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Begin New Search Content Type Policy Brief Publishing Institution Centre for International Governance Innovation Publication Year within 25 Years

1. The First Space-Cyber War and the Need for New Regimes and Policies

Author:
Eytan Tepper
Publication Date:
05-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Many dubbed the Gulf War of 1991 the “first space war” due to the US Armed Forces’ extensive use of satellites. The cyberwar in Ukraine, although it is mostly playing out in the shadows, may be remembered as the first space-cyber war. This policy brief makes the case that states should adopt national policies to defend against threats to space-based assets and applications, such as communications satellites, that are both vital to national security and economic security and increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks. It is time to explore and identify principles for responsible space-cyber behaviour that would represent a broad multilateral consensus. Identifying these principles may not prevent space-cyber hostilities but could provide “rules of the game.” States would also benefit from encouraging a space-cyber security industry that, beyond protecting against space-cyber threats, has the potential to be a significant growth engine.
Topic:
Security, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Space, and Cyberspace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. A Two-Track Approach for Trustworthy AI

Author:
Michel Girard
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Standards and certification programs are developed to support new trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) legislation. Recent developments point to the emergence of a two-track approach. One track would focus on the certification of AI applications embedded in tangible products using objective criteria through established conformity assessment bodies. Regarding AI interacting with humans and used in delivering services, there is a need to create a new track. This track is needed to verify and validate compliance against subjective criteria, values and ethics, seen by many as an integral part of what constitutes trustworthy AI. The practice of “assurance as a service” can be adapted to verify and validate conformance to upcoming trustworthy AI standards. This policy brief provides an update on key legislative and policy developments framing trustworthy AI. It sketches possible approaches for the certification, verification and validation of AI embedded in products and in services and looks at recent proposals regarding the creation of a new chartered profession to deliver assurance services to achieve trustworthy AI.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Regulation, Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technology, and Trust
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Lending to Defaulters: The IMF Updates Its Lending into Arrears Policy

Author:
Gregory Makoff
Publication Date:
08-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) “lending into arrears” policy outlines the criteria used by the IMF in deciding whether to loan to a country in default. This policy brief focuses on one of the conditions a country must meet when seeking debt relief from the IMF: it must engage in good faith negotiations with its creditors (known as the good faith criterion). The country must also implement significant financial reforms and provide assurances that it will be able to meet its financial obligations. This policy brief looks at the history of the lending into arrears policy, the controversy surrounding its use during Argentina’s 2005 debt restructuring and the May 2022 update to the policy.
Topic:
Economics, International Cooperation, Finance, and IMF
Political Geography:
Argentina and South America

4. The Digital Economy Partnership Agreement: Should Canada Join?

Author:
Dan Ciuriak and Robert Fay
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) provides the most comprehensive template yet for a regional trade agreement tailored for the digitally transformed economy. The DEPA lays groundwork for discussions on critical areas that go beyond the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. This policy brief makes the case that joining the DEPA early would allow Canada to develop it so that it meets small, open economies’ needs and so that new provisions meet the values that Canada holds, and recommends areas for attention and collaboration with like-minded countries.
Topic:
International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, Intellectual Property/Copyright, and Digital Economy
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

5. Third Party Record Exemptions in Canada’s Access to Information Act

Author:
Matt Malone
Publication Date:
05-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Artificial intelligence (AI) and automated decision making (ADM) used by and on behalf of the Government of Canada pose significant challenges to Canada’s Access to Information Act (ATIA). While the ATIA’s goal is to enhance accountability and transparency through the disclosure of records under the control of government, exemptions in the ATIA for third party records such as trade secrets make meaningful access difficult when it comes to AI and ADM. Several departments working at the epicentre of AI and ADM policy handle requests made to them through the ATIA by routinely invoking such exemptions. Citizens’ entitlements to transparency and accountability in such contexts are increasingly clashing with commercial actors’ desire to avoid or block disclosure of records.
Topic:
Governance, Privacy, Transparency, and Artificial Intelligence
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

6. Protecting Freedom of Thought in the Digital Age

Author:
Susie Alegre
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
As digital technology plays an ever-increasing role in our lives, the need for regulations to protect our rights to freedom of thought and opinion is becoming more apparent, especially with regard to social media platforms’ relentless mission to get inside people’s heads using their personal data. International human rights law protects our right to freedom of thought, which includes the right to keep our thoughts and opinions private, the right not to have our thoughts and opinions manipulated, and the right not to be penalized for our thoughts and opinions. This policy brief will explore strategies to protect these rights in digital spaces.
Topic:
Human Rights, Science and Technology, Privacy, and Digitalization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. An Emerging Opportunity for Recovery: “Modern Markets for All”

Author:
Wingham Rowan
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The growth and modernization of online labour markets have often come at the expense of workers. The platforms that cater to the gig economy aim to maximize profits while undermining worker benefits. For example, some labour platforms have been known to extract up to 30 percent of their workers’ earnings. In this policy brief, Wingham Rowan discusses how to make labour markets more equitable through a collaborative effort between government agencies and tech companies to maximize growth, opportunity and inclusion, creating “modern markets for all.”
Topic:
Science and Technology, Income Inequality, Labor Market, and Public-Private Partnership
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

8. Designing Institutional Collaboration into Global Governance

Author:
C. Randall Henning
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Collaboration among international institutions is essential for high-quality governance in many areas of global policy, yet it is chronically undersupplied. Numerous opportunities for institutional collaboration are being missed and there are calls for deepening collaboration in discourse on global governance — in new areas of governance, such as digital privacy, content moderation and platforms; better-established areas, such as climate change and biodiversity; as well as long-established but nonetheless evolving areas, such as international finance, development and trade. There are several obstacles to collaboration, including key countries’ using some institutions to constrain others, a strategy of “complexity for control.” This policy brief suggests that in designing international institutions, states and other principals should draw from a tool kit of strategies and techniques for promoting collaboration, including introducing or developing formal and informal mechanisms, and harnessing the Group of Seven and the Group of Twenty to foster collaboration proactively. New institutions should be designed from the outset to collaborate with others in a dense institutional environment.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Privacy, Institutions, Innovation, and Collaboration
Political Geography:
Global Focus

9. Designing and Regulating Retail Digital Currencies

Author:
Steven L. Schwarcz
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Governments and multinational organizations are exploring the feasibility of developing “retail” digital currencies, sponsored by governmental central banks or privately issued, which consumers could use on a day-to-day basis as an alternative to cash. Central bank digital currencies could be either account-based or token-based. Privately issued digital currencies would likely be token-based. Private issuers are focusing on “stablecoins,” which are digital currencies backed by assets having intrinsic value. Retail digital currencies raise new regulatory issues in addition to those typically associated with money and payment systems. The most successful retail digital currencies are likely to be used not only domestically but also in cross-border transactions, which can be costly. They therefore should be designed, regulated and supervised to reduce these costs and, ideally, also to increase consumer accessibility — and thus to broaden financial inclusion.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Currency, Innovation, Cryptocurrencies, and Digital Currency
Political Geography:
Global Focus

10. Digital RMB: A Possible Way to Reassert Data Control in the Digital Economy

Author:
Alex He
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
As the first digital currency piloted by a major economy, China’s digital renminbi (RMB) has drawn worldwide attention. Many observers, however, have exaggerated the digital currency’s influence on RMB internationalization; others have focused on its potential replacement of the current third-party payment system, or the possibility that the digital RMB could be exploited to strengthen China’s authoritarian regime by way of monitoring everyday transactions conducted by Chinese citizens. However, these observations have missed the main point of the digital RMB as a key fintech innovation in the age of the digital economy. It could be an important tool in assisting China’s central bank to reassert control over big data in the financial system and to bring the rapidly growing power of Chinese fintech giants under control. Its issuance also acts as a pre-emptive measure that positions the People’s Bank of China to compete with other central bank digital currencies and cryptocurrencies.
Topic:
Governance, Digital Economy, Banking, and Digitalization
Political Geography:
China and Asia

11. he Canadian Election Template: Stronger Elections at Home, Stronger Canada Abroad

Author:
Brian Klaas and Aaron Shull
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
For the last four years, the world’s most powerful champion of democratization has been largely absent from the global stage. The United States is now poised to support a far more pro-democracy agenda, with greater insistence on free and fair elections as part of American foreign policy. Indeed, US President Joe Biden has redoubled efforts by hosting a global summit for democracy, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed to partnering with the United States on supporting global democracy. Nonetheless, the current landscape is bleak. Freedom House’s metrics show 15 consecutive years of democratic decline. Unprecedented threats to elections across the world have emerged. Geopolitical adversaries have used hacking, disinformation campaigns and other information warfare attacks to destabilize democracies. Those threats rightly gained prominence after the 2016 US elections. However, while the focus shifted to international threats, domestic actors began to borrow Russian-style tactics, spreading false information and sowing doubt on election integrity. Too often, these campaigns achieve their goals — and democracy suffers.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Elections, Democracy, and Leadership
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

12. Closed Shops: Opening Canada's Legal Profession to Foreign-educated Lawyers

Author:
Lauren Heuser
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
This final report was prepared following the 6 Degrees Citizen Space, which took place in Toronto, ON, from September 25 to 27, 2017. It provides a dialogue about the key barriers foreign-educated lawyers face in Canada’s licensing and employment processes, and makes recommendations for how unnecessary barriers can be mitigated or dismantled. Barriers are considered unnecessary if they are not relevant to testing an individual’s professional competency, or make it unduly difficult for foreign-educated lawyers to achieve licensure or employment relative to their Canadian counterparts. These recommendations are directed at a variety of stakeholders, including provincial law societies, the National Committee on Accreditation, law schools, fairness commissioners, legal employers, immigration officials and internationally trained lawyers themselves. For the purposes of this project, the author interviewed numerous foreign-educated lawyers, as well as Canadian immigration officials, immigration lawyers, regulators, employers and professors. The conversations made clear that there is work to be done in opening Canada’s closed legal shop.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Canada

13. Trump and the IMF

Author:
Susan Schadler
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
So far, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has defied the odds in its relations with the administration of US President Donald Trump. In contrast to the administration’s at times stormy ride with some other international organizations and agreements, relations have been rather calm — even friendly — between the United States and the IMF. There has been no talk of cutting US funding to the IMF, no threat of pulling out of the organization, no statements casting aspersions on the IMF and no “tweet storms” on specific events involving the IMF. In fact, although not directly from President Trump, statements in support of actions or positions of the IMF have surfaced. Why has the IMF escaped the antagonism of the new administration, and can it continue to do so?
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

14. Operationalizing the Blue Economy in Small States: Lessons from the Early Movers

Author:
Cyrus Rustomjee
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The blue economy — a concept and framework for economic activity that recognizes and seeks to maximize the potential for economic growth, employment and diversification through the sustainable use of resources from the ocean — has vast economic potential for small states; however, they confront several unique international governance challenges in pursuing a marine-resource-based development framework; have few comparative lessons of good practice to draw on; and face several practical obstacles in taking the first steps to operationalize the blue economy, resulting in modest progress. Collective experience highlights six key priorities in operationalizing the blue economy. Small states can take several new initiatives, supported by regional and international development partners, to focus attention on and coalesce policy effort and resources.
Topic:
International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

15. Flood Risk and Shared Responsibility in Canada: Operating on Flawed Assumptions?

Author:
Daniel Henstra and Jason Thistlethwaite
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Floods cause more property damage than any other hazard in Canada, and water-related losses now exceed fire and theft as the main source of property insurance claims. Public spending on flood relief has grown, and is projected to increase dramatically over the next decade, so governments have been changing their policies to reduce their financial exposure by shifting responsibility to homeowners. An implicit assumption of this policy shift is that individual homeowners must share greater responsibility for protecting their property by purchasing newly available flood insurance. Evidence is presented suggesting that consumer demand for flood insurance may be insufficient for economic viability. Low risk perception and a moral hazard created by government disaster assistance limit incentives for purchasing insurance.
Topic:
Environment and International Security
Political Geography:
Canada

16. Evaluating the Need for Pipelines: A False Narrative for the Canadian Economy

Author:
Jeff Rubin
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The claim that additional pipeline capacity to tidewater will unlock significantly higher prices for bitumen is not corroborated by either past or current market conditions. Recent international commitments to reduce global carbon emissions over the next three decades will significantly reduce the size of future oil markets. Only the lowest-cost producers will remain commercially viable while high-cost producers will be forced to exit the market. The National Energy Board should consider a rapidly decarbonizing global economy when assessing the need and commercial viability of further pipelines in the country and use Western Canadian Select as the price benchmark when evaluating the economic viability of any new oil sands projects. Pension plans need to stress test their long-term investments in the oil sands in the context of a decarbonizing global economy.
Topic:
International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Canada

17. Strengthening the Debt Sustainability Framework for Caribbean Small States

Author:
Cyrus Rustomjee
Publication Date:
08-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Since 2005, two debt sustainability frameworks and country-level debt sustainability analyses designed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have provided standardized tools to measure and assess debt sustainability. While they have a number of advantages, the utility of these tools for small states is limited by several factors, including insufficient treatment of exogenous shocks, limitations in the tools used to assess debt sustainability and a narrow definition of debt sustainability. This has reduced their reliability in assessing debt sustainability and as a mechanism to help inform both countries’ debt management policies and donor, lender and investor decision making. Several practical modifications can strengthen these tools and improve their utility for small states.
Topic:
International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Caribbean

18. Starting the Dialogue on Climate Engineering Governance: A World Commission

Author:
Edward A. Parson
Publication Date:
08-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Climate engineering can, if appropriately governed within a coherent overall climate change strategy, reduce risks beyond what mitigation and adaptation can achieve alone, and is probably essential to achieve the Paris Agreement temperature targets. Climate engineering also poses significant new risks, and needs expanded research and scrutiny in climate assessments.
Topic:
International Political Economy and Climate Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

19. A Sustainable Ocean Economy, Innovation and Growth: A G20 Initiative

Author:
Andreas R Kraemer
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The Group of Twenty should initiate a global ocean governance process and call for dialogues, strategies and regional cooperation to ensure that investment and growth in ocean use become sustainable and reach their full potential. The ocean is the largest and most critical ecosystem on Earth, and potentially the largest provider of food, materials, energy and ecosystem services. However, past and current uses of the ocean continue to be unsustainable, with increasing demand contributing to the ocean’s decline. Better governance, appreciation of the economic value of the ocean and “blue economy” strategies can reduce conflicts among uses, ensure financial sustainability, ecosystem integrity and prosperity, and promote long-term national growth and employment in maritime industries.
Topic:
Climate Finance
Political Geography:
Global Focus

20. Restructuring Sovereign Debt: An English Law Opportunity

Author:
Steven L. Schwarcz
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Unsustainable sovereign debt is a serious problem for nations, as well as their citizens and creditors, and a threat to global financial stability. The existing contractual approach to restructuring unsustainable debt is inadequate and no treaty or other multilateral legal framework exists, or is currently likely to be adopted, that would enable nations to restructure unsustainable debt. Because a significant percentage of sovereign debt is governed by English law, there is an opportunity to modify the law to fairly and equitably facilitate the restructuring of unsustainable sovereign debt. This policy brief proposes a novel legal framework, focusing on governing law, for doing that. This framework would legislatively achieve the equivalent of the ideal goal of including perfect collective action clauses in all English-law-governed sovereign debt contracts. It therefore should ensure the continuing legitimacy and attractiveness of English law as the governing law for future sovereign debt contracts. Even absent the legislative proposal, the analysis in this policy brief can contribute to the incremental development of sovereign debt restructuring norms.
Topic:
International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus