Mistra Geopolitics held its annual conference in March this year. After a pandemic-stricken year, this was the first time the Mistra Geopolitics research team, board members and stakeholder partners met for an in-person conference.
Last year Mistra Geopolitics started its second phase of the programme. New expertise was recruited in several areas, allowing us to take on new research challenges to improve understanding of the interaction between changing geopolitics and sustainable development, and now also emerging technologies.
Keynote speeches from Mistra Geopolitics board members
The annual conference was opened by Björn-Ola Linnér, Programme Director of Mistra Geopolitics and Måns Nilsson, Executive Director of Stockholm Environment Institute, followed by three inspirational keynote speeches from Mistra Geopolitics board members and partnering organization, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI. The keynote speeches were held on the following topics:
- Climate and Security, how priorities change: Annika Markovic, Sweden’s Ambassador to Austria and Slovakia, Board Member of Mistra Geopolitics
- The Geopolitical Environment of Peace: Dan Smith, Director of SIPRI
- Climate and Peace as Global Public Goods: Henrik Hammargren, Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Board Member of Mistra Geopolitics
The pace of change towards a sustainable future
The pace of change towards a sustainable future and the main barrier to change were the topics for a panel discussion with the Mistra Geopolitics stakeholder partners from the; Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, Swedish Energy Agency, Junglemap, Business Sweden and Futurion.
Mistra Geopolitics also welcomed a new cohort of PhD candidates, that will provide assurance that Mistra Geopolitics continues to build future analytical capacity.
The changing geopolitical landscape and recent war in Ukraine were discussed and analyzed during the conference. Our programme has provided several novel results that speak directly to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Under the research theme of Food Security we have assessed links between geopolitical interests in a world impacted by climate change, while fossil fuel dependency has been examined in work on the geopolitics of critical materials and recycling as part of the research theme Decarbonization. Climate adaptations and a rule-based international order have been explored in the research theme Foresight Capabilities and Emerging Technologies.
During the meeting a scenario workshop was held together with our stakeholder partners to strengthen and develop our foresight capacity so that Mistra Geopolitics continue to provide research that can identify and strengthen the opportunities of sustainable development.
