4. Programs

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Trade Law and the Coordination of Security-Based Trade Measures

As economic security becomes increasingly central to international policymaking, trade law is being reshaped by sanctions, export controls, and other security-based economic measures. In this article, Hassan Ahmed examines how the WTO’s national security exception has evolved from a narrow safeguard into a more routine justification for strategic economic action, and how allied states increasingly coordinate such measures through informal alignment rather than unified legal frameworks. Using examples ranging from semiconductor export controls to sanctions coordination following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the article explores the growing intersection of trade law, strategic competition, and alliance politics, including the implications for middle powers such as Canada.

Centre For Disinformation Studies

Special Report: Iran, Russia, & Hybrid Warfare Influence Operations

In this special report, Soha Sarfraz examines how Iran and Russia use influence operations and information warfare to weaken democratic cohesion across NATO societies. Particularly by targeting key institutions through digital disruption, narrative manipulation, and the covert exploitation of grassroots mobilization. She argues that these campaigns threaten not only institutions themselves, but also the social trust, political consensus, and informational resilience that sustain collective defence, underscoring the need for stronger democratic resilience and alliance-wide responses to hybrid threats.

Centre For Disinformation Studies

How AI-Generated Misinformation Creates Friendly-Fire Confusion Among NATO Allies

How can allied democracies inadvertently amplify each other’s friendly-fire of confusion and panic? What existential threat does this pose to content creators, journalists, or news anchors? Ji Young Kim examines how AI-generated misinformation shapes interpretation in the context of recent geopolitics and modern media culture.

Canadian Armed Forces

The Citizen-Soldier Problem: What WWI Teaches Us About Today’s Recruitment Gap

Drawing on a collection of WWI-era letters and the experience of Canada’s “citizen-soldiers,” Emma Zhang argues that today’s recruitment gap is not just logistical but cultural, rooted in the erosion of the civic-military bond. Her article explores how rebuilding local connections to service may be key to solving the Canadian Armed Forces’ recruitment crisis.

NATO and Canada

Elephants in the Room: How the Rise of the European Right Poses NATO’s Next Cohesion Challenge

How stable is NATO? While the Presidency of Donald Trump has drawn significant attention to the future of the alliance, the rise of similar far-right ideologies in Europe presents a similar, yet less publicized threat to NATO. Ahead of the 2027 French presidential elections, Jonah Moffatt uses the Rassemblement National as a case study to assess the impact of a victory for the right on NATO cohesion and Canadian foreign policy interests.

Centre For Disinformation Studies

Copyright as Security: Lessons from Denmark’s Approach to Deepfakes

In this article, Soha Sarfraz explores how the rise of deepfakes is placing new strains on democratic resilience, using Denmark’s developing legal and policy response as a case study of how states may preserve trust and political legitimacy in the age of fake media, Soha examines what lessons Canada might draw from that model. She argues that deepfakes increasingly threaten not only individual reputations, but also electoral integrity and the broader information environment, contending that the challenge is no longer merely a technological, but fundamentally political and strategic.

NATO and Canada

Canada’s Defence Spending and Plans: From Promise to Practice

Canada has finally hit NATO’s 2% defence spending target, and it aims even higher. But writing bigger cheques doesn’t automatically translate into battle-ready ships, jets, or troops. Between procurement timelines that stretch into the 2050s, a personnel system that hires only one in thirteen applicants, and serviceability rates hovering around 58%, the gap between budget promises and deployable power remains stubbornly wide. Canada is making smart moves: joining European defence initiatives and diversifying away from US-only supply chains, but the real test will be whether it can turn historic investment into tangible military effect before allied patience runs thin.

Security, Trade and the Economy

Complement or Challenge to Transatlantic Security? Reassessing Europe’s Role in NATO

As Europe advances its pursuit of strategic autonomy, questions are emerging about the future of NATO and transatlantic security. Can a more independent Europe strengthen collective defence, or risk fragmentation? This article explores how alignment and coordination will shape the future of Western security.

Environment, Climate Change, and Security

National Security on Fire: The Rising Threat of Canadian Wildfires

In Canada, the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires, driven by climate change, have evolved from an environmental challenge into a national security concern, threatening critical infrastructure, displacing communities, and straining the capacities of emergency and military response systems. This is most evident in British Columbia, where recent wildfire seasons have forced governments to escalate Read More…

Global Health and Security

Canada’s Need for Binding AI Legislation Amidst Outsourcing of Canadians Health Data

Canada regards universal healthcare as a national value and a point of sovereign pride, yet the data that powers it (the diagnoses, treatment notes, and intimate clinical conversations recorded by AI scribes etc.) are currently being processed through servers which fall under American law, with no binding Canadian standard for how it is stored or Read More…