About

Veronica Kitchen is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, where she researches national security and teaches in the field of International Relations. She serves on the Balsillie School Board. Previously, she was co-director of the Canadian Network for Terrorism, Security, and Society (TSAS) and serves on the executive of its successor, the Canadian Network for the Study of Security, Extremism and Society (CANSES) where she is co-lead of the working group on early career researchers. She has published extensively on gender and national security, heroism and global politics, IR pedagogy, mega-event security, Canadian-American security relations, and transatlantic security relations.

About

Dr. Catherine Viens is a political scientist specializing in resource governance, environmental and social dimensions of extractivism, security studies, and gender analysis. Her research examines how large-scale projects shape local governance, security, and community resistance, drawing on fieldwork in India, South Africa, and Canada.

She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Université du Québec à Montréal (2023, distinction) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship (2023-2025) at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec.

At the CIDP, her work focuses on conflict prevention, risk analysis, and the security governance dimensions of natural resource projects, in collaboration with Stéfanie von Hlatky and Andrew Grant, as well as on updating the Conflict Prevention Tool (CPT) through a gender lens.

She also serves as Director of the Risk and Security Management Program at the Canadian Research Institute on Humanitarian Crisis and Action (OCCAH). She provides expertise to governments and NGOs on development, gender, humanitarian action, and security. She also offers media commentary on India’s domestic and foreign policy and is the Quebec director for the feminist NGO Fundación Lüvo.

Research Interests

Recent Publications

Online

About

General Wayne Eyre retired in 2024 as Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS). As the commander of the Canadian Armed Forces and military advisor to the Prime Minister and Cabinet, he led Canada’s military through an unprecedented confluence of international and domestic crises and rapidly evolving security stressors. In his 40-year military career, he commanded at all levels, from an infantry rifle platoon to Commander of the Canadian Army before being serving as CDS. He led numerous domestic operations in Canada, and overseas he served in Cyprus, Croatia, Bosnia, Afghanistan (twice), and South Korea, where he was the most senior Canadian officer ever stationed in the Asia Pacific region. A graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada, the US Army War College, and the US Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting, he holds a BSc and three master’s degrees. Since retirement, he has been writing, teaching, speaking, and advising.

About

Lieutenant-General (ret’d) Blaise Frawley joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1985. He is an RCAF pilot with over 3000 hours on the F/A-18 Hornet including combat missions over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Kosovo. He has held many staff, operational flying, command and overseas positions including an F/A-18 exchange tour with the USMC, Commanding Officer of 410 Sqn, Cold Lake AB, Commander of 17 Wing Winnipeg, the Combined Forces Air Component Commander for Exercise RIMPAC 16, the Director General of Space, Deputy Commander of the RCAF, the Deputy Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, and as the Deputy Commander of NORAD. LGen (ret’d) Frawley is a graduate of the Fighter Weapons Instructor course and the Fighter Electronic Warfare Advanced Radar course. Additionally, he is a graduate of the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College in Toronto and the USAF Air War College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. He holds a Bachelor of Military Arts and Sciences from the Royal Military College of Canada, and a Master of Strategic Studies from the USAF Air University. With over 40 years of service to his country, he retired from active-duty service in October of 2025.

About

Paul Samson is President of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), an independent Canadian think tank working on international governance with a focus on policy solutions in an era of transformative technologies. Paul served over 20 years with the Government of Canada, including at the deputy minister level. He worked in the Privy Council Office during the time of three different Prime Ministers. At Finance Canada, he served as Canada’s deputy for finance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, was co-chair of the G20 Framework Working Group on the global economy and served on the Board of Directors for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Paul completed a doctorate in international relations at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and his undergrad at the University of British Columbia. He completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard University and was a research associate at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He has published widely and appears regularly in national and global media on topics covering the global economy, emerging technologies and governance.

About

Philippe Lagassé is associate professor and Barton Chair at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa. His research focuses on defence policy and procurement, executive power, and the Westminster system. He is widely published in the fields of comparative politics, public law, and foreign and defence policy studies. Lagassé served as an independent reviewer of major Canadian defence procurements from 2012-2022. In 2025 he was awarded the Canadian Forces Medallion for his ‘exceptional contribution to Canadian defence policy’.

About

Dr. Yolande Bouka is the Canada Research Chair on Afrofeminist Thought and Political Transformation, and an Associate Professor of gender and politics and international relations at Queen’s University in Canada. She is also the co-director of the MINDS-funded Research Network on Women, Peace, and Security.  Prior to her academic appointment, she worked as a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in the Conflict Prevention and Risk Analysis Division, focusing on Africa’s Great Lakes Region. Her research focuses on gender, political violence, and race and international relations. The key questions driving her multidisciplinary research agenda is how vulnerable groups and individuals understand and navigate structural and political violence and how these experiences influence the social and political landscapes of conflict-affected societies.

Research Interests

• Gender and Security
• Race and Politics
• African politics

Recent Publications

• Contestation en Afrique, with Marie-Eve Desrosiers (Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2022).
• “Create Foreign Policies as if Black and Brown Lives Mattered” In Feminist Solutions to Ending War, edited by Megan MacKenzie and Nicole Wegner (London: Pluto Press, 2021).
• “Implementing Inclusion: Gender Quotas, Inequality, and Backlash in Kenya” with Marie Berry and Marilyn Muthoni Kamuru, Politics and Gender 17:4, 640-664 (2020)

Online

• Website: https://www.queensu.ca/politics/people/bouka-yolande
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yolande-bouka-45a0b11/