Expert In
Canadian and North American climate policy
Climate change politics
Climate Ready Communities
Great Lakes
Great Lakes environmental cooperation
Net Zero politics and policy
North American environmental governance
Paris Climate Agreement, Paris Accord
Transboundary water governance
U.S. environmental policy
Water resource management policy
Bio/Research
I received my PhD in comparative public policy from Queen’s University in Kingston in 1996 and my MA in political science was also from Queen’s.
Prior to joining Laurier in 2000, I was a postdoctoral fellow with the eco-research chair at the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University (...
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Prior to joining Laurier in 2000, I was a postdoctoral fellow with the eco-research chair at the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University (...
Click to Expand >>
Bio/Research
I received my PhD in comparative public policy from Queen’s University in Kingston in 1996 and my MA in political science was also from Queen’s.
Prior to joining Laurier in 2000, I was a postdoctoral fellow with the eco-research chair at the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University (1995-1997), and an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Windsor (1997-2000).
In 2004, I was on leave from Laurier to take up a post as visiting associate professor in the School of Natural Resources, University of Michigan. In 2005, I was Visiting Fulbright Chair in Canadian Studies at Duke University.
I have also been Chair of the Department of Political Science and North American Studies Program (2014-2017), and Director of the Master of International Public Policy program.
In addition, I am a faculty member at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Co-Lead of the Environment & Resources Research Cluster and currently Associate Director (on the Laurier side) at the School.
In 2023 I took up the newly created position of Academic Director, Teaching Excellence and Innovation at Laurier.
My research and publications are currently following two major streams of inquiry:
First, I am engaged in several projects investigating the implications of accelerating climate impacts on water governance in border regions.
My recent work on the Rio Grande/Bravo, conducted as co-investigator on a SSHRC Insight Grant (2017-2022), has assessed the ability of the existing US-Mexico water management architecture (both the formal treaty framework and multi-scale cooperative processes) to adapt to changing conditions, using indicator analysis (VanNijnatten 2020; VanNijnatten & Johns 2020; Johns and VanNijnatten 2021; VanNijnatten, Rueda & Lopez-Vallejo under review). Further, I am engaged in collaborative work on re-conceptualizing our understanding of “uncertainty” for water governance in the context of accelerating climate impacts (Bassone-Quashie, VanNijnatten & Johns 2023).
In addition, I have been participating in a team project of the Permanent Forum of Binational Waters which is assessing the regional water future and governance implications in the US-Mexico Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras cross-border area.
I am currently engaged as a Senior Personnel on the NSF-NSERC Alliance funded Global Center for Climate Change and Transboundary Waters (GCTW) (2023-2028) which is engaged in innovative research to understand and generate resilience to water crises in transboundary regions. My collaborative work under the Center is focused on “climate ready communities” – understanding the governance and management capacity of local communities to respond to changing conditions in transboundary water bodies. Our work involves developing and applying an indicator set for community resilience, assessing the linkages between communities and multi-scale governance and policy frameworks, and exploring how coastline resilience might be assessed and managed – in the Great Lakes, Rio Grande/Bravo and other transboundary regions. These various projects are animated by the need to consider how we might strengthen local communities and move them to a more central position in governance frameworks.
Second, I have been writing on climate policy in Canada and across borders in North America for two decades. I edit a key text in the Canadian environmental policy field, Canadian Environmental Policy and Politics (Oxford, most recent edition 2024) and, with colleagues from the U.S. and Mexico, published the first monograph that provides a comprehensive overview and assessment of environmental policy within the three North American partners and cooperation among them (Healy, VanNijnatten & López Vallejo 2014). I regularly contribute chapters on Canadian, Canada-U.S. and continental climate policy to collections on Canadian, North American and international climate governance.
My current research in this area focuses on the concept of ‘Net Zero’ as a scientific concept, policy instrument and political target, and actively interrogates the utility of Net Zero in reaching our climate goals in Canada, North America and Europe. To this end, I have been tracking Canadian progress in meeting its Net Zero (and interim) targets, and I have been watching the climate policy responses of select European countries post-Russia invasion of Ukraine.
I am also contributing a Net Zero lens as Co-Investigator on the Future Harvest Partnership (funded under the NSERC-SSHRC Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative and led by Prof. Andrew Spring in Laurier’s Geography and Environmental Studies department). The partnership is aimed at building a sustainable food system in the NWT that is responsive to the effects of climate change and takes into account the carbon implications of northern farming practices.
Click to Shrink <<
Prior to joining Laurier in 2000, I was a postdoctoral fellow with the eco-research chair at the School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University (1995-1997), and an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Windsor (1997-2000).
In 2004, I was on leave from Laurier to take up a post as visiting associate professor in the School of Natural Resources, University of Michigan. In 2005, I was Visiting Fulbright Chair in Canadian Studies at Duke University.
I have also been Chair of the Department of Political Science and North American Studies Program (2014-2017), and Director of the Master of International Public Policy program.
In addition, I am a faculty member at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Co-Lead of the Environment & Resources Research Cluster and currently Associate Director (on the Laurier side) at the School.
In 2023 I took up the newly created position of Academic Director, Teaching Excellence and Innovation at Laurier.
My research and publications are currently following two major streams of inquiry:
First, I am engaged in several projects investigating the implications of accelerating climate impacts on water governance in border regions.
My recent work on the Rio Grande/Bravo, conducted as co-investigator on a SSHRC Insight Grant (2017-2022), has assessed the ability of the existing US-Mexico water management architecture (both the formal treaty framework and multi-scale cooperative processes) to adapt to changing conditions, using indicator analysis (VanNijnatten 2020; VanNijnatten & Johns 2020; Johns and VanNijnatten 2021; VanNijnatten, Rueda & Lopez-Vallejo under review). Further, I am engaged in collaborative work on re-conceptualizing our understanding of “uncertainty” for water governance in the context of accelerating climate impacts (Bassone-Quashie, VanNijnatten & Johns 2023).
In addition, I have been participating in a team project of the Permanent Forum of Binational Waters which is assessing the regional water future and governance implications in the US-Mexico Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras cross-border area.
I am currently engaged as a Senior Personnel on the NSF-NSERC Alliance funded Global Center for Climate Change and Transboundary Waters (GCTW) (2023-2028) which is engaged in innovative research to understand and generate resilience to water crises in transboundary regions. My collaborative work under the Center is focused on “climate ready communities” – understanding the governance and management capacity of local communities to respond to changing conditions in transboundary water bodies. Our work involves developing and applying an indicator set for community resilience, assessing the linkages between communities and multi-scale governance and policy frameworks, and exploring how coastline resilience might be assessed and managed – in the Great Lakes, Rio Grande/Bravo and other transboundary regions. These various projects are animated by the need to consider how we might strengthen local communities and move them to a more central position in governance frameworks.
Second, I have been writing on climate policy in Canada and across borders in North America for two decades. I edit a key text in the Canadian environmental policy field, Canadian Environmental Policy and Politics (Oxford, most recent edition 2024) and, with colleagues from the U.S. and Mexico, published the first monograph that provides a comprehensive overview and assessment of environmental policy within the three North American partners and cooperation among them (Healy, VanNijnatten & López Vallejo 2014). I regularly contribute chapters on Canadian, Canada-U.S. and continental climate policy to collections on Canadian, North American and international climate governance.
My current research in this area focuses on the concept of ‘Net Zero’ as a scientific concept, policy instrument and political target, and actively interrogates the utility of Net Zero in reaching our climate goals in Canada, North America and Europe. To this end, I have been tracking Canadian progress in meeting its Net Zero (and interim) targets, and I have been watching the climate policy responses of select European countries post-Russia invasion of Ukraine.
I am also contributing a Net Zero lens as Co-Investigator on the Future Harvest Partnership (funded under the NSERC-SSHRC Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative and led by Prof. Andrew Spring in Laurier’s Geography and Environmental Studies department). The partnership is aimed at building a sustainable food system in the NWT that is responsive to the effects of climate change and takes into account the carbon implications of northern farming practices.
Click to Shrink <<