Pauline Baudu

Pauline Baudu is a researcher and analyst specializing in the interplay between climate change, defense, and security, with particular expertise in Arctic issues. She is the director of the Climate and Security Program at the Conference of Defense Associations (CDA) Institute, based in Ottawa, where she leads research on the links between climate change, operational resilience, energy sovereignty, and Canada’s defense industrial capacity.

Her research focuses in particular on how investments in climate and energy resilience can help strengthen the operational readiness, sovereignty, and industrial resilience of Canada and NATO member states. As part of her duties at the CDA Institute, Pauline co-organizes the Montreal Summit on Climate Security, held annually in partnership with the NATO Center of Excellence on Climate Change and Security. She regularly speaks on issues related to climate security, defense, and Arctic security at academic, governmental, military, and international forums.

She is also a senior researcher at Arctic360, a researcher at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Strategic and Diplomatic Studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and a partner at Arctic Security Consultants. She previously worked for the Center for Climate and Security, as well as for the Polar Institute and the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. From 2022 to 2025, she served as a member of NATO’s Research Task Group on the Security Implications of Climate Change (SAS-182), for which she co-authored the chapter on the Arctic.

Her work also draws on nine years of experience in the field of human rights and refugee law, notably as a fact-finding rapporteur at the National Court of Asylum in France (2018–2023), as well as at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and various civil society organizations.

Pauline holds a degree in Defense and Security from the École de l’Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques (IRIS Sup’). She also holds a master’s degree in Crisis Analysis and Humanitarian Action and a bachelor’s degree in Applied Foreign Languages.