Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines how states engage with the global security architecture to address a range of contemporary security challenges. Taking a comparative perspective, we investigate key actors’ involvement with regional and international institutions such as the UN, NATO, and the EU. Issues may include disinformation, cybersecurity, outer space security, trafficking, and terrorism. Students who have taken IS 409 with this topic may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

This workshop situates “hybrid security” in the scholarly literatures on global governance, regime complexity and security studies. For this term, a fantastic opportunity came up to partner with the Asia Pacific Foundation (APF). Therefore, we will study the same themes but focus on the North Pacific and High North. Rather than surveying every aspect of the region’s foreign and defence policies, we use selected state strategies and institutional practices as empirical touchpoints to interrogate how governance arrangements emerge, overlap, and leave gaps. The emphasis is academic and policy: you will conduct rigorous analysis and translate that analysis into concise, evidence‑informed recommendations for Canada and like‑minded partners. The course prepares for—and culminates in—a capstone scenario conducted alongside the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APF), where you will synthesize insights into practical cooperation options.

Each week you complete targeted readings and bring a 200–250‑word reading memo (five weeks of your choice). In class, we will discuss ‘big questions’ and then build policy‑ready mini‑products—a stakeholder map, an authorities matrix, a rumor‑control template, a public–private playbook, and a cable‑corridor sheet—while practicing rapid briefings and short policy memos (foreign/defence policy focus, not technical). The capstone scenario focuses on a North Pacific undersea cable and GNSS disruption near the Aleutians that requires coordinated Canada‑plus responses under conditions of uncertainty. APF Canada joins Week 1, Week 8 (Space/PNT), Week 11 (Scenario rehearsal), and Week 12 (Capstone scenario). There will be an extra opportunity to engage with experts at an APF evening public event and an invited workshop, where selected students may present findings and ask questions.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

• Analyze hybrid threats (mis/disinformation, lawfare, cyber, space/PNT, infrastructure sabotage) and how they may or not be ‘governed’ and propose proportionate, lawful policy options in response.
• Explain Arctic/High North governance (Arctic Council’s civilian mandate; NATO, NORAD; coast‑guard cooperation) and where these regimes overlap or leave gaps.
• Map the strategic interests of Canada, the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea in the North Pacific and broader High North.
• Apply Canadian and allied policy documents to concrete problems (e.g., undersea cables, PNT disruptions, Arctic infrastructure).
• Communicate effectively in policy settings: present succinctly, ask well‑formed questions to experts and the public, and deliver clear, defensible recommendations.
• Produce concise, actionable policy outputs culminating in a capstone Scenario brief and memo.

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

These illustrative texts are available online through the SFU Library. Others will be provided by the instructor on Canvas or online.

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: