Category: News

Maria Mälksoo at the ‘European Deterrence in the Third Nuclear Age’ Workshop, 19-21 November 2025

Prof. Mälksoo participated in the workshop ‘European Deterrence in the Third Nuclear Age’ at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, UK on 19- 21 November 2025. The workshop was organised by the ERC Third Nuclear Age Project and the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg.

The workshop brought together 30 academics and policy practitioners working on nuclear and conventional deterrence issues across Europe for discussions and a European deterrence simulation game.

 

 

 

 

Cameron Hunter comments on China’s space debris incident for Al Jazeera News

In the past week, China’s crewed space program experienced an incident involving a small piece of space debris. The capsule used to return the astronauts was damaged, and so the mission directors took the decision to keep the crew in orbit while an alternative plan was put into action.

Dr Cameron Hunter was asked by Al Jazeera news to comment on the unfolding story, and was featured on the news segment. The item is available to watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJd7eKYaoYA.

Cameron Hunter at the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium Conference

Dr Cameron Hunter contributed to the EU’s Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium Conference held in Brussels. He chaired a panel on ‘East Asia’s Strategic Landscape: Power Dynamics and Regional Dialogue’, bringing together experts from China, Japan and Australia.

The UN, NATO, IAEA, European Commission, EEAS and many thinktanks were all represented at the conference.

Maria Mälksoo’s invited lecture ‘The Baltic Way of Deterrence’ in the Indiana University Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center lecture series ‘Security across Central Eurasia in the 21st Century: From the Baltic Sea to the Mongolian Steppe’

Prof. Maria Mälksoo gave an invited talk ‘The Baltic Way of Deterrence’ in the Indiana University Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center (IAUNRC) lecture series ‘Security across Central Eurasia in the 21st Century: From the Baltic Sea to the Mongolian Steppe’ on 12 November 2025 on Zoom.

This lecture focused on the Baltic ways of practicing deterrence since Russia’s annexation of Crimea: notably in shaping NATO’s deterrence posture in the alliance’s eastern flank, on the one hand, and through the diplomatic pursuits for post-war accountability for Russia and justice for Ukraine, on the other.

Maria Mälksoo featured in the Exciting Minds Exhibition by the Estonian Research Council

Prof. Maria Mälksoo and the RITUAL DETERRENCE project are featured in the exhibition ‘Exciting Minds’, initiated by the Estonian Research Council, and featuring the researchers from Estonia who have been awarded grants by the European Research Council (ERC).

See here.

Prof. Mälksoo’s MAPIR Keynote at the University of Tübingen

Prof. Maria Mälksoo gave an invited lecture to the students and academic staff of the MAPIR (Master in Peace Research and International Relations) programme, Department of Political Science, University of Tübingen on 5 November 2025. The keynote was titled ‘Peacetiming for Future Deterrence’.

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Maria Mälksoo presents her book project at Stockholm University

Prof. Mälksoo presented her book project, ‘Ritual Deterrence: All Unquiet on the Eastern Front’ at the Higher Research Seminar, Department of Political Science, Stockholm University on 29 October 2025.

 

Cameron Hunter speaks at UK MoD Outer Space Security and KU PLA Conferences

Last week, Dr Cameron Hunter of the RITUAL DETERRENCE project spoke at two conferences. The first was a closed event sponsored by the UK Ministry of Defence on security in outer space, including deterrence. NATO, China, and to a lesser extent Russia, all utilise space for military purposes in both peace and wartime. Dr Hunter’s previous research was on US-China competition in orbit, with a more recent report on space-based nuclear weapons delivery vehicles. The conference was held under the Chatham House Rule.

The second event was held at Copenhagen University, sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Defence’s Centre for Military Studies. Bringing together international experts, the conference collectively compared the defence budgets of the US and China. Dr Hunter provided comments for Dr Jingdong Yuan’s lecture on the topic, and joined the plenary session at the end of the day to reflect on implications for the future.

Maria Mälksoo’s Keynote at the ‘Empires’ conference, University of Navarra

Prof. Mälksoo gave a keynote ‘Russia’s Existential Imperialism at War in Ukraine’ at the conference ‘Empires: Experience, Memory and Idea’, organised by the Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain on 2 October 2025. The conference examined the interplay between imperial histories and contemporary memory politics, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue.

The conference programme is available here.

 

Mariia Vladymyrova presents at NUPI IR Theory Conference 2025

22-24 September Mariia Vladymyrova joined the inaugural NUPI IR Theory Conference in Oslo.

Throughout three days and six panels scholars from Europe, North and South America shared their ideas on the relevance and pathways forward for constructivist theory amid increasingly assertive global competition and challenges such as climate change.

Mariia contributed to the panel on “Constructivism and Violence.” She presented an early draft of one of her dissertation projects’ chapters theorizing lawfare as means of ritualized coercive signaling, and looking into Russian approaches to lawfare within the framework of international laws governing peace- and wartime conduct at sea.