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By Faramarz Tamanna
CIPS Policy Report, November 2026

At a glance…

• Canada should move from a reactive and listing-centred counter-terrorism posture to a network-centred, interests-centred and resilience-centred one, making the Canadian Threat-to-National Interest Transmission Matrix, updated every 90 days by an interdepartmental mechanism, the basis for decisions on listing, sanctions, intelligence resources and prevention programming. Seven pillars follow.
• Pillar One. A South and Central Asia–Middle East joint analytical cell under PCO/NSIA, with GAC, CSIS, RCMP, FINTRAC, CBSA and CSE, mandated to integrate threat data and not only collect it; within it, the Canada Khorasan–Levant Early Warning Hub.
• Pillar Two. Conversion of the authorization regime into a strategic instrument: a faster, more transparent and mandate-driven pathway for accredited Canadian organizations on the Afghanistan and Syria files.
• Pillar Three. A National Protocol for the Protection of Communities Exposed to Transnational Repression and Cross-border Extremism, and the Diaspora Protection and Partnership Compact, inclusion by exposure to threat, not ethnic or national belonging.
• Pillar Four. Diversified security diplomacy with non-US allies: a multi-domain counter-terrorism minilateral, the United Kingdom first, then Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
• Pillar Five. Targeting the infrastructure that supports terrorism, not armed cores alone, media, crypto-assets, logistical intermediaries, commercial covers, propaganda circles, through listing, sanctions, financial monitoring and law enforcement.
• Pillar Six. Legal-policy differentiation among groups on four criteria, intent to conduct external operations, capability, an access pathway to Canada, capacity for domino effects, with an operationally integrated response.
• Pillar Seven. Linking counter-terrorism to continental defence doctrine and national resilience, ports and airports, energy and telecommunications infrastructure, combined terrorism/cyber exercises.

Dr. Faramarz Tamanna is a Research Associate (since 2023) at the Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS) and Visiting Professor (2025), Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), University of Ottawa, and a Part-time Professor at the School of Conflict Studies and the School of Ethics and Public Affairs, Saint Paul University. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at GSPIA (2024–2026). His research examines security and conflict in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia; terrorism; defence; external intervention, statebuilding and political settlements; and the foreign policy and geoeconomics of regional order.