Blayne Haggart

Department Chair
Professor, Political Science

BA, Carleton
MA, Toronto
MA, Carleton-NPSIA
PhD, Carleton

Office: Plaza 351
905-688-5550 x3895
[email protected]

Blayne Haggart is a professor of political science at Brock University, a Balsillie School of International Affairs Fell fellow and a senior fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo. His research and teaching focuses on the international political economy of knowledge, including intellectual property, and internet and data governance.

He has written extensively for popular and academic audiences on these topics, and has been published in, among others, The Canadian Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Digital Media & Policy, Communication Theory, and Telecommunications Policy, as well as the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and The Conversation. He is a frequent interview subject on issues such as data governance, AI, and Canada-US relations.

Dr. Haggart’s most recent book (with Natasha Tusikov), The New Knowledge: Information, Data and the Remaking of Global Power (Bloomsbury, 2023) was translated into Chinese in 2026. He is also the author of Copyfight: The Global Politics of Digital Copyright Reform (University of Toronto Press, 2014), and the co-editor of Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century (with Kathryn Henne and Natasha Tuiskov, which is now in its second edition, 2026), and Power and Authority in Internet Governance: Return of the State? (with Natasha Tusikov and Jan Aart Scholte, 2021). He is currently working on a book on Canadian economic policy in the age of Trump, digital upheaval and the climate emergency (Lorimer, forthcoming 2027).

Prior to completing his PhD at Carleton University in Ottawa, he worked as an economist with the non-partisan Parliamentary Information and Research Service of the Library of Parliament, and as a reporter and editor.

  • International Political Economy
  • International Relations
  • Digital policy
  • Data and AI governance
  • Intellectual property rights
  • North American political economy
  • Politics and sports

With N. Tusikov. “The Carney government’s embrace of AI will put lives at risk.” Policy Options, April 30, 2026.

“Microsoft’s AI deal promises Canada digital sovereignty, but is that a pledge it can keep?” The Conversation, January 18, 2026.

With N. Tusikov. “What the Canadian government is missing on AI,” Policy Options, November 13, 2026.

With É. Duchesne. “Carney’s ‘nation-building’ is nothing but a blast from the past,” Policy Options, July 23, 2025.

“The U.S. is not our friend any more. Has anyone told Mark Carney?” The Globe and Mail, July 9, 2025.

With J. Broschek, E. Duchesne, and P. Leblond, “Open letter to the next prime minister: We need a royal commission on Canada’s future,” Policy Options, March 25, 2025.

“Canada’s free-trade agreement with the U.S. has no free trade, nor is it an agreement,” The Globe and Mail, February 19, 2025.

“Trump’s trade war is forcing Canada to revive a decades-old plan to reduce U.S. dependence,” The Conversation, February 4, 2025.

“Canada-U.S. history provides lessons on how Canada can deal with a hostile Donald Trump,” The Conversation, January 8, 2025.

“With Trump reclaiming power, climate hopes turn to China,” CIGI Online, January 2, 2025.

“Trump’s proposed tariffs against Canada and Mexico may be illegal, but that’s not the real problem,” The Conversation, November 26, 2024.

“To tackle disinformation, we need online intermediaries,” CIGI Online, November 25, 2024.

“Facing trade renegotiations, Canada can no longer count on free trade to protect it from U.S. power,” The Conversation, September 29. 2024.

“Landmark monopoly ruling against Google vindicates everything Ottawa has been doing.” The Globe and Mail, August 6, 2024.

“Google’s use of AI to power search shows its problematic approach to organizing information,” The Conversation, June 11, 2024.

“Canada’s Bill C-63: Good Politics, (Mostly) Empty Policy,” CIGI Online, May 31, 2024.

Books:

  • Canada: Navigating the age of uncertainty, in process and under contract with Lorimer Publishing. Expected publication date: 2027.
  • The New Knowledge: Information, Data, and the Remaking of Global Power. Bloomsbury, 2023. Chinese translation (2026). With Natasha Tusikov. *Full joint authorship.
  • The New Knowledge: Information, Data, and the Remaking of Global Power. Lanham: Bloomsbury, 2023. Open Access. With Natasha Tusikov. *Full joint authorship.
  • Copyfight: The global politics of digital copyright reform. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014.

Edited volumes:

  • Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century. 2nd ed. Eds, Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne and Natasha Tusikov. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2026.
  • Power and Authority in Internet Governance: Return of the State? Eds. Blayne Haggart, Natasha Tusikov and Jan Aart Scholte. Routledge, 2021. (Open access: 2025.)
  • Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century. Eds, Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne and Natasha Tusikov. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2019.

Peer-reviewed journal articles:

  • R. Germain, and B. Haggart. “Strangely Inspired: recovering a neo-Strangean approach to power, authority and knowledge for IPE,” Review of International Studies, April 2025. *Full joint authorship.
  • B. Haggart, and Z. Spicer. “Infrastructure, Smart Cities and the Knowledge Economy,” Canadian Public Administration 65, no 2 (2022). *Full joint authorship.
  • B. Haggart, and C.I. Keller. “Democratic Legitimacy in Platform Governance,” Telecommunications Policy 45, no 6 (2021): 1-17. *Full joint authorship.
  • “Global platform governance and the internet-governance impossibility theorem,” Journal of Digital Media & Policy 11, no 3 (2020): 321-339.
  • The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power,” S. Zuboff (2018),” (long review) Journal of Digital Media & Policy 10, no. 2 (2019): 229-243.
  • “Incorporating the study of knowledge into the IPE mainstream, or, when does a trade agreement stop being a trade agreement?” Journal of Information Policy 7 (2017): 176-203.
  • “Introduction to the Special Issue: Rise of the “Knowledge Structure”: Implications for the Exercise of Power in the Global Political Economy.” Journal of Information Policy 7 (2017): 164-175.
  • B. Haggart, and M. Jablonski. “Contradictory Hypocrisy or Complementary Policies?: The Internet Freedom Initiative, US copyright maximalism and the exercise of US structural power in the digital age.” The Information Society 33, 3 (2017): 1-16. *Full joint authorship; my contribution focused on the interaction of US copyright policies within the overall US communication policy.
  • S. Bannerman, and B. Haggart. “Historical Institutionalism in Communication Studies.” Communication Theory 25, 1 (2015): 1-22. *Full joint authorship; my contribution focused on explication of historical institutionalism and application to examples in communication studies.
  • M. Forsyth, and B. Haggart. “The False Friends Problem for Foreign Norm Transplantation in Developing Countries.” Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 6, 2 (2014): 202-229. *Full joint authorship; my contribution focused on applying our shared theoretical framework to the case of Mexico (Forsyth focused on Vanuatu case study).
  • “Birth of a movement: The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the politicization of Mexican copyright.” Policy & Internet 6, 1 (2014): 69-88.
  • “Fair Copyright for Canada: Lessons for Online Social Movements from the First Canadian Facebook Uprising.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 46, 4 (2013): 841-861.
  • “International Copyright Treaties and Digital Works: Implementation Issues in Canada and Mexico.” Australian Journal of Communication 38, 3 (2011): 33-46.

Book review:

  • The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power,” S. Zuboff (2018),” (long review) Journal of Digital Media & Policy 10, no. 2 (2019): 229-243.

Contributions to edited volumes:

  • “Letting the Solution Define the Problem: Canada’s Covid Alert App as a Case of Failed Policy.” In Ineffective Policy: Causes and Consequences of Bad Policy Choices, Ian Roberge and Malcolm Campbell-Verduyn, Heather McKeen-Edwards and Ian Roberge (eds.). Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2025.
  • “Intellectual Property Policy in the Knowledge-Driven Society: Three Challenges for Canada.” In Regulating Digital. Nicole Goodman and Helen Hayes (eds.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, forthcoming 2026. In Press.
  • “Don’t Fear the Splinternet: Policy Interoperability and Lessons from the Banking Sector.’ In Platform Governance in Canda: Essay Series. Taylor Owen and Heidi Tworek, eds. Currently under peer review at University of Toronto Press.
  • “Canada and the Global Knowledge Economy: Between Knowledge Feudalism and Digital Economic Nationalism.” In Canada and Great Power Competition: Canada Among Nations 2021. David Carment, Laura Macdonald, Jeremy Paltiel (eds.). 169-190. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 2021.
  • B. Haggart, N. Tusikov, and J.A. Scholte. “Introduction.” In Power and Authority in Internet Governance: Return of the State? Blayne Haggart, Natasha Tusikov and Jan Aart Scholte (eds.). Routledge, 2021. *Full joint authorship.
  • N. Tusikov, B. Haggart, and J.A. Scholte. “Conclusion: State power (and its limits) in internet governance.” In Power and Authority in Internet Governance: Return of the State? Blayne Haggart, Natasha Tusikov and Jan Aart Scholte (eds.). Routledge, 2021. *Full joint authorship.
  • “The ratcheting racket: The global political economy of copyright policy-making.” In Alistair Stewart Duff (ed.), Elgar Handbook on Information Policy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021.
  • “The selling of Toronto’s smart city.” In Smart Cities in Canada: Digital Dreams, Corporate Designs. Mariana Valverde and Alexandra Flynn (eds.). 38-51. Toronto: Lorimer, 2020.