DSE Seminar 2022
Securitizing Europe

Aalborg University, 3 November 2022

When the Cold War ended in 1991, there was a general feeling that human rights, democracy, and prosperity would prevail, helped on their way by globalization and interdependence, as described by Francis Fukuyama in his seminal work The End of History and the Last Man from 1992. Then followed a decade where the liberal dream thrived. A first blow to this dream came with the rise of anti-democratic, global terrorism, epitomized by the attack on the World Trade Center or ‘9/11’, and the US-led invasion of Afghanistan the same year. Still, this was not really hitting Europe proper, on the contrary, the Northern Ireland conflict was ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. However, the bombings in Madrid (2004), and London (2005), the terrorist attacks in Paris (2015) and Copenhagen the same year to mention but a few, brought Islamist-motivated terror to Europe, reminding more of Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations than of Fukuyama’s vision. Later came the financial crisis (2007-2008), the migration crisis (2015), the Covid-19 pandemic (2020-2022).

However, no matter how brutal and fatal terrorism is, how devastating financial crisis it, or how terrible Covid-19 was and is, not to mention the environmental crisis and climate changes, old-fashioned high-intensity war, understood with Carl von Clausewitz’s words as "[..] an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will [.]" is something different. February 24th, 2022 changed Europe, and the International System. For the first time since World War II has a free and sovereign European state been attacked full scale by another - the short 2008 Russian attack on Georgia, and the 2014 annexation of Crimea was of a different nature.

This year’s key-note speaker will be Prof. Dr. Sven Biscop, University of Gent, and Director of the ‘Europe in the World Programme’ at the Egmont – Royal Institute for International Relations. In his blog post World politics in 2021: Infected by rivalry, he wrote ‘If China is rising, it must be seeking world domination. If Russia is declining, it must be plotting revenge. The United States, in turn, will surely not refrain from anything to maintain its dominance. And the European Union?’ The director of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs formulated it like this, when he visited AAU in the autumn ‘The US is stepping back, China is stepping up, and Russia steps on anyone’, these words summarize the situation well, unfortunately. European security is a topic of the highest relevance. Thus prof. Biscop will talk on: ‘European security in a new setting’?

Europe and the European Union is facing war, inflation, corona, environmental crisis, climate crisis, energy crisis, the threat toward the western, liberal democratic model. Add to this, refugees from Ukraine and Africa and Afghanistan, to mention but a few. We invite panel proposals on European security or securitization in the broadest sense.

PROGRAM 

09.15 – 10.00 Registration and coffee

10.00 – 10.15 Welcome: Sevie Chatzopoulou (Roskilde University), Søren Dosenrode (Aalborg University)

10.15 – 11.45 Keynote (incl discussion): Prof. Sven Biscop (University of Ghent): ‘European security in a new setting’?

11.45 – 12.30 Lunch

12.30 – 13.50 Panel 1: European and International Contemporary Affairs, chair Søren Dosenrode

European and International Contemporary Affairs is thought of as a general panel with a wide scope, ranging from developments in the international system (the frame of the EU), via role of the EU-institutions, emerging EU-policies (eg. a health union; EU Finance Policy), to EU and interest organizations, Europeanization, EU-skepticism etc.

Li Xing, AAU: Conceptualizing China-US Rivalry in the Complex Nexus of Structure-Agency Dialectics

Søren Dosenrode, AAU: Which International System for the EU to act in?

Daniel Finke, AU: Speaking finally with One Voice? The Lisbon Reforms and the EU’s Representation in UNGA Debates

Dorte Jagetic Andersen, SDU: Sensing, Imagining, Doing Europe: Europeanisation in the Boundary-work of Welcome Cultures

14.05 – 15.05 Panel 2: (International) public administration and (international) public management meet EU studies, chair Magali Gravier

This panel presents studies that are situated at the intersection between EU studies, on the one hand, and (International) public administration and (international) public management on the other. The aim of this panel is to explore the way tools of public administration and public management are transferred from the context of states where they were first elaborated to the supranational context of the EU. What happens to such analytical tools when they are transferred to a non-state context? Do they operate “just the same” way? Can they study the same phenomena? Are international administrations and bureaucracies different from national administrations and bureaucracies, or are they the same type of institutions, but “simply” situated at an international level?

Cristiana Parisi, CBS: The relevance of Public Management Accounting to face the environmental crisis at the European Level

Sevasti Chatzopoulou, Roskilde University: Practices and challenges of circular economy coordination in the European Commission

Magali Gravier, CBS: The Commission’s diversity and inclusion policies seen through the lens of representative bureaucracy

15.05 – 15.35 Break

15.35 – 17.00 Panel 3 European Civil Society and Public Opinion, chair: Anita Nissen

Since the early 1990s, the role, voice, and visibility of European civil society and public opinion has steadily increased, both in regards to domestic and EU policy-making and scholarship. Focusing on various aspects of public engagement, the panel will concentrate on how public attitudes and mobilization may affect European policies and discourses.

Daniel Finke (with Derek Beach), AU: Voting behavior in the shadow of crisis – explaining the contrasting yes/no votes in two Danish EU referendums

Lise Rolandsen Agustín (with Susi Meret), AAU: Feminist Movements Revitalizing Democracy in Europe (FIERCE Project)

Dominik Schraff (with Thomas Malang), AAU: How Differentiated Integration Shapes the Constraining Dissensus

Anita Nissen (with Måns Ljungstedt), AAU: European Discursive Opportunities and the Far Right

17.15 – 18.15 General assembly, President Sevasti Chatzopoulou

19.00 Dinner at Restaurant Textur, Østre Havnegade 28, 9000 Aalborg

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IMPORTANT DATES 

Panel proposals: 20 October 2022
 
Paper proposals/abstracts: 23 October 2022 (acceptance notifications will be sent on a continuous basis)
 
Registration deadline: 1 November 2022

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FEES

Participation in the conference incl. coffee/tea/lunch:

Early bird fee (until 28 Oct. 2022):  DKK 500 (incl. 25% VAT)
 
Standard fee (after 28 Oct. 2022):  DKK 750 (incl. 25% VAT)
 
Conference dinner:  DKK 555 (incl. 25% VAT)

(Restaurant Textur (4 courses incl. 4 glasses of wine or juice)). 

PLEASE REGISTER VIA THIS LINK

ACCOMMODATION

We have obtained a special conference rate for DSE delegates at Pier 5 Hotel, Rendsburggade 5, DK-9000 Aalborg. Please book your hotel via this link (use the booking code: staywithAAU).

Single room incl. breakfast: DKK 895-975 (depending on type of room)

NB! The hotel is now fully booked and the above link/code does no longer apply. There is a mayor conference in Aalborg, so hotel availability is now very limited.

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LOCAL ORGANIZER

The DSE 2022 seminar is organized and hosted by Søren Dosenrode, The Regional and International Studies research group (REGIS), Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University.

PANEL 1
(INTERNATIONAL) PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND (INTERNATIONAL) PUBLIC MANAGEMENT MEET EU STUDIES

This panel presents studies that are situated at the intersection between EU studies, on the one hand, and (International) public administration and (international) public management on the other. The aim of this panel is to explore the way tools of public administration and public management are transferred from the context of states where they were first elaborated to the supranational context of the EU. What happens to such analytical tools when they are transferred to a non-state context? Do they operate “just the same” way? Can they study the same phenomena? Are international administrations and bureaucracies different from national administrations and bureaucracies, or are they the same type of institutions, but “simply” situated at an international level?

Cristiana Parisi, Assoc. Prof., CBS: The relevance of Public Management Accounting to face the environmental crisis at the European Level

Sevasti Chatzopoulou, Assoc. Prof., Roskilde University: Practices and challenges of circular economy coordination in the European Commission

Magali Gravier, Assoc. Prof., CBS: The Commission’s diversity and inclusion policies seen through the lens of representative bureaucracy

PANEL 2
EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY AFFAIRS

European and International Contemporary Affairs is thought of as a general panel with a wide scope, ranging from developments in the international system (the frame of the EU), via role of the EU-institutions,  emerging EU-policies (eg. a health union; EU Finance Policy), to EU and interest organizations, Europeanization, EU-skepticism etc. The only expectation to you, is that you are just as engaged in discussing your colleagues’ papers, as they are in yours.

Chair: Søren Dosenrode, sd@dps.aau.dk

Dorte Jagetic Andersen: Sensing, Imagining, Doing Europe: Europeanisation in the Boundary-work of Welcome Cultures

Søren Dosenrode: Which International System for the EU have to act in?

Daniel Finke (with Derek Beach): Voting behavior in the shadow of crisis – explaining the contrasting yes/no votes in two Danish EU referendums

Daniel Finke: Speaking finally with One Voice? The Lisbon Reforms and the EU’s Representation in UNGA Debates

PANEL 3 
EUROPEAN CIVIL SOCIETY AND PUBLIC OPINION

Since the early 1990s, the role, voice, and visibility of European civil society and public opinion has steadily increased, both in regards to domestic and EU policy-making and scholarship. Focusing on various aspects of public engagement, the panel will concentrate on how public attitudes and mobilization may affect European policies and discourses.

Chair: Anita Nissen, anissen@dps.aau.dk 

Lise Rolandsen Agustín and Susi Meret: Feminist Movements Revitalizing Democracy in Europe (FIERCE Project)

Dominik Schraff and Thomas Malang: How Differentiated Integration Shapes the Constraining Dissensus

Anita Nissen and Måns Ljungstedt: European Discursive Opportunities and the Far Right

Host: Regional and International Studies research group (REGIS), Department of Politics and Society, Aalborg University

Adress: Aalborg University, Fibigerstræde 5 (room 33) 9220 Aalborg East

^{Photo: Dati Bendo © The European Union}