Thanks very much, Lucinda. Good morning, everybody. It's my pleasure to welcome you to this special session on “International Law and the Trump Administration,” with a focus on national and international security.

The Centre for International Governance Innovation is a nonpartisan, independent think tank focused on global governance and law, politics, security, and economics. We're based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and we have fellows all around the world. What we focus on is writing and preparing policy-relevant research on critical issues of international law, mainly focusing on international economic law, environmental law, intellectual property law, and indigenous law.

Now, Canadians have two expressions about America that I'm sure you've heard before and that will be very familiar to Canadians. When America sneezes, Canada and the rest of the world catches a cold, and the other one was by Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who is an earlier prime minister of Canada. He said, “Living next to you, America, is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch”—I would add a tweet—”and grunt.” So that's why we're interested in sponsoring this event. I think that we watch what happens in the United States with great interest.

How U.S. presidents and, indeed, all national leaders treat international law is a vital aspect of our collective peace, security, and prosperity. Their relationship to international law either lends legitimacy to it or takes it away, and nowhere is this more important than in the very contested area of national security and international security. So I hope you enjoy this panel. Thank you.