Ukraine – NAOC

NATO’s Balancing Act: Deterring Russia Without Prompting Escalation

With rumblings that Russia might provoke neighbouring NATO member states, Zev Wood seeks to unravel Putin’s rationale and strategy. He argues that to counter potential military encroachments by Russia, Canada and NATO should remain steadfast in increasing deterrence posture, while simultaneously remaining aware of the potential blowback effects that accompany such a path. Using deterrence theory, Zev concludes that Canada should advocate for a strategy that combines credible deterrence and diplomatic off-ramps to reduce the potential for further escalation.

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.

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.

Centre For Disinformation Studies

The Price of Shelter: How Canada’s Housing Crisis Fuels Disinformation

Canada’s housing crisis has made the public more susceptible to scapegoating and disinformation. Ji Young Kim examines how Russia’s Tenet Media operation exploited domestic culture wars, weakening societal resilience and undermining Canada’s reliability within NATO.

Centre For Disinformation Studies

How Russian Disinformation Strengthens the Far Right: Doppelganger Campaigns and the 2024 European Parliament Elections

What happens when fake news looks almost identical to the real thing? This article highlights how Russia’s Doppelganger disinformation campaigns use cloned news websites to make disinformation appear credible and familiar. Focusing on the 2024 European Parliament elections as a case study, it shows how these campaigns exploit existing concerns such as immigration, economic insecurity, and support for Ukraine to amplify divisions within Europe. More broadly, it considers how these tactics could shape future elections, influence public debate, and make collective action across the European Union and NATO more difficult.

Kaya Dupuis Women in Security

Testimony as Justice: Ukrainian Women Documenting the Unthinkable

Ukrainian women-led organizations are building the evidentiary record for Russian wartime sexual violence, but are Canada and its NATO allies directing enough resources to the mechanisms that make accountability possible? In this article, Kaya Dupuis examines how organizations like La Strada-Ukraine and JurFem are documenting conflict-related sexual violence under active fire and what Canada’s commitments under NATO’s Women, Peace and Security agenda actually look like on the ground.

NATO and Canada

Ukraine’s Victory Paradox: Preventing Defeat Without Defining Victory

How will the war in Ukraine end? While NATO allies have been effective in preventing Ukraine’s defeat, defining a political end-state has proven much more complicated. In this piece, Jonah Moffatt examines the “victory paradox” between Moscow and Kyiv, and the implications of this stalemate on Canadian national interests. With peace talks on the back burner and shifting geopolitical priorities, the relationship between peace and victory becomes increasingly unclear.

Society, Culture, and Security

Culture and Security at the Venice Biennale

Countries from around the world are invited to represent themselves through national pavilions at the Venice Biennale, an international cultural exhibition with a focus on art in Venice, Italy. In 2026, 100 nations participate in the festival. It provides a unique platform for cultural diplomacy, the projection of soft power, and for countries to showcase Read More…

Cyber Security and Emerging Threats

From Trenches to Algorithms: Integrating Unmanned Ground Vehicles into NATO’s Cyber-Resilient Structure

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.

Morgan Singer Women in Security

The Future of the Frontline: Embedding Gender in the Transition to Drone Warfare

The transition toward drone warfare is transforming the frontline. Drawing on Ukraine’s experience, this article explores how remote warfare challenges conventional standards for combat effectiveness. These transformations create new opportunities and threats; the necessity for precision, composure, and critical thinking bolsters women’s greater capacity to perform as impressive drone operators. Alternatively, gendered stereotypes and psychological challenges persist. This article outlines pathways through which NATO can integrate gender perspectives into the deployment of uncrewed systems in order to optimize the integration of combat innovation.