What are the incentives for national authorities to cooperate around hazardous substances and is the participation for some conditioned on the exclusion of others?
What role can volunteerism in fire-fighting and rescue operations play in making the inhabitants in the Baltic Sea Region more resilient?
Is the idea of a special sense of belonging to the Baltic Sea Region a romantic myth that does not make sense in a globalized world or is it an asset we should nurture and value much more?
In a hands-on, interactive workshop at the CBSS Secretariat, students from universities in the BSR addressed these questions, and various other challenging issues relevant for societal security cooperation in the region. On 11 June, the workshop included a group of doctoral students from Södertörn University enrolled in the summer course “Populism and Radical Politics, Across East and West, Right and Left”. On 13 June, the turn had come to Uppsala University’s summer school “War and Peace Journalism in an Age of Instability”, including students from both the bachelor and master levels.
The study visit at the CBSS Secretariat was part of the summer schools’ programmes to give a deeper understanding of how an intergovernmental organisation in the BSR works with issues related to security. The workshops provided practical training in addressing current issues in civil security cooperation, and the students were tasked with providing concrete solutions and recommendations, both to practitioners and the policy level.
The courses at Södertörn and Uppsala University were organised in collaboration with the CBSS, within the framework of the CBSS Summer University. The CBSS Summer University is an annual summer school concept, hosted by one or more universities in the Baltic Sea Region. The Summer Universities offer a unique platform to exchange knowledge, build networks and find joint solutions for challenges of the future. The CBSS Summer University is one of the formats to reach the goal of building collaboration and trust in the Baltic Sea Region.
Photos from the workshops can be found on our Flickr page.