NATO and Canada

Killing from a Distance: How remote warfare is reshaping accountability, civilian protection, and the future of conflict.

When warfare is designed to distance the soldier emotionally and physically from the battlefield, international humanitarian law pays the price. Giselle D’Anna examines how remote warfare and AI-enabled targeting are eroding civilian protection obligations, and what Canada owes to the future of war.

Environment, Climate Change, and Security

Canada’s Bootprint: An Effort to Mitigate Its Carbon Footprint

Canada has increasingly recognized that climate change is not only an environmental issue but also a growing national and international security challenge. As a founding member of NATO, Canada has aligned its defence policies with the Alliance’s climate objectives by integrating climate considerations into military planning, resilience, and emissions reduction. NATO has committed to reducing Read More…

Tessa McDermid Women in Security

LeadInSecurity: How NATO’s New Accelerator Can Deliver on Its WPS Commitments

NATO has just launched LeadInSecurity, its first Alliance-wide leadership accelerator for women in defence and security. In this article, Tessa McDermid explores how the program offers NATO an opportunity to close the sector’s gender gap and uphold its Women, Peace and Security (WPS) commitments. Since LeadInSecurity has no internal track record to draw on, she looks to comparable programs to argue that its long-term success depends on outcome tracking, integration into NATO’s existing accountability frameworks, setting numeric targets, and running as a recurring, multi-year initiative rather than a standalone initiative.

Indo-Pacific and NATO

A Strategic Turning Point? NATO’s Landmark Visit to India and the Future of the Relationship

NATO’s recent parliamentary visit to India signals growing interest in deeper ties with a rising Indo-Pacific power. Anastasia Crook examines the opportunities and challenges shaping the NATO-India relationship, and how to build a practical, interest-based partnership without pressing India to pick a side.

Previous Events

2026 Virtual Policy Hackathon Report: Calibrating Canada’s Defence Posture With Comparable NATO Allies

Although Canada achieved its 2% NATO target, it still struggles to turn that spending into modern, ready, and deployable military capability. With the new 5% pledge, Canada must rethink how it budgets and delivers defence investments to generate usable and efficient military power.

Morgan Singer Women in Security

The Mission Beyond the Meeting: Actualizing Conversations at the Ankara Summit

The 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara presented a unique opportunity to uphold the importance of NATO’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda in the pursuit of collective security. Growing concerns over Turkey’s domestic humanitarian record underscored a deeper importance to this conversation. Nonetheless, at a time where confrontation is often chosen over conversation, the Summit offered a reminder of the importance of the willingness to gather. Through an examination of key discussions on gender-responsive security at the Ankara Summit, this article contends that the willingness to gather must be matched by a willingness to act. The Alliance’s greatest strength lies in its continued capacity to choose diplomacy, have hard conversations, and hold one another accountable for transforming dialogue into durable action.

Cyber Security and Emerging Threats

Pay to Play: Implications of War’s Declining Cost of Entry

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.

Centre For Disinformation Studies

Democracy and Disinformation, Part 3: The Cost of Comfort

Canada has the institutions, the reports, and the warnings about disinformation. What it lacks is a population that feels the threat. In this article, Dominique Arseneau-Bruneau looks at how Canada’s lack of urgency affects its response to disinformation through the lens of legality, legitimacy, and speed, and what the cost of that comfort may ultimately be.

Cyber Security and Emerging Threats

The Battle for the Brain: Cognitive Warfare is Already Here

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.

Cyber Security and Emerging Threats

The New Eyes of the North: GlobalEye, Canada-Sweden Defence Cooperation, and Arctic Security

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.