This workshop represents the ninth annual workshop of the European Security Working Group. Following on from the success of the previous eight editions, the workshop is a great opportunity for scholars of European security to present ongoing or finished work, receive feedback, and build synergies among colleagues.
Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration as President of the United States in January 2025, he has demonstrated stark scepticism towards the European Union, wavering support for the Atlantic Alliance, and an ambiguous stance with regards to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Simultaneously, Putin’s Russia continues to pose a threat to European security through increasing interference, disinformation campaigns and covert operations across the continent. While these two key figures discuss a future peace process in Ukraine, European countries continue to face strategic vulnerabilities in their infrastructures, energy security, and defence industries. How can Europe prepare against the threat of American disengagement from the region? What is in store for the NATO alliance, for the EU’s quest for strategic autonomy? And how is the region adapting to what seems like a shift in the way foreign policy decisions are taken on the international stage?
Programme
9 am – 9.15 am
Welcome
9.15 am – 10.45 am
Panel 1: Revolutionary Times? Trump and Putin, Transatlantic Relations and European security
Lorenzo Cladi (University of Plymouth)
Trump 2.0. and transatlantic unity over Western support for Ukraine
Evgenii Gamerman
European Security in the 2020s. USA, China, Russia: 3 Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Khairullah Turan
The Ukraine War and Its Escalatory Risks for European Security: Strategic Consequences in the Age of Trump and Putin
Andrew Cottey (University of Cork)
Europe and the Second Trump Revolution: Making the Best of a Bad World
10.45 – 11.00 am
Coffee break
11 am – 12.30 pm
Panel 2: Nations and Regions in European Security: Policies, Identities, Dilemmas
Mohammed Afnan (Amia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)
Rising Defence Expenditure and Human Security Trade-Offs in the EU: The German Case
Victoria Bruné (University of Aberdeen)
Liberal small states in a crossfire: changes in contemporary Nordic foreign and security policy facing the Russian threat
Lauren Rogers (University of Edinburgh)
Never (Again) Alone: Discourses of Loneliness in the War in Ukraine
Priyanshu Agarwal (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
From Synergy to Strategy? A Comparative Analysis of the 2007 Black Sea Synergy and the 2025 EU Strategic Approach
12.30 pm – 1.30 pm
Lunch Break
Panel 3: The UK, the European Union and European Security: Inclusion, Exclusion, Partnership?
1.30pm – 3pm
Lucia Frigo (Royal Holloway, University of London)
British National Security Perceptions and Policies in a Volatile Era: From Global Britain to an Ultra-European UK.
Simon Sweeney (University of York), Neil Winn (University of Leeds)
The Slow Awakening: Analysing the Commission Push for Defence Capability
Brice Didier (Science Po)
‘Jamais deux sans trois’: explaining the United Kingdom’s enduring role in the EU foreign policy ‘Big Three’
Giovanni Parente (University College Dublin)
Commanding Without Sailing: European Union-United Kingdom Maritime Security Cooperation Before and After Brexit.
3 - 3.15pm
Coffee break
Panel 3: Weaponisation and Escalation in European Security: Migration, Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons
3.15 - 4.30pm
Aditi Upadhyaya (University of Toronto)
Understanding Weaponised Migration in the European Security Landscape
Brendan Flynn (University of Galway)
Seeking (some) hope in a time of raging war: what scope for securing Ukraine’s key nuclear energy sites as part of an emergent peace?
Ayesha Zafar (European University Institute)
Preventing a Nuclear Escalation in the Ukraine Conflict
All times are in GMT, London UK time.
Registration will close two hours before the event begins.