How to Be Prepared? Governance for Societal Resilience in the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe

With the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, building societal resilience to hybrid and conventional security threats to the Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe became ever more topical.

Societal resilience describes the ability of communities and institutions to withstand shocks and continue functioning under high-security threats.

This conference will provide a unique forum for scholars and practitioners from the Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe to reflect on the region’s preparedness to deal with hybrid threats, such as disinformation and propaganda, damage to critical physical and virtual infrastructure, and traditional warfare.

The conference will contribute to academic debates about forms, structures and processes of coordination between governmental and non-governmental actors (governance modes) that support societal resilience to hybrid security threats.

The conference will open opportunities for cross-national research collaborations and the transfer of practical knowledge around societal resilience, thus, contributing to regional integration.

Conference outputs include a keynote address about Ukraine’s extraordinary resilience, a special issue in an academic journal on governance for societal resilience in the region, and a policy brief for the Swedish Institute for International Affairs.