Articles – Page 4

Alliance Liability: Ramifications of Alleged Canadian NATO Spy

Is Canada an alliance liability? Zev Wood examines the arrest of an alleged Canadian spy at NATO, arguing that NATO’s decentralized vetting structure places greater importance on domestic security screenings, which increases the risk of Canada being perceived as a liability because of its structural vulnerabilities. Amid Canada’s renewed efforts to reaffirm its centrality within the alliance, Zev argues that the espionage case risks undoing meaningful strides made by the current government. To address this and protect NATO’s operational cohesion, Zev proposes institutional reforms to close gaps in Canada’s vetting architecture that allowed this case to occur.

NATO and Canada

The Sahel’s Security Imperative: How Resurgent Jihadist Violence Challenges Africa’s and the West’s Economic Potential

Terrorism is no longer at the top of NATO’s agenda. After decades of war supporting the United States in its fight against terror, the pendulum has swung back to Europe. The war in Ukraine carries very clear security implications for NATO’s European members, who are rightly concerned that the emboldenment of a victorious Russia will lead to expanded aggression. At the same time, China has become a strategic competitor with military capacities that cannot be overlooked. As the alliance seeks to defend Europe, navigate the shifting priorities of the United States, and position itself to the threat of China, terrorism has become a secondary concern.

Society, Culture, and Security

Why Intangible Cultural Erasure is a Hard-Security Threat

In the occupied territories of Ukraine and across Russia’s own ethnic republics, President Vladimir Putin is executing a quiet war of attrition: banning native languages, shuttering local institutions, and sending minority youth to the frontlines as cannon fodder. This systematic campaign demonstrates that modern territorial expansion relies as much on eradicating living identity as it Read More…

NATO and Canada

Flags of Convenience: Russia’s Shadow Fleet and Canadian Maritime Security

Russia’s Shadow Fleet is more than a sanctions-enforcement issue. Despite the economic utility these intentionally ambiguous vessels present to Moscow, Jonah Moffatt argues its activities demonstrate how Russia has fused its economic, intelligence, and security interests into one overarching hybrid strategy. The increased prevalence of the shadow fleet in the Arctic requires Canada to not only recognize the security implications of this threat, but work towards a coordinated response strategy with its regional NATO allies.

Society, Culture, and Security

Why Kurdish Rights Matter to NATO

When modern state borders are superimposed onto an inherently diverse geography, centralized state systems often enforce strict administrative and cultural uniformity to align the human landscape with centralized state identities. This friction is acutely visible along NATO’s southeastern flank, where regional authorities frequently treat ethnic and administrative plurality as an inherent challenge to state sovereignty. Read More…

Tessa McDermid Women in Security

No Peace Without Women: Closing the Gender Gap in Peace Negotiations

Women remain largely absent from peace negotiations across the globe, despite data linking their participation to more durable agreements. In this piece, Tessa McDermid draws on a June 2026 UN Security Council debate on Women, Peace and Security to argue that NATO’s WPS policy gives the Alliance the tools to push Allies towards signing and implementing the UN’s Common Pledge on Women’s Participation in Peace Processes.

Bibi Hakim Women in Security

The Essequibo Flashpoint: What the Guyana-Venezuela Conflict Means for NATO Security

For decades, the Caribbean has shaped the world through its culture, cuisine, music, and vibrant traditions. Today, its influence is expanding into a new arena: energy, security, and strategic defence partnerships. The Essequibo dispute is no longer just a bilateral territorial disagreement. It has become a strategic issue with implications for energy security, great-power competition, and NATO’s wider security environment. In this special report, read how Guyana’s emergence as a major oil producer has elevated the geopolitical significance of the Guyana–Venezuela dispute, and why developments in the Caribbean now matter far beyond the region.

8. French

Défense et durabilité : dépasser le « warwashing » pour financer la résilience

En juillet dernier, à Ankara, les chefs d’État et de gouvernement de l’OTAN ont relancé un signal fort en direction du secteur privé : il faut davantage de capitaux pour la défense, la sécurité et la résilience. L’Alliance a explicitement appelé les institutions financières à prêter plus et à investir plus dans ces filières. Face Read More…

Canadian Armed Forces

Twenty Years After Medusa: What Canada’s Costliest Battle Still Demands of Us

This September marks twenty years since Operation Medusa — the battle that defined Canada’s war in Afghanistan and reshaped how the country saw its military. At the centre of it was Brigadier-General David Fraser, the officer running his country’s force in Kandahar and NATO’s southern command. Most retellings stop at the victory his forces won; Read More…

Uncategorized

Twenty Years of Trust, One Day Without Guardrails: What Google Earth’s AI Integration Reveals About Emerging Information Threats

What happens when a trusted source of credible evidence becomes something just about anyone can fabricate? Google’s short-lived integration of its Nano Banana 2 image-generation technology into Google Earth offered a glimpse. Dorigen Gray examines how increasingly accessible generative AI tools lower the barriers to manipulating trusted sources of evidence, and what this means for verification, disinformation, public trust and national security.