Speaker
Description
This paper explores how the resurgence of interstate war in Europe following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has reconfigured relations between defence and society, with particular attention to the role of voluntary pro-defence organisations in security governance. Over the past decade, states historically alert to Russian imperialism have increasingly embraced comprehensive defence frameworks that extend beyond traditional military institutions and emphasise whole-of-society participation. Building on long-standing traditions of civil resistance and national defence, civilian pro-defence organisations have gained renewed prominence across the Baltics, Nordics, and Central and Eastern Europe.
Taking Georgia as a case, this paper focuses on the relational dynamics between the state defence institutions and voluntary civilian pro-defence organisations. More specifically, the paper highlights how state actors seek to transform bottom-up societal mobilisation into a more sustained source of societal resilience and national defence capacity, while non-state actors simultaneously negotiate autonomy, legitimacy, and influence within evolving security and political landscape. These dynamics generate both opportunities and tensions. Hence, moving beyond narrated notions of willingness to defend, the paper explores the practices and interactions through which defence roles are negotiated, contested, and/or redefined.
Building on civil-military relations theory, the paper posits that voluntary pro-defence organisations both complement and challenge traditional state authority, blurring the boundaries between civilian and military spheres and redefining the limits of state control over security governance. The paper will draw on textual analysis, semi-structured interviews with representatives of the Ministry of Defence, the Georgian Defence Forces, and voluntary civilian pro-defence organisations, as well as participant observations conducted through field ethnography planned in February-March 2026.
| If you are submitting an Open Panel proposal, have you included all four abstracts in attachment? | No, I am submitting a Closed Panel abstract |
|---|---|
| Would you like to be considered for travel funding through the NetSec COST Action? | No |
| Are you a member of the NetSec Management Committee? | No |
| What discipline or branch of humanities or social sciences do you identify yourself with? | War Studies |
| Which of the following best describes your stage of the career? | PhD Candidate |
| In which country is your home institution? | Sweden |
| What is your gender? | Female |