Annual Conference 2024 on October 10–11
Far Away, Yet So Close: Armed Conflict in the Transnational Constellation
PRIF’s annual conference 2024 will explore how modern armed conflicts are not only fought in confined geographical areas and embedded in traditional international politics and diplomacy but are also set in complex transnational constellations. The current war in Gaza illustrates this point. The conflict between Israel and Hamas spreads across the region, igniting smaller to larger armed hostilities in neighbouring states. Hybrid actors such as Hamas have leadership located in various countries, maintain strong connections with other rebel and terrorist groups, and command propaganda networks worldwide. Diverging perceptions and narratives of armed conflicts such as the Gaza war cause contention globally, even within societies that seem not directly involved. In Germany and other European countries, both antisemitism from different milieus and anti-Muslim sentiments have erupted following the Hamas massacres on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza. These developments accompany processes of increasing polarization and radicalization. Politicization and the formation of antagonistic camps are also evident even among transnational expert communities such as international lawyers and academics. On social media, the conflict is debated in highly polemic and hostile ways, with various platforms also serving as tools for state and non-state propaganda.
The conference aims to develop a comprehensive and systematic understanding of this transnational aspect of armed conflicts. While Gaza is a recent and pertinent example, the phenomena described are general characteristics of contemporary armed conflict. Thus, the PRIF annual conference will analyse armed conflicts in a transnational context from a comparative perspective. The four panels will revolve around four dimensions of transnationalisation:
The first panel focuses on transnational actors such as armed non-state actors, diasporas, and multinational companies. Panellists will explore the characteristics of these actors, their networks and partnerships, and how they either fuel or mitigate armed conflicts or are affected by them.
The second panel examines the transnational effects of armed conflicts, including the spread of violence, mobilization and solidarity protests in civil society, and environmental damages that transcend state borders and have negative consequences for the global climate and CO2 accounts.
Panellists of the third panel will analyse different transnational practices by both state and non-state actors involved in armed conflicts. These include the repression of (former) citizens abroad, trolling, propaganda, cyber threats, public diplomacy, financing, and the provision of weapons to advance the interests of one conflict party.
Finally, the fourth panel looks at transnational discourses on armed conflicts, with a special focus on the Gaza conflict and its transnational reverberations in academic and legal controversies as well as in online and street protests.
An additional roundtable will bring together practitioners of civic education, local administration, and representatives of religious and ethnic communities to discuss the repercussions of the Gaza war in a city like Frankfurt as well as in Germany in general.
The conference will be held in English on the premises of PRIF in Frankfurt am Main. It is sponsored by the German Research Foundation. Please register at annualconference@prif.org.
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