Canada at Economic War: Setting the Scene

Policy Brief No. 194

January 27, 2025

The global threat environment is increasingly complex and unstable, with hostile states using all instruments of national power to launch attacks on foreign governments, industries, research labs, civic groups and more. They are especially active in the economic domain, where they are using illicit, unfair and illegal economic practices to corrupt the global order that underpins stable interstate relations; weaponize economic interdependencies; and aggressively target the foreign assets and technologies essential to modern military power. In our highly integrated world and 360-degree threat environment, economic attacks are the essential first phase of full-scale war, and Canada is a high-value target. This policy brief, the first in a series as part of CIGI’s Canada at Economic War project, says securing our future against growing pressures from allies and adversaries alike requires urgently changing our outdated foreign policy mindset and resetting how we engage in the world. Developing a Canadian Defence Industrial Strategy will be a key part of defending Canada in the current threat environment.

About the Author

Raquel Garbers is a CIGI visiting executive from the Department of National Defence, where she held the role of director general, strategic defence policy, since April 2018. She is also a visiting practitioner with the US Department of Defense (Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies). Raquel served as the principal architect of Canada’s new defence policy, Our North, Strong and Free.