Biography

Academic Biography

Wilfrid (Will) Greaves is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, where his primary research focuses on climate change and security, Arctic geopolitics, and North American security and defence. He has written more than 30 refereed journal articles and book chapters and has three books: Canadian Ecopolitics (2025), Breaking Through: Understanding Sovereignty and Security in the Circumpolar Arctic (2021), and One Arctic: The Arctic Council and Circumpolar Governance (2017).

Dr. Greaves is Lead for Climate and Security with three federally-funded research networks: the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network/Réseau sur la defense et la sécurité nord-américaines et arctiques (NAADSN/RDSNAA), the Canadian Defence and Security Network/Réseau canadien de défence et de sécurité (CDSN/RCDS), and the Réseau d’analyse stratégique/Network for Strategic Analysis (RAS/NSA). An award-winning scholar and educator, Professor Greaves holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.

 

Full Biography

I am an Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, which I joined in 2017. I received tenure in 2023. My research examines intersections between global security, environmental politics, and Canadian foreign policy with focuses on climate change, energy extraction, North American security and defence, and Indigenous peoples in North America and the circumpolar Arctic. I have published more than thirty refereed journal articles and edited book chapters in publications such as Canadian Journal of Political Science, Security Dialogue, International Journal, Polar Record, Canadian Military Journal, BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly, and The Arctic Yearbook. I am co-author of Canadian Ecopolitics (University of Toronto Press, 2025, with Rosalind Warner and Peter Stoett) and have co-edited two books on Arctic politics: Breaking Through: Understanding Sovereignty and Security in the Circumpolar Arctic (University of Toronto Press, 2021, with P. Whitney Lackenbauer) and One Arctic: The Arctic Council and Circumpolar Governance (Centre for Foreign Policy and Federalism, 2017, with P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Heather Nicol).

I serve as Lead for Climate and Security with three federally-funded research networks: the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network/Réseau sur la defense et la sécurité nord-américaines et arctiques (NAADSN/RDSNAA), the Canadian Defence and Security Network/Réseau canadien de défence et de sécurité (CDSN/RCDS), and the Réseau d’analyse stratégique/Network for Strategic Analysis (RAS/NSA). I am also a member of the NATO Research Task Group on Climate Change and Security and a founding executive member and inaugural Treasurer for the Climate Security Association of Canada/L’Association canadienne de la sécurité climatique (CSAC-ACSC). I was previously a Newport Arctic Security scholar at the U.S. Naval War College, Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Sámi Studies at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, and Lecturer at the Trudeau Centre for Peace, Conflict and Justice at the Munk School of Global Affairs. Finally, I serve on the editorial boards of two leading academic journals in my field: Security Dialogue and International Journal. My research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Canadian Department of National Defence, Global Affairs Canada, the University of Victoria, the University of Toronto, and the Government of Ontario.

The son and grandson of diplomats in the Canadian foreign service, I was born in Ottawa and raised there and overseas in Latin America and the Caribbean. Fascinated by international history and politics from a young age, I completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Studies and International Studies at Bishop’s University (2006) and Master of Arts in Political Science at the University of Calgary (2009), before completing a Doctorate of Philosophy in Political Science with specialization in International Relations and Canadian Politics at the University of Toronto (2016). My doctoral committee included Professors Matthew Hoffmann, Steven Bernstein, Rauna Kuokkanen, Graham White, and Simon Dalby. I have worked and travelled widely across the Americas, Europe, and the circumpolar Arctic, and have organized and led field schools for undergraduate, college, and high school students on environmental and development issues in Peru, the Northwest Territories, and Thailand. I received the University of Victoria’s Social Sciences Early Career Teaching Excellence Award in 2022 and Early Career Research Excellence Award in 2023.

I live with my wife and daughter in a quiet beach village on southern Vancouver Island, on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples. Active in my community, I serve as secretary of my strata council, as a member of the Capital Regional District (CRD) Arts Advisory Council, and as a member of the Victoria EDA for the Liberal Party of Canada. In my spare time, I like to bike, cook, sauna, and walk my dog in the woods.

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