The Security, Trade and the Economy program aims to provide Canadians with relevant and accessible analysis on current international economic policies with a focus on Canadian interests and trade security. Additionally, the program examines our country’s commitment to NATO’s mandate of encouraging economic collaboration and eliminating economic conflict.
Abstract: Indonesia’s election commission has confirmed that Minister of Defence Prabowo Subianto will be the next President of Indonesia. What could possibly remain and change in Jakarta’s foreign policy? In this article, Program Editor Mark Davis Madarang Pablo analyzes the probable sets of economic and security policies that Subianto might pursue against the backdrop of Read More…
Europe faces unprecedented security challenges, and the European Commission is seeking the opportunity to transform its defence-industrial base by creating the European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS), pledging €1.5 billion to support this initiative between (2025-2027). Critical procurement vulnerabilities have been exposed since the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the potential return of a Trump administration. Addressing these vulnerabilities and diversifying Read More…
BRICS, the hitherto five-state grouping of emerging countries that, until now, included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, expanded in early 2024. This enlargement doubled BRICS’ membership to include authoritarian members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but with Argentina desisting from joining after the election of President Milei. This is the first BRICS Read More…
During the American Civil War, in the 1860s, two thirds of soldiers’ deaths came, not from the conflict itself, but from infectious diseases, including typhoid and malaria. These infectious diseases were infamously referred to as the “Third Army.” Even over a century later, with the knowledge that people now possess of infectious diseases, they still Read More…
In recent decades, China has established itself as a nation with global interests and the ability to fundamentally affect world order. In the past, the international community was more passive about China’s ascent. However, now that the West is becoming more aware of China’s growing power, the question naturally arises: Is China a threat? Some commentators claim that China’s Read More…
Ethiopia has officially completed its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). GERD is a $4.7 billion investment project located on the Blue Nile tributary, through which 85% of the Nile’s water flows. The dam is 30 kilometres long – Africa’s biggest hydroelectric project – producing 6,000 megawatts of electricity in a country where 66% of the Read More…
Canada’s food crisis has been ongoing, with around 5.8 million Canadians experiencing some extent of food insecurity in 2021 alone. However, with the potential re-emergence of mad cow disease, this food insecurity could take another drastic turn. It was thought that we had seen the last of mad cow disease after the epidemic in the Read More…
Israel & The Middle East Before October 7, 2023 Israel is “likely” to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia in a deal that will “change the Middle East forever” and create “a corridor of energy pipelines, rail lines, fiber optic cables, between Asia through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates.” Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Read More…
In the face of the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, the existing Atlantic energy infrastructure has found its Achilles’ heel, namely a reliance on resources controlled by powers with interests that are inimical to the rules-based international order. According to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance’s goals in the face of this new crisis have Read More…
In July, Niger’s democratically-elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, was removed from office by a coup d’état led by General Abdourahmane Tchiani, the commander of the presidential guards, who appointed himself head of the country’s new military government. His official reason for his actions was his allegation that Bazoum’s government was not managing the deterioration of the Read More…