Introducing Belvedere

Earlier this summer, the last panel of the European Security Studies Conference closed at Stockholm University. Two days of papers and corridor arguments came to an end, and the network went home until next year.

That has been the rhythm of the EISS since our first conference in Paris in 2017. It is a great showcase of ideas and research, but only a small sample reaches our public spaces. With the European Security Studies Anthology, we have made a first step towards opening up our research to a wider audience. We now have hundreds of abstracts spanning many years of records, all available online, citable and archived.

Belvedere is another part of the answer. It is the EISS Blog, with short, signed pieces on European security. Each will be edited before it appears, and all will be available in English, French and German. The first contributors will be the volunteers who join the EISS this autumn.

A belvedere is a lookout. It is a place to breathe, to think. To take the time, and have a look at the big picture. Europe's security situation has not seen such a deteriorated state since – possibly – the worst days of the Cold War. Geopolitically, it sits in the middle of great power reshuffling, while we are on the cusp of a technological revolution led by AI. At the same time, the climate, energy, and pension crises exacerbate domestic fractures. It has rarely been more pressing to think about European security.