Month: March 2025

Thinking Big: Ritual Deterrence seminar at Lund

Prof. Maria Mälksoo presented her work in progress in the ‘Thinking Big’ seminar series, organised by the Global Europe & International Cooperation Research Group of the Centre for Modern European Studies (CEMES), Lund University. This series is a cross-strait collaborative venture between the Universities of Lund, Copenhagen and Malmö.

Her presentation ‘The Logic of Ritual Action in International Relations’ was followed by the interventions of four discussants:

Elsa Hedling, Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology, Lund University
Haakon Ikonomou, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen
Michel Anderlini, Department of Political Science, Malmö University

Marja-Liisa Öberg, Faculty of Law, Lund University

Ritual Deterrence Team at the ISA2025

Cameron Hunter and Maria Mälksoo participated in the 66th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA) in Chicago, US on 2-5 March 2025. Dr Hunter chaired the panel ‘Making Deterrence Possible: Rituals and Narratives in the Study of Deterrence’ and presented his work on interaction ritual chains in US-China nuclear politics therein. He further served as a chair and discussant of the panel on ‘Automated World-Making: Ethics, Culture, and Artificial Intelligence’, and presented a paper on ‘Cynicism and Nationalism in Contemporary Chinese Nuclear Pop Culture’.

Prof. Mälksoo convened a panel ‘Ritual Realms and Repertoires in World Politics’ which brought together a number of contributions for the forthcoming special issue of the project. She presented a paper ‘Deterrence at Arm’s Length: NATO and the Russian War on Ukraine’, and contributed to three roundtables: on ‘The Mnemonic Turn in IR’; ‘Honouring Stefano Guzzini as Global International Relations Section (GIRS) Distinguished Scholar’, and ‘Critical Perspectives on NATO’.