ESSC 2024 programme cover — The European Initiative for Security Studies
Archive · 7th Annual Conference

2024 — Prague

27 - 28 June 2024 · Charles University, Prague.

From the archive

Conference programme

The full programme of panels, roundtables and papers, as it ran. Open a session to see its papers and speakers.

Day 1 — Thursday 27 June

  1. 9:00 to 9:30

    Registration and Coffee

  2. 9:30 to 9:45

    Introductory Remarks

    Small Hall

    Chair:Hugo Meijer (Director of EISS / Sciences Po), Vit Stritecky (Charles University)

  3. 9:45 to 10:55

    Roundtable 1: Debating the Future of War (Hybrid & Recorded)

    Small Hall

    Chair:Tim Sweijs (Netherlands' War Studies Research Centre / The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies)

    Discussants:Isabelle Duyvesteyn (Leiden University), Henrik Breitenbauch (Royal Danish Defence College), Janani Mohan (Cambridge University)

  4. 11:00 to 12:25

    Defence Cooperation and Military Assistance 1

    Small Hall

    Chair:Isabelle Duyvesteyn (Leiden University)

    Actors, Interests and Interdependencies in East Asian Security Competition

    Hall of Patriots

    Chair:Samuel Seitz (Oxford University)

    View papers (8)

    1. Navigating the Indo-Pacific: A Comparative Analysis of ASEAN and Quad Frameworks

      Presenter: Giorgia Piovesan (University of Glasgow)

    2. Multilateral Maritime Exercises and Strategic Change: The American Case and Beyond

      Presenter: Peter Dombrowski (U.S. Naval War College) · Simon Reich (Sciences Po / Rutgers)

    3. Sino-Russian joint military exercises in focus: New strategic confluences in the Asia-Pacific

      Presenter: Jerome Gapany (Military Academy at ETH Zurich)

    4. Toward a Novel Conception of Naval Strategy for Small Countries

      Presenter: Friso Stevens (University of Helsinki)

    5. Inter-alliance Security Dilemmas: Korean Counterforce Systems and Their Effect on the Sino-American Nuclear Competition

      Presenter: Samuel Seitz (Oxford University)

    6. Developing digital peripheries for strategic advantage: Competitive cyber capacity building assistance initiatives in Africa

      Presenter: Julia Carver (Oxford University)

    7. Predicting East Asian Security Competition in the 21st Century: A Regional Approach

      Presenter: Chelsea Thorpe (Cambridge University)

    8. Small Islands, Big Potential: A Taiwan Contingency, Alliance Politics, and the Defence of Remote Islands with Large Stake

      Presenter: Takuya Matsuda (University of Tokyo) · Elliot Ji (Princeton University)

  5. 12:30 to 13:30

    Lunch

  6. 13:30 to 14:55

    Military Interventions

    Hall of Patriots

    Chair:Kersti Larsdotter (Swedish Defence University)

    View papers (4)

    1. The Utility of Foreign Volunteers in Ukraine

    2. Contesting 'Zeitenwende': Political Contestation and Partisan Entrapment

      Presenter: Marius Ghincea (European University Institute)

    3. Military intervention in foreign policy-making: Principal-agent analysis of US troop withdrawal from Korea, 1977-1979

      Presenter: Juhong Park (University of Bath)

    4. When Does Vladimir Putin Send Troops to Fight Abroad?

      Presenter: Simon Saradzhyan (Harvard University)

    Private Actors, Armed Conflict and the State

    Small Hall

    Chair:Andreas Kruck (Ludwig Maximilians University)

    View papers (4)

    1. EU's Use of Private Military and Security Companies' Services: Filling the Capabilities- and Consensus-Expectation Gaps?

      Presenter: Oldrich Bures (Metropolitan University Prague) · Eugenio Cusumano (Università degli Studi di Messina)

    2. Hybrid axis of evil. Policing of organised crime and state threats in global ports

      Presenter: Yarin Eski (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

    3. The financing of contemporary mercenarism: resources, routes, and regulation

      Presenter: Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito (University of Twente) · Sorcha MacLeod (University of Copenhagen)

    4. Zachariah Parcels & Michel Wyss contribution

      Presenter: Zachariah Parcels (Purdue University) · Michel Wyss (Military Academy at ETH Zurich)

  7. 15:00 to 16:25

    Military Technology

    Hall of Patriots

    Chair:Sanne Verschuren (Boston University)

    View papers (4)

    1. Artificial Intelligence and Non-linearity: An Analysis of the Limitations of Statistical Learning AI in Warfare

      Presenter: Alessandra Russo (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan)

    2. Business power and the quiet politics of military innovation in cyberspace

      Presenter: Moritz Weiss (LMU Munich)

    3. AI, private corporate experts, and the competence-control dilemma in military innovation: Explaining reconfigurations of the national security state

      Presenter: Andrea Johansen (Ludwig Maximilians University) · Andreas Kruck (Ludwig Maximilians University)

    4. Winning the Battle of Adaptation

      Presenter: Kristen Harkness (University of St Andrews) · Marc DeVore (University of St Andrews)

    Knowledge Production on War

    Small Hall

    Chair:Matúš Halás (Institute of International Relations, Prague)

    View papers (4)

    1. Exploring how the emotion of interest shapes strategic studies scholarship (and how we can make the most of it)

      Presenter: Samuel Zilincik (University of Defence, Czech Republic) · Dagmar Ludackova (University of Defence, Czech Republic)

    2. Envisioning Critical Strategic Studies

      Presenter: Chiara Libiseller (Leiden University) · Isabelle Duyvesteyn (Leiden University)

    3. Virtually inconceivable? Foregrounding the ontological dimension to cyber strategic studies

      Presenter: Julia Carver (Oxford University)

    4. Changing Expertise: Knowledge Production through Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain

      Presenter: Alies Jansen (Leiden University)

  8. 16:30 to 17:00

    Poster Session / Coffee Break

    View papers (3)

    1. Investigating Perspectives of (In)Security of Affected Individuals in Afghanistan under The Taliban Rule: A Vernacular Security Approach

      Presenter: Mohammad Mahdi Iraj (Nagoya University)

    2. Structuring the Use of Securitization by Violent Non-state Actors

      Presenter: Ido Gadi Raz (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

    3. "In the mind of the beholder": a study on coercion and the choice of coercive instruments

      Presenter: Chiara Boldrini (Università di Bologna)

  9. 17:00 to 18:00

    Keynote: The Evolutionary Anthropology of War (Hybrid & Recorded)

    Small Hall

    View papers (1)

    1. The Evolutionary Anthropology of War

      Presenter: Richard Wrangham (Harvard University)

Day 2 — Friday 28 June

  1. 9:00 to 10:25

    Roundtable 2: Navigating the Job Market (Hybrid & Recorded)

    Small Hall

    Chair:Nicolas Blarel (Leiden University)

    Discussants:Sanne Verschuren (Boston University), Alexander Lanoszka (University of Waterloo), Silvia D'Amato (Leiden University (online))

    Terrorism and Counter-terrorism

    Hall of Patriots

    Chair:Giulia Grillo (University College London)

    View papers (4)

    1. Organizational Lineage and the Diffusion of Lethal and Non-Lethal Information between Armed Groups

      Presenter: Evan Perkoski (University of Connecticut)

    2. Stigmatizing State Sponsors of Terrorism: An Evaluation of Feasibility

      Presenter: Müberra Dinler (Charles University)

    3. The Resilient Body of the State: Imaginary of Cohesive Society in PVE and Countering Hybrid Threats

      Presenter: Jan Daniel (Institute of International Relations, Prague)

    4. The Role of Narratives in Radicalisation: A Critical Examination of Causality and Agency

      Presenter: Unaesah Rahmah (Leiden University)

  2. 10:30 to 11:55

    Weapons of Mass Destruction: Non-Proliferation and Arms Control

    Hall of Patriots

    Chair:Michal Smetana (Charles University)

    View papers (4)

    1. Temporal Disparities in Intergenerational Justice: A Comparative Analysis of Nuclear Deterrence and Climate Change

      Presenter: Franziska Stärk (University of Hamburg)

    2. The inadmissibility of nuclear threats – norm or empty promise?

      Presenter: Maren Vieluf (University of Innsbruck)

    3. The Re-Emergence of Nuclear-Weapons-Free-Zones in an Era of Heightened Conflict

      Presenter: Janani Mohan (Cambridge University)

    4. Technocratic view of nuclear sharing

      Presenter: Michal Onderco (Erasmus University)

    Political Economy, Technology and the Defence Industry

    Small Hall

    Chair:Antonio Calcara (CSDS Brussels)

    View papers (4)

    1. Defence Offsets and the Global Arms Trade: Explaining Cross-National Variations

      Presenter: Jonata Anicetti (Metropolitan University Prague)

    2. Strategic sensemaking: Scanning the military technological edge

      Presenter: Henrik Breitenbauch (Royal Danish Defence College) · Jens Vesterlund Mathiesen (Royal Danish Defence College)

    3. Exploring the cybersecurity policy design space in the EU: a mixed methods approach based on machine-learning techniques

      Presenter: Mattia Sguazzini (University of Genova)

    4. Technological Innovation and national security: Variations in public-private relations in the defense and cybersecurity sectors

      Presenter: Yagnyashri Kodaru (LMU) · Lorenz Sommer (LMU)

  3. 12:00 to 13:00

    Lunch

  4. 13:00 to 14:25

    Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Strategy in the Third Nuclear Age

    Hall of Patriots

    Chair:Michal Onderco (Erasmus University)

    View papers (4)

    1. Public support for arms control in the third nuclear age: New evidence from NATO countries

      Presenter: Ondřej Rosendorf (IFSH & PRCP) · Michal Smetana (Charles University) · Marek Vranka (Charles University)

    2. The Eternal Promise of Missile Defense

      Presenter: Sanne Verschuren (Boston University)

    3. Can there be a responsible nuclear weapon state? Understanding the agency and moral relevance of nuclear weapons

      Presenter: Tim Thies (University of Hamburg)

    4. Russian nuclear roulette? Elites and public debates on nuclear weapons in Moscow after Ukraine

      Presenter: Lydia Wachs (Stockholm University)

    Maritime security in the Indo-Pacific: Perspectives from the EU

    Small Hall

    Chair:Manjeet S. Pardesi (Victoria University of Wellington)

    View papers (3)

    1. Guarding the Maritime Highways: Europe's Role in the Indo-Pacific

      Presenter: Paul van Hooft (The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies) · Benedetta Girardi (The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies) · Davis Ellison (The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies) · Tim Sweijs (The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies)

    2. The EU in the Indo-Pacific: a security actor sui generis

      Presenter: Eva Pejsova (Vrije Universiteit Brussels)

    3. The EU's naval signalling in the Indo-Pacific

      Presenter: Nicolas Blarel (Leiden University) · Niels van Willigen (Leiden University)

  5. 14:30 to 15:55

    Defence Cooperation and Military Assistance 2

    Hall of Patriots

    Chair:Jonata Anicetti (Metropolitan University Prague)

    View papers (4)

    1. Winning the Battle for Hearts and Minds: U.S. Reassurance During the Russo-Ukrainian War

      Presenter: Alexander Lanoszka (University of Waterloo) · Stephen Herzog (ETH Zurich / Harvard Kennedy School) · Lauren Sukin (LSE)

    2. International military assistance: a historical and conceptual genealogy

      Presenter: Thibault Fouillet (Institut d'Etudes de Stratégie et de Défense, Université Jean Moulin Lyon III)

    3. Trapped in the Strategic Trilemma: Ukraine's role in the Black Sea region (2014-2024)

      Presenter: Viktoriia Vdovychenko (Cambridge University) · Marc De Vore (St Andrews University)

    4. European defence policy changes in response to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine: a 'wake-up call' in practice?

      Presenter: Michelle Haas (Ghent University)

    Intelligence

    Small Hall

    Chair:Zakia Shiraz (Leiden University)

    View papers (2)

    1. Proliferation not democratization: open-source intelligence and the war in Ukraine

      Presenter: Damien Van Puyvelde (Leiden University)

    2. Getting the Revolution in Intelligence Affairs Right: Technological Innovation, Organizational and Operational Adaptation, and Intelligence Effectiveness in the Second Machine Age

      Presenter: Niccolò Petrelli (Roma Tre University)

  6. 16:00 to 17:15

    Roundtable 3: Gender, Inclusion and Diversity in Security Studies (Hybrid & Recorded)

    Small Hall

    Chair:Šárka Kolmašová (Metropolitan University Prague)

    Discussants:Raffaele Mastrocco (European University Institute), Federica Cristani (Institute of International Relations in Prague), Esther Beckley (Erasmus University), Damien van Puyvelde (Leiden University)

  7. 17:15 to 17:30

    Award of the European Security Studies Best Paper Prize (in partnership with the Journal of Strategic Studies)

    Small Hall

  8. 17:30 to 17:45

    Concluding Remarks

    Small Hall

    Chair:Hugo Meijer (Director of EISS / Sciences Po), Vit Stritecky (Representative of Charles University)

  9. 18:00

    Cocktail Reception

    Small Hall

Reconstructed from the conference's final printed programme.

Download the programme (PDF)

Session recordings

Selected sessions from EISS 2024 are available on the EISS YouTube channel (@eiss-europe). Clicking play loads the YouTube iframe. Before that, no YouTube cookies are set.

Host & venue

Charles University, Prague

View over Prague, with the Charles Bridge and the Castle district.

Each year, the EISS conference is organised on a rotational basis in a different European country. The 2024 conference was held at the Institute of Political Studies, at Charles University in Prague.

Address: Charles University, Ovocný trh 560/5, 110 00 Staré Město, Czechia.

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