Dr Gaëlle Rivard Piché is the Executive Director of the Conference of the Defence Associations (CDA) and the CDA Institute. With a doctoral degree in international affairs (Carleton University, 2017) and over a decade of professional experience in the Canadian defence and security sector, she combines operational expertise, strategic leadership, and extensive research experience.

Prior to CDAI, Gaëlle was a strategic analyst with Defence Research and Development Canada where she closely worked with the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, and the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs. She is an affiliated expert with the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats and was a Fulbright research fellow in the International Security Program at the Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (2014-2015).

Strong of her expertise on Arctic security and defence, hybrid threats, deterrence theory and practice, and Latin American and Caribbean security issues, Gaëlle has published in the Texas National Security Review, the Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, International Journal, and Études internationales. She co-authored two books: SOF in the Defence of the Canadian and North American Arctic (with Nancy Teeple and Bradley Sylvestre, forthcoming) and the Newport Manual on Arctic Security (with Walter Berbrick and Michael Zimmerman, 2022).

Gaëlle also supports the education and professional development of military members and national security personnel as a lecturer at the Canadian Forces College and a training consultant with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Dedicated to fostering diversity in defence and national security, she was previously the co-chair of the Defense Women’s Advisory Organization’s U.S. chapter and Women in International Security – Canada.

Jon Rahbek-Clemmensen is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Strategy and War Studies at the Royal Danish Defence College, where he is also the head of the Section for Strategy and Great Power Competition. His research focuses on the following research areas:

·      Diplomacy, security, and defense in the Arctic and North Atlantic

·      Danish, Faroese, and Greenlandic foreign, security, and defense policy

·      European security policy and transatlantic relations

·      Theories of the foreign, security, and defense policies of small states and substate actors

He has published several peer-reviewed pieces about these topics, including Greenland and the International Politics of a Changing Arctic (Routledge, 2017), which he co-edited with Kristian S. Kristensen. A frequent contributor to policy development processes, he has given talks or testimonies (written and oral) in the United States Congress (staff level), the British House of Commons, the Danish Parliament, and several Danish ministries. He has contributed to stories in most Danish media and several major international outlets, including New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, BBC, The Guardian, Le Figaro, NPR, and Al-Jazeera. Having held visiting positions at CSIS and Columbia University, he holds a PhD in International Relations from the LSE.

Andrea Charron is Director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies, and Professor or International Relations at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. She holds a PhD from the Royal Military College of Canada (Department of War Studies). Dr. Charron worked for various federal departments including the Canadian Privy Council Office in the Security and Intelligence Secretariat before beginning her academic career. She writes extensively on Arctic security, NATO, NORAD and Canadian defence policy. She is coauthor of NORAD: In Perpetuity and Beyond (MQUP, 2022), coeditor of The Legacy of 9/11: Views from North America (MQUP, 2023) and several others on sanctions.

Michael Kofman is a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on the Russian military, Ukrainian armed forces, and Eurasian security issues. Prior to joining Carnegie in 2023, he served as director of the Russia Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analyses, where he led a team conducting research on the capabilities, strategy, and military thought of the Russian Armed Forces. Widely recognized as one of the leading authorities on the Russian military, and the Russo-Ukrainian war, Kofman has led foundational work in the field, and is routinely cited in major publications.

Aside from his work at Carnegie, Kofman is a contributing editor at War on the Rocks, where he hosts the Russia Contingency, a bi-weekly podcast on the Russian military and the Russia-Ukraine war. He previously served as a research fellow and program manager at the National Defense University. Past fellowships have included the Modern War Institute at West Point, Center for New American Security, and the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Iris A. Ferguson is  president and founder of IAF Strategies and a senior associate (non-resident) with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  She most recently served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and global resilience from 2022 to January 2025. In this role, she served as the principal advisor to the secretary of defense and senior leadership on protecting U.S. homeland and allied interests in the Arctic region; managed oceans policy and the Freedom of Navigation Program to uphold the maritime rules-based order; addressed strategic resilience risks, including critical minerals and energy security; and ensured the department maintained innovation advantages in strategic competition.

Iris has also served as a senior advisor on Arctic and energy security issues for U.S. Air Force Futures and the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations and as special assistant to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment, and energy, focusing on energy security and resilience policies. Iris previously served on the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration and as a national security and foreign policy legislative aide focused on Europe, Latin America, and East Asia on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She holds a BA from the University of Arkansas and an MA in international economics and relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Jon Rahbek-Clemmensen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Strategy at the Danish Defence Academy, where he is affiliated with the Center for Arctic Security Studies and Head of the Strategy Section. His research focuses on how Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland deal with new defence and security policy challenges. This relates in particular to foreign, security and defence policy in the Arctic and the North Atlantic, European security policy and transatlantic relations and the role of small states and sub-state actors in foreign, security and defence policy.

Ms. Marisol Maddox currently serves as a Senior Arctic Fellow at the Institute of Arctic Studies in the Dickey Center at Dartmouth. She is a specialist in Earth systems security, with a focus on the Arctic region. 

Her transdisciplinary research considers the Arctic nexus of geopolitics, security, and environmental change. She is particularly interested in how actorless threats— such as the surpassing of planetary boundaries-- interface with the larger threat environment. She specializes in cooperative, multifunctional solutions development, which prioritizes a systems approach toward risk mitigation, targeting both acute and chronic risks while maximizing added benefits. 

Ms. Maddox is also a Senior Associate (non-resident) in the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a fellow at the Conference of Defense Associations Institute (CDAI), a non-resident research fellow at the Center for Climate and Security, and a member of the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN).