The changes in the political and social situation in the world after the end of the Second World War forced the UN Security Council to become actively involved in the process of peace-making and peacekeeping. Local armed conflicts, both interstate and internal (often erupting along national, ethnic or religious lines), prompted the international community to take action to prevent, interrupt, extinguish or limit the negative effects of confrontations between the conflicting parties. One of the forms of response to the aforementioned threats was the deployment of international forces (consisting of military and civilian national components) to the regions of the emergent crisis situations in order to contain them. The effectiveness of such actions varied and depended on many factors, most often complex and occurring with high intensity (depending on the phase of the conflict) at the same time and place. Many times, these factors were not dependent on international forces but forced mission personnel to make specific decisions and act in line with the objectives and mandate of a given international operation.

Until the end of the 1980s, it was mainly the UN that conducted peacekeeping operations of various kinds. The political and social changes of the early 1990s - associated with the end of the two-block division of the world - also influenced the number and nature of armed conflicts and the ways in which peacekeeping and stabilisation operations were conducted. States and organisations that were not directly involved during the Cold War (the United States, states formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO, former Eastern Bloc states) began to engage in international operations in support of peace. Today, a number of organisations are engaged in support of peace (such as the UN, NATO, EU, OSCE), which has significantly changed the objectives, conduct and effects of missions and peacekeeping operations.

The conference organized by the Department of National Security at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, with the support of partner actors, serves as a platform for scholarly debate on the state, processes, and structures of contemporary national and international security in the face of profound, often violent, and unpredictable changes in the security environment. The organizers' intention is to confront elements and dimensions of crisis response in the international security environment with its characteristics, both in systemic terms (as an environment) and discursive terms (as a context), as well as spatial terms (geographic conditions). Security in such a perceived environment involves actions that limit risk and minimize the scope and scale of threats posed by actors and factors of a dysfunctional nature. It also entails efforts to maintain structures and mechanisms that ensure continuity and stability in the face of harmful influences, tensions, conflicts, and even armed violence.

The proposed perspective for the analysis of crisis response mechanisms in the international security environment through the prism of conditions, course, and effects of actions in support of peace, is part of the intention of the organisers to make the conference a unique scholarly and expert forum conducive to presenting the latest research findings in the field of conflicts and international crisis response.

The Ist International Scientific Conference "Conflicts and Crisis Response Mechanisms in the International Security Environment" will take place at Jagiellonian University on June 6-7, 2024. We invite you to submit proposals for presentations that will revolve around the themes of this scientific meeting.

The proposed topics for panels are as follows:

• Changes in the security environment: new threats – old crisis response mechanisms?
• Full-scale armed conflict as a challenge to international security
• Conditions for international actions in support of peace
• Shaping the security environment by state and non-state actors
• International organizations as crisis response entities
• Security discourse after 2022
• Hybridity and asymmetry in contemporary armed conflicts
• Concepts, course, and effects of international peacekeeping and stabilization operations - experiences and perspectives
• Education for security – opportunities and threats for professional military education
• Veterans of peace support operations in the state security system – concepts and reality.

English is the main language of the Conference.

Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland), Faculty of International and Political Studies

4 Reymonta Street

30-059 Kraków

Poland

Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Conference: prof. Dariusz Kozerawski

Conference secretary: Dr. Agata Mazurkiewicz

Contact: aagata.mazurkiewicz@uj.edu.pl

The condition for participation in the conference is to send the registration form to the organizers, available at the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/zmcjsy0r3i.

The deadline for submitting applications is April 20, 2024.

The conference fee is 350 PLN (80 EUR). The fee includes meals during the conference, printing of post-conference materials and other organizational costs. Participants are responsible for their own transport and accommodation costs. The fee for participants who will not present papers or submit texts for publication in a post-conference publication is 200 PLN (40 EUR).

The payment for participation in the conference must be made no later than May 15 2024.

Payments should be made to the account of the Faculty of International and Political Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The necessary transfer details are below.

Details for transferring the conference fee:

Payments should be made to the account of the Faculty of International and Political Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow:

Bank PEKAO SA  98 1240 4722 1111 0000 4858 6669

Title: Name of the participant, Conflicts and crisis response mechanisms
                                                       – order no. 2100368

• 20 April 2024 – deadline for sending the application form to the organizers
• 30 April 2024 – feedback on the qualification of the paper
• 15 May 2024 – deadline for payment of the conference fee
• 06-07 June 2024 – Conference proceedings