Quantum 2030 and Foundations for Peace are two implementation strategies of Canada’s Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces (DND/CAF) that currently run along entirely separate tracks. Foundations for Peace is the implementation plan for the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, anchored in the country’s third national action plan. Quantum 2030 is the implementation plan that translates the 2021 Quantum Science & Technology (S&T) Strategy into specific technology missions. The quantum plan mentions gender once, to restate the existing departmental commitment to Gender-Based Analysis Plus,  while the WPS plan treats emerging technology almost exclusively as a source of harm. Neither document references the other.

The siloing is not an oversight worth shrugging off. The two policy areas share at least one substantive goal, conflict prevention, and at least one of the technologies named in Quantum 2030 maps directly onto it. Aligning implementation plans where strategic goals are shared can help DND/CAF to avoid duplicating effort and missing burden-sharing opportunities. This also allows continued commitment to the ideals of the WPS agenda in an era where an overtly feminist foreign policy seems to have less institutional buy-in.

What Each Plan Actually Says

The WPS agenda, launched in 2000 through UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and developed across a series of subsequent resolutions and initiatives, promotes gender equality as a means to enhance human security and reduce violent conflict. Canada’s third national action plan, Foundations for Peace, identifies six focus areas: building and sustaining peace; security, justice, and accountability; crisis response; sexual and gender-based violence; leadership and capabilities; and inclusion. Ten........

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