Hybrid warfare and disinformation in the Canadian context
A multidisciplinary threat, vulnerability, and risk assessment that moves from contested definitions to practical recommendations for prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery.
01 / Inquiry
The question beneath the paper
How should Canada understand and respond to the overlapping risks of hybrid warfare and disinformation?
The report first tests the usefulness and limits of the terms 'hybrid warfare' and 'disinformation' rather than treating either as self-explanatory.
It then maps intent, capability, vulnerability, likelihood, and consequence before organizing recommendations through a prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery framework.
Because these threats operate across cyber, political, economic, and social systems, an effective response must combine technical defence, institutional readiness, public resilience, international cooperation, and credible recovery planning.
02 / Approach
How the argument was built
Methods
- Threat and risk assessment
- Vulnerability analysis
- Policy synthesis
- Recommendation design
Analytical lenses
- National security
- Disinformation
- Cyber resilience
- Democratic trust
Geographic scope
- Canada
03 / Findings
What the analysis brings into focus
- 01
The threat is cross-system
Cyberattacks, espionage, foreign interference, and manipulated information can reinforce one another; no single-agency response is sufficient.
- 02
Resilience is partly social
Media literacy, transparent public communication, and trusted institutions are security capabilities alongside technical cyber defences.
- 03
Recovery needs a real plan
The report argues for clearer incident protocols, evidence preservation, personnel and systems review, mental-health support, and timely public communication after an event.
04 / Portfolio perspective
What this work demonstrates
The report's value lies in joining conceptual discipline to operational thinking. It asks not only whether a threat is likely, but what assets are vulnerable, how consequences compound, and what a usable response would require across government and society.
Co-authored with Annabel Zhu, Darya Makiyenko, and Colin Kaduck.
05 / Source & evidence boundary
The work in its original context
This was a jointly authored report. The portfolio summarizes its scope and analytical framework while keeping the complete original off the public site in respect of the other authors' interests.