Ron Deibert has been appointed director of the new Canada Centre for Global Security Studies. The centre was created as a result of a $25-million grant from the Canadian government announced in April.
“The Canada Centre will bring an entrepreneurial and interdisciplinary approach to the study of security issues facing not only Canada and our traditional allies, but also contemporary threats which countries, corporations, and citizens cope with around the globe on a daily basis,” said Janice Stein, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs. Stein announced Deibert’s appointment earlier this month.
“As our economies, civil societies, and institutions become more global in nature, so too are the threats that can interrupt such progress,” said Stein. “[The centre] will be an essential meeting point where we can gain a better understanding of these global threats and develop effective responses.”
“I think that [the centre] is a great opportunity to reinvigorate Canada’s engagement in foreign policy and international security base,” said Deibert. “Unfortunately our [country’s] engagement has been diminished over recent years. This has been reflected by being rejected to be a part of the UN Security Council.”
The centre will focus on dealing with new contemporary global threats. Deibert is particularly concerned with human rights organizations being attacked over cyberspace. “It’s becoming a tool for authoritative regimes to rule over these organizations.”
Deibert’s solution to this threat is part academic and part practical. “We need to have technical people involved as well as policy people involved. We need to also have the private sector involved. Solving this problem is going to cost money, and we’re going to need resources for it. It’s a wide-ranging effort.”
Deibert previously served as the director of the Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School focusing on advanced research in human rights, digital media, and security.
“Companies like Google, that own a big property of the internet, regularly get asked by countries for information. Sometimes those companies comply, but they don’t want to be transparent about it,” said Deibert. The Citizen Lab uncovered instances of Google being complicit in demands from countries to censor search content. “Google, with China, would filter search results of ‘Tiananmen Square’ or ‘the Dalai Lama’ and wouldn’t notify users about this filtering.”
Google later released a transparency page, in which it notified users what content was being censored in each country. Although not Deibert’s idea, he claims the work of his lab inspired this development. “That transparency page we can indirectly take credit for,” he said.
The Citizen Lab created an Internet freedom technology projectcalled Psiphon, which has become a private Canadian company with annual revenues of $1.65 million.
While Deibert will remain involved with both centres, he hopes to bring the success of the Citizen Lab with him to this new role. “One of the things we’re doing right off the bat, is the fusion methodology centre, [which will] take the methodology of the Citizen Lab and formalize them in a dedicated centre with a dedicated staff.”
Deibert views the new Canada Centre as a resource for all students. “It’s going to bring in a large pool of resources and […] a great opportunity for undergraduates, graduate, and post-doctorals,” he said.
Deibert believes that the effects of this program will reach far beyond Canada’s borders.
“Whatever we do [at the centre] has an impact not just on the university but on the world internationally.”
