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Sovereignty, Responsibility, and Resilience - Setting Goals for 2026 The prime lesson of 2025 was responsibility, not rescue—and 2026 will test it further. Sovereignty is not preserved by protection alone; it is earned. Gardeners understand this well. Seedlings raised indoors must be hardened off before planting. Gradual exposure builds strength; skip it, and the plant wilts—not from neglect, but from lack of preparation. The same holds for children becoming adults, and for societies seeking resilience. Dependency weakens; discipline strengthens.
One tension stands out as defining the year more than any other: the growing clash between public authority and personal agency. Governments, institutions, and platforms continue to expand their reach—often in the name of safety or efficiency—while individuals experience diminishing space for judgment, responsibility, and sovereignty. When that balance fails, frustration escalates and trust erodes.
This year’s work at KEI led to an uncomfortable but timely option, explored in the accompanying Fact or Fiction essay, Resolving Public v Personal Conflict. As Frustration Escalates. AI Awaits Could artificial intelligence serve not as a ruler, but as an adjudicator tor resolving conflict where human systems falter? The issue is not whether AI should govern, but whether we are prepared to delegate aspects of adjudication in exchange for consistency, restraint, and fewer coercive outcomes.
As we look ahead to 2026, the challenge remains unchanged: sovereignty is sustained not by technology alone, but by citizens willing to confront hard questions before crises decide for them. As always, your comments are welcome. Happy New Year! - Editor |
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Sovereignty, Responsibility, and Resilience - Setting Goals for 2026 As 2025 closes, one lesson sits above the noise: sovereignty isn’t preserved by shelter alone. It’s earned. Gardeners know this. Seedlings raised indoors must be hardened off—gradually exposed to wind, sun, and cooler nights—so they don’t collapse when the real world arrives. Skip the process and the plant wilts, not for lack of care, but for lack of preparation.That metaphor became unusually apt this year. Across the KEI Sovereignty series, we watched institutions strain under converging pressures—debt, demographic stress, fractured trust, and accelerating technology. And we watched something else: a creeping temptation to outsource responsibility. To government. To courts. To banks. To platforms. Even to AI. Yet the deeper truth is unromantic and stubborn: the civic “immune system” weakens when citizens expect rescue instead of resilience. This is not a call to cynicism. It is a call to adulthood—personal and national. Sovereignty begins where discipline begins: paying debts, honoring commitments, speaking with respect, working before demanding reward, and resisting the easy comfort of complaint. Protest can wake people up; progress still requires participation. Continued below
Continued from above What held up in 2025. The global picture remained volatile, but the economy proved more durable than many expected. Growth forecasts from major institutions still point to continued—if slower—global expansion into 2026, with uneven outcomes by region and sector. Translation: households can feel squeezed even while headline numbers look “fine.” That gap—between macro resilience and lived strain—was one of 2025’s defining tensions.
Meanwhile, public attention swung between the serious and the theatrical. Politics remained a kind of permanent stagecraft—and few performers holding center stage like Donald Trump— still drawing an audience that is increasingly both weary and wary. (Even fatigue is a form of attention.) What matters for Canada is not the drama itself, but the downstream effects: trade posture, alliance expectations, and the hard reality that sovereignty has a price tag.
The 2026 forecast: AI moves from tool to teammate. In 2026, the AI story shifts from “chat” to coordination.
What does this mean for ordinary citizens and organizations?
This also helps frame the role of ARCOS, KEI’s AI agent: not as a replacement for judgment, but as a structured counterpart—useful for questioning assumptions, stress-testing arguments, and (carefully) exploring conflict adjudication logic. The north star remains human dignity and responsibility.
The downside: drone wars, deepfakes, and fragile borders. If 2026 is the year AI becomes more integrated into daily work, it is also the year conflict becomes more automated and less sentimental.Multiple risk outlooks highlight expanding use of drones—by states, militias, and organized crime—paired with AI-enabled deception (including voice deepfakes)
And we’re seeing regulation and security harden in response: for example, the U.S. FCC has moved to restrict new sales of certain foreign-made drones on national security grounds—an example of how supply chains, sovereignty, and technology are now inseparable. This matters because drones and autonomy don’t merely change tactics; they change psychology. They make violence feel distant, decisions faster, and accountability blurrier.
At the geopolitical level, sovereignty remains fragile—especially in regions where resources, geography, or strategic routes invite pressure. The Arctic is now firmly in that category. Canada cannot treat northern sovereignty as a slogan; it is a capability question.
Could Canada be next—and what’s it got for defense? Canada’s defense conversation is slowly becoming more concrete. It's weather and vast wilderness are not an adequate defense. With the US eyeing Greenland and even Venezuela for securing Fortress America, what does this mean for Canada? NORAD modernization for defense and an energy upgrade for offense are not a talking points; they have defined project timelines and ongoing work streams. Canada’s Arctic policy also explicitly ties Arctic security and continental defense investments to broader alliance deterrence. But strategies on paper don’t automatically become readiness in practice. The practical 2026 question is whether Canada can turn plans into deployed capability fast enough—sensors, surveillance, infrastructure, procurement speed, talent, and allied integration—while maintaining democratic legitimacy and public trust.
A closing thought: harden off—on purpose. The world entering 2026 is not short of threats. But it is also not short of tools, ingenuity, and civic strength—if we choose to use them well.Sovereignty is stewardship: of the nation, yes—but also of the self. The most important “modernization program” is cultural: rebuilding the habits that make free societies function—responsibility, civility, competence, and courage.In the coming year, AI will become more helpful and more persuasive.
Economies may wobble but likely keep moving. Conflicts may remain regional yet digitally contagious. The task for KEI—and for citizens who still believe the future is not yet decided—is to keep choosing adulthood over dependency. Because in the end, hardening off isn’t hardship for its own sake; it’s preparation for flourishing.
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