European Security Studies Conference 2026

Knowing cybersecurity: The epistemic infrastructural power of big tech

Tobias Liebetrau (University of Copenhagen)

Big tech companies authoritatively produce data, information, and knowledge about cybersecurity threats to individuals, businesses, and states. But how do they render international cybersecurity phenomena knowable? Through which practices, means, and devices is this knowledge generated? This paper argues that examining the epistemic infrastructural power of… Read full abstract

Governing cybersecurity and the politics of state control in the digital age

Moritz Weiss (LMU Munich) · Ms Yagnyashri Kodaru (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)

Digital technologies have become deeply entangled with the fabric of contemporary societies. Data infrastructures and cybersecurity practices underpin not only economic activity but also state authority and national security. This growing entanglement gives rise to a central question: how are states reorganizing their authority structures and cybersecurity… Read full abstract

Cyber risk logics and their implications for cybersecurity

Sarah Backman (Försvarshögskolan)

Cybersecurity in national and international security is frequently discussed in an existential register. However, most cybersecurity activities are normal and routine, including diverse practices of cyber risk management. The intricacies of cyber risk and its connection to security and threat politics have received surprisingly little attention in the cyber… Read full abstract

Do Parliaments Dream of Cyber Power? Parliamentary Scrutiny in the Strategic Domain of Cyberspace

Mattia Sguazzini (University of Genova, Italy)

Cybersecurity has become central to strategic competition and foreign policy, yet research has focused primarily on executive decision-making, military doctrines, and national cyber strategies, marginalising parliamentary roles in this securitised and technically complex domain. This paper examines how legislatures scrutinise cyber policy in democratic… Read full abstract

Mapping Plural Visions of Peace: The Peace Cube as an Analytical Framework

Yijun Xu (Free University of Berlin)

Recent debates in peacebuilding have moved beyond the liberal peace paradigm to emphasize plural, locally grounded understandings of peace. However, despite this “local turn,” the field still lacks systematic tools for conceptualizing and comparing diverse visions of peace across actors and contexts. This article addresses this gap by proposing a new… Read full abstract

Interpreting Counterterrorism in African Conflict Management

Saurav Narain (Leiden University)

Scholarly attention to the convergence between international conflict management and counterterrorism has expanded significantly, though with an implicit interpretation of the ‘use of force’ logic, and an emphasis on UN peacekeeping’s downsizing of protection and human rights norms in engagement with the concept (Moe, 2021; Geis and Moe, 2023). Furthermore,… Read full abstract

Socialized to Cooperate? Foreign Military Training and Coordination in UN Peacekeeping Operations

Ilker Kalin (Stockholm University)

United Nations peacekeeping operations (PKOs) are inherently multinational and rely on coordination among national contingents with diverse military cultures, doctrines, and rules of engagement. While existing research shows that mission composition and prior in-mission experience shape peacekeeping effectiveness, we know far less about whether coordination… Read full abstract

From rebels’ to State’s justice: post-conflict justice choices in 2026 Syria

Marie Robin (Université Paris Panthéon-Assas)

How do rebels deliver justice when they reach power? This contribution examines post-conflict justice choices in Syria following the political transition of December 2024, focusing on how the new leadership under Ahmad al-Sharaa needs to address widespread human rights violations committed during the al-Assad era. These violations include crimes perpetrated… Read full abstract

Upload Pending? Tradeoffs, Uncertainty, and Damage-Limitation in a Multipolar Age

Tyler Bowen (United States Naval War College)

How does China’s nuclear modernization affect U.S. nuclear strategy? What are the crisis bargaining and crisis stability implications of the emerging nuclear balance between the United States and China? How might the nuclear balance evolve over time? This paper addresses these questions. I argue that by building more hardened targets, China is imposing a… Read full abstract

From Precision to Existential Risk: Hypersonic Weapons and the Erosion of the Conventional–Nuclear Divide

Mr Tahir Azad (Department of Politics & IR, University of Reading, UK)

Recent hypersonic weapon technology advances have changed military power, challenging conventional and nuclear warfare distinctions. Hypersonic glide vehicles and cruise missiles, promoted as precision, speed, and deterrence, are compressing decision-making timelines, circumventing missile-defence architectures, and blurring strategic stability-underpinning… Read full abstract

Legitimating the Bomb: US Efforts to Manage Public Information about Nuclear Weapons after World War II

Jennifer Erickson

The horrific physical, medical, and environmental effects of nuclear weapons underpin long-standing ideas about nuclear deterrence, as well as challenges to their legitimacy and legality. Yet while US planners anticipated the bomb’s immense physical destruction in Japan 1945, they paid little attention to its probable medical and environmental effects.… Read full abstract

Limit to Win It: A Typology of Competitive Arms Control Practices

Samuel Seitz (University of Oxford)

Arms control is traditionally conceptualized as a cooperative undertaking, reducing risk and obviating the need for wasteful expenditure. But arms control can also be employed for competitive ends, shaping competition in ways that asymmetrically advantage certain parties. While previous literature has identified individual examples of competitive arms… Read full abstract

The Gender dimension of LIO contestation

Elisabetta Ginevra Iida (University of Padova)

Since the end of the Cold War, international security has been guaranteed by the so-called Liberal International Order(Ikenberry 2011; Mearsheimer 2019). But its implementation has never been peaceful (Ikenberry 2010) and has always been subject to important contestations (Alcaro 2018). Adopting a constructivist framework (Wendt 1999), we consider the… Read full abstract

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)

Forced migration is a phenomenon present in globalisation’s dynamics, as is the absence of women in the conceptualisation of the processes that shape the lives of citizens. At the intersection of these two realities, we aim to analyse female forced migration as a security issue, analysing the absence of gender in the definition of forced migrant by the… Read full abstract

Artistic Resilience-Building in Lithuania’s Local Security Policy

Anna Luisa Reinhardt (Sciences Po, Northern German Lutheran Church, Lithuanian Diakonija)

**Abstract** Lithuanian orphans sing patriotic songs at Šakiai Diakonija, my diaconal workplace, located just a 20-minute drive from the Russian border—and roughly 2 minutes for the medium-range missiles stationed in Kaliningrad. Recentring human security in the investigation of **children’s lives at EU borders**, this contribution offers valuable insights… Read full abstract

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)

This paper will focus on the gender-based violence during armed conflicts as a non-traditional security challenge that is affecting the post-conflict development, stability and any peacebuilding effort. The analysis will be situated within feminist studies and will focus on how post-conflict approaches towards policies, reconciliation and reparations need… Read full abstract

Learning from Ukraine: The West must be prepared for positional warfare

Baptiste Alloui-Cros (Oxford University) · Giles Moon (Oxford University)

Conceptual Inquiry into Military Deep Operations: A Framework for Analysis

Mr Martijn Rouvroije (Netherlands Defence Academy - Faculty of Military Sciences) · Martijn Rouvroije (Netherlands Faculty of Military Sciences)

Working in the Margins: Can Small State Special Operations contribute to Deterrence?

Troels Burchall Henningsen (Royal Danish Defence University)

Domestic Politics and Military Aid to Ukraine: Explaining Disclosure Policies in France and Germany

Marius Ghincea (European University Institute)

Why have France and Germany adopted divergent – and shifting – policies on disclosing their military aid to Ukraine? We argue that domestic politics, not international signaling or political culture, best explains this puzzle. We theorize that leaders use transparency as a legitimation tool to manage audience costs when their policy preferences diverge from… Read full abstract

Reconceptualizing nuclear deterrence and national identity: the cases of Finland and Sweden

Emma Rosengren (Stockholm University)

Ritual deterrence, magic strategies, and nuclear war in Europe

Prof. Matthew Evangelista (Cornell University)

Nuclear Futures, Utopias, and the Case for a Renewed ‘Strict Sufficiency’

Benoît Pelopidas (Sciences Po)

Plus ca Change: Continuity in the French Nuclear Approach.

July Decarpentrie (Swedish Defence University)

EU’s Ontological Security and Geopolitical Enlargement

Nikolaos Tzifakis (University of the Peloponnese)

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) · Dr Tijana Rečević Krstić (University of Belgrade)

Filling the EU’s Identity Void from Without and Within – Forging a Geopolitics of Values

Kurt Bassuener (Democratization Policy Council, Sarajevo)

From Normalisation to Strategic Stabilisation: Geopolitisation of the Pristina–Belgrade Dialogue within EU Enlargement

Alexandra Prodromidou ((York Europe Campus, Business School, Southeast European Research Centre (SEERC)) · Faye Ververidou (York Europe Campus, Business School, Southeast European Research Centre (SEERC)) · Filip Ejdus (University of Belgrade) · Sonja Stojanovic Gajic (Center for Advanced Studies Southeast Europe, the University of Rijeka and the Centre for International Security of the Faculty of Political Science, the University of Belgrade3)

AI-Driven Cloud Monitoring and Cyber Situational Awareness in European Digital Infrastructures

Prof. Daniela Mechkaroska (University of Information Science and Technology “St. Paul the Apostle”, Ohrid, N.Macedonia)

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, combined with IoT systems through digital interconnection, create virtual environments that merge with physical spaces. The new operational capabilities that these transformations bring to European digital ecosystems create security challenges, governance issues and societal concerns. Existing… Read full abstract

Quantum-Resilient SATIN and European Digital Sovereignty

Dr Gürkan Gür (Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW)

This contribution presents and discusses quantum-resilient Space–Aerial–Terrestrial Networks (SATIN) as a crucial enabler of European future-proof digital sovereignty, strengthening secure communications, resilient critical infrastructure, and reinforcing Europe’s leadership across satellite, drone, and terrestrial networking domains.

Classical geopolitics in cyberspace: Explaining cyber state behaviour with power position

Lorenz Sommer (Geschwister-Scholl-Institute for Political Science, LMU Munich)

Cyberspace is a new domain of state security competition that differs from the conventional and nuclear realms, most notably because states are constantly engaged in cyberspace operations below the threshold of armed attacks. This inclines many scholars to use new approaches, both theoretically and empirically, to measure and explain cyber state behaviour.… Read full abstract

Selling the Future of War: Discursive Power and Military Innovation

Nicolas Krieger (Technical University of Munich)

How do ideas about military technology become politically influential? This paper sets out to examines how competing visions of military technology emerge, gain dominance, and shape German defence planning. It focuses on public debates surrounding ‘classic’ (armour, artillery, etc.) and innovative military technologies (autonomous weapon systems, AI… Read full abstract

Disclosure and Duplicity: How Technology Influences International Competition

Tristan Volpe (IFSH University of Hamburg / Naval Postgraduate School) · Prof. Jane Vaynman (SAIS Johns Hopkins)

How do states manage information when building military capabilities? Some weapons are developed openly while others are concealed within secret programs or disguised behind civilian cover. This article introduces arming strategy as a new dependent variable, arguing that two technology attributes shape the disclosure and deception choices critical to… Read full abstract

Sending the Wrong Signals: When Armaments Worry Allies

Tim Thies (Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg)

While the role of armaments, and in particular forward-deployed military forces, as signals of reassurance is well-established in the scholarly literature, existing research has not explored when and why armaments may worry allies. In this paper, I consider disagreements between allies about the right armaments by the patron for the defense of a client as… Read full abstract

Fortifying the Eastern Flank: Leveraging Historical Lessons to Create Effective Defence Systems

Alexander Lanoszka · Dr Michael Hunzeker (George Mason University)

In early 2024, Poland and the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania announced plans to put up fortifications along their eastern frontier. Yet one lesson that analysts might draw from contemporary experience is that defensive systems of the sort planned for parts of NATO’s so-called Eastern Flank have little to no utility except for… Read full abstract

Anticipated Failure: Why States Go to War Un(der)prepared

Mariya Grinberg (MIT)

Why do states engage in wars for which they are un(der)prepared? Specifically, why do states enter wars when they have good reason to expect that they will not be able to achieve their strategic objectives with their chosen war plans? To understand why states would go to war with flawed plans, we need to know two things: (1) what options to modify the… Read full abstract

Revisiting Multi-Domain Operations: A Historical Reflection on the Respective Roles of Combination and Prioritisation in the Conduct of War

Dr Samuel Zilincik (Royal Danish Defence College)

NATO’s new operational concept Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) assumes combining various military and non-military tools is essential and beneficial for winning future wars. In this article, we offer a historical perspective to enunciate the MDO’s underlying philosophy. Specifically, we argue that combining tools is not inherently necessary nor beneficial,… Read full abstract

Influence as Strategic Infrastructure: China, NATO, and Competition Below the Threshold of War

Sara Russo (Centre for High Defence Studies (CASD))

Strategic competition is increasingly unfolding below the threshold of armed conflict, where influence over perception, legitimacy, and coordination might determine the outcomes without the use of force. While widely acknowledged, influence is still treated as an auxiliary component of military and political strategy, framed through information operations… Read full abstract

From Platforms to Networks: The Political Hurdles of Transitioning to Data-Centric Warfare

Mr Dumitru-Catalin Vasile (National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest, Romania)

Modern military strategy is undergoing a paradigm shift, moving away from a "platform-centric" model defined by the capabilities of individual assets such as tanks, fighter jets, and carriers toward a "network-centric" model prioritizing connectivity, data fusion, and multi-domain integration. While the operational necessity of this transition is widely… Read full abstract

NATO as an Innovation Hub? How Emerging and Disruptive Technologies Are Reshaping Allied Innovation

Vasiliki Plessia Aravani (Diplomatische Academie Wien, University of Vienna)

The literature on military diffusion has traditionally treated alliances as transmission paths through which nationally developed military technologies are disseminated among allies. In this view, NATO is exclusively portrayed as a forum for standardization and doctrinal coordination rather than also a site of military innovation. This paper revisits this… Read full abstract

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))

In 2020, the United States deployed the W76 2 low-yield nuclear warhead on its ballistic missile submarines, marking a pivotal shift in a contentious, three decade Congressional debate over the role of low-yield nuclear weapons in U.S. nuclear policy. Congress first banned research and development on such weapons in 1993, partially repealed that prohibition… Read full abstract

Vectorial Analysis of Hybrid Warfare: Directionality, Interaction, and Systemic Effects

Fabio Duarte (Czech Technical University / Charles University)

The concepts of 'hybrid warfare' and 'hybrid threats' have expanded into a wide, heterogeneous set of typologies, primarily centred on instruments and actors. As the range of activities labelled “hybrid” continues to grow, existing approaches increasingly struggle to explain how diverse hybrid actions combine, interact, and generate systemic effects below… Read full abstract

Explaining Heterogeneity in Public Support for Collective Defense in NATO: Evidence from a Cross - National Survey of Allied Countries

Isabelle Haynes (Charles University)

The deteriorating European security environment underscores the continuing relevance of NATO’s collective defence commitments. Since NATO is a military alliance comprising 32 electoral democracies, the commitment to defend any member relies on the domestic politics of its members. For these commitments to be credible, the alliance requires domestic… Read full abstract

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))

Conventional wisdom holds that states with superior capabilities, clear interests, and strong reputations issue more credible threats, while weaker states struggle to convince. Yet strong states sometimes fail to convince while weaker states occasionally succeed. Why? I argue that credibility is first formed within internal deliberations, shaped by how… Read full abstract

Cooperation under Stress: Organisational Compatibility and NATO–EU Cooperation in a Fractured Transatlantic Order

Mark Rhinard (Stockholm University) · Dr Niklas Bremberg

Recent debates on transatlantic security cooperation widely assume that renewed political tensions -- most notably driven by the Trump II administration -- have undermined cooperation between NATO and the European Union. Such claims typically rest on assessments of strategic alignment at the political level. This paper argues that these assessments risk… Read full abstract

Small states in the current international war agenda: Between shelter seeking and souverenism

Mitko Arnaudov (Institute of International Politics and Economics)

Current international relations are facing with the chapter characterized with so-called war public discourses, as well as decision-making processes which are erasing the international infrastructure based on the rule of law. In such context, so-called big powers have adapted to realist thougths about the functioning of the international system, while… Read full abstract

Beyond the State: Voluntary Civilian Pro-Defence Organisations and Security Governance in Georgia

Rusudan Zabakhidze (Swedish Defence University)

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… Read full abstract

From Privateers to Private Maritime Security: Irregular Maritime Actors and the Long History of Delegated Security at Sea

Pieter Zhao (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

This paper examines the re-emergence of private maritime security companies (PMSCs) in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, situating their rise within both recent developments in maritime security and a broader historical context. Since the early 2000s, PMSCs have become a visible feature of global shipping security, particularly in… Read full abstract

Criminalising Solidarity: Border Securitisation, Non-State Actors, and Vernacular Humanitarianism in Europe

Mia Abdić

Border securitisation, externalisation, and the criminalisation of humanitarian assistance in migration contexts have become increasingly prominent features of European migration governance. This paper explores the phenomenon of the criminalisation of solidarity through a comparative overview of these practices in France, Italy, Greece, and Spain, alongside… Read full abstract

The Strategic Logic of Violence During Negotiations

Johannes Lucht (ETH Zurich)

Negotiations are essential to ending armed conflict, yet we know surprisingly little about how violence evolves during the negotiation process itself. While existing research demonstrates that negotiations are essential for ending armed conflicts, most studies treat “negotiations” as a single event rather than a dynamic, multi-round process. This paper… Read full abstract

What are tactical nuclear weapons for? The multiple logics of NATO’s theater nuclear posture

Linde Desmaele (Leiden University)

'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)

Patterns of Foreign Nuclear Deployment: Understanding Host State Refusal in NATO

Jacklyn Majnemer (LSE)

Conceptualizing Nuclear Umbrellas

Alexander Sorg (Hertie School)

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)

Digital technologies are entangling cyber risk, digital infrastructure, and governance. This paper argues that AI-enabled cybercrime is best understood as a transformation of the cybercrime ecosystem rather than merely as a set of new technical tactics. It draws on UC Berkeley’s “AI-Enabled Cybercrime: Exploring Risks, Building Awareness, and Guiding Policy… Read full abstract

Financial (In)Security, TikTok, and the Far-Right Pipeline

Clara Jammot

While the relationship between far-right extremism, libertarianism, and neoliberalism has long been established, algorithmic recommendation as well as the lucrative professionalisation of content creation are leading platforms like TikTok to impact how financial (in)security feeds into the far-right’s proliferation. The rise in influencers promoting an… Read full abstract

Telegram in Russia’s Information Strategy: Evidence from Serbia

Anna Seliverstova (Linnaeus University)

Digital platforms have become central arenas of contemporary geopolitical competition, blurring the boundaries between the virtual and the physical, the informational and the political. This paper examines Telegram as a key element of Russia's contemporary information warfare and influence operations, focusing on its role in shaping political discourse in… Read full abstract

Amplification of Russian Geopolitical Narratives on VKontakte: Studying Tsargrad’s audience engagement and the construction of the enemy before and after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Alexandra Brankova (Swedish Defence University)

The paper explores how Russian geopolitical narratives about the national self and the enemy are constructed and amplified on VKontakte (VK) before and after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. VK is the largest social media platform in the Russian Federation, and it is being gradually integrated into a government-led multipurpose… Read full abstract

Western Balkan Criminal Groups and the Transformation of Regional Security

Dr Kire Babanoski (Faculty of Security - Skopje, University "St. Kliment Ohridski" Bitola, North Macedonia)

Criminal groups in the Western Balkans are influential non-state actors which informally regulate illegal markets, provide protection, and establish strategic partnerships with political and economic elites. They operate outside, alongside, and sometimes within state structures, and often through robust cross-border networks. They are quite flexible and… Read full abstract

Peace as Stalemate: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Forever Missions and the Strategic Logic of Frozen Peace

Dr SENADA ŠELO ŠABIĆ (Institute for Development and International Relations, Zagreb, Croatia)

More than three decades after the Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina remains subject to a continuous international military presence and extensive external governance, yet without achieving political stability or institutional consolidation. This paper examines Bosnia as a paradigmatic case of forever missions and frozen peace: interventions… Read full abstract

Pitfalls of Transitional Justice and (In)Security in the Western Balkans: Case Study of Serbia

Dr SANDRA CVIKIĆ (Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Regional Center Vukovar)

Drawing on the author's previous work, this paper offers insight into the implementation of transitional justice policies in the Western Balkans after the violent wars that accompanied the dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia, with a focus on the former Yugoslav state of Serbia. This qualitative sociological analysis explores the paradoxical effects of the… Read full abstract

Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Edge of European Stability

Prof. Kenan Hodžić (Assistant Professor)

Bosnia and Herzegovina occupies a critical position in the security architecture of the Western Balkans, serving as a nexus of domestic vulnerabilities, regional dynamics, and broader European security concerns. This paper employs the multi-level security framework (Buzan, Wæver & de Wilde, 1998) to examine the intersection of internal political… Read full abstract