Illusions of Autonomy: Why Europe Cannot Provide for Its Security If the United States Pulls Back

Europe’s security landscape has changed dramatically in the past decade amid Russia’s resurgence, mounting European doubts about the long-term reliability of the U.S. security commitment, and Europe’s growing aspiration for strategic autonomy. Could Europeans develop an autonomous defense capacity if the United States withdrew completely from Europe?

On Russian strategy in the social media battlefield

Malign manipulation of the information environment is an urgent security threat facing western democracies. This talk examines why and how state and nonstate actors have harnessed emerging technologies – social media platforms in particular – to shape the information environment for strategic ends. Weaponization of disinformation is neither new nor warfare in the traditional sense, but digital aspects in particular have confounded western efforts to manage it.

Bastián González-Bustamante

I am completing my DPhil (PhD) dissertation in the Department of Politics and International Relations and St Hilda’s College at the University of Oxford. Before starting the DPhil in October 2019, I earned an MA (1st) in Political Science and a BA (2:1) in Government, both from the Universidad de Chile. Moreover, I served as a lecturer at the Universidad de Santiago and Universidad de Chile and as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Broderick McDonald

Broderick McDonald is an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) and a DPhil Candidate in the Department of Politics & International Relations at the University of Oxford where he researches conflict, extremism, and political violence. Broderick previously served as a Policy Advisor to the Government of Canada and a researcher with the Non-Partisan Parliamentary Group for Genocide Prevention. Outside of this, he is a Postgraduate Researcher at the Rothermere American Institute and a Rising Leaders Fellow with the Aspen Institute.

Matthew Hepplewhite

I am a doctoral student at Merton College. I am researching the kind of people (in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, with a particular focus on education, former occupation, and class) who act as politicians in modern Britain, testing whether they are the kind of people whom Britons want to act as their representatives (at the experimental and electoral levels), and exploring what British politicians publicise - and don't publicise - about themselves with regard to the sociodemographic characteristics listed above.

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