Donald Trump’s America threatens its allies and neighbours, uses economic and technological instruments as coercive leverage seeking to advance its own narrow interests, and almost entirely eliminates its military and financial support to Ukraine. ‘Benign hegemony’ is becoming malign. Canada has been obliged to reconsider its deep integration with the United States for national and continental defence. The current headline is the F-35 aircraft procurement program, but the rupture is deeper and wider as Ottawa seeks to reposition itself outside of reliance on what used to be termed the North American Defence Industrial Base (NADIB), as defence integration has become a source of vulnerability rather than strength. To buy or not to buy (and from whom), has become the headline question.
About the Speaker
Dr. Alistair Edgar is Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of the School of International Policy & Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. He served as Executive Director of The Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), 2003-2008 and 2010-2018 and is a series editor for The ACUNS Series on the UN System (published by Edward Elgar Publishers).
His doctoral dissertation and first book examined the Canadian defence industrial base and NATO and international defence procurement programs in the early post–Cold War period. He continues to engage with these issues, although his primary research focus has evolved. His current research interests include post-conflict transitional justice following mass atrocity crimes, with particular attention to Afghanistan, Cambodia, Kosovo, and Uganda; governance within the United Nations system, including an ongoing project on the President of the General Assembly; and Canadian defence and foreign policy.
In addition to his academic work, he serves as President and Chair of the Canadian Landmine Foundation.
