Call for Papers: International Society of Military Sciences (ISMS) Annual Conference
23-24 October 2012
General theme of the conference: "Balancing domestic and international security
requirement"
Deadline for Abstract Submission: June 15, 2012
You are invited to attend the 4th annual conference of the International Society of
Military Sciences (ISMS) Annual Conference 23-24 October 2012 to be held at the
Royal Military College of Canada, in Kingston, Ontario.
The cost of the war in Afghanistan is considered to be a heavy burden on taxpayers in the
countries that participated in this war. Domestic pressure, political/electoral deadline and
the context of economic crisis in the world since 2008 led these countries to make tough
choices. Thus, the issue of balancing national interests and international security
considerations has become more urgent than ever.
The ISMS is calling for academic papers in all aspects of military and security studies.
Deadline for proposals and sending a 500-word abstract to the conference organiser,
Professor Houchang Hassan-Yari [Hassan-yari-h@rmc.ca]:
* June 15, 2012
* July 31st, 2012: Selected authors will be notified
The conference is built around the following eight working groups:
Armed Forces and Society; Defence Management; Law and Ethics; Leadership,
Command and Control; Military History; Military Technology; Security Defence
Policy; War Studies
Description of the ISMS Working Groups
1.
War studies. Military strategy, operational art and tactics, contemporary operations,
conflict, future warfare, asymmetrical warfare, psychological operations, peace support
ops, COIN, military support for civil authority, doctrine development, military theory and
practice, lessons learned and identified, terrorism and counter-terrorism, organized crime,
intelligence, military policing, international police operations, regional approaches,
privatization of security, special forces.
2.
Military history. Chronological, geographical, component (army, navy, air force),
thematic, military biography.
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3.
Military technology. Information systems, systems testing, impact of technology on
operations, weaponry, interaction with human dimension, R&D agendas, industry
connections, life cycles and defence acquisition, network centric warfare and network
enabled capabilities.
4.
Leadership, Command and control and basic competence. Sense-making, trust,
stress, group cohesion and resilience, case studies, cultural awareness, gender,
communication skills, mediation & negotiation, self-reflection, organizational culture,
diversity management, temporary units, physical and psychological characteristics,
human factors analysis, cognitive abilities, recruitment and selection, education and
training, post-traumatic stress, military medicine.
5.
Law and ethics. International law of armed conflict, international humanitarian law,
rules of engagement, jus in Bello, jus ad bellum, jus pos bellum, status of forces
agreements, pre-emptive action, moral dilemmas, values and transmission of values.
6.
Security and defence policy and strategy. International organizations, actors, factorsthreats, cooperation, security regimes, alliances and coalitions, interests, risk evaluation
and management, international relations, scenario development, crisis management,
security complexes, influence strategy, coercion, deterrence, modelling, game theory,
defence diplomacy, etc.
7.
Armed forces and society. Nation-building, institutional gaps, military sociology,
armed forces as societies, armed forces in society, civil-military relations, conscription
and professional armies, gender-ethnicity-identity and minorities, military families,
unions and soldier associations, social experimentation and social activism with armed
forces, media, public opinion, democratic control of armed forces, security sector reform,
international cooperation, privatization.
8.
Defence management and economics. Resource management, change management,
transformation, cost-benefit analysis, logistics, defence acquisition, strategic personnel
policy, accounting, defence administration, military industrial complex, measures of
effectiveness, benchmarking, outsourcing, privatization, base closures, infrastructure
issues.
The ISMS is an international academic organization composed of eight military
universities/national defence colleges: The Royal Military College of Canada, the
Norwegian Military Academy, the Finnish National Defence University, the Swedish
National Defence Academy, the Netherlands Defence Academy, the Austrian National
Defence Academy, the Belgian Royal Military Academy and the Baltic Defence College.
The purpose of the ISMS is to foster academic research, cooperation and publication in
the fields of security studies and military studies.
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