About

Houchang Hassan-Yari is a Professor and Head of Political Science Department at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman and. He is also a Professor Emeritus at the Royal Military College of Canada. He has been Visiting-Researcher at the Centre for Peace Studies at the University of Tromsø in Norway (2015), Research Visitor at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), Stockholm, Sweden, (2014); Visiting-Professor-Researcher at the Lyon University Institute for Political Science (IÉP), Lyon, and Sciences Po, Grenoble, France (2007 & 2018), and Professor at the Shahid Beheshti (National) University, Tehran, Iran (1993-94).  

He is an External Member at the Observatory on the Middle East and North Africa at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic at the University of Québec in Montréal; a Senior Analyst at Wikistrat Next Generation Strategy, and Senior Research Fellow at Queen’s University Centre for International and Defence Policy (since 1997). 

Professor Hassan-Yari has published numerous books, book chapters and articles in academic journals. Among his publications, we can cite The Middle East Peace Process, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2001 (Book); Canada and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1947 : Half A Century of Diplomatic Involvement, Montréal, Paris, Harmattan, 1997 (Book); Regionalism and International Security, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 2009 (Book). (co-editor Abdelkérim Ousman.

Professor Hassan-Yari analyses military and strategic issues and political developments internationality and in the Middle East for national and international media in Persia, French and English, with more than 15,000 interviews with RFI; Deutche Welle; BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Al Jazeera, Iran International; Manoto; CBC/Radio-Canada; Globe & Mail1; Le Devoir; La Presse; etc. 

Research Interests

Recent Publications

• “Political Empowerment of Women and the Mediating Role of Political Awareness: The Case of Oman” (with Victoria Dauletova & Zainab Hussain ), Journal of International Women's Studies: Vol. 23: Issue 1, Article 11. February 2022  https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol23/iss1/11;
• “Gandhian Politics and Interstate Conflict Resolution in the Middle East,” (with Ayesha Burney), in Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharjee, ed., Gandhi and the World, Macmillan Publishers, 2022, pp. 92-111; “Public Diplomacy of Oman” (with Cuneyt Yenigun & Abdullah Al Maani), Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, 2021;
• “New Public Diplomacy In The New Millennium” (with Cuneyt Yenigun & Abdullah Al Maani), Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government, 2021, Volume 27, Issue 2, Pages 6272-6282; New Public Diplomacy in the New Millennium, May 2021. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government 27(2):6272-6282. 
• “Iran and Iraq ‐ GCC Rapprochement”, Middle East Policyi, Volume25, Issue 4, Winter 2018, January 2019, pp. 56-64. "The non-theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI)," published in Tabachnick, David Edward, Koivukoski, Toivo, Koivukoski and Teixeira, Herminio, eds. Challenging Theocracy: Ancient Lessons for Global Politics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2017.
• “Iran, Afghanistan and the Benefits of a Regional Approach” in Sten Rynning, ed., South Asia and Great Powers International Relations and Regional Security, I.B. Tauris, 2017. “Understanding Israel's Nuclear Ambiguity” in Marzieh Kouhi-Esfahani and Ariabarzan Mohammadighalehtak, eds., Nuclear Politics in Asia, Taylor & Francis Ltd/Routledge, 2017.

Online

Dr. J. Andrew Grant is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. He is the recipient of an Early Researcher Award from the Government of Ontario’s Ministry of Research and Innovation for work on conflict and cooperation in natural resource sectors. Dr. Grant has been a Visiting Scholar/Researcher at Northwestern University, USA, and University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. During his doctoral studies, he served as an intern at the Campaign for Good Governance in Freetown, Sierra Leone. 

Dr. Grant is author/co-author of more than 50 refereed papers, including articles that have appeared in scholarly journals such as International Affairs (Ranked #1 among 94 IR journals in 2020; Impact Factor 7.910), International Studies Review (IF 4.342), International Studies Perspectives (IF 2.667), International Journal (IF 2.867), Canadian Foreign Policy Journal (IF 0.800), Contemporary Politics (IF 1.699), Land Use Policy (IF 6.189), Journal of Cleaner Production (IF 11.072), Extractive Industries and Society (IF 3.808), and Resources Policy (IF 8.222). He is editor of Darfur: Reflections on the Crisis and the Responses (CIR / CIDP 2009) and co-editor of The New Regionalism in Africa (with F. Söderbaum, Ashgate 2003), The Research Companion to Regionalisms (with T.M. Shaw and S. Cornelissen, Ashgate 2012), New Approaches to the Governance of Natural Resources: Insights from Africa (with W.R.N. Compaoré and M.I. Mitchell, Palgrave 2015), Corporate Social Responsibility and Canada’s Role in Africa’s Extractive Sectors (with N. Andrews, University of Toronto Press 2020), and Natural-Resource Based Development in Africa: Panacea or Pandora’s Box? (with N. Andrews and J. Salah Ovadia, University of Toronto Press, 2022). His publications on conflict-prone minerals, non-state armed groups and regional security, post-conflict reconstruction in fragile states, and governance issues relating to natural resources have been funded by research agencies such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the National Research Foundation of South Africa, and the British Academy-Association of Commonwealth Universities. He conducts field research on a regular basis in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Uganda, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. 

Dr. Grant is also a Research Fellow with the Centre for the Study of Security and Development at Dalhousie University. In 2017, he served as the International Studies Association (ISA) Program Chair for some 6,000 participants attending the 58th annual conference, which is the most important scholarly gathering in his field. A former Chair of the ISA Committee on Virtual Engagement, he was recently elected to serve as an ISA Executive Committee Member-at-Large as well as President of ISA-Canada. 

Research Interests

• African Security, Regional Security, Human Security
• Global Governance, Regionalism and Regionalization
• Conflict and cooperation in natural resource sectors

Recent Publications

Online

About

Allan English has been researching and teaching topics in military history for over thirty years, with a focus on military culture and leadership, human behaviour in war, and veteran and family health. Much of his work has explored these topics within a Canadian context and some of his publications are listed below. His latest book, From Failure to Failure: The Canadian Military’s Attempts to Manage Its Sexual Misconduct Crises, 2000–2022, consolidates and applies key insights from his past research to analyze the various attempts made by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) from 2000 to 2022 to “manage” its sexual misconduct crises that, according to General Wayne Eyre, Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff from 2021 to 2024, threatened to make the military "irrelevant" in Canadian society if they were not dealt with properly. Drawing on his past work, the book concludes with the critical insights needed to enact practical change in the CAF to deal with these crises.

His understanding of Canadian military culture comes not only from his scholarly work, but also from his 25 years service in the Royal Canadian Air Force and CAF in various operational and instructional positions as an air navigator.

Research Interests:

• Canadian Military Culture

• Command and Leadership in the Armed Forces

• Canadian Air Force History

Recent Publications

• From Failure to Failure: The Canadian Military’s Attempts to Manage Its Sexual Misconduct Crises, 2000–2022. Friesen Press, 2025, https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000535565354

• "The 2024 Defence Policy Update and its Predecessors: Why the CAF is in a ‘Death Spiral.’" Canadian Military History 33, 1 (2024), https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol33/iss1/22/

• “After Arbour — ‘Reimagining’ RMC,” Canadian Military Journal 23, no. 2 (Spring 2023), 45-53, https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/cmj/article/view/16959

• “Corruption in the Canadian Military? Destroying Trust in the Chain of Command.” Canadian Foreign Policy Journal 23, no. 1 (2017), 32-46, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/11926422.2016.1250654.

• Understanding Military Culture: A Canadian Perspective. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004.

Online

• Website: https://www.queensu.ca/history/people/english-allan

About

Ali G. Dizboni (Ph.D., MA, l’Université de Montréal), Associate Professor, Chair of MSS (Military and Strategic Studies Programme) and Director of the Research Group Dialogue on Emerging Military Technologies at the Department of Political Science and Economics, RMC. He is current grant/und holder from DND and RMC. His current research projects include radicalization, the use of drones and ballistic missiles in Middle East conflicts, the Iranian nuclear proliferation. Example of his publications include book chapter (in collaboration), on Framing, Branding and Explaining: A Survey of Perception of Islam and Muslims in Canadian polls, Government, and Academia, Oxford University Press; in collaboration   Developing Strategic Lieutenants in the Canadian Army (Parameters).  He is an occasional commentator for the French, English/Persian media. Dr. Dizboni is fluent in four languages English, French, Persian and Arabic.

Research Interests

• Middle East

• Foresight Methods and International/regional security

• Radicalization

Recent Publications

• Book (in collaboration) Ballistic Missile Proliferation in Non-Nuclear States: The Origins of Ballistic Missile Programmes in the Middle East, Routledge Taylor&Francis (2025)

• Book chapter:  “La question nucléaire iranienne : la perspective nationale” in  L’Iran au coeur du grand Jeu Eurasiatique, dirigé par Pirerre Jolicoeur, Pierre Pashlavi, Yann Brault, Dir. Presses Universitaires du Québec – P.U.Q  (accepted, June 2025)

• In collaboration,  Human Interoperability: ABKANZ Researchers have develapped the first ever tool to measure Army interoperability in the human domain, Canadian Army Today, Spring 2023, volume 7, issue 1.

• Perspectives on Religious Extremism and Peacebuilding in the Middle East , Journal of Peace and War Studies, 5th Edition, October 2023;

• In collaboration   Developing Strategic Lieutenants in the Canadian Army (Parameters, 2022)

Online

• Website: https://www.rmc-cmr.ca/en/political-science/ag-dizboni
• Twitter @ADizboni
• LinkedIn: Ali Dizboni

About

Jane Boulden is a Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, cross-appointed to Queen’s University where she is a Research Fellow at the Queen’s University Centre for International and Defence Policy. From 2004-2014 she held a Canada Research Chair in International Relations and Security Studies. From 2000 until 2004 she was a MacArthur Research Fellow at the Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford. Her recent books include a co-edited volume with Will Kymlicka titled International Approaches to Governing Ethnic Diversity, OUP, 2015, as well as Jane Boulden, ed., Responding to Conflict in Africa, the United Nations and Regional Organizations, 2013. Earlier books include The United Nations and Nuclear Orders, co-edited with Ramesh Thakur and Thomas G. Weiss in 2009; Jane Boulden and Thomas G. Weiss, eds., Terrorism and the UN: Before and After September 11th, 2004; and Jane Boulden, Peace Enforcement, 2001.

Research Interests

• United Nations
• Conflict Management
• Nuclear Weapons

Recent Publications

• Representation and Responsibility, The Role of Non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, OUP, forthcoming.

• Rwanda: Lessons Observed. Lessons Learned? April 2020Journal of International Peacekeeping 22(1-4):263-281. DOI: 10.1163/18754112-0220104017

• “Norms and Sanctions,” in Andrea Charron, Clara Portela, eds., Multilateral Sanctions Revisited, McGill-Queen’s Press, 2022, pp. 117-132.

• “Canada, the United Nations and World Order,” in Robert W. Murray, Paul Gecelovsky, eds., The Palgrave Handbook of Canada in International Affairs, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, pp. 161-177.

Online

• Website: https://rmc-ca.academia.edu/JaneBoulden | https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jane-Boulden

About

Dr. Bélanger is the associate scientific director of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research, a unique consortium of 43 Canadian universities dedicated to researching the health needs of military personnel, Veterans and their families; and Chair of the MPA Programme at the Royal Military College of Canada where her research focuses on war testimony, soldier identity and moral injuries.She is co-editor in chief of the Journal of Military, Veteran and Family Health (University of Toronto Press funded in 2015). She is also co-founder of the The New Directions in Foreign Policy, Military, and Security Studies series with McGill Queen’s University Press (MQUP, funded in 2016). She is programme chair for the North American Chapter of the International Society for Military Ethics as well as the co-editor of War Memories: Commemoration and Writings of War in the English-speaking World (MQUP 2017 – in press);  “Beyond the line: Military and Veteran Health Research” (MQUP 2013); “A New Coalition for a Challenging Battlefield” (CDA Press 2012); “Shaping the Future” (CDA Press 2011) as well as of “Transforming traditions: the Leadership of Women in the Canadian Navy” (CDA Press 2010). She is also author of the monograph “Guerre, sacrifices et persécutions” (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2010). She co-chairs the CIMVHR annual forums, the bi-annual conferences on War Memories (with Université de Rennes 2 and Paris VII), the annual conferences on military ethics, and she partners with many other institutes to co-host workshops. She is board chair for the Center for International and Defence Policy (CIDP). 

She was inducted as a member of the College of Young Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada in 2016. She specializes in military ethics and just war theories. She completed her PhD degree at the University of Toronto in 2003 and her MPA degree at RMCC in 2013. She has served in the Royal Canadian Navy as a reservist since 2004.

Research Interests

• Testimony as a genre and testimony of war;
• Just War Theories, military ethics; and
• French Literature of the Ancien Regime: theater, moralists, mystics.

Recent Publications

Online

• Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research (CIMVHR)
• Royal Military College of Canada (RMC)

About

Stéfanie von Hlatky is the Canada Research Chair in Gender, Security, and the Armed Forces and Full Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. Her research focuses on NATO, gender and the armed forces, military interventions, and defence policy.

She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Université de Montréal in 2010, where she was also Executive Director for the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies. She’s held positions at Georgetown University, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Dartmouth College, ETH Zurich and was a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at the University of Southern California’s Centre for Public Diplomacy in 2016. In 2024, she was awarded a Trudeau Fellowship. In 2025, she was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada in 2025. 

She has also published widely on military cooperation, alliance politics and deterrence, including American Allies in Times of War: The Great Asymmetry (2013), The Future of Extended Deterrence (2015), Going to War? Trends in Military Operations(2020), Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism (2020), Transhumanizing War (2020) Deploying Feminism: The Role of Gender in NATO Military Operations (2022; 2025), and Total Defence Forces in the Twenty-First Century (2023). She is the co-director of the Canadian Defence and Security Network and the founder of Women in International Security-Canada.

Research Interests

• Alliances
• Canadian Defence Policy
• Gender in Military Operations

Recent Publications

• Stéfanie von Hlatky and Wesley Nicol, “Building a NATO Policy on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Following the UN Lead?” International Peacekeeping (May 2025): 1-26.

• Émile Lambert-Deslandes and Stéfanie von Hlatky, “NATO, Nuclear Deterrence and Disarmament in an Age of Ambivalence,” Defence Studies (2025): 1-8.

• Stéfanie von Hlatky, “The Enduring Relevance of GBA Plus for Military Personnel and Operations,” Canadian Military Journal 25, 1 (Winter 2025): 67-76.

• Stéfanie von Hlatky, « L’ACS Plus: toujours aussi importante pour le personnel et les opérations militaires, » Revue militaire canadienne 25, 1 (Hiver 2025) : 67-76.

• Constance Duncombe, Stéfanie von Hlatky, Fernando G. Nuñez- Mietz, Maria Rost Rublee and Stephen M. Saideman, “Gender Diversity and Inclusion in Canadian Security Studies” PS: Political Science and Politics 58, 1 (2025): 1-12. 

Online

• Website: https://stefanievonhlatky.com
• Twitter/X: @svhlatky
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanie-von-hlatky-70246847/

About

Dr H. Christian Breede is a Research Analyst with the Department of National Defence working at the Canadian Defence Academy. A Canadian Army veteran of 25 years, Christian served with the Royal Canadian Regiment, with deployments to Haiti and Afghanistan. Following his time in the field force, he served as part of the Military Faculty at the Royal Military College of Canada. During this time, Christian was also a cross-appointed Professor of Political Science at Queen’s University, deputy director for the Centre for International and Defence Policy (where he is now a fellow) and an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University’s Terrorism, Risk, and Security Studies Program. In 2024, concurrent with his work in DND, Christian became an Honourary Research Associate at the University of New Brunswick. Christian’s research is focused on the interaction between social cohesion, military culture, and technology. Since 2020, Christian has focused his efforts on helping teams – whether in the military or the private sector – lead through character, competence, and commitment. He has published over 30 articles, edited volumes, chapters, and monographs on these topics. Christian holds a PhD in War Studies from RMC and is a certified Leader Character Practitioner from Western University’s Ivey School of Business.

Current Interests

• Technology and Conflict

• Military Culture and Leadership

Recent Publications

• "Where is the Honour? Military Service, the Validation Dilemma, and the Power of Dignity" Canadian Military Journal 25, no. 1 (2025): 29-39

• co-edited with Robert Engen and Allan English eds. Why We Fight (Montréal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020)

• with Karen Davis. “Do You Even Pro, Bro?” in Robert Engen, H. Christian Breede, and Allan English, eds. Why We Fight (Montréal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020)

• co-edited with Stéfanie von Hlatky and Stéphanie Bélanger, eds. Transhumanising War: Performance Enhancement and the implications for policy, society, and the soldier (Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019)

• Culture and the Soldier: Identities, Values, and Norms in Military Engagements. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019

Online

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/h-christian-breede-09481415/
• Website: www.h1solutions.ca