The UiT Centre for Peace Studies proudly hosts the 9th biennial conference on 2-4. September 2015:
THE FRAMING OF EUROPE: Peace Perspectives on Europe’s Future
Deadline Registration: August 26th 2015. Delegate Fee: 100 €, Conference Dinner: 40 €
NB! Video stream available in our programme
Final deadline for submission of abstracts was on June 10th 2015. Participants without paper presentations are also welcome to register.
THE FRAMING OF EUROPE: Peace Perspectives on Europe’s Future
European political agenda today is scene of discussions on the increasing risk of sliding back to a revived Cold War, as relations between Russia and the West deteriorate over the Ukraine situation. This poses a serious challenge to peace in both Europe and the world at large. Simultaneously, there are latent threats of violence both in Europe and its environs, such as terrorism; securitization of politics; corruption; rising authoritarianism and limitation of the free flow of information; as well as more general trends of a recent worldwide surge in rearmament and the realization of how socio-economic inequalities on hamper Peace.
Thus, problems are piling up in Europe, as well as between Europe and its neighbors. In Europe, high employment rates, increasing economic and regional disparity, poverty, and social unrest are imminent issues. Fused with nationalistic, ethnic, religious and linguistic catalytic forces, they make out the potential of reinforcing threats to political-economic stability, human security and sustainable peace. On Europe’s southern and Eastern flanks, political turmoil, insurgencies, wars, social movements and big- power interventions in the post-Soviet space, the Middle East and North Africa, cause revived security dilemmas, increasing arms build-up and an increasing flow of refugees. These issues challenge the frames of Europe, as well as how Europe will be framed in the years to come.
Addressing the visible and invisible frames: How tensions in Europe and Europe’s flanks can be reduced; how rearmament can be replaced with disarmament; how the refugee problem can be solved in tandem with Europe’s economic and social crisis; how we can secure human rights and human security in the process; and how all this can be done with a view to ecological security, sustainable development and global and/or local practices of good governance, are the true research challenges in the hands of peace researchers today. The European Peace Research Association (EuPRA) invites scholars, practitioners and scholar-practitioners who are interested in these questions to its 9th biennial conference in September 2-4. 2015. This time EuPRA travels to Europe’s northwest Tromsø, right above the Arctic circle in Norway, showing its determination to cover and carry peace issues to be discussed wherever possible: north and south, east and west.
We welcome all kinds of papers and presentations concerning peace in Europe and its neighborhood. The following is a list of suggested topics:
- Europe’s role in the world: Past, present, and future.
- World system transformation between war and peace: Europe’s perspectives.
- State-minority relations, cross-border issues, and “irredentist” problematic.
- Border issues: Visible and invisible borders, mobility, border regimes.
- Conflict resolution and conflict transformation: State of the art, and new developments.
- Social movements in and around Europe, state and civil society in times of conflict.
- RMA (Revolution of Military Affairs), arms control, arms build-up and disarmament in, and around Europe.
- Destruction, control, and (non)-proliferation of WMDs and conventional weapons
- Military expenditure, arms business and dual use
- DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration) and restorative justice after violence/violent conflict.
- Post 2008 Peace Economics in/for Europe: Inequality, (un)employment, social-political unrest and peace in Europe.
- How to pay for peace? A dilemma of policy choice.
- EU and Eurasia Integration Project: New Edition of the East-West Conflict?
- Arctic as the new space for cooperation vs. competition.
- Expanding challenges in the Middle East: What Europe can and cannot do?
- Evolutionary and other long-term perspectives on war and peace/violence and nonviolence
- The psychology of war, peace and reconciliation.
- International law and humanitarian law.
- Peace education.
- Peace and freedom of information: Journalism, the internet, and peace.
- Peace movements and peace organizations.
- The relation between peace research and development research
- The role of arts and literature in peace building and peace education.
- The role of religion, secularism and atheism in violent conflict and peace.
- Peace and technology
- The impact of climate change on conflict and Peace.
Interested participants have the option of suggesting new panels or sessions.
The 9th EuPRA Conference will be hosted by the Center for Peace Studies at the UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø.
Sincerely,
Dr. Itır Toksöz, President – EuPRA
