Canadian Security Amid Global Change

On May 31st and June 1st 2025, the University of Toronto Scarborough hosted a two-day symposium titled Canadian Security Amid Global Change. The gathering convened women experts, scholars, and students from across Canada to discuss how converging geopolitical, economic, human rights, and environmental pressures are reshaping Canada’s security priorities. The symposium not only featured a diverse roster of leading women scholars from across Canada, but it also embraced an interdisciplinary approach to connect conversations about security and sovereignty to dignity, prosperity, and planetary stability.

The need for this interdisciplinary and holistic approach to Canadian security was clear, as rapid shifts in alliance dynamics, trade regimes, human rights norms, and climate risks demand coordinated responses. The two Conversation pieces presented in this special issue present a concise account of the discussions and debates from the symposium.

Symposium Highlights

The first day of the symposium featured expert panels on four crucial research areas: (1) National Security, (2) Human Security, (3) Economic Security, and (4) Environmental Security. The national security panel assessed Canada’s dependence on NATO and the United States, exploring contingency strategies for sovereignty and deterrence amid alliance uncertainty. The human security panel re-centered people, asking whose safety is prioritized when states emphasize hard power and how rights protections can be preserved amid great-power rivalry. The economic security panel examined tariff shocks and strategic diversification, weighing short-term relief against long-term resilience. Finally, the environmental security panel treated climate change as a strategic challenge, and identified novel scientific, policy, and technological innovations as possible pathways to sustainable development.

Day two of the symposium was dedicated to intimate author workshops for faculty and student researchers, which ultimately culminated in several scholarly articles found in this special issue. Both graduate and undergraduate student participation was a key feature of the author workshops, which constituted a high-value mentorship and learning opportunity.

Student Learning

As women undergraduate students in Political Science, attending this women-led symposium was an empowering experience that challenged how we understand security. We participated in discussions ranging from balancing sovereignty and human rights, to addressing climate resilience, trade instability, and energy transitions. The panels were crucial in helping us unpack how these urgent global issues are not just concepts studied in the classroom but reflect real-life experiences that shape our world. Decisions on trade, human rights, the environment, and national security have serious human consequences, and the opportunity to hear from a diverse group of women experts from across the country provided us with a novel space to have these crucial conversations. The symposium’s most fruitful outcome was the quality of debate rooted in evidence-driven, candid, and solution-oriented discourse, which highlighted trade-offs, clarified policy options, and seeded collaborative research and advocacy.

Mentorship was threaded throughout this event in both formal and informal ways. Senior women experts offered intellectual guidance and modeled rigorous, ethical inquiry, while actively engaging with women graduate and undergraduate students across panels, research posters, and author workshops. The student research poster session was an especially meaningful way for students to connect with renowned faculty experts across the country. Each poster presenter was paired up with at least two expert guests who shared their research interests, so that they could receive direct feedback and encouragement on their project from a leading scholar in their field.

Similarly, undergraduate participation in the author workshops was a remarkable learning experience, which helped students to build skills in offering constructive and respectful discussant feedback on expert working papers. Together, these mentorship opportunities deepened our understanding of academic knowledge production and underscored the capacity of emerging scholars to engage as active contributors to scholarly and policy conversations, rather than passive observers.

Conclusion

The Canadian Security Amid Global Change research symposium served as a timely and necessary forum for examining the complex security challenges confronting Canada and the broader international community. Given that the field of international security has historically been dominated by male scholars and practitioners, the symposium’s strong focus on showcasing Canada’s women experts was a refreshing and needed correction.

The women experts at the event showcased diverse perspectives from across the country, on multiple dimensions of security: national, human, economic, and environmental. Their contributions underscored that meaningful work in the security field requires not only technical competence, but also analytical clarity, ethical awareness, and a sustained commitment to the safety of Canadians. Highlights from the expert debates are featured in the following two Conversation pieces in this special issue, compiled by women undergraduate students who organized and co-led this national academic event. Ultimately, the symposium reaffirmed the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue and inclusive leadership in navigating an increasingly complex and volatile political climate. For students, scholars, and practitioners, this was a timely and needed intervention.