Introduction
Quantum technology is a rapidly growing field, promising revolutionary applications in computing, communication, and sensing. Coupled with geopolitical tensions and climate change, the imminent quantum revolution has the power to drastically alter Canada’s security sector. The increasing importance of quantum technology can provide new opportunities to reaffirm Canada’s security and defence commitments. The current Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces (DND/CAF) quantum strategy includes objectives related to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda to ensure Canada’s commitments to gender, peace and security are achieved. The WPS agenda advocates for the full and meaningful participation of women in peace processes and recognizes the role of women in conflict and conflict resolution. Together, Canada’s quantum development and the WPS agenda have the potential to contribute to supporting vulnerable groups at home and abroad, achieving Canada’s commitments in these two vital sectors. However, the integration of WPS within Canada’s quantum initiatives has yet to be fully realized. Thus, this brief aims to answer the following question: How are Canada’s official commitments to quantum development and WPS connected? We suggest that Canada’s commitments to quantum development create an opportunity to further integrate WPS initiatives into defence considerations and advance the WPS agenda.
This brief introduces the WPS agenda alongside Canada’s quantum strategy and its relation to WPS, before endeavouring to recognise how the WPS agenda can help solve problems in quantum development. Two primary WPS reports, and three quantum development reports will be utilized to accomplish this. Overall, the goal of this article is to educate a quantum audience about the importance of considering the WPS agenda in future quantum policy development. The main recommendations proposed are focused on the training and upskilling of personnel, specifically the prioritization of women in developing and managing quantum technologies, the integration of Gender-Based Analysis (GBA+) into training and the undertaking of targeted research to understand the specific impact of quantum on women and girls using an intersectional approach. Ultimately, there is a possibility to achieve the WPS and Quantum objectives simultaneously, which would be to the benefit of these two policy priorities.