Excerpts in this article are based on a feature originally published by the Government of Canada.
In 2017, the Government of Canada launched the Canada 150 Research Chairs (C150) Program to mark the country’s sesquicentennial. With $117.6 million in funding, the initiative was designed to attract leading international scholars to Canadian institutions—whether they were expatriates, researchers with personal or academic ties to Canada, or globally recognized experts who had never worked in the country. Among those drawn back was Jennifer Welsh, an international affairs scholar with deep experience in both academic and policy settings.
Originally from Regina, Welsh spent nearly 20 years in Europe, most recently as Chair in International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence and previously as a professor at Oxford University. From 2013 to 2016, she also served as Special Adviser to then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), advising on the UN’s efforts to prevent genocide and other mass atrocity crimes. Her work on global governance and the politics of humanitarian intervention has been central to academic and policy debates alike.
By 2016, however, the UK’s vote to leave the European Union signaled a broader uncertainty about the role of international institutions—a shift that prompted Welsh to reassess where she wanted to be based. “I started to question whether I still wanted to be at Oxford,” she recalled.
At the same time, McGill University was preparing to launch the Max Bell School of Public Policy in Montréal. The new school offered an opportunity not only to return to Canada, but to contribute to shaping a public policy institution from the ground up. “The chance to be part of building up something new at McGill was really interesting to me,” Welsh said.
As the Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Society, Welsh brings to McGill a rare combination of academic depth and firsthand policy experience. Her work continues to engage with the challenges of multilateralism, the future of international cooperation, and the evolving relationship between states and citizens—questions that are increasingly relevant in a period marked by geopolitical instability and institutional fatigue.
At the Max Bell School, she is contributing to a curriculum that doesn’t treat public policy as purely domestic. Instead, it’s grounded in the reality that global and local issues are deeply interconnected—whether in climate change, migration, health, or technology governance.
Welsh’s return to Canada is not a retreat from international affairs, but a continuation of her work from a new vantage point. From Montréal, she is helping students, scholars, and policymakers think more critically about Canada's role in the world—and how public institutions can adapt to meet the demands of a rapidly changing global order.
