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SFU International Studies associate professor Nicole Jackson has returned to the School for International Studies after holding the Canadian MINDS (Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security) Fellowship at the NATO Defense College (NDC) in Rome—a prestigious program that annually selects one Canadian scholar to join the College’s international research community. The NDC serves as NATO’s premier institution for professional military education, bringing together senior military officers, diplomats, and policymakers to analyze and debate the alliance’s most pressing strategic challenges.

During the fellowship, Jackson pursued a research project on NATO’s evolving approach to information threats and strategic signaling. Her work included conducting interviews with civilian and military officials, including contributors to NATO’s 2024 approach to information threats, and examining how signals—whether in words, military deployments, or resilience initiatives—are deployed across different audiences.  

She also mentored a Senior Course committee focused on NATO’s role in the Arctic in 2040, supporting their strategic analysis and presentation on the alliance’s future posture in the High North. The fellowship strengthened Jackson’s expertise in hybrid conflict and alliance politics, fostering her ability to reconcile diverse perspectives and think strategically, while deepening Canada’s academic and policy engagement within NATO. At the end of her fellowship, Jackson travelled to Ottawa to share her work with Global Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence.

Now back at SFU, Jackson continues to write on NATO and strategic signaling around information threats and has joined a new international project on the role of AI in reshaping deterrence, focusing on communication and disinformation. She has also been honoured with an appointment to the Swedish Agency for Peace, Security and Development (Folke Bernadotte Academy, FBA) as a member of its 2025–2029 International Research Working Group on NATO.

Jackson’s teaching at SFU has been informed by her fellowship at the NATO Defense College. For Fall 2025, she has partnered with the Asia Pacific Foundation to focus her course, IS 402 Global Security Governance, on hybrid security in the North Pacific and High North. The course prepares students for—and culminates in—a capstone scenario developed with the APF on a North Pacific undersea cable and GNSS disruption, requiring coordinated “Canada-plus” responses under conditions of uncertainty. In Spring 2026, Nicole Jackson will teach the introductory course IS 200 Security and Global Governance which explores the role of international organizations (the UN, EU, NATO and others) in addressing security challenges and advancing global governance. Jackson will also teach IS 322 Central Asia: Conflict and Security which examines transnational security issues in the post-Soviet Central Asian states.