Global Reordering and Regional Security after War in Ukraine: Anglo-German Perspectives

Overview

Date: Jan 10, 2023 – Jan 12, 2023

Organised by: Marc Weller and Antje Wiener

Two intensive workshops on ‘Global Reordering and Regional Security after War in Ukraine: Anglo-German Perspectives’ will be hosted by the University of Hamburg and the University of Cambridge in 2023.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 has evident and profound implications for international security – heralding a phase of order transformation. The Ukraine crisis potentially unhinges assumptions that underpin the cooperative security mechanisms in existence since 1990, or perhaps even since 1945. These workshops will define the scope and agenda for a major collaborative research project between Hamburg and Cambridge, to assess the depth of the crisis confronting the global liberal order, and identify pathways to new sustainable, global and regional security institutions in the future. While the era of Western liberal optimism, heralded by the Agenda for Peace, may be over, there are opportunities for a new global and regional security order after war in Ukraine. What will and should that order look like?

While Germany and the UK are strong supporters of the existing international liberal order, and have closely aligned their defence policies with the Ukrainian war effort, they are confronted by the ambiguous attitudes of China, India, Brazil, and other ‘middle-ground’ states, in relation to the invasion. Given the threat to fundamental assumptions of collective security, such as the prohibition on force, there is an urgent need for German and UK policy-makers to critically re-evaluate what collective security and defence should look like in the future. Brexit makes it especially important for renewal of Anglo-German partnerships in collective security, to reshape the UK’s role in the European security order. A key dimension of Anglo-German relations will be their cooperation in an overlapping constellation of regional organisations, such as the EU, NATO, and the OSCE, and the prospects for reshaping that constellation.

Please find further information on the workshop here.