[Air-L] Fwd: EWIS Workshop Proposal 2023

[Hedvig Ördén]

>
>
> For anyone interested in disinformation/influence ops/security studies, me
> and my colleagues at Lund University are putting together a workshop
> proposal for EWIS 2023, 12-14 July, in Amsterdam.
>
>
> *Existential Threats, Foreign Interference and Cognitive Resilience in
> Times of War: The case of the European Union*
>
> For almost a decade, the European Union has worked to counter foreign
> interference
> through measures aimed to enhance the ability of citizens and institutions
> to withstand
> malicious online influence. Existing practices for strengthening cognitive
> resilience
> include public diplomacy, fact checking and debunking, content flagging,
> media
> literacy, intelligence collection/sharing and public attribution. Such
> practices are
> premised on the idea of foreign interference being part of a ‘grey-zone’
> conflict
> conducted below the threshold of war, using nontransparent methods to
> undermine the
> cognitive capacities of a population. In this context, a longstanding
> problematic has
> furthermore been how to reconcile ends and means when safeguarding liberal
> democratic values and institutions. Against this background and in the
> light of the
> Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we ask: How does the
> outbreak of war
> in Europe redefine EU cognitive resilience practices?
>
> This workshop seeks to address cognitive resilience practices in an
> ambiguous European
> security context where existential dooms-day-like threats of nuclear
> annihilation and
> full-scale invasion emerge alongside the long-time preoccupation with
> grey-zone
> activities. We hope to engage in interdisciplinary discussions on
> cognitive resilience
> practices in times of war and welcome security studies, critical security
> studies, IR and
> strategic communication scholars. The overarching aim is (1) to
> empirically take stock
> of emerging cognitive resilience practices in times of war, (2) to unpack
> security with
> regard to foreign interference in a contemporary European context, (3) to
> describe and
> theorize the changing relationship between justifiable ends and means, as
> well as the
> legitimacy of security actors, in relation to EU cognitive resilience
> practices in wartime.
>
> Potential topics include, but are not limited to: On what grounds can we
> assess the
> appropriateness of cognitive resilience practices in wartime? Is there a
> changing
> relationship between justifiable ends and means? (consider the use of
> offensive
> practices, employment of sanctions, the changing character of digital
> diplomacy, use of
> new defense technologies and surveillance capabilities, new modalities
> employed by
> intelligence actors, differences in addressing disinformation vs. state
> propaganda, etc.)
> How can we best conceptualize security and security governance in the
> current European
> context, and in relation to foreign interference? (conceptual discussions
> on ontological
> security, logics of risk/resilience/security, concepts of total defense,
> comprehensive
> security, but also papers drawing on innovative insights from psychology,
> neuroscience,
> policing, intelligence analysis). What are the implications of the
> changing security
> context for the legitimacy of security actors in Europe? Who should engage
> in cognitive
> resilience practices? (The EU vs. NATO, member states vs. EU institutions,
> military/intelligence agencies vs. researchers or journalists, ‘coalitions
> of the willing’,
> regional vs. local, public vs. private actors, etc.)
>
> If you are interested in joining in, please send a few short lines
> summarizing your potential paper topic to *hedvig.orden at svet.lu.se
> <hedvig.orden at svet.lu.se>* no later than *November 27th.*
>
> All the best,
> Hedvig
>