Fellowship Program
The CIC’s fellowship program attracts established researchers and foreign policy professionals, as well as Canada’s most promising young minds, providing them with the opportunity to help guide Canada on pressing foreign policy issues. Open to academic, public policy, business, media and other professionals with international expertise, the CIC awards a limited number of fellowships across Canada each year, creating an interdisciplinary team of experts, each focused on a particular issue area. Working both independently and collectively, CIC fellows devote six to 12 months to working on a specific research project initiative, with the goal of creating new insights and policy-relevant findings.
Expertise:
Diplomacy – Afghanistan – Citizenship – Immigration
Chris Alexander was born in Toronto in 1968. He attended Oriole Park Public School and the University of Toronto Schools (UTS) before earning a BA from McGill (history and political science) and an MA at Balliol College, Oxford (PPE). For eighteen years he served as a Canadian diplomat, serving in the Canadian embassy in Moscow under Yeltsin and Putin. From 2003 until 2009, he was the first resident Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan. In 2011, he published The Long Way Back: Afghanistan’s Quest for Peace, winner of the Huguenot Society of Canada Award. He was MP for Ajax-Pickering from 2011 to 2015, serving as Parliamentary Secretary for National Defence and Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
In the latter capacity, he was responsible for introducing Express Entry, reforming and re-launching most economic, international mobility and temporary foreign worker programmes, updating the Citizenship Act for the first time in a generation, making the first commitment by any country to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees, expanding the number of international students coming to Canada and sustaining the then highest levels of immigration in Canadian history. In 2016-17, he ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada to promote a ‘New Canada’ driven by entrepreneurship, innovation, inclusion, investment, a larger international footprint and increased trade with markets in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. He now provides international macro political insights to corporate clients and is a member of a number of company boards.
Chris Alexander is married to social entrepreneur Hedvig Alexander, a Dane by birth, with whom he has two daughters and a son. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of Canada’s Best Forty Under Forty. He has contributed recently to Maclean’s, The Globe & Mail and The Literary Review of Canada. He was also awarded the Birchall Leadership Award by the Royal Military Colleges Foundation and is a Grand Officer (1st Class) of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity.
Writing
Clickbait and Switch. Literary Review of Canada, 2019.
Expertise:
Tax Havens – Israel-Palestine Relations – Spain/Catalonia – Populism – Canada-US Relations
Program:
Global Populism, Protectionism & Polarisation
Born in Winnipeg in 1950, Jon Allen (LL.B., University of Western Ontario, 1976; LL.M., International Law, University of London School of Economics, 1977) joined the then Department of External Affairs in 1981.
In addition to postings abroad in Mexico City (1983-85), New Delhi (1989-92) and Washington (1997-2001), Mr. Allen spent his early career in the Legal Bureau where he represented Canada in disputes under the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and worked in the areas of human rights, humanitarian and environmental law.
Mr. Allen held the positions of Director General, North America Bureau (2001-2004), Minister (Political Affairs) at the Embassy of Canada in Washington (2004-2006) and Assistant Deputy Minister, Americas (2010-2012).
From 2006 to 2010, he was Ambassador of Canada to Israel. From 2012 to 2016 he was Ambassador to Spain and Andorra. From December 2012 to July 2014, he was Chargé d’affaires a.i. to the Holy See.
Mr. Allen is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Canadian International Council, a Diplomat in Residence at Fulbright Canada and a Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. At Munk, he is engaged in research and writing on tax havens, Spanish and Israeli-Palestinian issues and populism. At Fulbright, Mr. Allen is advancing a proposal to establish in Canada a Canada-US institute.
He is married to Clara Hirsch. They have two sons, Jake and AJ and a precious granddaughter, Olive.
Expertise:
Cyberspace governance - cyber defence
Josh Gold is the Vice President of the CIC’s Toronto Branch. Josh was previously a research assistant at the Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, as well as a Non-Resident Visiting Fellow at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE). In 2019, Josh was a visiting scholar at The Hague Programme for Cyber Norms, as well as an ICANN66 NextGen fellow. Josh has also consulted for the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ cyber policy team.
As a CIC Visiting Fellow, Josh is focused on the Foreign Policy By Canadians initiative.
Publications
Gold, Josh. The Five Eyes and Offensive Cyber Capabilities: Building a ‘Cyber Deterrence Initiative’. NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE). Tallinn, October 30, 2020.
Gold, Josh, Christopher Parsons & Irene Poetranto. Canada’s Scattered and Uncoordinated Cyber Foreign Policy: A Call for Clarity. Just Security, August 4, 2020.
Parsons, Christopher, and Josh Gold. A Deep Dive into Canada’s Overhaul of Its Foreign Intelligence and Cybersecurity Laws. Just Security, June 2, 2020.
Gold, Josh. Governance of Emerging Technologies: Canadian Cyberspace Governance — or Lack Thereof? In Kristen Csenkey (ed.) “Simplifying Emerging Technologies: Risks and How to Mitigate Them”, Balsillie School of International Affairs, May 2020.
Via U.S. Council on Foreign Relations (covering UN cybersecurity processes):
Gold, Josh. Competing U.S.-Russia Cybersecurity Resolutions Risk Slowing UN Progress. Council on Foreign Relations, October 29, 2020.
Gold, Josh. Amid COVID-Related Cyber Threats, the Netherlands Leads UN Efforts. Council on Foreign Relations, May 4, 2020.
Gold, Josh. A Cyberspace ‘FIFA’ to Set Rules of the Game? UN States Disagree at Second Meeting. Council on Foreign Relations, March 2, 2020.
Gold, Josh. A Multistakeholder Meeting at the United Nations Could Help States Develop Cyber Norms. Council on Foreign Relations, January 16, 2020.
Gold, Josh. The First Ever Global Meeting on Cyber Norms Holds Promise, but Broader Challenges Remain. Council on Foreign Relations, September 30, 2019.
Expertise:
Global Development – International Public Management – Bilateral Development Cooperation
Nilima Gulrajani is a Senior Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute in London. She is currently on secondment at the Canadian International Council and the G20 Research Group at the Munk School of Global Affairs. She has over fifteen years’ experience teaching, researching and resolving complex problems of organisational effectiveness in international development, particularly in the areas of aid governance and donor capacity building. She currently serves on the Programme Committee of the Foundation Chanel, as well as an Associate Editor of the journal Public Administration and Development. Nilima spent five years on faculty at the London School of Economics and Political Science where she taught international public management. She obtained her PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge where she was a Bill Gates Scholar.
Publications
Public Policy Papers
Gulrajani, N. and Swiss, L. (2017) Why do countries become donors? Assessing the drivers and implications of donor proliferation. ODI Working Paper. London
Gulrajani, N. and Honig, D. (2016) Reforming donors in fragile states: Using public management more strategically. ODI Working Paper. London.
Gulrajani, N. (2015) Bilateral versus multilateral aid channels: Strategic choices for donors. ODI Working Paper. London
Peer-reviewed journal articles
Honig, D. and Gulrajani, N (2017) “Making good on donors ’ desire to Do Development Differently.: Third World Quarterly p. 1-17. [Journal] [Article]
Gulrajani, N. (2017) “Bilateral Donors and the Age of the National Interset: What Prospects for Challenge by Development Agencies?” World Development. 96: p. 375-389. [Journal] [Article]
Gulrajani, N. (2015) “Dilemmas in Donor Design: Organisational Reform and the Future of Foreign Aid Agencies.” Public Administration and Development 35(2): 152-164. [Journal]
Expertise:
Human Rights – Global Health
Roojin Habibi is a CIC Fellow and an international consultant and lawyer specialized in global health law, governance and justice. She has worked for the right to health of marginalized communities at the local and international level through civil society and intergovernmental organization. As part of her fellowship with the CIC, Roojin intends to lead a consensus-building effort with legal experts from universities and organisations located in all regions of the world to articulate a new set of international human rights principles, firmly moored in international law and applicable to all countries in times of global public health emergency.
Expertise:
Diplomacy – EU – Russia – UK
Distinguished Fellow of the CIC Jeremy Kinsman has been the Distinguished Visiting Diplomat at Ryerson since 2010 after he left the Canadian Foreign Service in 2006, following 40 years of service. He had served as a Canadian Ambassador for 15 years, in Moscow (1992-96), in Rome (1996-2000) as High Commissioner in London (2000-2002), and as Ambassador to the EU in Brussels (2002-2006). Earlier postings were in Brussels and in Algeria before going to New York in 1975 where he became Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN. He was then Chairman of Policy Planning in Ottawa before becoming Minister for Political Affairs in Washington (1981-85).
From 1985-99, he was on loan as Assistant Deputy Minister of Communications responsible for the cultural affairs portfolio of the federal government and for broadcasting. Recalled to Foreign Affairs in 1989 as the Assistant Deputy Minister for International Security Affairs and Political Director, he notably served as chair and interdepartmental coordinator for Canada’s political engagement in the Gulf War 1990-91. After leaving government service, Jeremy Kinsman transferred his energies to civil society, heading from 2007 an international project for the Community of Democracies which has recently produced the Third Edition of A Diplomat’s Handbook on Democracy Development Support. He leads the project’s workshops which train professional personnel from participating countries and civil society representatives in democracy and human rights support. A frequent speaker and lecturer in Europe and North America, in 2007-2008 he was Diplomat in Residence at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. Kinsman was then appointed 2009-10 Regents’ Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley and joined Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies as Resident International Scholar.
Video Introduction
Recent Writing
“Darroch and Diplomacy: When ‘Persona non Grata’ is a Badge of Honour“. The CIC, 2019.
“Being Back: Foreign Policy as a Campaign Issue “. Policy Magazine, 2019.
Expertise:
Terrorism – Middle East – United Nations
Program:
Real & Imagined Security Threats in an Uncertain World
Mr Mokhtar Lamani is a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa. He was the Head of the Office of the UN-League of Arab States Joint Special Representative for Syria in Damascus from September 2012 to May 2014. Before his appointment in OJSRS-D, Mr. Lamani was the Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Canada.
Previously, he served as Ambassador Special Representative of the Arab League in Iraq, appointed by the Arab Summit in 2006. On behalf of the Arab League, he worked to reconcile fractious parties and sectarian groups in Iraq while building peaceful relations between Iraq and neighboring countries.
Prior to his position as Special Representative, Mr. Lamani served as Ambassador of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation to the United Nations in New York from 1998 to 2004.
His distinguished career in international diplomacy includes a number of positions with the General Secretariat of the Arab League, including Deputy Permanent Observer to the UN, Officer in Charge of the Iraq-Kuwait dispute, Coordinator of Secretariat Reform, and Coordinator of the Euro-Arab Dialogue and Afro-Arab Cooperation, Responsible of European relations.
Expertise:
Security – Rules-Based-Order
Adam P. MacDonald is a CIC Fellow and a current PhD candidate in the Political Science Department at Dalhousie University. He recently finished an 18-month tour as the Deputy-Director of Dalhousie’s Centre for the Study of Security and Development. As part of his fellowship, Adam will explore Canada’s relationships with both China and the United States in the context of their growing great power rivalry.
Expertise:
Environmental Technologies – Diversity
Jean-Frédéric Morin is a CIC researcher and Canada Research Chair at Laval University. As a CIC researcher, he will target two specific ideas, namely the liberalization of environmental technologies and environmental customs duties, on which he intends to engage with Canadians through traditional and digital media.
Expertise:
Asia-Pacific Affairs – Multilateralism
Alejandro Reyes is a CIC Fellow as well as the director of knowledge dissemination and associate professor at the Asia Global Institute (AGI), a think tank at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), where he manages AsiaGlobal Online, a digital journal, and the AsiaGlobal Podcasts. As part of his CIC Fellowship, Alejandro plans to explore the changing global power dynamics by continuing research in Asia-Pacific affairs and exploring what a renewed rules-based international order might look like.
Expertise:
Energy Humanities – Environment
Imre Szeman is a CIC Fellow and the University Research Chair in Communication Arts at the University of Waterloo. As part of his CIC fellowship, Imre will continue research in the area of study he helped found known as the ‘energy humanities’ which assesses the broad range of social changes necessary to enable and support shifts to more environmentally-sustainable uses of energy. Notably, as part of his research Imre intends to develop a socio-energy transition calculator that will allow Canadians to make choices about social transitions and immediately see their effects on energy use.
Expertise:
Border Studies – Inequality
Élisabeth Vallet is a CIC Fellow, and the Director of the Center for Geopolitical Studies of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), an Associate Professor at the RMCC-Saint Jean, as well as the Quebec Research Lead for the Borders in Globalization program (University of Victoria). As a CIC fellow, focusing in particular on inequality and border studies, her research aims to understand how global security shocks lead to increase in border fortification around the world.
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