different countries and different gro...)

    1998
  • Canada Among Nations 1998: Leadership and Dialogue

    (What became known as 'the Ottawa Process' is one of the i...)

    1998
  • The diplomacy of constraint: Canada, the Korean War, and the United States 1974
  • Canada and the International Political/Economic Environment 1985
  • Politics of Canada's Economic Relationship With the United States 1985
  • Selected Problems in Formulating Foreign Economic Policy 1985
  • Canada and Quebec after Quebecois Secession: "Realist" Reflections on an International Relationship 1996
  • An Acceptance of paradox: Essays on Canadian diplomacy in honour of John W. Holmes 1982
  • Nafta And Sovereignty: Trade-offs For Canada, Mexico, And The United States 1996

Membership

Denis is the former President of the Canadian Political Science Association, a member of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada from 1981 to 1987 and of the Research Council of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research from 1986 to 1997. In 2002, he became a member of the Advisory Council of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, and has been the Chair since 2008 as well as being appointed a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute in the same year. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre since 2007.

Connections

On August 10, 1963, Stairs married Valerie Downing Street, but they divorced in December 1986, and Denis married Jennifer Smith on July 18, 1986. From his first marriage Stairs has two sons, Robert Woodliffe and Christopher Winfield.

Father:

Henry Gerald Stairs

Mother:

Freda (Winfield) Stairs

ex-wife:

Valerie Downing Street

Wife:

Jennifer Smith

Son:

Robert Woodliffe Stairs

Son:

Christopher Winfield Stairs