Europe’s historical legacies and current security challenges

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

This International Relations Working Group hosts a presentation by Kathrin Bachleitner (University of Salzburg).

In the aftermath of World War II, European integration emerged as a response to the continent’s conflict-ridden past. However, Europe’s legacy of war continues to shape European politics to this day. This talk explores the impact of historical legacies on contemporary security challenges, including the 2015 refugee crisis and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. It examines how these legacies are defined, measured, and persistently influence present-day politics, underscoring their pivotal role in hindering consensus among EU member states.

Speaker bio:

Kathrin Bachleitner is a senior scientist at the University of Salzburg. Her research focuses on International Relations and the EU. Her academic and teaching activities include international politics, global security, and diplomacy, with an emphasis on the external relations between the EU and the Middle East. She focuses on collective identities, historical memory, legacies of war, and the experience of social trauma in the aftermath of conflict and displacement. She has published her research findings in the monograph 'Collective Memory in International Relations' (Oxford University Press 2021). She is also the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications in world-leading IR journals such as International Security, Review of International Studies, Cooperation and Conflict, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Journal of Peace Research. Equally, she is the editor of a special issue on the consequences of war and displacement in Syria published in Nations and Nationalism.

The Zoom link will be sent upon registration.