Last updated: 28. February 2005

New Security Challenges and Europe:
PhD-course/research symposium

Lund University 9-11 June 2005
Organised by the Nordic International Studies Association
in co-operation with The Swedish Network on European Studies

U.S. scholars have dominated the Nordic security debate, but since the fall of the Berlin Wall there has been an increasing need for a genuinely Nordic debate about the emerging European security discourse. There is a widespread understanding that the perceptions of threat have diverged on both sides of the Atlantic. One task of this PhD course is to look at this issue without political prejudice.

To do so, a new way of conceptualising security is needed, one that is broad enough to speak to the reality of contemporary threats but explicit and specific enough to be analytically useful. The traditional state-centric approach is not helpful in an increasingly fragmented and incoherent world, in which the boundary between external and internal security is blurred. A broad range of new threats – from terrorism to trafficking of women, arms, and drugs – challenges the traditional state-centric ways to protect citizens and interests throughout the world and contributes to the proliferation of ‘new’ security issues.

Security and the securitisation of new domains of life must therefore be seen in relation to political power and the contemporary challenges to the institution of the sovereign state, in the context of globalisation. Viewing security through this lens is particularly fruitful for understanding the different responses to similar threats. It is also useful for investigating the potential and actual role of an integrating Europe in global politics, and what this means for Nordic security.

Nordic security studies have typically been nationally oriented. As Nordic countries’ security alliances and networks moves in different directions – Norway and Iceland continue to pursue a transatlantic track, Sweden and Finland look to Brussels, and Denmark occupies a middle position – there is an urgent need to foster comparative analysis and exchange of experiences. This dialogue must include appropriate theorising of European security in the Nordic research community, as there is currently little structured, common thinking on issues such as relations between the EU and NATO, the American role in European security and defence, the rank-ordering of security threats, and the capabilities of national and EU Security and Defence policies. The course will also pay attention to the dynamic relations between local, regional, and global security in the context of EU and member state policies and capabilities, including measures of co-ordination and co-operation with the NGOs and international institutions.

Confirmed speakers:

Morten Bøås (Fafo – Institute for Applied International Studies):
Borders and orders between the West and the non-West

Ole Elgström (Lund University):
The EU as a stabilizer: magnet, model and norm exporter

Tuomas Forsberg: TBA

Lene Hansen (Copenhagen University):
Expanding the concept of security: identity, gender and human security.

Henri Vogt (Finnish Institute of International Affairs):
Identity, legitimation and security  

Ole Wæver (Copenhagen University):
Theorising European security

Deadline for application and proposals 15th April 2005

For further information please contact ole.elgstrom@svet.lu.se

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