Within the context of modernity and globalisation, this research project investigates the processes by which governance arises in territories subjected to illicit forms of social order that contest state sovereignty and authority. Drawing from recursive theoretical and empirical research rooted in the ‘abductive’ method of Pragmatism, the analysis has three principal objectives: First, it offers a different conceptual approach by moving away from negative categorisation of the phenomena, e.g.

Allison Stanger is the Russell Leng ’60 Professor of International Politics and Economics and founding director of the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs at Middlebury College. She is the author of 'One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy' and the forthcoming 'Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Leaks: The Story of Whistleblowing in America', both with Yale University Press. She is working on a new book tentatively titled 'Consumers vs. Citizens: How the Internet Revolution is Remaking Global Security and Democracy’s Public Square'.

Talks by Oliver Daddow, University of Nottingham and Christopher Gifford, University of Huddersfield

This presentation by Paul Timmers and debate with James Morrison will investigate whether EU cybersecurity policy provides an effective response to the growing call for strengthening sovereignty. The debate on sovereignty is heating up across the world, nationally and certainly also in Europe. The recent State of the Union of President Juncker of the European Commission carried the headline “The Hour of European Sovereignty.” Sovereignty is threatened by a confluence of increasing international tensions, growing dependency on digital technologies, and mounting cyber-threats and cybercrime.

The United States government has described the intent to "defend forward" against continuing espionage, disruption, and destructive intrusion campaigns executed by hostile actors in cyberspace. This defense concept will reportedly leverage cyber capabilities and other response options to blunt ongoing threats through action in gray space, closer to hostile systems and networks.