Flashnotes

See around corners. Stay ahead of chaos.

While others scramble to react, Flashnote subscribers already know what's coming. Our weekly intelligence briefings transform SecDev's deep expertise into the strategic foresight you need - cutting through noise to deliver the geopolitical, digital, urban, energy, and cyber insights that will define tomorrow's landscape. This isn't another newsletter. It's your early warning system for a world where the next disruption is always brewing.

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SecDev Advisory

Introducing on-demand geopolitical intelligence with flexible, contract-free engagement models. Start with broad analysis, dive deep into specific regions or issues, and respond rapidly to emerging situations. Built for multinational corporations, financial institutions, and government partners requiring adaptive intelligence architecture without retainer commitments.

SecDev AI

Introducing AI-enabled geopolitical intelligence with proprietary data pipelines, delivered as a service. Built for multinational corporations, financial institutions, insurers, and public sector partners

AI Sovereignty: Pioneering Canadian Innovation

As a founding member of the Canadian AI Sovereign Innovation Cluster, SecDev champions the mission to promote building and buying Canadian AI.  Our commitment to AI sovereignty aligns with our core mission of delivering precision-built expert systems. By fostering domestic AI innovation, we create strategic advantages that serve national security while positioning Canada as a global leader in mission-critical artificial intelligence applications.

Featured Flashnote:

The Great Unraveling

The Ukraine war has exposed the post-Cold War order as a Potemkin village: America still swings the biggest stick but keeps threatening to put it away, leaving allies scrambling for insurance policies while enemies test how much they can get away with. Meanwhile, middle powers have discovered the joys of diplomatic polyamory, buying Russian oil with one hand while courting Western investment with the other, as sanctions prove about as watertight as a chocolate teapot. What emerges is not the rules-based order of liberal dreams but a mercantile free-for-all where power flows to those nimble enough to arbitrage between competing blocs—and Ukraine finds itself the unwitting laboratory for this brave new world of managed chaos.

Featured Research:

How Ukraine’s Critical Minerals Fuel Geopolitical Rivalries

As the war grinds toward an uneasy resolution, the battle for Ukraine isn’t just about territory—it’s about who controls its vast critical mineral wealth. With global demand for these resources skyrocketing, Ukraine’s mineral reserves will be a key battleground in future geopolitical rivalries. Whether through war, diplomacy, or economic coercion, the competition for these strategic assets is only just beginning.

Featured Study:

Mapping China’s AI Strategy

SecDev is analyzing China’s rise in artificial intelligence and its push to dominate the global digital economy. A key factor heightening tensions between China, Taiwan, and the US is control over semiconductor supply chains, as microchips are essential for everything from smartphones to military equipment. SecDev fellows Min-yen Chiang and Robert Muggah highlight in The Conversation US that increasing reliance on advanced chips intensifies China-Taiwan tensions. Taiwan’s TSMC is the leading microchip producer, while China remains the largest consumer. The competition for AI and semiconductor supremacy is a defining 21st-century struggle, with Taiwan’s outbound investment screening serving as a potential model for OECD countries like the US, which recently tightened semiconductor export controls.

Featured AI:

Combatting Information Disorder

SecDev is a global leader in combating digital harms and violent extremism, leveraging over a decade of experience in Asia, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central Asia. We specialize in detecting digital harms and have successfully developed innovative solutions for leading social platforms, governments, the World Bank, UNDP, and national agencies. In Bangladesh, SecDev has built a strong track record over six years, working to enhance digital safety and resilience. Through initiatives like the Kiron Project, supported by Global Affairs Canada in partnership with UNDP Bangladesh , we empower government and civil society to monitor and mitigate digital harms, including cybersecurity threats, disinformation, and cybercrime. Our expertise combines strategic insight with hands-on capacity building, ensuring impactful and sustainable outcomes in one of the most pressing challenges of the digital age.

Featured Engagement:

China, Russia, United States

SecDev facilitates para-diplomatic engagements in key areas critical to global stability, including strategic cyber stability, the protection of critical infrastructure including nuclear command and control networks, artificial intelligence  platforms, space systems, and strategic information warfare. Recognizing that the new era of geopolitical competition revolves around the commanding heights of the digital world, SecDev addresses the profound implications this has for both domestic and international stability.  SecDev convenes expert dialogues and collaborative initiatives to influence and inform, and preserve  the essential “human fabric” needed for crisis management during times of unparalleled global instability. These efforts aim to maintain engagement and dialog  needed to mitigate strategic threats, and seek avenues for constructive cooperation where possible. This vital work is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.