GSPIA national security task force publishes its report

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A national security strategy for the 2020s

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is another global disruption that has exposed how Canada is ill-prepared for the world’s changing security environment, according to the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) Task Force on National Security, which issued its report on May 24, 2022.

The group was co-chaired by GSPIA Professor Thomas Juneau and Vincent Rigby, who until recently was National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister. Three other members of the Task Force also previously served as National Security Advisors to the Prime Minister. Others have served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Ambassadors to NATO, to the United Arab Emirates and to the United Nations; Director and CEO of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada; Director of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service; Senior Advisor on Global Affairs and Defence to the Prime Minister; Executive Vice-President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council; and as The Economist’s correspondent in Canada. Nearly all are professors or senior fellows of GSPIA.

“Even before the first Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine,” their report explains, “it was clear that our traditional approach to national security was no longer sustainable. Since Canada last reviewed its national security policy in 2004, the world has been destabilized by the worst pandemic in a century and the sharpest economic slowdown since the Great Depression. A polarized United States has become a less reliable and predictable partner. Barriers are growing to the movement of people, goods, and ideas. Authoritarianism is on the march. Russia is not the only powerful country threatening its neighbours. China is doing the same in its neighbourhood and further afield. On top of this, we face a host of non-traditional actors and threats. Where once the state was the focus of these threats, individuals and societies have also become targets.”

“Canada is not ready to face this new world. As a country, we urgently need to rethink national security.”

Task Force Members

Thomas Juneau – Co-chair, Associate Professor, GSPIA

Vincent Rigby – Co-chair, former National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister; Senior Fellow, Norman Paterson School of Public and International Affairs, Carleton University

Margaret Bloodworth – Honorary Senior Fellow, GSPIA, former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister and former Deputy Minister of National Defence

Kerry Buck – Senior Fellow, GSPIA; former Ambassador to NATO

Madelaine Drohan – Senior Fellow, GSPIA; former Economist correspondent in Canada

Ward Elcock – Senior Fellow, GSPIA; former Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and former Deputy Minister of National Defence

Richard Fadden – Senior Fellow, GSPIA; former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, former Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and former Deputy Minister of National Defence

Masud Husain – Senior Fellow, GSPIA; former Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

Daniel Jean – Senior Fellow, GSPIA; former National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister and former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston – Senior Fellow, GSPIA; former Executive Vice-President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

John McNee – Senior Fellow, GSPIA; former Ambassador to the United Nations

Roland Paris –Director, GSPIA; former Senior Advisor on Global Affairs and Defence to the Prime Minister

Morris Rosenberg – Senior Fellow, GSPIA; former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs

Nada Semaan – Senior Fellow, GSPIA; former Director and Chief Executive Officer of FINTRAC

Research Assistant: Fernando Aguilar