Each year the School organizes a series of public talks on the “north” broadly defined. Building on Trent’s established role as a centre of innovation on northern research (and in combination with the Roberta Bondar Fellowship in Northern Studies) these lectures are a key feature of academic life at Trent.
North at Trent 2025-2026 Lecture Series
All Eyes on the Arctic: Where Geopolitics and Security Intersect
Friday 28 November 2025
1:00 pm
The Pit, Lady Eaton College, Symons Campus
Greenland Foreign Policy in the Midst of Geopolitical Tensions
with Rasmus Leander Nielson
and
The Nature of Grey Zone Arctic Threats: Lessons from Norway
with Marc Lanteigne
About the lectures:
The world is in flux, with powerful, connected trends reshaping global geopolitics: climate change, autocracies and disruptive states (particularly China and Russia) challenging the rules-based international order, and new and disruptive technologies that “are rapidly redefining conflict and what it takes to be safe and secure.”
Canada highlights the Arctic as a region of particular concern and priority. Reflective of this new world, Greenland and Norway have announced new foreign policy strategies focused on the changing threat environment and the connection of local, national, and international security issues
About the speakers:
Dr. Nielsen is Head of Nasiffik (Centre for Foreign & Security Policy) and Associate Professor at the Department of Arctic Social Science and Economics, Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland). He holds a PhD from the University of Southern Denmark and has previously worked as editor-in-chief at an online magazine and as assistant lecturer at the University of Copenhagen. His main research interests include Greenlandic foreign policy, Arctic security and cooperation, and International Relations and EU-studies. Dr. Nielsen is a widely used expert and commentator on Greenlandic and Arctic Affairs.
Dr. Lanteigne is a Professor of Political Science at UiT: The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, specialising in Chinese and East Asian politics and international relations, as well as Asia-Pacific security and cooperation. He also specialises in the politics and security of the Polar Regions, including Chinese and East Asian diplomacy in the Arctic and via the Antarctic Treaty System.
This event is co-sponsored by the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN)