With an academic background in Soviet and East European Studies, long-time NATO Council member Eric Morse served from 1973 – 86 in the Canadian Department of External Affairs as Head, International Sports Relations, overseeing and advising the Government on Canadian involvements in Olympic-level international sport from an IR perspective, on issues related to apartheid, Olympic bids, Olympic boycotts and sport diplomacy (‘soft power’ on hard surfaces). In the 1980s-1990s he consulted to Canadian firms and NGOs doing business in the former USSR in sport, culture and commerce. Since 2007, he has been chief of publications and Co-Chair, Security Studies at the Royal Canadian Military Institute in Toronto. He is a regular contributor of op-ed on IR-related themes to Canadian media, appearing in the Ottawa Citizen and the Globe and Mail. From 2007-2011 he served as Provincial Returning Officer in the constituency of Toronto Centre, thereby acquiring serious exposure to the workings of the Canadian electoral machinery. He has a deep interest in Roman Imperial public policy, and delivers the annual Val Ross Lecture to the RCMI on Roman themes. His essaycollection Roman Spaces (Iguana Books, Toronto) was published in December 2014.