Past event: ‘high North Conference, January 2023’
Organisers: University of St Andrews & SCGA
Academic experts, politicians & business leaders attended St Andrews SCGA conference event, among them SCoGA’s own Phillips O’Brien, Professor of Strategic Studies, University of St Andrews, and Juliet Kaarbo, Professor of Foreign Policy, Politics & International Relations, University of Edinburgh.
The event was held in January 2023 and you can see some thoughts from participants in the video below.
In the video, Phillips O’Brien talks about how the Russia-Ukraine war has changed European security in many areas, and Juliet Kaarbo touches on how the conference aimed to be somewhat distinct from traditional London-based think-tank events.
Professor Caroline Kennedy-Pipe, Professor of International Security at Loughborough University talks on increasing knowledge of current thinking on the Arctic post Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; Minna Ålander, a research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs observes that this was an important initiative looking to establish further connections between Scotland and Nordic countries at a time of great flux in European security; Paal Sigurd Hilde, Associate Professor, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies observes that attendees are from very diverse backgrounds, looking at things like business strategy and cultural perspectives, interesting in going beyond ‘hard-core’ security and International Relations perspectives.
In closing, Phillips O’Brien goes on to explain how issues pertaining to governance of the ‘high north’ cross many boundaries, from environment to sustainability through to how NATO will protect waters, and that the University of St Andrews, notwithstanding its comparatively small size, is extremely well-placed in terms of expertise to host such a conference.
We produced an ‘Insight’ document entitled ‘Implications of the Russo-Ukraine war for security in the ‘wider north’ of Europe.’ which can be downloaded here below.
Lastly you can listen to Philipps and Minna on our Podcast here.
SCGA Co-Director Phillips O’Brien speaks with Minna Ålander of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs on the implications of the Russo-Ukraine War for the Security in the “Wider North” of Europe.
