Media Releases

UofT’s Munk School gets $25 million from federal government for new centre on global security

April 29, 2010

TORONTO, ON — The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to will receive $25 mil­lion from the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to cre­ate a new cen­tre to study issues of glob­al secu­ri­ty, Prime Min­is­ter Stephen Harp­er announced today.

The Cana­da Cen­tre for Glob­al Secu­ri­ty Stud­ies will be estab­lished imme­di­ate­ly at UofT’s new Munk School of Glob­al Affairs. Areas of inter­dis­ci­pli­nary study will include the inter­sec­tion between glob­al secu­ri­ty and cyber espi­onage, glob­al health, and region-spe­cif­ic con­cerns, such as the Arc­tic, post-Sovi­et Europe, the new Asian pow­ers, and the chang­ing face of the Amer­i­c­as.  

“Cana­da plays an active role in pro­mot­ing glob­al secu­ri­ty at the G8 and through a broad range of oth­er inter­na­tion­al activ­i­ties,” said Prime Min­is­ter Harp­er. “This new Cen­tre will help us devel­op deep­er exper­tise in address­ing glob­al secu­ri­ty con­cerns.” 

UofT Pres­i­dent David Nay­lor said the new fed­er­al fund­ing will help Cana­da ful­fill an urgent need to cul­ti­vate Cana­di­an exper­tise on glob­al secu­ri­ty and address the pol­i­cy impli­ca­tions for Cana­da. 

“The new Cen­tre will def­i­nite­ly help Cana­da play a more sig­nif­i­cant role in the glob­al con­ver­sa­tion and result­ing pol­i­cy actions on press­ing secu­ri­ty issues,” Nay­lor said. “On behalf of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, I’d like to thank the Prime Min­is­ter and the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da for their sup­port. 

“With con­tin­u­ing con­cerns about glob­al secu­ri­ty, and the G8/G20 meet­ings tak­ing place in Cana­da this June, the Government’s action could not be more time­ly.” 

The Munk School of Glob­al Affairs was the recip­i­ent ear­li­er this month of a $35-mil­lion gift from Peter and Melanie Munk that will be used to dra­mat­i­cal­ly expand UofT’s research capac­i­ty, hire new fac­ul­ty and expand facil­i­ties. Part of this gift will be used to estab­lish the Cana­da Cen­tre, as will an Ontario gov­ern­ment com­mit­ment of $25 mil­lion in its 2008 bud­get to help build new facil­i­ties for the school. 

“We were so pleased when the Gov­ern­ment of Ontario was gen­er­ous in its sup­port of the new Munk School,” said Munk. “We are thrilled that the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da has now offered its gen­er­ous sup­port of this new Cana­da Cen­tre for Secu­ri­ty Stud­ies at the School.

“There are no sub­jects in glob­al affairs more impor­tant today than secu­ri­ty issues.  Glob­al secu­ri­ty is, of course, essen­tial to Canada’s nation­al secu­ri­ty. The School’s lead­er­ship in the study of glob­al affairs, and now the Cen­tre’s focus on secu­ri­ty issues, will per­mit each to make impor­tant con­tri­bu­tions to Canada’s future role in the world.” 

Jan­ice Gross Stein, Direc­tor of the School, said the Munk School of Glob­al Affairs is unique­ly posi­tioned to under­take the Centre’s ambi­tious agen­da. 

“Issues of glob­al secu­ri­ty will be a defin­ing frame­work for our coun­try over the next decade and beyond, and Cana­da needs a strong pub­licly sup­port­ed research cen­tre to put the Cana­di­an voice on the inter­na­tion­al stage,” said Stein. “Giv­en our strengths, the Munk School is the nat­ur­al place to house this new Cen­tre. 

“More­over, the Cana­da Cen­tre will be able to draw upon the exper­tise of some of the best and bright­est Cana­di­an minds at a num­ber of our fac­ul­ties, such as Law, Engi­neer­ing, the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment and Med­i­cine.” 

Stein said the Munk School will announce soon a new direc­tor for the Cana­da Cen­tre. The direc­tor will be sup­port­ed by a small staff. 

Munk School of Glob­al Affairs

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Munk School of Glob­al Affairs is a hub for spe­cial­ists in glob­al affairs, pro­vid­ing inno­v­a­tive approach­es to the chal­lenges, orga­ni­za­tions, and ideas that are at the fron­tiers of knowl­edge. Today, to become glob­al lead­ers, stu­dents need not only the core func­tion­al dis­ci­plines, but also a deep under­stand­ing of the broad­er archi­tec­ture and the forces that shape the glob­al sys­tem. Against the back­drop of one of the world’s most diverse cities, the Munk School is con­ven­ing a vital dia­logue about the forces that are reshap­ing the inter­na­tion­al land­scape – cre­at­ing an envi­ron­ment which will equip stu­dents to thrive in a world where work­ing inter­na­tion­al­ly demands not only pro­fes­sion­al skills but strate­gic agili­ty and cul­tur­al flu­en­cy. 

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to

Estab­lished in 1827, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to today oper­ates in down­town Toron­to, Mis­sis­sauga and Scar­bor­ough, as well as ten renowned aca­d­e­m­ic hos­pi­tals. The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to has assem­bled one of the strongest research and teach­ing fac­ul­ties in North Amer­i­ca, pre­sent­ing top stu­dents at all lev­els with an intel­lec­tu­al envi­ron­ment unmatched in breadth and depth in Cana­da.  UofT fac­ul­ty co-author more research arti­cles than their col­leagues at any uni­ver­si­ty in the US or Cana­da oth­er than Har­vard. As a mea­sure of impact, UofT con­sis­tent­ly ranks along­side the top five U.S. uni­ver­si­ties whose ideas and dis­cov­er­ies are most often cit­ed by oth­er researchers around the world. UofT fac­ul­ty are also wide­ly rec­og­nized for their teach­ing strengths and com­mit­ment to grad­u­ate super­vi­sion.  

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Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Media Rela­tions
416–978-0100 
media.relations@utoronto.ca