Dr. Allan English

Allan English

Allan English

Professor

Department of History

Queen's University

Watson Hall, Room 102

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

Online

Professor Ali G. Dizboni

Ali G. Dizboni

Ali Dizboni

Associate Professor

Department Political Science and Economics

Royal Military College of Canada

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

Jane Boulden

Dr. Jane Boulden

Jane Boulden

Professor

Department Political Studies

Royal Military College of Canada & Queen's University

jane.boulden@rmc.ca

bouldenj@queensu.ca

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

Stéphanie Bélanger, CD

Dr. Stéphanie Bélanger, CD

Stéphanie Bélanger

Associate Scientific Director, CIMVHR

Chair, MPA Programme

Royal Military College of Canada

stephanie.belanger@rmc.ca

Calvary House, 103, RMC

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

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Online

Dr. Stéfanie von Hlatky

Dr. Stéfanie von Hlatky

Stéfanie von Hlatky

Full Professor

Deptartment of Political Studies

Queen's University

svh@queensu.ca

613-533-6242

Room C406, Mackintosh-Corry Hall

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

Maj H. Christian Breede, CD PhD

H. Christian Breede

H. Christian Breede

Research Analyst

Department of National Defence

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

Maureen Bartram

Maureen Bartram

Maureen Bartram

Manager / Administration

Centre for International & Defence Policy

m.bartram@queensu.ca

613-533-2381

Robert Sutherland Hall #403

About

Maureen Bartram is the Manager for the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen’s University. Working closely with the Director and researchers, Maureen manages the financial and personnel functions of the Centre and oversees research grants and projects. She works closely with external and internal stakeholders and granting agencies, also various faculty departments and research units within Queen’s University.

Military Personnel Theme Workshop on Total Defence Workforces

Start Date

Thursday May 6, 2021

End Date

Friday May 7, 2021

Time

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Location

By Invitation Only - via Zoom

Download the Total Defence Force Workshop Programme (PDF 1.7MB)

Defence workforces are complex, comprising regular force military members, reservists, defence civil servants, and contractors working for private military and security companies. These groups of personnel are employed towards the same overarching goals related to national and international security, and are often highly integrated in the performance of their functions. At the same time, despite the often high levels of partnership and integration, different personnel management systems are in place. These cultural differences affect their integration, the nature and quality of their collaboration, and ultimately affect personnel outcomes such as performance and retention, as well as organisational and operational effectiveness.

Defence organizations around the world are increasingly recognizing the importance of optimizing the intragroup employment, as well as the intergroup integration, of defence personnel and many are adopting terminology to imply they form a cohesive whole [select examples include, the Defence Team (Canada), the Whole Force Concept (United Kingdom), One Defence Team (Sweden), Total Defence Workforce (New Zealand), Total Force Concept (United States), and the Adaptable Force (Netherlands)]. Since most research has traditionally focused on regular force military personnel, gaps in research on personnel in the other components – that is, research focused on reservists, defence civilians, and defence contractors, will be addressed in the context of this workshop.

Key questions include:

  • What is the right mix of these groups in delivering on the defence mandate? In what roles?
  • How should they be optimally employed and integrated into a cohesive whole to meet the defence mandate?
  • What is the role of culture, identity and other relational issues in shaping whole force integration and collaboration?
  • What are the main personnel management and organizational factors affecting these workforces in defence organizations?
  • What are the main considerations related to the roles, integration, and collaboration among these groups in deployed settings?
  • Overall, what are the challenges and enablers both within and between these components, including both intergroup and intragroup topics?
  • What are the best practices, strategies, programmes and policies for effective management related to Total Defence Forces?

This workshop is being organized through a collaboration between the Canadian Defence and Security Network , the Total Defence Force working group of the European Research Group for Military and Society (ERGOMAS), and the Swedish Centre for Studies of Armed Forces and Society (CSMS).

CDSN

Countering China Aggression Through Extended Deterrence and Assurance

Date

Tuesday March 30, 2021
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Location

Zoom

The current U.S. national security strategy characterizes China as a strategic competitor that is “attempting to erode American security and prosperity.” Never has it been more important for the U.S. to strengthen relationships with allies that will aid the U.S. in deterring such an adversary. Since the beginning of WWII, the U.S. has recognized that its security and prosperity are closely linked with the security of its allies around the world. Deterring China’s intimidation, coercion, and attacks on other countries to gain global influence is at the top of U.S. Foreign Policy priorities. However, if deterrence is to work, the U.S. must rebuild credibility with its allies and revive its understanding of extended deterrence and assurance. Washington must reexamine and replace policies that no longer serve allied interests to effectively contribute to a reliable U.S. defense strategy. There is no question, the future of U.S. security and prosperity will all depend on how effectively the U.S. adapts policies and strategies to assure its friends (and deter their enemies) in this long-term strategic competition with China.

Thomas BolandLieutenant Colonel(P) Thomas R. Boland

U.S. Army Visiting Defence Fellow 2019-20
U.S. Army War College Senior Service

Lieutenant Colonel(P) Thomas R. Boland received his commission as a Quartermaster Officer in the U.S. Army in 2000 from Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC. He currently is assigned to the United States Army War College and serves as Visiting Defence Fellow at the Centre for International Defence and Policy at Queen’s University.

His leadership opportunities included command of Alpha Company, 626th Brigade Support Battalion (BSB) in August of 2006 while deployed to Tikrit, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). After a year home, LTC(P) Boland deployed the same Company back to Iraq in support of OIF. Upon his return from Iraq in August 2008, he then commanded Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 626th BSB in Fort Campbell, KY. Later at the Battalion level, he commanded the Army Field Support Battalion in Alaska from June 2017 to June 2019.

Staff positions at the battalion and brigade level included Executive Officer, Support Operations Officer, and S4 in the 82nd Airborne Division. He served as the Joint Logistics and Distribution Branch Chief in the J4 at United States Indo - Pacific Command and served for a year as the Division G4 in the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, NY.

LTC(P) Boland’s is a graduate of the Quartermaster Officer Basic Course, the Combined Logistics Officer Advanced Course, the Command and General Staff College, and the Joint Combined Warfighting School. He has earned a Bachelor of Science in Education from Presbyterian College and a Master’s in Business Management from Austin Peay State University. He is married to Liz Boland and they have four children.