Centre for Security Research

CeSeR 2026 Annual Conference call for papers



Call for Papers

Centre for Security Research & Foreign Policy Research Group

2026 Annual Conference on May 7th, 2026 in School of Social and Political Sciences – University of Edinburgh

Foreign Policy and Security in Times of Uncertainty

Contemporary international politics is increasingly characterised by uncertainty across multiple, interrelated domains. Areas once considered relatively stable or predictable – such as national security, alliance politics, and international commitments – are now subject to contestation and rapid change. At the same time, emerging challenges, including climate change, artificial intelligence, migration, technological transformation, are reshaping how security is understood, governed, and practiced. Ongoing conflicts, debates surrounding NATO, great power rivalry, and global order further underscore the pervasive and multidimensional nature of uncertainty in today’s world.

CeSeR, in collaboration with the Foreign Policy Research Group, invites contributions for its annual in-person conference, which explores how foreign policy and security are shaped, contested, and enacted in times of uncertainty. We welcome papers from a wide range of theoretical, empirical, and methodological perspectives engaging with foreign policy and security in global, regional, or domestic contexts.

Topics may include, but are not limited to: 

  • Causes, perceptions, and effects of uncertainty in foreign policy and international security

  • International order change, great power rivalry, alliances and security cooperation

  • Changing threat landscapes, AI technologies

  • Intelligence, information, assessment in foreign and security policy 

  • Foreign policy analysis, particularly related to security 

  • Threat perception, (de-)securitisation, and security narratives

  • Identity, roles, and ontological security in foreign and security policy

  • Domestic politics, parliaments, and security commitments

  • Empirical case studies (e.g. Ukraine and Russia, Greenland, the EU, US, China)

If you are interested in presenting, please submit a title, abstract (up to 250 words) and short bio to ceser@ed.ac.uk. The deadline for submissions is Monday, 9 March. Applicants will be notified of the selection outcome the following week.  

If you have any questions related to the conference, please contact the Conference Convenors: Camille Schmitz at camille.schmitz@ed.ac.uk and Ruolan Gan at ruolan.gan@ed.ac.uk