The 2nd edition of the Annual Conference of the European Doctoral School on the CSDP took place between 6 and 7 April 2023 in the framework of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC). The organiser of the international conference was Professor Anna Molnár.
In his opening speech, Prof Dr Gergely Deli, the rector of the Ludovika-University of Public Service, thanked all the organizers and expressed his gratitude to the ESDC and to the Ministry of Defence for their support and highlighted the importance of cooperation between these institutions. He emphasised that nowadays the fields of security and defence studies and the topic of the conference is more relevant than ever.
Brigadier General Péter Lippai, the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Military Science and Officer Training expressed that “The Doctoral School on CSDP works in close cooperation with the Faculty of Military Science and Officer Training. We strongly believe that the current and future challenges of public service can only be addressed with the active involvement of our experienced friends and partners”. Ms. Mailis Pukonen, the Head of Operations of the CEPOL, emphasized the role of CEPOL within the European security ecosystem. Mr. Gyula Somogyi (Head of Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade) presented the European security and defence issues in line with the implementation of the Strategic Compass. Ms. Katalin Horváth (Ministry of Defence, Hungary) expressed the Hungarian views on CSDP. Jan Joel Andersson, Senior Analyst at the EU Institute for Security Studies presented his views about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and EU strategic autonomy. Zsolt Nagy (EDA) described the European Defence Agency’s perspective about the Strategic Compass and strategic autonomy. According to Professor Foteini Asderaki, the chair person of the working group of the European Doctoral School, the European Doctoral School promotes multi-disciplinary doctoral research in the CSDP context.
The Annual Conference of the European Doctoral School is an annual training event for the CSDP PhD Fellows, who could join the initiative of the Doctoral School on CSDP since 2018. The Doctoral School works in close cooperation with the Faculty of Military Science and Officer Training at The Ludovika University of Public Service.
The program of the panels of the PhD fellows covered an extremely wide range of topics dealing with the fields of Strategic Autonomy, institutional framework, military engineering and European security and defence policy.
The CSDP Annual conference aimed at disseminating knowledge, information and reflecting scientifically on the essential topics of the Common Security and Defence Policy for supporting related doctoral researches.
Photo:Dénes Szilágyi
Text: Tibor Sarnyai