A list of authors, past and present
The transition toward drone warfare is transforming the frontline. Drawing on Ukraine’s experience, this article explores how remote warfare challenges conventional standards for combat effectiveness. These transformations create new opportunities and threats; the necessity for precision, composure, and critical thinking bolsters women’s greater capacity to perform as impressive drone operators. Alternatively, gendered stereotypes and psychological challenges persist. This article outlines pathways through which NATO can integrate gender perspectives into the deployment of uncrewed systems in order to optimize the integration of combat innovation.
Isabelle Zhu argues that NATO DIANA can serve as a key platform to uplift women in STEM. By providing opportunities to connect women across the Alliance with the private and public sectors, government, and academia, DIANA has the potential to advance women’s involvement and participation in these fields.
Women’s political representation is an integral condition for achieving durable peace, however, progress toward parity has begun stalling recent years. This article examines the mechanisms through which women’s substantive political representation produces positive outcomes for NATO’s peace and security agenda. The NATO Alliance must cultivate a political order where women lead, not only as a gender equity imperative but as a peace imperative, as women’s leadership presents the surest defence against adversaries seeking to destabilize the Alliance.
As Arctic security becomes increasingly central to Canada’s defence strategy and the broader priorities of NATO, women and notably Indigenous women, retain imperative roles in deploying Canada’s northern security strategy. Integrating women’s leadership into Arctic defence planning is critical to ensuring that Canada’s northern security strategy is both operationally effective and socially sound. This article aims to highlight key women currently contributing to Canada’s Arctic strategy, as well as illuminate the broader gendered implications of resilience in the North.
Female journalists experience harmful stereotypes, increased susceptibility to violence, and additional barriers, especially when reporting in conflict zones. Journalism is a crucial mechanism that contributes to peace and security, and it is essential to support women in this space as they add differing perspectives in this traditionally male-dominated space.
Overlapping structural barriers, including economic inequality, racism, and social inequalities, work to limit women’s agency, reinforcing problematic assumptions around gender and reasons for women’s inclusion. Contextual considerations to peacekeeping operations (eg. geography, history, culture) as well as overlapping factors that affect women’s experiences should be accounted for when determining responsibilities/mandates. Missions could benefit from incorporating an intersectional perspective, beyond just the gendered dimension; race, class, sexuality, and other social identities have organizational, institutional, and field-level effects in the conflict resolution process.
Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) aims to strengthen national defence posture by investing in domestic supply chains. This article explores whether the opportunities created by this expansion will produce meaningful gains for women in Canada’s defence and security industries. By examining initiatives among leading Canadian defence firms, this article assesses current efforts to promote women’s industrial participation and prescribes how the DIS can pursue gender-inclusive growth among Canada’s broader defence procurement strategy.
On February 23, 2026, the NATO Association of Canada (NAOC), in partnership with the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group and the Embassies of Ukraine and Lithuania in Canada, organized a panel discussion entitled “Charting Ukraine’s Pathway Toward a Just Peace with Canada & NATO Allies”. The event was dedicated to commemorating the 4th anniversary of the Read More…
WPS policies are often disregarded when matters deemed of higher priority emerge, despite NATO’s high engagement of WPS values through public diplomacy, military, and political means. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has posed the biggest security crisis to NATO in decades, and considering the gendered dimensions of the war, which has seen high rates of sexual and gender
based violence, NATO’s limited WPS response leaves the future of the Agenda in question. As a core tenet of NATO’s values, WPS must not be disregarded; member states that have adopted FFPs, such as Canada, should continue to drive the WPS agenda forward. This article makes key recommendations, including shifting to a human rights-based approach (HRBA) and employing more intentional language in operational directives, to support Ukraine’s current WPS policies.
This article examines misogyny and broader anti-gender ideology as under-recognized vectors of hybrid warfare that undermine NATO’s democratic resilience, military cohesion, and Alliance legitimacy. It argues that foreign adversaries exploit entrenched patriarchal and exclusionary narratives through gender-based disinformation to exacerbate polarization, target political actors, weaken trust in defence institutions, and delegitimize NATO. The article concludes that the principles of NATO’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) policy counter foreign disinformation by limiting the impact of harmful gendered narratives and reinforcing pluralism, and what can be done to strengthen democratic resilience and NATO’s collective defence in an era of hybrid conflict.
