Since its inception in 1949, Canada has played an integral role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its numerous military and non-military engagements. As a founding member, Canada’s involvement over the past 70 years has varied from troop deployment and training in Europe during much of the Cold War, to activity abroad in places like Afghanistan and Libya. The articles in the NATO and Canada program examine NATO’s operational history and Canada’s role from a multitude of perspectives. The NATO Association of Canada aims to supply Canadians with a greater insight into the inner workings of this long-standing alliance and its Canadian contributions.
What’s in it for Russia? As Russian involvement in the promotion of Alberta separatism comes into sharper focus, Zev Wood argues that it reflects a long-standing strategy employed by Russia aimed at covertly weakening its adversaries. He examines the ensuing implications for Canada’s sovereignty and economy as well as the knock-on effects on NATO.
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.
Rachel Potter analyzes the Trump administration’s suspension of the Permanent Joint Board on Defence, arguing that it marks a qualitative shift in U.S. alliance behaviour in which shared defence institutions are weaponized as instruments of coercion, revealing a strategic logic that goes beyond burden sharing disputes and instead reflects an effort to reshape the institutional architecture of continental defence on American terms.
Canada has finally committed to meeting NATO’s spending expectations, but public support for those commitments may be far shallower than policymakers assume. As defence spending rises and global instability intensifies, Canadians increasingly support military investment while remaining uncertain about the obligations and trade-offs that collective security requires. This article argues that Canada’s greatest defence challenge is not necessarily financial, but democratic: a growing gap between the commitments Ottawa is making and the public understanding needed to sustain them. Without greater strategic literacy, support for defence spending risks remaining reactive, fragile, and vulnerable to changing political and economic conditions.
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.
In this article, Zev Wood examines the NATO and Canadian-level implications of NATO’s decision to replace its aging Boeing E-3 Sentry surveillance fleet with the GlobalEye. He argues that the deal, while reflecting NATO’s desire to improve its military capacity, points to a broader realignment away from the United States. He underscores that this moment provides Canada with a strategic window to entrench itself as a reliable alternative to the United States and a burgeoning defence manufacturing nation.
How stable is NATO? While the Presidency of Donald Trump has drawn significant attention to the future of the alliance, the rise of similar far-right ideologies in Europe presents a similar, yet less publicized threat to NATO. Ahead of the 2027 French presidential elections, Jonah Moffatt uses the Rassemblement National as a case study to assess the impact of a victory for the right on NATO cohesion and Canadian foreign policy interests.
Canada has finally hit NATO’s 2% defence spending target, and it aims even higher. But writing bigger cheques doesn’t automatically translate into battle-ready ships, jets, or troops. Between procurement timelines that stretch into the 2050s, a personnel system that hires only one in thirteen applicants, and serviceability rates hovering around 58%, the gap between budget promises and deployable power remains stubbornly wide. Canada is making smart moves: joining European defence initiatives and diversifying away from US-only supply chains, but the real test will be whether it can turn historic investment into tangible military effect before allied patience runs thin.
As the US and Israel’s campaign against Iran continues, it has potential to draw NATO, and Canada as a member of the alliance into uncharted territory. Canada finds itself walking a diplomatic tightrope: offering political support to its allies while firmly keeping its troops out of the fight. This “support without participation” stance has allowed Canada to preserve alliance solidarity and avoid military overreach, but it’s increasingly tested as missiles enter NATO airspace and resources grow thin across theaters. With European allies diverging in their responses, the big question remains: how long can political backing alone satisfy an alliance under mounting pressure? For now, Canada is banking on de-escalation but the Tehran precedent, though on a two-week pause, is still very much a work in progress.
Rachel Potter examines Canada’s bid to host the proposed Defence, Security and Resilience Bank and its implications for allied defence investment. She explores how the institution would mobilise capital markets to finance defence procurement and industrial expansion for NATO members and partner states, and how hosting the bank could position Canada at the centre of an emerging system of allied defence finance while strengthening its strategic role within the NATO security ecosystem.