Water Security as an Emergent Opportunity in Canada

Résumé

On August 15_th 2019, the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies hosted its monthly roundtable focusing on “Water Security as an Emergent Opportunity for Canada”. The presentation was delivered by Dr. Zafar Adeel, a serving member on the editorial boards of Sustainability Science (Springer) and New Water Policy and Practice Journal (PSO). Dr. Adeel highlighted various emerging and continuing water security threats in British Columbia, emphasizing their similarities to other global issues. He directed his talk to addressing the impacts of climate change on water insecurity and its ability to create new threats to Canada’s coastal cities. The following roundtable discussion centered around a dialogue on the persistent insecurity in Canada’s indigenous communities as a security concern describing the matter as a play off between policy and security affairs. Audience members then brought into question the suitability of using the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine to intervene where a nation’s water security is at risk and addressed the complexities of the ‘react’ pillar in intervening militarily.