4. Programs

placeholder for programs

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.

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…

NATO and Canada

Canada’s Pivot from Washington to Europe and What This Recalibration Means for NATO

Rachel Potter examines Canada’s accelerating defence integration with the European Union, arguing that the durability of instruments like SAFE and Canada’s bilateral agreements with countries like Poland and Sweden reveal a structural recalibration rather than opportunistic hedging, one that positions Europe as a genuine alternative to Canada’s reliance on Washington and raises deeper questions about whether NATO’s traditional U.S.-anchored architecture can remain.

Canadian Armed Forces

Operation Medusa and Coalition Warfare: How NATO Can Learn From Canada in Afghanistan

Twenty years ago, the Canadian Armed Forces alongside NATO and Afghan allies, conducted Operation Medusa, the largest Canadian operation since the Second World War. Carried out in September of 2006, Op Medusa saw Canadian-led NATO forces successfully destroy a Taliban stronghold in the Panjwayi district. While the operation was Canadian-led, it represented the combined strength Read More…

Society, Culture, and Security

Powering Sovereignty: The Opportunities and Hidden Costs of Canada’s Data Centre Expansion

Recently, the use of artificial intelligence has increased exponentially. It has enmeshed itself in countless ways across our everyday lives. ChatGPT alone is estimated to process around 2.5 billion prompts per day. It is easy to think of AI as purely virtual, existing on the cloud, the internet, and the digital devices of its users. Read More…

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.

Canadian Armed Forces

The Afghanistan Generation and the Future of the Canadian Armed Forces

Twenty years after Operation Medusa, Afghanistan remains a significant part of the Canadian Armed Forces’ institutional memory. The 2006 battle, Canada’s largest combat operation since the Korean War, killed twelve Canadian soldiers. It was one episode in a broader mission in which more than 40,000 CAF members deployed, including officers who hold the CAF’s most Read More…

NATO and Canada

Behind the Northern Flank: Security Beyond Deterrence in the Canadian Arctic

The Arctic has become a key fixture of transatlantic security and Canada has taken significant steps to expand the securitization of the region. In his latest piece, Jonah Moffatt argues that security extends beyond deterrence in already vulnerable Northern communities, underscoring the necessity of investment with dual military and civilian outcomes. In doing so, Canada can lead NATO’s polar pivot by ensuring the homeland behind the flank benefits from the region’s growing strategic importance.

Society, Culture, and Security

‘Free?’ Alberta: Foreign Interference in Alberta’s Separatist Movement

In early 2026, researchers from the Canadian Digital Media Research Network noticed something odd. They discovered a network of at least twenty YouTube channels all promoting Alberta separatism and U.S. annexation in an eerily similar fashion. These channels all used the same template: thumbnails with fake pictures of Mark Carney and Danielle Smith, AI voiceovers, Read More…

Centre For Disinformation Studies Environment, Climate Change, and Security

Weaponizing Climate Uncertainty: Climate Disinformation as a Hybrid Threat

While climate change is undoubtedly an urgent security challenge for NATO, its risks extend beyond physical and environmental consequences. This article examines climate disinformation as a hybrid threat that exploits uncertainty to delay climate action, divide allies, and undermine trust. Rather than attempting to convince populations to reject climate change entirely, climate disinformation can create enough doubt and disagreement to weaken collective action.