Name: 2026 European Security Studies Conference
Start: 2026-06-11T08:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-06-12T20:00:00+02:00
Location: Stockholm University

2026 European Security Studies Conference

from Thursday, 11 June 2026 (08:00) to Friday, 12 June 2026 (20:00)

Monday, 8 June 2026
Tuesday, 9 June 2026
Wednesday, 10 June 2026
Thursday, 11 June 2026

09:00 Registration and Coffee
Registration and Coffee
09:00 - 09:30
Room: D House, Floor 3

09:35 Introductory Remarks

09:35 - 09:45
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8

09:45 Taking Stock of European Security in a Rapidly Changing Geopolitical Environment

09:45 - 11:00
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8

11:00 Break
Break
11:00 - 11:15
Room: D House, Floor 3
11:15 Virtually Transformed? Digital Infrastructures, Competition, and Governance
11:15 - 12:30
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
Contributions

11:15 Knowing cybersecurity: The epistemic infrastructural power of big tech - Tobias Liebetrau (University of Copenhagen)

11:25 Governing cybersecurity and the politics of state control in the digital age - Moritz Weiss (LMU Munich) Yagnyashri Kodaru (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)

11:35 Cyber risk logics and their implications for cybersecurity - Sarah Backman (Swedish Defence University)

11:45 Do Parliaments Dream of Cyber Power? Parliamentary Scrutiny in the Strategic Domain of Cyberspace - Mattia Sguazzini (University of Genova, Italy)
War and Peace Abroad: Security Assistance, Multilateral Operations, and Peace‑Building
11:15 - 12:30
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 9
Contributions

11:15 Mapping Plural Visions of Peace: The Peace Cube as an Analytical Framework - Yijun Xu (Free University of Berlin)

11:25 Interpreting Counterterrorism in African Conflict Management - Saurav Narain (Leiden University) Silvia D'Amato (James Madison University)

11:35 Socialized to Cooperate? Foreign Military Training and Coordination in UN Peacekeeping Operations - Ilker Kalin (Stockholm University)

11:45 From rebels’ to State’s justice: post-conflict justice choices in 2026 Syria - Marie Robin (Leiden University)
12:30 Lunch
Lunch
12:30 - 13:25
Room: D House, Floor 3

13:30 Keynote by the Director of Military Intelligence and Security, Swedish Armed Forces

13:30 - 14:30
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
14:35 Nuclear Weapons in a Changing World: From Deterrence to Arms Control
14:35 - 15:50
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
Contributions

14:35 Upload Pending? Tradeoffs, Uncertainty, and Damage-Limitation in a Multipolar Age - Tyler Bowen (United States Naval War College)

14:45 From Precision to Existential Risk: Hypersonic Weapons and the Erosion of the Conventional–Nuclear Divide - Tahir Azad (Department of Politics & IR, University of Reading, UK)

14:55 Legitimating the Bomb: US Efforts to Manage Public Information about Nuclear Weapons after World War II - Jennifer Erickson
Gender, Politics, and Security
14:35 - 15:50
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 9
Contributions

14:35 The Gender politics of LIO contestation: A research Agenda - Elisabetta Ginevra Iida (University of Padova)

14:45 No Woman's Land: Securitisation of Female Forced Migration in Afghanistan - Jéssica da Costa Pereira (NOVA University of Lisbon - School of Social Sciences and Humanities)

14:55 Artistic Resilience-Building in Lithuania’s Local Security Policy - Anna Luisa Reinhardt (Sciences Po, Northern German Lutheran Church, Lithuanian Diakonija)

15:05 Gendering Non-Traditional Security: A Comparative Analysis of Sexual Violence, Reconciliation and Post-War Development in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Colombia - Teodora Stoicescu (National University of Political Studies and Public Administration)
15:50 Coffee break

15:50 - 16:00
Room: D House, Floor 3
16:05 The Conduct of Contemporary and Future War
16:05 - 17:20
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
Contributions

16:05 Learning from Ukraine: The West must be prepared for positional warfare - Baptiste Alloui-Cros (Oxford University) Giles Moon (Oxford University)

16:10 Conceptual Inquiry into Military Deep Operations: A Framework for Analysis - Martijn Rouvroije (Netherlands Defence Academy - Faculty of Military Sciences) Martijn Rouvroije (Netherlands Faculty of Military Sciences)

16:20 Working in the Margins: Can Small State Special Operations contribute to Deterrence? - Troels Burchall Henningsen (Royal Danish Defence University)

16:30 Domestic Politics and Military Aid to Ukraine: Explaining Disclosure Policies in France and Germany - Marius Ghincea (European University Institute)
The Politics of Deterrence in Europe: Panel: The Politics of Deterrence in Europe
Panel: The Politics of Deterrence in Europe
16:05 - 17:20
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 9
Contributions

16:05 Reconceptualizing nuclear deterrence and national identity: the cases of Finland and Sweden - Emma Rosengren (Stockholm University)

16:20 Ritual deterrence, magic strategies, and nuclear war in Europe - Matthew Evangelista (Cornell University)

16:30 Nuclear Futures, Utopias, and the Case for a Renewed ‘Strict Sufficiency’ - Benoît Pelopidas (Sciences Po)

16:35 Plus ca Change: Continuity in the French Nuclear Approach. - July Decarpentrie (Swedish Defence University)
17:30 Walking Tour of Stockholm
Walking Tour of Stockholm
17:30 - 18:30
Friday, 12 June 2026

08:45 Sign-in for Day 2 & Coffee Break
Sign-in for Day 2 & Coffee Break
08:45 - 09:00
Room: D House, Floor 3
09:00 Geopolitical Power Europe: A Reality Check in Western Balkans and Eastern Neighbourhood
09:00 - 10:15
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 9
Contributions

09:00 EU’s Ontological Security and Geopolitical Enlargement - Nikolaos Tzifakis (University of the Peloponnese)

09:10 Geopoliticisation of EU Enlargement in the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership: A Role-Theoretical Perspective - Marko Kovačević (University of Belgrade) Milan Varda (University of Belgrade) Tijana Rečević Krstić (University of Belgrade)

09:20 Filling the EU’s Identity Void from Without and Within – Forging a Geopolitics of Values - Kurt Bassuener (Democratization Policy Council, Sarajevo)

09:30 From Normalisation to Strategic Stabilisation: Geopolitisation of the Pristina–Belgrade Dialogue within EU Enlargement - Filip Ejdus (University of Belgrade)
Navigating the Job Market

09:00 - 10:15
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
10:20 Stepping into the Future: Military Technology, Innovation Practices, and Contemporary Challenges
10:20 - 11:35
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 9
Contributions

10:20 Selling the Future of War: Discursive Power and Military Innovation - Nicolas Krieger (Technical University of Munich)

10:30 Disclosure and Duplicity: How Technology Influences International Competition - Tristan Volpe (IFSH University of Hamburg / Naval Postgraduate School)

10:40 The Self-Reliance Dilemma in Conventional Weapons: When does India Innovate Instead of Import? - Yagnyashri Kodaru (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)

10:50 Sending the Wrong Signals: When Armaments Worry Allies - Tim Thies (Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg)
Cyber and Digital Sovereignty
10:20 - 11:35
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
Contributions

10:20 AI-Driven Cloud Monitoring and Cyber Situational Awareness in European Digital Infrastructures - Daniela Mechkaroska (University of Information Science and Technology “St. Paul the Apostle”, Ohrid, N.Macedonia)

10:30 Quantum-Resilient SATIN and European Digital Sovereignty - Gürkan Gür (Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW)

10:45 From National Incident Response to Zero Trust: Bridging Cyber Defence Policy and Technical Implementation in Wartime Ukraine - Dmytro Uzlov Vladyslav Vilihura

10:55 Classical geopolitics in cyberspace: Explaining cyber state behaviour with power position - Lorenz Sommer (Geschwister-Scholl-Institute for Political Science, LMU Munich)
11:40 Politics at the Intersection of Climate, Industrialization and Security
11:40 - 12:55
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 9
Contributions

11:40 Water In-Security and Climate Migration in Iraq Analyzing Socio-Economic Threats - Saman Omar (College of Humanity, University of Duhok, Kurdistan Region of Iraq)

11:50 Living with the nuclear: Spatio-temporal entanglements, nuclear cultures, and the afterlives of uranium mining - Elisabeth Saar (Hamburg University)

12:00 Fragile Control: How De Facto States Degrade Nuclear Security in the Donbas - Eliza Gheorghe (Bilkent University)
Conceptualizing Military Strategy: From Planning to War
11:40 - 12:55
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
Contributions

11:40 Fortifying the Eastern Flank: Leveraging Historical Lessons to Create Effective Defence Systems - Alexander Lanoszka Michael Hunzeker (George Mason University)

11:50 Anticipated Failure: Why States Go to War Un(der)prepared - Mariya Grinberg (MIT)

12:00 Revisiting Multi-Domain Operations: A Historical Reflection on the Respective Roles of Combination and Prioritisation in the Conduct of War - Samuel Zilincik (Royal Danish Defence College)

12:10 Influence as Strategic Infrastructure: China, NATO, and Competition Below the Threshold of War - Sara Russo (Centre for High Defence Studies (CASD))
12:55 Lunch
Lunch
12:55 - 13:45
Room: D House, Floor 3
13:45 War & Strategy: Strategic Deterrence under Duress
13:45 - 15:00
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 9
Contributions

13:45 Explaining Heterogeneity in Public Support for Collective Defense in NATO: Evidence from a Cross - National Survey of Allied Countries - Isabelle Haynes (Charles University)

13:55 The Confidence Trap: Leader-Advisor Deliberations and the Making of (In)Credible Threats - Wendy He (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU))

14:05 Cooperation under Stress: Organisational Compatibility and NATO–EU Cooperation in a Fractured Transatlantic Order - Mark Rhinard (Stockholm University) Niklas Bremberg

14:15 Small states in the current international war agenda: Between shelter seeking and souverenism - Mitko Arnaudov (Institute of International Politics and Economics)
Military Transformation: Military Innovation and Strategic Change in the Transatlantic Context
13:45 - 15:00
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
Contributions

14:05 From Platforms to Networks: The Political Hurdles of Transitioning to Data-Centric Warfare - Dumitru-Catalin Vasile (National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest, Romania)

14:15 NATO as an Innovation Hub? How Emerging and Disruptive Technologies Are Reshaping Allied Innovation - Vasiliki Plessia Aravani (Diplomatische Academie Wien, University of Vienna)

14:25 From Rogue States to Russia: How Threat Perceptions Drove Congressional Support for Low-Yield Nuclear Weapons, 1993–2020 - Frank Kuhn (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF))

14:35 Vectorial Analysis of Hybrid Warfare: Directionality, Interaction, and Systemic Effects - Fabio Duarte (Czech Technical University / Charles University)
15:05 Extended Nuclear Deterrence through European Eyes
15:05 - 16:20
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 9
Contributions

15:05 What are tactical nuclear weapons for? The multiple logics of NATO’s theater nuclear posture - Linde Desmaele (Leiden University)

15:15 'Europe is Not a Country': Nuclear Patronage and Eurodeterrence Concerns in the Frontline States - Christopher David LaRoche (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Central European University)

15:25 Patterns of Foreign Nuclear Deployment: Understanding Host State Refusal in NATO - Jacklyn Majnemer (LSE)

15:35 Conceptualizing Nuclear Umbrellas - Alexander Sorg (Hertie School)
Beyond the State: Securitization, Governance, and Private Actors
15:05 - 16:20
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
Contributions

15:05 Beyond the State: Voluntary Civilian Pro-Defence Organisations and Security Governance in Georgia - Rusudan Zabakhidze (Swedish Defence University)

15:15 From Privateers to Private Maritime Security: Irregular Maritime Actors and the Long History of Delegated Security at Sea - Pieter Zhao (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

15:25 Criminalising Solidarity: Border Securitisation, Non-State Actors, and Vernacular Humanitarianism in Europe - Mia Abdić

15:35 The Strategic Logic of Violence During Negotiations - Johannes Lucht (ETH Zurich)
16:20 Coffee break

16:20 - 16:40
Room: D House, Floor 3
16:40 Disruptive Machines: AI, Information Operations, and Cyber Security
16:40 - 17:55
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
Contributions

16:40 Cybercrime & AI: Resilience-by-Design in the Information Age: Tabletop Evidence on AI-Enabled Cybercrime, Coordination, and Public Trust - Gil Baram (UC Berkeley and Bar Ilan University)

16:50 Financial (In)Security, TikTok, and the Far-Right Pipeline - Clara Jammot (King's College London)

17:00 Telegram in Russia’s Information Strategy: Evidence from Serbia - Anna Seliverstova (Linnaeus University)

17:10 Narrative Amplification, Plot Structures, and Emotions on VKontakte: Tsargrad’s Popular Geopolitics in the Russo-Ukrainian War - Alexandra Brankova (Swedish Defence University)
Regional Security in the Balkans
16:40 - 17:55
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 9
Contributions

16:40 Western Balkan Criminal Groups and the Transformation of Regional Security - Kire Babanoski (Faculty of Security - Skopje, University "St. Kliment Ohridski" Bitola, North Macedonia)

16:50 Peace as Stalemate: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Forever Missions and the Strategic Logic of Frozen Peace - SENADA ŠELO ŠABIĆ (Institute for Development and International Relations, Zagreb, Croatia)

17:00 Pitfalls of Transitional Justice and (In)Security in the Western Balkans: Case Study of Serbia - SANDRA CVIKIĆ (Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Regional Center Vukovar)

17:10 Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Edge of European Stability - Kenan Hodžić (Assistant Professor)
18:00 Concluding Remarks & Award of the European Security Studies Best Paper Prize

18:00 - 18:30
Room: D House, Lecture Hall 8
18:30 Cocktail & Poster Session
18:30 - 19:30
Room: D House, Floor 3
Contributions

18:30 “A Nuclear War Cannot be Won and Must Never be Fought”: Analyzing the U.S. Response to Russian Nuclear Threats in Ukraine - Fiona Galvis

18:40 State fragility, power sharing institutions and group inequalities - Gulzhan Asylbek kyzy (UNU-MERIT)

18:50 A Shadow in the Clouds: Where Is Germany’s Missile Posture Heading? - Lucian Bumeder (IFSH)

19:00 Speak through the Nocturne: Navigating Strategic Interest in Intelligence Diplomacy - Archishman Ray Goswami (DPhil International Relations, University of Oxford)

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