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Robert Wolfe

Emeritus Professor

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Robert Wolfe joined the School of Policy Studies in 1995 and retired in 2017.  He taught the required course on policy analysis in both the full-time and part-time Masters in Public Administration programs, and an optional course on trade policy. He was MPA Program Director from 2002 until 2008.

Wolfe has a B.A. in History from York University (1974), an M.A. in Canadian Studies from Carleton University (1976) and a doctorate in Political Studies from Queen’s University (1995). He joined the then Department of External Affairs in 1976 as a foreign service officer in the political/economic stream, serving abroad in Dhaka, Bangladesh (1977-79) and in the Canadian Delegation to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris (1981-85). In Ottawa he worked in the National Security Section; the U.S. Trade and Economic Relations Division; as Executive Assistant to the Ambassador for Multilateral Trade Negotiations and Prime Minister’s Personal Representative, Economic Summit (Sylvia Ostry); and in the International Economic Relations Division. He retired from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (now Global Affairs) in 1995.

His ongoing research interests include Canadian trade policy, the World Trade Organization, and transparency mechanisms.

Wolfe is a Fellow of the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen's University, a Research Fellow of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, a member of the editorial board of World Trade Review and a member of the Trade Expert Advisory Council, Global Affairs Canada. 

He was the founding director of the Queen's Institute on Trade Policy from 2009 to 2018.

  • World Trade Organization (WTO),
  • trade policy,
  • transparency and accountability.