Event Date: September 18, 2026 - 2:30pm to 4:00pm
Location: FSS 4004, 120 University Private, University of Ottawa

Presented by CIPS and the International Theory Network (ITN)

The presentation brings together a new research project on the role of firms in societal security and previous conceptual/empirical work on the politics of defence markets. The project focuses on the role of business in shaping, governing and creating societal security, particularly within ‘total’ or ‘comprehensive’ defence models. The aim of the project is to contribute to the understanding of the roles of defence-related businesses and their relationship to state goals and interests within societal security strategies, with a specific comparative focus on Sweden and Finland. The presentation situates this broad goal within an institutional approach to the sociology of markets, focusing on the market as a strategic action field, examining defence markets as politics to better understand recent transformations of societal security. The presentation will further focus on how this applies in the Swedish case, focusing on the importance of state–firm relations in the institutionalisation of defence markets, especially emphasising the different forms of settlement of the defence market field. The research more generally will help improve our understanding of state–market relations and the role of business in the development of ‘whole-of-society’ models and in defence transformation.

Speaker:

Bryan Mabee is Associate Professor at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg. His current research interests concern the history and theory of militarism, the political economy of security, and the history of international thought. He is currently the project leader for the Swedish Research Council funded project ‘Bringing the Market Back in: The Role of Business in Societal Security in Sweden and Finland’.

Chair: 

Srdjan Vucetic is a Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. His research interests involve American and Canadian foreign and defence policy and international security. Prior to joining the GSPIA, Srdjan was the Randall Dillard Research Fellow in International Studies at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. Srdjan has co-coordinated the CIPS International Theory Network since 2012.