As the world’s attention focuses on next month’s UN climate change conference in Glasgow, it’s worth remembering that some of the most dramatic changes to the earth’s climate are already appearing in Canada’s North. And, as climate change accelerates, it’s clear that much more than shipping and military footprints in the Arctic are at stake: we need to to substantially rethink what national security means.
On the one hand, consensus has been building for years on the application of international laws and norms in cyberspace, including international humanitarian law. On the other, state-led attacks increased in 2020 and are likely to follow this trajectory in the current era of growing geopolitical tension.
Those working to study and address the communicative problems and the attendant socio-political fallout over social media must look beyond the problem of disinformation. It’s time for us to expand our frames for understanding the ongoing crisis with digital media to include broader issues of propaganda, coordinated hate, manipulative content about electoral processes, and incitement of violence.
Do the countries of the world want companies like Facebook to do more moderation, or do we wish to think carefully about new models of content moderation altogether, that do not depend on more Facebook? It’s worth considering e-courts as an another adjudicatory mechanism, for example. Now is the time for out-of-the-box ideas. Facebook’s US-centrism is plain for all to see.
The risk of cyberattacks on domestic critical infrastructure and businesses is growing. Further, much of Canada’s national economy depends on intellectual property — biotech secrets, artificial intelligence algorithms, aerospace designs — all of which can be digitally copied, damaged or ransomed from anywhere in the world. It’s urgent that policy makers move to combat these threats now.
.gif)
Autonomous systems are revolutionizing our lives, but they present clear international security concerns. Despite the risks, emerging technologies are increasingly applied as tools for cybersecurity and, in some cases, cyberwarfare. In this series, experts explore digital threats to democracy and security, and the geopolitical tensions they create.
The impact of COVID-19 both globally and in Canada has raised important questions about best practices with regard to global and domestic health surveillance, early warning and preparedness. Critical to an understanding of these issues is a clear-sighted appreciation of the interface between health security and national security. As the world embarks on an intense effort to explain the onset of the pandemic and to learn lessons from the global response, it will be vital to develop and sustain a public policy debate about the role of security and intelligence institutions in protecting societies against pandemic outbreaks. This essay series — designed to bridge academic and practitioner knowledge — aims to make a high-impact contribution to that debate.
We are in the midst of fighting the first phase of the COVID-19 crisis, but it is already clear that the impacts will be manifold and enduring. It is not too early to reflect on the lasting impact that the outbreak is sure to have on global cooperation, globalization, faith in public action and in science, social cohesion, and the trade-off between civil liberties and personal privacy.
An essay series on the World Trade Organization's response to rapid economic, political, social, technological and environmental change.
Despite growing calls for global platform governance, no solution has been found. To begin to address this, CIGI has convened leading thinkers to explore new models for governing digital platforms. Given their unprecedented influence on democracy and the global economy alike, a cohesive framework for platform governance is crucial.
The 2017 Buenos Aires Joint Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment emphasized the key relationship between trade policy and gender, and World Trade Organization members are beginning to take steps to improve transparency, share best practices, gather data and include gender considerations in trade negotiations. But there is much more to be done.
On one hand, technology has led to convenience, efficiency and wealth creation. On the other hand, this great push to digitize society has meant building inherent vulnerability into the core of the economic model. This is all taking place atop a deeply fragmented and underdeveloped system of global rules.
Indigenous lands are under ever-increasing pressure from governments and extractive sector corporations that are eager to encourage economic development and foreign investment.
At the December 2017 World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, 118 WTO members joined forces to conclude the Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment.
In this series, international law experts from Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, comment on Brexit’s international and domestic law and governance implications.