In times of multiple crises, European institutions and states are emphasising the EU’s role as a security guarantor for its citizens in order to strengthen the solidarity and cohesion within and among states.
Since February 2021, the project network ZUSE, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), has been researching on how and to what extent security is establishing itself as a new guiding narrative of European integration and how this translates into everyday practices and experiences and what consequences are linked to it. Thereto, the project partners analyse speeches from the European Parliament, interview bureaucrats in Brussels or conduct field research in Greece and the Republic of Moldova. That shows, for example, how the perceptions of the EU as security guarantor have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic or how reactions to Ukrainian refugees in Moldova differ from dealing with refugee migration in the Mediterranean.
In August, project coordinator Dr Hendrik Hegemann presented the project and its interim results in an interview with Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). You can find the full article (in German) here.
The acronym ZUSE Stands for „ Solidarity through Security? Discourses, Interactions and Practices of European Solidarity in the Field of Security”. The project partners are, beside the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH), the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg. For further information on ZUSE please visit the project’s website.