A “New Security Landscape” in Europe? Challenges and Consequences for Military and Society.

A “New Security Landscape” in Europe? 

Challenges and Consequences for Military and Society

For many countries, the deteriorating security situation in Eastern Europe and across the Baltic Sea region has amplified the need to rethink defence strategies, collaborations, and organisation. Recent developments, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and subsequent invasion of Ukraine, along with economic instability, mounting challenges posed by influence campaigns and cyber attacks, along with problems of energy production and supply, have shown that no single alliance, organisation or nation can resolve such complex challenges alone. Recent years have also seen a shift in many countries’ security and defence policies and practices – Sweden and Finland’s decisions to apply for NATO membership being two examples of such change. In addition, countries across Europe and beyond continue to increase defence spending and to seek ways to improve civil defence and popular resilience. 

For research, these developments raise questions about shifting relations between military organisations and their societies, as well as about their impact on technological development, military professionalism, popular support, issues of recruitment and retention, and on emerging forms of defence and security collaborations across national, organisational, and professional boundaries.

We encourage discussion in these areas, as well as other key topics of research in the military and society domain. The description of each working group, along with the contact information for the working group coordinators can be found at http://ergomas.ch/index.php/working-groups .

ERGOMAS Working Groups include: 

• Morale, Cohesion and Leadership
• Public Opinion
• Mass Media and the Military
• Gender and the Military
• Military Profession
• Civilian Control of the Military
• Warriors in Peacekeeping
• Military Families
• Recruitment and Retention
• Military and Police Relations
• Violence and the Military
• Veterans & Society
• Military Conflict Management and Peace Economics
• Critical Military Studies
• Total Defence Force

More detailed information about ERGOMAS and the Working Groups can be found at the ERGOMAS website: http://www.ergomas.ch/

More information about the Swedish Centre for Studies of Armed Forces and Society (CSMS) can be found at: https://www.csms.se/om-csms   

Presentation Formats:

The following types of presentations will be included in the conference:

Individual presentations: Stand-alone oral presentations based on original research or empirical inquiry (15 minutes in length). Note that the provision of the research papers to the conference organizers is not required unless requested by the respective WG coordinator.

Panel presentations: Panels will comprise 4 inter-related oral presentations. Abstracts for panel proposals should contain no more than 4 presentations (with a maximum of 200 words per presentation). The overall panel description, as well as the abstracts and names of the presenters for each component presentation must be included in the submission.

Practical details:

On Monday, July 1, there will be an opening ceremony with an ice breaker in central Stockholm.

The conference runs from Tuesday 2 July to the afternoon of Friday 5 July.

On Thursday evening there will be a joint conference dinner in Stockholm.

We recommend a hotel near the Stockholm Central Railway Station and Arlanda Express (the airport commute). Since the conference is held during a time when many tourists take the opportunity to visit Stockholm, we recommend that you book accommodation as soon as possible.