Security, Trade and the Economy

How Canada Can Reach 2%: Learning from Allies

For decades, NATO has maintained a clear benchmark for defence spending: 2% of a nation’s GDP. This figure signifies a commitment to collective security. However, as of 2024, Canada spends only about 1.4% of its GDP on defence.  With increasing pressure from NATO allies and a shifting global security landscape, Canada faces the pressing question: Can Read More…

Canada Christopher Maternowski Europe Germany

Toward a “Green Diplomacy”: The Case of the Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance

In August 2022, Canada and Germany formed energy and mineral partnerships. This article considers the successes and limits of Canada’s evolving effort to align energy security with the imperatives of climate change.

Society, Culture, and Security

Special Report: Germany Must Abandon Ostpolitik

For over fifty years, Germany hoped that a conciliatory approach predicated on close economic ties, and diplomatic and cultural rapproachement in its Russia policy – commonly known as Ostpolitik – would warm Russia to the West. Two Russian invasions of Ukraine and many sanctions later, it has become abundantly clear that Berlin’s orthodox policy towards Moscow has Read More…

4. Programs Energy Security

Germany’s Misguided Rejection of Nuclear Power

In the early 2000s, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder convinced his government to take the decision to phase out all German nuclear power plants by 2036. This decision would eventually make Germany more dependent on the Nord Stream 1 (NS1) pipeline, which entered service in 2011 and runs under the Baltic Sea directly from Russia. Schroeder’s Read More…

Energy Security

The NordStream 2 Pipeline and the Future of European Energy Security

Title: The NordStream 2 Pipeline and the Future of European Energy SecurityFeatured Speakers: Dr. Robert M. Cutler Senior Research Fellow and Director, Energy Security Program NAOC; Dr. Alan Riley Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council; Agata Łoskot-Strachota Senior Fellow, Energy Policy, Institute for Eastern Studies (OSW); Dr. Maria Shagina Centre for East European Studies, University of Zurich; Andreas Read More…

Energy Security Previous Events

The NordStream 2 Pipeline and the Future of European Energy Security

This event was live broadcast on our YouTube channel, and a recording can be viewed here. Russia’s NordStream 2 gas pipeline to Germany remains very much in the news, especially as winter looms in Europe. What are the chances that the pipeline will overcome legal and regulatory hurdles to enter into service; and if it Read More…

Indo-Pacific and NATO

Article V & the Indo-Pacific: Will NATO’s collective defence pact function in an out-of-area region?

In this article, Junior Research Fellow Andrew Erskine examines NATO’s collective defence pact against the backdrop of the growing contest in the Indo-Pacific to determine if Article V could be invoked to defend NATO members in the region.