Daria Synelnykova Previous Events

Charting Ukraine’s Pathway Toward a Just Peace with Canada & NATO Allies – Panel Report

On February 23, 2026, the NATO Association of Canada (NAOC), in partnership with the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group and the Embassies of Ukraine and Lithuania in Canada, organized a panel discussion entitled “Charting Ukraine’s Pathway Toward a Just Peace with Canada & NATO Allies”. The event was dedicated to commemorating the 4th anniversary of the Read More…

Centre For Disinformation Studies

Defending Solidarity After Warsaw’s Flag Incident

On 9 August in Warsaw, police detained 109 people during a concert by Belarusian singer Max Korzh for “drug possession, unlawful entry, assaults on security staff and use of pyrotechnics.” At the same event, one attendee displayed the red-and-black flag associated with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The symbol is contentious in Poland because the Read More…

Centre For Disinformation Studies

Spamouflage in Canada: How Targeted Disinformation Undermines Democracy

Two years have passed since Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) Canada, which detects foreign interference and disinformation, identified the first Spamouflage campaign. First detected in 2023, the Spamouflage campaign refers to a covert disinformation operation that relies on networks of newly created or hijacked social media accounts, frequently seen to amplify narratives aligned with PRC (People’s Read More…

Centre For Disinformation Studies

What Canada Has Yet To Learn from Ukraine About Countering Disinformation

Imagine a government on the verge of a decision that will take years to implement and billions of dollars to sustain. A major defence procurement. A long-term NATO deployment. A new assistance package for an ally. On paper, everything looks orderly. Briefings are prepared. Consultations take place. Procedures are followed. Yet, even before the decision Read More…

Xi Jinping 02, credit: Trong Khiem Nguyen
Indo-Pacific and NATO

Hedging with the Dragon: Mark Carney’s China Visit and Canada’s Search for Strategic Autonomy 

What does Mark Carney’s decision to re-engage China signal about Canada’s strategic options in a more coercive global economy? Tasneem Gedi argues that Ottawa’s limited recalibration with Beijing reflects an unavoidable strategy of hedging amid U.S. unpredictability. While such engagement may expand Canada’s room for maneuver in an increasingly coercive global economy, it carries risks and thus must be pursued narrowly, conditionally and in close alignment with Canada’s alliance commitments.  

Previous Events

Global Peace Summit of Emerging Leaders: Reflections on Peacebuilding, Youth Leadership, and Canada’s Role in Global Security

From 20–23 January 2026, the interns of the NATO Association of Canada, Nataliia Dikalchuk, Isabelle Zhu and Matthew Reddock attended the 5th Global Peace Summit of Emerging Leaders in Bangkok, Thailand. The event was organized by Humanitarian Affairs Asia at the United Nations Conference Centre. The Summit convened approximately 400 young leaders from over 60 Read More…

Isabelle Zhu Women in Security

Shifting Priorities in Ukraine: Is NATO’s WPS Agenda Under Threat?

WPS policies are often disregarded when matters deemed of higher priority emerge, despite NATO’s high engagement of WPS values through public diplomacy, military, and political means. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has posed the biggest security crisis to NATO in decades, and considering the gendered dimensions of the war, which has seen high rates of sexual and gender
based violence, NATO’s limited WPS response leaves the future of the Agenda in question. As a core tenet of NATO’s values, WPS must not be disregarded; member states that have adopted FFPs, such as Canada, should continue to drive the WPS agenda forward. This article makes key recommendations, including shifting to a human rights-based approach (HRBA) and employing more intentional language in operational directives, to support Ukraine’s current WPS policies.

Christy Lorenz Women in Security

Divide and Conquer: How Gender-Based Disinformation Weakens Western Militaries

This article examines misogyny and broader anti-gender ideology as under-recognized vectors of hybrid warfare that undermine NATO’s democratic resilience, military cohesion, and Alliance legitimacy. It argues that foreign adversaries exploit entrenched patriarchal and exclusionary narratives through gender-based disinformation to exacerbate polarization, target political actors, weaken trust in defence institutions, and delegitimize NATO. The article concludes that the principles of NATO’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) policy counter foreign disinformation by limiting the impact of harmful gendered narratives and reinforcing pluralism, and what can be done to strengthen democratic resilience and NATO’s collective defence in an era of hybrid conflict.

Centre For Disinformation Studies

Algorithmic Profit Disclosure Regulation: Corporate Responsibility for Disinformation

Increasingly, NATO countries have begun to describe digital media disinformation not as a discrepancy in communication between formal and informal state actors, but as a risk to national security. This shift is reflected in the Cyber Threat Assessment for Canada 2025, which notes that foreign state actors are using artificial intelligence (AI) to manipulate information, Read More…

Environment, Climate Change, and Security

Arctic Sovereignty and Geopolitical Competition

As the Arctic transforms from a frozen frontier into a contested geopolitical arena, questions of sovereignty, environmental responsibility, and security have converged into one of the most pressing challenges in the 21st century. Once referred to as a remote, ice-covered expanse, the region is now a stage where the impacts of climate change intersect with Read More…