Category: Publications

Special Forum ‘Ritual Action in World Politics’ published in the Global Studies Quarterly (OUP)

The team of ERC Ritual Deterrence and the extended academic family of the project have published a Special Forum entitled ‘Ritual Action in World Politics’ in vol 6, no. 1 (January issue) of the International Studies Association’s fully open access journal Global Studies Quarterly, published by Oxford University Press. The forum was guest edited by Maria Mälksoo.

The Special Forum comprises of 13 articles:

  1. Maria Mälksoo (University of Copenhagen): The Logic of Ritual Action in International Relations, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag014
  2. Jorg Kustermans (University of Antwerp): Is Ritual a Useful Resource? Instrumental and Non-Instrumental Interpretations of Ritual Action, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag013
  3. Kjølv Egeland (NORSAR): Rituals in Nuclear Statecraft: Conjuring Conformity, Cohesion, and Cooperation, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag017
  4. Cameron Hunter (University of Copenhagen): Ritualized Coordination in the PLA Rocket Force: Nuclear Deterrence, Control, and Sacrifice, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag018
  5. Mariia Vladymyrova (University of Copenhagen): A Show of Force: The Ritualization of Russian Strategic Posturing in the Baltic Sea, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag012
  6. Amir Lupovici (Tel Aviv University): The War in Ukraine: Deterrence, Rituals, and Ontological Security, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag016
  7. Andrew R. Hom (University of Edinburgh): Ritual Wartiming in Russia’s Three-day Special Military Operation, 2022-2025: “Everyone Must Feel Mobilized”, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag020
  8. Vanessa F. Newby (Monash University) and Chiara Ruffa (Sciences Po, Paris): Rituals without Rapprochement? Managing Hostility at the Tripartite Meetings in the United Nations Mission in Lebanon, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag019
  9. Juha A. Vuori (University of Turku): Review as Ritual: Maintaining and Disrupting Nuclear Deterrence through the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Review Process, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag021
  10. Thierry Balzacq (Sciences Po, Paris): Diplomatic Order: The Problem of Ritual Efficacy in International Relations, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag023
  11. Thomas Fraise (University of Copenhagen): The Magicians of Nuclear Strategy: Ritualized Knowledge Production and the Origins of Strategic Nuclear Thought, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag015
  12. Christian Bueger (University of Copenhagen): Sites of Ritualized Practice: Observations from Multi-National Military Gatherings and Naval Symposiums, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag022
  13. Dorothy Noyes (Ohio State University): Ritual and the Life of International Orders, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksag024

Conclusion to Critical Perspectives on NATO: Feminist Insights (Bristol UP, 2026)

Russian Fisheries in the High North: Deterrence in the Grey Zone

A Show of Force: The Ritualization of Russian Strategic Posturing in the Baltic Sea

Rituals in Nuclear Statecraft: Conjuring Conformity, Cohesion, and Cooperation

Ritualized Coordination in the PLA Rocket Force: Nuclear Deterrence, Control, and Sacrifice

The Magicians of Nuclear Strategy: Ritualized Knowledge Production and the Origins of Strategic Nuclear Thought

The Logic of Ritual Action in International Relations

NATO Pirates in the Baltic Sea? Lawfare in Russian Deterrence Strategy

The chapter “NATO Pirates in the Baltic Sea? Lawfare in Russian Deterrence Strategy” explores how lawfare has become integral to Russia’s coercive signaling strategies. Mariia examines the escalating piracy rhetoric employed by Russian officials in response to European states’ detention of shadow fleet vessels suspected of damaging undersea infrastructure in the Baltic. This narrative reveals how the Kremlin appropriates the authority of international law to achieve strategic ends. By characterizing European navies as pirates—against whom international law grants any state universal jurisdiction—Moscow effectively threatens European navies with escalation and legitimizes potential use of force.

Please find the full text available in open access on the official page of the Russia Conference at the Baltic Defense College.

 

Resilience is the New Black: NATO in and Beyond the Grey Zone

The trope of resilience has emerged as a staple in NATO’s grappling with the many hybrid challenges it is currently facing both in the so-called grey zone of coercion, below the threshold of traditionally conceived violent attacks, and beyond. NATO’s coming to terms with the hybrid challenges through the past decade has been persistent, if somewhat piecemeal. There was a notable delay in recognising the nature and scope of the threat posed by Russia up until its brazen full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 on behalf of the North Atlantic allies. NATO’s framing of the Russia-challenge as primarily “hybrid” was paralysing the Alliance’s strategic diagnosis of its historical antagonist’s revisionist ambitions too long, thus delimiting the Alliance’s readiness and response to such a large-scale conventional challenge, at a tragic expense of Ukrainian lives. As the continuum between resilience and traditionally conceived deterrence by denial is shrinking, NATO’s tailorship of effective countermeasures to complex modern threats and challenges in and beyond the grey zone can only benefit from embracing resilience thinking, with an emphasis on anticipation, creative and flexible adaptation and the inclusivity of diverse decision-makers.

 

Resilience as Deterrence