In December, 2023, NISA welcomed 17 early career researchers from several different Nordic institutions to its first NISA Young Scholar Symposium. The Symposium was targeted for PhDs, Post Docs, and research assistants to tackle crucial issues pertaining to European security following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Symposium participants represented key research institutions in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland and included several Ukrainian researchers based in these institutions. 

On day one, NISA President Professor Nina Græger gave an opening address to welcome the Symposium participants. This was followed by a keynote speech by NISA Executive Board Member Professor Rebecca Adler-Nissen on Russia and the Challenges to the International Order: Authoritarian Disinformation and Struggles for Recognition followed by Q & A. Both Græger and Adler-Nissen participated in the different workshop sessions during day one. 

On day two of the Symposium, Executive Director of the Danish Refugee Council Eva Grambye delivered a keynote, focusing on the continuous, intricate humanitarian challenges of the ongoing war in Ukraine as well as providing a comprehensive examination of the politics affecting the ability of NGOs to provide sufficient aid. 

Please see the full program here.

The Symposium was structured around feedback workshop sessions, allowing the participants to share valuable feedback on each other’s ongoing work. The participants were divided into three groups (1: Institutional responses, 2: Narratives and hybrid warfare, and 3: Materiality and militarization) based on the topics of their respective pre-distributed papers.

Topics of the submitted papers included:

• The impact of Russia’s war of aggression on European foreign, security, and defense policies and strategies
• Development of European security and defense cooperation in response to the war, including the role of the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• The significance of arms control agreements in upholding European security and their potential adaptations in response to recent developments
• Dynamics of energy security and the implications arising from Russia’s actions on the energy supply landscape of Europe
• Human rights violations, civilian protection and the challenges in safeguarding human rights in the aftermath of the conflict
• The role of international criminal justice mechanisms in addressing potential war crimes and violations of international law
• Competing narratives surrounding the war, especially in terms of misinformation strategies, postcolonial perspectives, and the growing influence of Big Tech and artificial intelligence

NISA thanks the participants for engaging meaningfully with these topics and the work of their peers, and Olivia Hammershøy for taking a major role in organizing the Symposium. The NISA Executive Committee aims at repeating the success to strengthen the Nordic academic community and research on issues of special importance to the Nordic region and Europe at large.