A list of authors, past and present
In July 2024, General Jennie Carignan became Canada’s first woman Chief of Defence Staff. This article centers her appointment as both a symbolic and institutional milestone in Canada’s effort to operationalize the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. Tracing her leadership of the Canadian Armed Forces, the article demonstrates how offering equal access to opportunity is a prerequisite for military strength. Gen. Carignan’s leadership of the Canadian Armed Forces offers an example for NATO allies, who can similarly dismantle barriers to women’s leadership and embed inclusive military ethos. The article prescribes a series of pathways through which NATO allies can pursue institutional reform, thereby enhancing institutional quality and strengthening collective defence posture across the Alliance.
Muskaan Waraich explores how addressing violent extremism requires a multifaceted lens: physical, social, political, economic, and cultural factors that all can play a role. She examines the roles women play in extremist activities, both as victims, perpetrators, and enablers, as well as in prevention. She argues that a gender-responsive lens is essential for understanding these dynamics and for designing more effective approaches to preventing violent extremism (PVE).
In this piece, Hermean Japra examines how hybrid warfare, using tools such as disinformation, cyberattacks, and economic pressure, undermines democratic resilience. She analyzes how gendered disinformation and online abuse are used to silence women, limit their participation in public life, and weaken societal resilience. Her analysis outlines practical
strategies NATO can adopt, including improved gender-sensitive threat analysis, support mechanisms for targeted women, and strengthened information resilience systems to counter gender-based hybrid threats.
How could gender-inclusive national service shape Canada’s future defence posture? This article examines the growing debate around universal service in Canada, assesses its implications for Women, Peace and Security commitments under NATO, and draws lessons from Nordic models to consider whether compulsory service could strengthen societal resilience and women’s meaningful participation in defence.
This article looks at how sexual violence operates as a weapon of war in Sudan, and considers NATO’s responsibility to protect women under its Women, Peace & Security (WPS) agenda. It emphasizes the necessity of international collaboration, through policing, justice, and accountability initiatives, in order to strengthen women’s protections and address conflict-related sexual violence.
Uzbekistan’s significance for European energy security has grown, and there is every indication that it will grow further. For most of the post-Soviet period, and especially under President Islam Karimov from independence in 1991 until his death in 2016, its energy sector was run as a tightly controlled extension of the old Soviet system, which Read More…
This article explores how international human rights law, through the CEDAW treaty, can help strengthen NATO’s Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. It looks at how CEDAW’s legal obligations can support NATO’s goals by adding stronger accountability for member countries. Using Canada as an example, the piece shows how combining legal commitment with political action can make real progress toward equality and women’s roles in peace and security.
Alberta’s latest directive on books has turned heads nationally. But what does it mean for Canadian security? In this article, author Esha Grewal discusses how Alberta’s book ban is a part of the larger, growing trend of divisive policies among NATO countries that threaten social cohesion.
In his latest piece, Alexander Morrow highlights how new NATO spending commitments strengthen security in both Europe and the Indo-Pacific. As the alliance rebalances burden sharing, European arms purchases have the potential to bolster the United State’s military industrial base and its ability to deter aggression against Taiwan.
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup slowly approaches, fans and human rights groups alike are campaigning against matches hosted on US soil. Targeted immigration policies and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community are some of the concerns raised by groups for the upcoming global event. For some, the policies of the Trump administration pose a significant Read More…
