MA Researcher
Queen’s University
MA Researcher/Intern
Dept of Political Studies
Queen's University
Hakan is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in International Relations at Queen’s University. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Science from the Royal Military College of Canada. His research focuses on the strategic employment of Maritime Autonomous Systems (MAS) in Canada, with particular emphasis on enhancing surveillance capabilities and operational effectiveness in the Arctic, as well as on intelligence–government relations in authoritarian regimes.
MA Researcher/Intern
Dept of Political Studies
Queen's University
RSH 411
Ethan MacMillan is a master's student in Political Studies at Queen's University with a focus on International Relations. He is a recent graduate from the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Military and Strategic Studies where his thesis analyzed the use of foreign aid, sanctions, and tariffs as a means of influence. His research interests include great power conflict, the history of warfare, and the grand strategy of states.
MA Researcher/Intern
they/them
Dept. of Political Studies
Queen’s University
Liam is an MA student in Political Studies at Queens under the International Relations stream, and a recent graduate in Honours Military and Strategic Studies from the Royal Military College. They won RMC's Departmental Medal for highest achievement in the MSS Programme, as well as a SSHRC CGS-M scholarship at Queen's. Liam is keenly interested in political theory, security studies, and development studies. They are currently pursuing research into the relationships between maritime policy, alliance structures, and Canadian security.
CDSN Post-Doctoral Fellow
Queen’s University
Robert Sutherland Hall, Rm 415
Sanjida Amin is the CDSN Postdoctoral Fellow (2025–2026) at the Centre for International and Defence Policy (CIDP) at Queen’s University. She is currently completing her PhD in Political Science at the University of Toronto, where her research focuses on foreign sponsorship of insurgent groups, insurgent-state relations, and the international dimensions of civil war.
Her book project examines how external support from foreign states shapes internal conflict dynamics, particularly by driving insurgent fragmentation during peace negotiations. Her broader research interests include international peacebuilding, alliance politics, and Canadian foreign and defense policy. Her current postdoctoral project investigates how U.S.-Canada security relations influence Canada’s evolving engagement with UN peacekeeping, situating this within the broader context of multilateralism and shifting global security priorities.
Sanjida’s research has been supported by Fulbright Canada, the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (SSHRC), and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. She aims to contribute to more effective peacebuilding and mediation strategies in protracted conflicts, as well as to informed debates on Canadian international security policy.
Director
Political Studies
Robert Sutherland Hall, Rm 409
Michael P. A. Murphy is the director of the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen’s University and president of the Canadian region of the International Studies Association. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Ottawa, where his dissertation won the 2022 Joseph De Koninck Thesis Prize for making an outstanding contribution to interdisciplinary knowledge.
He is a former Digital Policy Hub fellow at Centre for International Governance Innovation. At Queen’s, Michael has held appointments as the Buchanan Postdoctoral Fellow in Canadian Democracy, a Mathews Fellow in Public Policy, and a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow.
He is the author of Quantum Social Theory for Critical International Relations Theorists (Palgrave, 2021) and Weak Utopianism in Education (Routledge, 2024), more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and numerous book reviews and chapters, receiving more than 2,000 citations. Michael is an international award-winning educator with a range of teaching experience in international relations, Canadian politics, political theory and public administration.
MA Researcher
Political Studies
Dyson Hague is a Master’s student in Political Studies at Queen’s University, specializing in International Relations. His research focuses on Canadian foreign and defence policy, with focus on the evolution of Canadian strategic posture amidst changing global power dynamics. Dyson is currently working under the supervision of Professor Stefanie von Hlatky on a research project examining NATO reserve forces. In addition to his academic work, Dyson serves as a reservist in the Canadian Armed Forces, now in his third year of service.
