4. Programs

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Canadian Armed Forces Jasmine Doobay-Joseph

Can External Recruitment Address Skill Shortages in the Canadian Armed Forces?

As the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) continue to operate below authorized strength, the Government of Canada has announced plans to create a pathway for skilled foreign military recruits to help fill shortages in critical occupations. This reflects a broader challenge facing allied militaries: how to fill urgent personnel gaps without creating new long-term problems. This article examines whether foreign recruitment is becoming a lasting part of force generation or whether it is being used to respond to ongoing personnel pressures.
Drawing on examples from the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, the article argues that external recruitment works best when it is connected to broader personnel planning, domestic training systems, and retention efforts. While it can help ease pressure in high-skill occupations such as aviation and medicine, its long-term value depends on whether it strengthens the force over time. The analysis suggests that foreign recruitment can support capability, but its overall value will depend on how well it fits within Canada’s wider workforce approach.
Energy Security

Canada’s Arctic Energy Security: Infrastructure Vulnerabilities and NATO Resilience Requirements

The Canadian Arctic has become a focal point of global strategic competition, but the region’s energy infrastructure has not kept pace. Currently, remote communities and military installations in the Arctic depend on diesel fuel delivered via seasonal ice roads or costly airlift operations. Communications networks are unreliable, and diesel power plants lacking redundancy are operating Read More…
Isabelle Zhu Women in Security

More Than Just a Woman: Exploring Peacekeeping Operations Through a Multifaceted Lens

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.
Indo-Pacific and NATO

Border Flashpoints: What NATO Can Learn from the Thailand–Cambodia Crisis

The 2025 Thailand–Cambodia border crisis demonstrates how unresolved territorial disputes can quickly escalate when historical grievances, domestic political pressures, and weak conflict-management mechanisms converge. Nguyen Bao Han Tran examines the structural drivers of the crisis and draws broader lessons for NATO on conflict prevention, monitoring, regional diplomacy, and post-conflict stabilization.
NATO and Canada

Canada’s Strategic Role in NATO’s Arctic Frontier

The Arctic’s strategic transformation within NATO following Finland and Sweden’s accession underscores the region’s growing importance to the alliance. Canada’s central geography links European and North American security and strengthens the northern defence architecture. Enhanced Canadian strategic initiatives and proactivity could bridge alliance coordination and reinforce deterrence in the High North. Addressing Canada’s underutilized role would advance both NATO cohesion and long-term Arctic stability.
Morgan Singer Women in Security

“Building Canada Strong”: an Investigation of Opportunities for Women in Canada’s Procurement Strategy

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.
Society, Culture, and Security

For Freedom: Examining the Implications of the Iranian Protest on NATO and Canada

This article was written prior to the joint US-Israel attack on Iran. The following article is a reflection of events prior to military intervention. The recent protest in Iran, which began on December 28, 2025, is far more than a reaction to economic hardship. Although the initial unrest was driven by inflation, currency devaluation, and Read More…
Cyber Security and Emerging Threats

Protecting Arctic Cyberinfrastructure: Quantum Sensors for Domain Awareness in the North

This article discusses how the adoption of quantum sensing technologies will likely advance cybersecurity by enabling greater protection of infrastructure, detection of attacks, and attribution to attackers, particularly in the Arctic.
Cyber Security and Emerging Threats

The Missing Shield: Why NATO’s Innovation Strategy Needs Modern Intellectual Property Protection

This article argues that without integrating IP protection into its cyber, emerging and disruptive technologies, and innovation strategies, NATO risks undermining the very technological edge it seeks to secure.