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Maritime Expert Seminar in Helsinki | 12/16/2011
Patricia Schneider participated as discussant in the „Maritime Expert Seminar“. The seminar took place in Helsinki, Finland, 12-15 December 2011. The framework was the Multinational Experiment 7, Access to the Global commons“ on invitation of German, American and Finnish Armed Forces. The goal was to discuss und further develop the „Maritime Security Regime Concept: Supporting Partnerships to ensure access in the Maritime Domain“.
International Workshop: The `Dark´ Side of Normative Argumentation in Counterterrorism | 11/22/2011
From the 18th to the 19th of November 2011, the Centre for European Peace and Security Studies (ZEUS) at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg hosted the international workshop “The `Dark´ Side of Normative Argumentation”. This workshop was conducted within the framework of the project “Subjecting Freedom”, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The event brought together 14 researchers and experts from universities and research institutions in Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, and Germany. They discussed the role of language and argumentation in relation to the fight against terrorism.
Panel I reflected on theoretical and methodological aspects of normative argumentation of state actors in the area of counterterrorism. Panel II examined legitimising arguments of the “War on Terrorism” as well as the legitimisation of torture and torture-like measures. Panel III compared the argumentations of state actors in different states (United States, Great Britain, Russia). Panel IV focused on the consequences of normative argumentation in the area of counterterrorism for the validity of internationally accepted human rights norms.
In a concluding roundtable discussion, the participants summarised the results of the workshop and discussed perspectives for further cooperation and networking.
Presentation at PRIF-Workshop on Global Crime Governance | 11/08/2011
Patricia Schneider took part in a workshop organized by PRIF and the cluster of excellence “Normative Orders” at the Goethe University Frankfurt/Main from November 4-5, 2011. She presented the topic “The Transnational Governance of Maritime Security”. The theme of the workshop was „The Transnational Governance of Violence and Crime“ and it focused on the role of non-state actors.
American Student’s Group visit IFSH | 11/08/2011
Patricia Schneider presented the IFSH to an American student’s group from the University Studies Abroad Consortium, Lüneburg Program. The visit took place within the framework of a seminar conducted by Sybille Reinke de Buitrago “International Affairs since 1945” on the 8th of November 2011. Mrs. Schneider gave an introduction to the work of the IFSH and gave a presentation on maritime security.
Combating Piracy Week, London | 11/02/2011
Kerstin Petretto represented the IFSH and the PiraT-project at the Combating Piracy Week in London, organized by Hanson and Wade from 18.-20. October 2011 in London. The conference brought together representatives from Puntland State of Somalia including President Farole, the UN, the EU, the International Contact Group on Piracy off the Somali Coast, Flag States, as well as the Maritime Industry to discuss most pressing challenges in the fight against piracy.
Conference on Piracy at Sea in Malmo | 11/01/2011
Patricia Schneider represented the IFSH and the PiraT-project at the International Conference on Piracy at Sea (“ICOPAS 2011”) conducted by the World Maritime University together with the International Maritime Organization (IMO). It took place in Malmo, Sweden on October 17-19.
EU Security Governance in the Post-National Constellation. International Workshop at IFSH | 10/05/2011
From 29-30 September the Centre for European Peace and Security Studies of the IFSH with financial support from the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation organized an international workshop on “EU Security Governance in the Post-National Constellation: Conceptual, Empirical and Practical Challenges”. The event brought together 25 scholars and experts from universities, think-tanks, and EU institutions to discuss conceptual perspectives, empirical developments and practical-normative problems of EU security governance. In a first step, two conceptual panels dealt with the state of the scholarly debate on the concept of security governance and potential trade-offs of post-national security policy as well as with specific manifestations of security governance in the EU and in comparison to other regions. The next three panels scrutinized concrete characteristics and problems of EU security governance in counterterrorism, the comprehensive approach in CSDP operations, and member states’ implementation of the whole-of-government approach. The concluding roundtable debated the conceptual and practical relevance and appropriateness of EU security governance on the basis of the foregoing discussions.
Workshop Programme
"The subjective dimension of Russia’s partnership with the West" - International workshop with researchers from Russia, the U.S. and the EU at IFSH | 09/17/2011
Russia continues to be an important partner for the West: the country is an essential pillar of the European political and security architecture, a key international player and is also of growing importance as an economic partner. For the West, it is crucial to understand Russia’s interests and motivations as an actor in this relationship as well as Russian behavior as a respondent to demands, interests and actions from the West. Such an understanding is, however, often lacking, particularly because the micro-foundations of Russian foreign policy behavior are not always clear.
Together with its partners from the University of Frankfurt and Tampere University (Finland) IFSH conducted a workshop entitled „The subjective dimension of Russia’s partnership with the West. Filling theoretical and empirical voids“. The two-day workshop (15 and 16 September 2011) brought together 20 researchers from Russia, the EU and the U.S. and from different disciplines (political science, sociology, history, psychology) in order to discuss the micro-foundations of Russian foreign policy and its repercussions on the dynamic and quality on the Russian-Western partnership. Because what looks like contradictory, ambivalent, costly and sometimes even risky political behavior in the relations with the West, can in many instances be understood as a consequence of a subjective rationality. Such a subjective rationality can analytically be captured with psychologically inspired research approaches.
Since a coherent or single theoretical or analytical framework does not yet exist, it has been the aim of the workshop to identify the empirical and theoretical voids in key assumptions of the established approaches, to fill these voids by offering alternative concepts and to develop more tailored explanations, particularly with the help of psychological thinking. Issues discussed throughout the workshop included the role of emotions, social identity, status, respect claims and perceptions in Russian foreign policy, as well as the influence of collective memories and the function of “history politics”. In the final roundtable, such well-respected researchers like the Russia expert Richard Sakwa (UK), Finnish political advisor Hiski Haukkala, and the Political Psychologists Mark Urnov (Russia) assessed the importance of subjectivity for analyzing Russian Foreign policy. Finally, Deborah Welch Larson (U.S.) commented on the value of the papers and presentations for developing further a political psychology of international relations.
PiraT is BMBF-project of the month in June, 2011 | 06/06/2011
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Workshop: Russian Policy and Foreign Policy Driven by What? Emotions versus Interests | 29/05/2011
On 25 May 2011, Regina Heller participated in a workshop in Helsinki entitled "Russian Policy and Foreign Policy Driven by
What? Emotions versus Interests". The workshop was organized by the Aleksanderi-Institute of the Helsinki University. Together with a number of experts from Europe and the US, Regina Heller presented her concepts and approaches to the analysis of subjective factors and emotions. The panelists discussed their views on the interaction between interests and emotions in Russian (Foreign) policy with other experts and policy-makers from the Finnish government.
Annual Convention of the International Studies Association in Montreal | 24/03/2011
From February 16 to 19, seven ZEUS staff members attended the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA) in Montreal. With several thousand participants, the ISA is the world’s largest conference in the field of international relations. This year the IFSH organized three panels: Martin Kahl und Daniela Pisoiu on ‘Subjecting Freedom. Counterterrorism vs. Human Rights’, Kerstin Petretto und Patricia Schneider on ‘Governance Offshore. Ever Thought about It?’, and Hendrik Hegemann together with Peter Romaniuk from the City University of New York on ‘Theorizing Counterterrorism Cooperation. International Institutions, International Relations Theory, and the Fight against Terrorism’. Isabelle Maras and Johann Schmid as well attended the conference. Overall, ZEUS staff members presented four papers:
Hendrik Hegemann: Governing the Fight against Terrorism. Comprehensive Counterterrorism Cooperation and the Contested Agency of International Organizations
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Isabelle Maras: Promoting Interests over Values? The Case of the CSDP-Supported Police Reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Daniela Pisoiu: More Security for Less Liberty? Arguing for Counterterrorism Measures. A Comparative Study
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Patricia Schneider: Maritime Terrorism – Laughable or Dangerous? The Challenge of Evaluating Maritime Terrorism. Attacks, Scenarios and Defensive Measures
ISA 2011 Paper Archive
Workshop on EU Security Governance | 02/07/2011
The University of Hamburg and the IFSH organized a public workshop on EU Security Governance on 4 February 2011. Hannes Hansen-Magnusson (Hamburg University) chaired the first panel that dealt with two papers: „European Union Foreign Policy Practices: Enacting Normative Meaning-in-Use Internationally“ by Antje Wiener (Hamburg University) and Uwe Puetter (Central European University) and “Normalizing Difference? Exploring the Civil-Military Interface within CSDP“ by Maren Hofius (Hamburg University). Shazia Aziz-Wülbers (Hamburg University) commented. The second panel chaired by Torsten Geise (GIGA) dealt with three papers. First Regina Heller and Martin Kahl (both IFSH) presented „EU External Security Governance – Non-hierarchical and Effective?“. Then Hendrik Hegemann (IFSH) talked on the topic „Between Great Transformation and Politics as Usual: Mapping Formal and Informal Security Governance in Post 9/11-EU Counterterrorism Cooperation” and Isabelle Maras (IFSH) on „Governing EU-Police Reform: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo”. The workshop closed with a stock-taking panel discussion. Under the chairmanship of Antje Wiener (Hamburg University ) Michael Brzoska (IFSH), Hans-Georg Ehrhart (IFSH) and Uwe Puetter (CEU) held a debate on the developments in Egypt and the role of the EU.
Joint conference of the IFSH and the Evangelic Academy of Loccum on the Comprehensive Approach | 12/07/2010
From 3 to 5 December 2010 the IFSH and the Evangelical Academy of Loccum held an international conference entitled “Development with steel helmet? Comprehensive civil and military planning for peace and stability in crisis areas”. Fifty participants discussed problems and perspectives of the comprehensive approach in six panels. Dr Hans-Georg Ehrhart (Head of Center for European Peace and Security Studies at the IFSH) and Markus Gauster (Austrian Defence Academy, Vienna) introduced in the topic with two presentations on the comprehensive approach. In the second panel Colonel Meyer zum Felde (German Militay Academy) dealt with the German approach while Timo Christians (Deutsche Welthungerhilfe) highlighted problematic aspects from a civil society perspective. In the third panel Dr Finn Stepputat (Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen) and Daniel Korski (European Council on Foreign Relations, London) gave talks on the Danish and British approaches. Colonel ret. Roland Kaester (Institute for Strategic Prospective Analysis) and Friedrich Däuble (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) gave assessments of the activities of the Department of Civilian Conflict Prevention (Ressortkreis Zivile Krisenprävention). Then Ute Finckh-Kramer (Bund für soziale Verteidigung) gave a critical analysis of the approach of civil-military interaction. The last panel consisted of a panel discussion. Dr Jochen Hippler (INEF), Jürgen Lieser (VENRO), MP Joachim Spatz (Sub-committee Civil Crisis Prevention and Comprehensive Security) and Dr Hans-Georg Ehrart (IFSH) acted as panelists. The conference was moderated by Dr Markus Schaper (Evangelical Academy of Loccum).
Workshop on Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships | 08/13/2010
The IFSH and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) held a workshop dealing with the topic of “Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships” in Berlin on 12 August 2010. Prof. Michael Brzoska (Director IFSH), Dr Hans-Georg Ehrhart (Head ZEUS/IFSH) and Dr Jens Narten (former IFSH rearcher, now GTZ) gave a presentation of the results of the EU sponsored international research project „Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in Post-Conflict Countries. The Role of the EU“. In this project the IFSH was leader of working package 4a on security. During the workshop representatives of the BMZ - partially per video conference with the Bonn part of the ministry - , the KfW and the GTZ discussed questions, problems and opportunities of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in post-conflict settings in general and in the three case studies on Afghanistan, Democratic Republic if Congo and Kosovo in particular.
For information on Multipart see www.multi-part.eu
Kick-Off-Workshop of the Project PiraT at the IFSH | 07/21/2010
The joint research project PiraT, which addresses the topic of piracy and maritime terrorism as a challenge for maritime trade security, is the biggest project so far at the IFSH. On July 6th, the cooperation between the project-partners IFSH, DIW, BLS, TUHH and ISZA was launched through a kick-off-workshop. It addressed administrative questions, answered by the project-executing organization VDI TZ, as well as questions regarding substantial aspects of the project thus paving the way for a smooth continuation of the project in the months to come. The participants especially devoted their attention to the draft paper written beforehand by the IFSH which was represented by Hans-Georg Ehrhart, Patricia Schneider and Kerstin Petretto on this occasion. By focusing on the concept of “security governance” and its application to maritime security, the paper provided a basis for discussion between the participants who analyzed the concept from their discipline’s perspective. Overall, the kick-off-workshop allowed the partners to explore the possibilities of cooperation and to specify the future course of the project. For more information on PiraT, please visit www.maritimesecurity.eu
Research project on piracy and maritime terrorism starts | 07/02/2010
The joint research project “PiraT – Piracy and Maritime Terrorism as a Challenge for Maritime Trade Security” was launched. The project partners are very glad to contribute to the program for civil security. Research involves five most renowned scientific institutes and six associated partners with particular knowledge in practical issues. The Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) granted just under one million Euros for the project group. Please see our press release for details. In case of interest we inform you on a regular basis on the state of affairs. We recommend our newsletter (subscription under: www.maritimesecurity.eu/ ).
Academic Network South East Europe on a Field Trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina | 06/01/2010
Will general elections in October 2010 help Bosnia and Herzegovina to surmount the political deadlock? It is certain that its neighbouring states and the international community play an important role for the stability of the country and that German and European interests do have an influence. To see how under these circumstances a deeper cooperation with three chosen universities in the area of political sciences in Sarajevo and Banja Luka and a joint workshop can be organised, Dr Patricia Schneider and Naida Mehmedbegović travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 25th to 29th May 2010. In order to search for an answer on these and other questions, they consulted among others the representatives of the German Embassy, OSCE, EUFOR, OHR/EUSR, UNDP, International Commission on Missing Persons, Transparency International, Heinrich Böll Foundation, ACIPS, local ministries and scientists within the framework of the GAES-funded project “Academic Network South East Europe”.
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