On June 3, the Policy Insights Forum hosted the 2024 National Security Conference at the Rideau Club in Ottawa. The event provided a comprehensive exploration of the complex challenges and opportunities facing Canada in balancing national security with economic prosperity.

In this piece published in The Hill Times, Iceland’s Ambassador to Canada, Hlynur Gudjonsson, shares what he learned from the Policy Insights Forum’s NATO Industry Conference 2023, including how start-ups and small states can leverage their unique advantages to excel in the development of innovative dual-use technologies, and how they can, in doing so, make great contributions to the overall needs of NATO and its member countries.

The United States, its Allies, and its partners can adapt to the demands of the emerging strategic context by learning lessons from the tumultuous past five years, i.e. the COVID pandemic and related challenges across Western society.

In the lead up to the Vilnius Summit (July 11-12, 2023), the private sector’s importance to NATO came into sharp focus. From the provisioning of “cybersecurity support” to refilling arsenals, observers commented on some of the ways that partnerships with the private sector can help the alliance and its members fulfil NATO’s mandate. But what is the significance of these partnerships for the private sector? This essay considers three functions—buyer, consultative partner, and incubator—that NATO serves for the private sector.