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Eugene Lang

Eugene Lang

Director (Acting)

School of Policy Studies

Queen's University

eugene.lang@queensu.ca

Robert Sutherland Hall, Room 317

Affiliation
Fellows

About

Eugene Lang is Director (Acting) of the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University, where he teaches in the Master of Public Administration program.  He is a Senior Fellow with the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, Trinity College, University of Toronto; Fellow, Canadian Global Affairs Institute; and Special Advisor (Policy), Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries.

Lang served in the federal government for many years, including as Chief of Staff to two Ministers of National Defence in the early 2000s. He was heavily involved in defence and foreign policy decisions during that period, including Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan, Ballistic Missile Defence, the Iraq War, the 2005 Defence White Paper and defence funding increases. An award-winning author and professor, Lang has published extensively over the past twenty years on defence policy and funding, national security and Canadian foreign relations.  He is co-author (with Janice Stein) of The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar, a frequent commentator in both Canadian and foreign media, and a regular contributor to the Globe and Mail. Lang was educated at the University of Western Ontario, Queen’s University and the London School of Economics, where he studied as a Chevening Scholar.

Research Interests

  • Defence Policy, Funding and Economics

  • National Security Policy

  • Canadian Foreign Policy

Recent Publications

  • "Can Canada Have Both Guns and Butter?  Carney Shows us, Yes we Can", Globe and Mail, June 11, 2015

  • “AWOL: "Great Defence Spending Plan, Carney, It Would be a Shame if Ottawa Bureaucracy Got in the Way".  Globe and Mail, July 22, 2025

  • “AWOL: Canada’s National Security Policy, Governance and Culture”, in Norman Hillmer, Philippe Legasse and Vincent Rigby eds., Canada Among Nations: 21st Century National Security, Palgrave, 2024.

  • (co-author Andrew Graham) “Global Pandemics and National Security: Will the Federal Government Have Your Back?”, in Kathy Brock and Geoffrey Hale eds., Managing Federalism Through Pandemic, University of Toronto Press, 2023.

  • (co-author Janice Stein) “Chretien’s Afghanistan Policy: Sound Decisions Do Not Always Produce Good Outcomes”, in Jack Cunningham and John Meehan eds., Chretien’s World: Canadian Foreign Policy, 1993-2003, University of British Columbia Press, 2025.

Online

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