The NAOC’s Cyber Security and Emerging Threats Program features an in-depth analysis of latest trends, developments, and threats in international security. New security concerns are always on the horizon and our program seeks to examine these domains including global warming, natural resources, drones, urban conflicts, and cyberspace.
The program’s mandate is to keep Canadians informed on these rapidly developing and increasingly pivotal realms that are integral to all aspects of security.
The declining cost of war, driven by cheap first-person-view (FPV) drones, commercially available components, and rapidly diffusing battlefield innovation, is lowering the financial barriers to enter conflicts, both for state and non-state actors. This risks increasing the frequency and territory impacted by armed conflict and, by extension, expands the risk of entrapment to NATO countries.
As some of history’s greatest military strategists have contended, human will is central to conflict. Yet, as emerging technologies capable of altering emotions, reasoning, and ultimately, human will, are progressively used to cause divide and modify conduct, NATO must place increasing importance on the cognitive domain of conflict.
Geopolitical competition in the Arctic is intensifying due to increased access to the region driven by climate change and interest in precious oil and other resources. In response to the growing need for security and surveillance on our nation’s Northern front, Canada’s ongoing discussions with Sweden to acquire the GlobalEye platform and produce Saab aircraft will significantly enhance Canada and NATO’s ability to monitor and respond to emerging threats across the North.
NATO’s 2025 Science and Technology Organization Highlights report offers a snapshot of an Alliance pushing technological boundaries while struggling to align the systems behind them. Across data fusion, autonomy, and multidomain operations, innovation is accelerating faster than integration. These seams now shape the contours of NATO’s modernization challenge.
As confidence in American commitments declines, new extended nuclear deterrence arrangements are emerging in the EU. Canada, geographically distinct from this emerging network, thus ought to reassess its nuclear- latent stance. The article concludes continued nuclear latency is the most strategic positioning for Canada.
From Kyiv to Tehran, states are building new partnerships around drone warfare knowledge, training, and battlefield innovation. This article uses a SWOT analysis approach to explore NATO’s position and potential in the emerging global know-how market.
The 2025 Science and Technology Organization (STO) Highlights Report is a stark reminder that in an environment characterized by compressed decision cycles and rapid response requirements, technological military advantage depends less on possessing advanced systems than on how seamlessly they operate across domains, nations, and architectures. Progress in integrated platforms and autonomous sensing and countermeasure Read More…
Canada’s threat environment has already made clear that cyber risks demand serious attention; the real question is what the country chooses to defend. The CRA incidents and NATO’s resilience agenda show that protecting Canada today means treating core digital systems as strategic assets essential to public trust, fiscal stability, and national security
How can NATO integrate Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) into the Cyber Defence Framework? In this article, Christopher Macartney highlights the developments and capabilities of UGVs during the Russia-Ukraine War and strengthening UGV network defences as a strategic asset for NATO in the future of warfare.
Whether it is NATO’s eastern front or the Persian Gulf, wars today have a variety of drivers that range from troops to weapons systems. Many of these advanced technologies are dual-use in nature, often switching between military and commercial (or civilian) settings. Bringing greater urgency to this matter, prominent defence technologies that are sensitive also Read More…