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Event

Mistra Geopolitics´ Conference on Geopolitics of Sustainability

On 4 February, the Mistra Geopolitics research programme will host distinguished thought leaders and academics in Stockholm to explore strategies for addressing urgent sustainability challenges in the context of rising geopolitical insecurity. The conference will focus on how we can collectively navigate towards a more secure and sustainable future.

4 February 2025 at 09:30 CET

ending at 18:00 CET

Stockholm, Sweden

How can we ensure global food security and just transition with rising threats like climate change and geopolitical turmoil? What will the current political shift in the US mean for international efforts to combat climate change?

The conference will include discussions on the following thematic areas:

  • Towards a food secure world: transboundary climate risks and weaponization of food
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) as a power shifter in sustainable development
  • How geopolitical dynamics shape the prospects for sustainable and secure oceans
  • Decarbonization dilemmas: global winners, losers, and resource realities
  • Sustainable visions for the future: promising avenues and ways forward

The conference is organized by Mistra Geopolitics and marks the conclusion of its eight-year research programme, which has involved contributions from over 60 researchers. The conference will end with a PhD poster exhibition and a reception.

About Mistra Geopolitics

Mistra Geopolitics examines the interactions between environmental change, geopolitics and human security. The research programme brings together an interdisciplinary team of eight consortium partners: Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the Universities of Linköping, Lund, Stockholm, and Uppsala, and the think tanks E3G and Adelphi.

The programme is hosted by SEI and funded by Mistra, the Swedish foundation for strategic environmental research.

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09.30-10.00 Registration and refreshments

10.00-10.50 Welcome: Geopolitics of Sustainability

      • Lena Ek, Chair of the Board Mistra Geopolitics
      • Björn-Ola Linnér, Programme Director Mistra Geopolitics

Keynote: Nick Mabey, founding Director and co-CEO of E3G

10.50-11.35 Towards a food secure world: transboundary climate risks and weaponization of food

Moderator: Robert Watt, Engagement Director, SEI

Introduction: Sara Talebian, Research Fellow, SEI

Panel

      • Lisa Dellmuth, Professor of International Relations, Stockholm University
      • Jiayi Zhou, Researcher, SIPRI
      • Helena Hansson, Program Director, Mistra Food Futures, Professor SLU

11.35-11.55 Refreshments

11.55-12.45 Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a power shifter in sustainable development

Moderator: Arati Davis, Senior Research Fellow and Business Lead, LeadIT, SEI

Introduction: Henrik Carlsen, Co-Director Mistra Geopolitics, Senior Research Fellow, SEI

Panel

      • Maxine Leis, PhD Candidate, Uppsala University
      • Fredrik Heintz, Professor of Computer Science, Linköping University
      • Göran Marklund, Deputy Director General, Vinnova
      • Sylvia Schwaag Serger, President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), Professor, Lund University

12.45-14.00 Lunch

14.00-14.45 The future of seascapes: navigating security challenges

Moderator: Robert Watt, Engagement Director, SEI

Introduction: Torsten Linders, Programme Director Mistra Co-Creating Better Blue (C2B2)

Panel

      • Karina Barquet, Team Leader: Water, Coasts and Ocean, Senior Research Fellow SEI
      • Lina Kinning, Offshore Wind, Swedish Wind Association
      • Hans Liwång, Professor in Systems Science for Defence and Security at the Swedish Defence University
      • Mattias Rust, Deputy Director, Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure, Sweden
      • Magnus Wallhagen, National Hydrographer of Sweden, Sjöfartsverket (The Swedish Maritime Administration), and Chair of IHO Technical Committee

14.45-15.15 Refreshments

15.15-16.00 Decarbonization dilemmas: global winners, losers, and resource realities

Moderator: Arati Davis, Senior Research Fellow and Business Lead, LeadIT, SEI

Introduction: André Månberger, Senior Lecturer, Lund University

Panel

      • Daria Ivleva, Senior Advisor and Co-Lead Climate Policy, Adelphi
      • Karin Bäckstrand, Professor in Environmental Social Science, Stockholm University
      • André Månberger, Senior Lecturer, Lund University

16.00-16.50 Sustainable visions for the future: promising avenues and ways forward

Moderator: Arati Davis, Senior Research Fellow and Business Lead, LeadIT, SEI and Robert Watt, Engagement Director, SEI

Introduction: Bettina Schwalm, Experience Designer, lecturer on design strategy and future thinking

Panel

      • Robert Egnell, Vice-Chancellor of the Swedish Defence University, Professor of leadership and command and control
      • Bettina Schwalm, Experience Designer, lecturer on design strategy and future thinking
      • Annika Markovic, Sweden’s Ambassador to Austria and Slovakia. Permanent representative to the United Nations in Vienna
      • Dan Smith, Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

16.50-17.00 Closing

      • Henrik Carlsen, Co-Director Mistra Geopolitics and Senior Research Fellow, SEI

17.00-18.00 Mingle with light refreshments

      • PhD poster exhibition

Moderators

Robert Watt
Robert Watt

Engagement Director

SEI Headquarters

Arati Davis

Senior Fellow

SEI Headquarters


Lena Ek. Photo Credit: Ola Kjelbye

Lena Ek, Chair of the Board Mistra Geopolitics

Lena Ek is currently the Chair of the Board of Mistra Geopolitics, where she leads efforts to explore the intersection of geopolitics and sustainability. She previously served as Sweden’s Minister for the Environment from 2011 to 2014, during which she played a pivotal role in shaping Sweden’s climate and environmental policies. Lena is also the Chair of Södra, Sweden’s largest forest-owner association, where she continues to drive sustainable practices in forest management.


Björn-Ola Linnér. Photo Credit: Mistra Geopolitics

Björn-Ola Linnér, Programme Director Mistra Geopolitics

Björn-Ola Linnér is the Co-Director of the Mistra Geopolitics research programme and an SEI Affiliated Researcher with SEI Headquarters. He is a professor in Environmental Change at the Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research at Linköping University, Sweden, where he was the previous director (2006-2010). He is also an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society at Oxford University.


Nick Mabey. Photo Credit: E3G

Keynote: Nick Mabey, founding Director and co-CEO of E3G

Nick Mabey is a Founding Director of E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism) and E3G’s co-CEO. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Jubilee honours list in 2022 for services to climate change and support to the UK COP26 Presidency. Nick Mabey undertakes a range of other roles including advising the UK COP President as a Friend of COP26, a London Sustainable Development Commissioner, a trustee of Ashden, and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Energy Transition.


Sara Talebian. Photo Credit: SEI

Sara Talebian, Research Fellow, SEI

Sara Talebian is a Research Fellow at SEI Headquarters, International Climate Risk and Adaptation Team, Global Agendas, Climate and Systems Division. Her main field of expertise is futures studies and strategic foresight, with an emphasis on exploratory scenarios, horizon scanning, and decision making under uncertainty.


Lisa Dellmuth. Photo Credit: Stockholm University

Lisa Dellmuth, Professor of International Relations, Stockholm University

Lisa Dellmuth is Professor of International Relations at Stockholm University and Co-director of the Stockholm Center on Global Governance (SCGG). She is also the Director of the PhD Programme in International Relations. Dellmuth’s research focuses on public opinion, legitimacy, and distribution in global governance. She combines experimental and quantitative research methods in her interdisciplinary research agenda. Her research has been published in five books and more than 30 scientific articles. 


Jiayi Zhou. Photo Credit: SIPRI

Jiayi Zhou, Researcher, SIPRI

Dr. Jiayi Zhou is a Researcher in the Conflict, Peace and Security Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Her research places particular focus on the intersection of great power competition and sustainable development. With a  background studying the former Soviet Union, she has conducted research on and fieldwork in several countries across the post-Soviet space, including the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as in Europe and China. She holds a PhD in Environmental Science, and Masters’ degrees in both International Relations and International Development. 


Helena Hansson. Photo Credit: SLU

Helena Hansson, Program Director, Mistra Food Futures, Professor SLU

Helena Hansson is professor of agricultural and food economics since 2018. She is also vice-dean at the faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences, with a focus on multi- and interdisciplinary research and programme director of Mistra Food Futures. Helena’s research background is in agricultural and food economics. She has so far focused on farmer uptake of sustainable agricultural practices, farm management, farmer decision-making and the economics of certain strategic choices, and production economic analyses related to the efficiency of farm production. 


Henrik Carlsen. Photo Credit: SEI

Henrik Carlsen, Co-Director Mistra Geopolitics, Senior Research Fellow, SEI

Henrik Carlsen is a Senior Research Fellow at Stockholm Environment Institute Headquarters. He has more than 20 years of experiences as a consultant (mainly internet security), analyst (mainly defense and security) and researcher (mainly on emerging technologies and environmental sciences). His main research focus is on applying methodologies and approaches mainly from systems theory on problems in sustainability science. Henrik Carlsen currently acts as co-director of the MISTRA Geopolitics research programme, a research programme focusing on the interplay between global environmental, geopolitics and emerging technologies.


Maxine Leis. Photo Credit: Uppsala University

Maxine Leis, PhD Candidate, Uppsala University

Maxine Leis is a PhD candidate at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. Her research focuses on displacement as a result of various forms of violence and natural hazards. She aims to improve the estimation and forecasting of displacement by analyzing the impact of these external shocks. Her project is part of the Mistra Geopolitics Research School.


Fredrik Heintz. Photo Credit: Linköping University

Fredrik Heintz, Professor of Computer Science, Linköping University

Professor Fredrik Heintz is Head of the Division of Artificial Intelligence and Integrated Systems (AIICS), and leads the Reasoning and Learning unit (REAL) at the Department of Computer and Information Science (IDA). He is Professor of Computer Science. His research focus is artificial intelligence especially Trustworthy AI, autonomous systems, stream reasoning and the intersection between knowledge representation and machine learning.


Göran Marklund. Photo Credit: Vinnova

Göran Marklund, Deputy Director General, Vinnova


Sylvia Schwaag Serger. Photo Credit: LinkedIn

Sylvia Schwaag Serger, President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), Professor, Lund University

Sylvia Schwaag Serger is a researcher specializing in research and innovation policy, transformative change, and Agenda 2030. She has advised governments, the EU, and the OECD on science and technology policy and chaired EU expert groups. Former Deputy Vice Chancellor at Lund University, she has taught at Lund and Tsinghua University and actively engages with policymakers to enhance research impact.


Torsten Linders. Photo Credit: LinkedIn

Torsten Linders, Programme Director Mistra Co-Creating Better Blue (C2B2)

Torsten Linders is a physical oceanographer and Programme Director of Mistra Co-Creating Better Blue (C2B2). He specializes in fostering collaborations among academia, industry, and the public sector, focusing on marine data collection, analysis, and utilization to accelerate innovation in the sustainable blue economy.


Karina Barquet. Photo Credit: SEI

Karina Barquet, Team Leader: Water, Coasts and Ocean, Senior Research Fellow SEI

Karina Barquet is a Senior Research Fellow, Team Leader of the Water, Coasts and Ocean group at SEI Headquarters, and Lead for SEI’s Global Strategic Policy Engagement for the Ocean. Karina’s research explores mechanisms for connecting landscape governance with infrastructure diversification as a way to increase resilience to extreme events and inform coastal and marine spatial planning. 


Lina Kinning. Photo Credit: LinkedIn

Lina Kinning, Offshore Wind, Swedish Wind Association

Lina Kinning is an offshore energy and European policy expert at Svensk Vindenergi (the Swedish Wind Energy Association), where she leads work on offshore wind power. She chairs the association’s Offshore Wind Power and Energy System councils, advancing Sweden’s renewable energy sector. Previously, she worked at the Swedish Ministry of Infrastructure, focusing on hydrogen, electromobility, and national electrification strategies.


Hans Liwång. Photo Credit: LinkedIn

Hans Liwång, Professor in Systems Science for Defence and Security at the Swedish Defence University

Hans Liwång is Deputy Head of the Department of Systems Science for Defence and Security at the Swedish Defence University and a researcher in Naval Architecture at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. With nearly 20 years of experience across academia and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, his research focuses on risk management, maritime safety and security, and military naval operations. He specializes in sociotechnical systems, risk governance, and infrastructure resilience, with a strong focus on decision-making in high-risk environments.


Mattias Rust. Photo Credit: Mistra C2B2

Mattias Rust, Deputy Director, Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure, Sweden

Mattias Rust is the Deputy Director at the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure in Sweden, specializing in sustainable blue economy and shipping-related topics. He serves as the President (Chair) of the Working Party on Integrated Maritime Policy in the European Council during Sweden’s presidency, overseeing advanced civil service tasks within the government offices. With a comprehensive background in ecology, socio-economics, politics, policy, science, and communications, Rust is dedicated to creating effective solutions for global sustainability challenges.


Magnus Wallhagen. Photo Credit: LinkedIn

Magnus Wallhagen, National Hydrographer of Sweden, Sjöfartsverket (The Swedish Maritime Administration), and Chair of IHO Technical Committee

Magnus Wallhagen serves as the National Hydrographer of Sweden at the Swedish Maritime Administration (Sjöfartsverket) and chairs the International Hydrographic Organization’s (IHO) Hydrographic Services and Standards Committee (HSSC). Internationally, Wallhagen has represented Sweden in various hydrographic commissions and initiated the EU-funded FAMOS project, enhancing hydrographic surveying and data management in the Baltic Sea.


André Månberger. Photo Credit: Lund University

André Månberger, Senior Lecturer, Lund University

Dr André Månberger is Senior Lecturer in Energy and Environmental Systems Studies, Lund University. His research focuses on interactions between low carbon transitions and security, using interdisciplinary approaches to study impacts of changing resource flows. He leads the Mistra Mineral Governance programme, which examines the conflicts arising from the increasing demand for critical raw materials in the low carbon transition.


Daria Ivleva. Photo Credit: Adelphi

Daria Ivleva, Senior Advisor and Co-Lead Climate Policy, Adelphi

Daria Ivleva is Senior Advisor + Co-Lead Climate Policy at adelphi. Daria is particularly interested in how transformation processes can be advanced across society. One of the focusses of her research and advisory work is the external dimension of climate and environmental policies, including geopolitics of decarbonisation.


Karin Bäckstrand. Photo Credit: Better Climate Governance

Karin Bäckstrand, Professor in Environmental Social Science, Stockholm University

Karin Bäckstrand is a Professor in Environmental Social Science in the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University and senior researcher at the Institute for Future Studies. Her research revolves around global environmental politics, EU’s climate politics, politics, the democratic legitimacy of global governance, public-private partnerships in the 2030 Agenda, the role of state and non-state actors in climate governance. 


Bettina Schwalm. Photo Credit: SSES

Bettina Schwalm, Experience Designer, lecturer on design strategy and future thinking

Bettina Schwalm is an experienced designer, researcher, lecturer, and strategic consultant, with a focus on experience design, design strategy, and future thinking. She lectures at universities such as Konstfack, KTH, and KI, and has been affiliated with ArkDes and KTH School of Architecture. 


Robert Egnell. Photo Credit: LinkedIn

Robert Egnell, Vice-Chancellor of the Swedish Defence University, Professor of leadership and command and control

Professor Robert Egnell is the Vice-Chancellor of the Swedish Defence University and a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program. His research focuses on peace support operations, state-building, and civil-military relations. Egnell previously worked as a senior researcher at the Swedish Defence Research Institute (FOI) and taught at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College, London, and has published works on peace operations, counterinsurgency, and Security Sector Reform.


Annika Markovic. Photo Credit: Mistra Geopolitics

Annika Markovic, Sweden’s Ambassador to Austria and Slovakia. Permanent representative to the United Nations in Vienna

Annika Markovic has previously served as Ambassador to the Netherlands, Permanent Representative to the OPCW and the ICC, and Permanent Representative to the OECD and UNESCO. Annika has also held roles as Environment Ambassador at the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and worked on Sweden’s strategic bilateral cooperation with countries like China, India, Russia, and Brazil. 


Dan Smith. Photo Credit: SIPRI

Dan Smith, Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

Dan Smith is the Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). He has researched and written on security, conflict and peace for four decades. He served four years in the UN Peacebuilding Fund Advisory Group, two as Chair (2010–2011). His expertise covers issues like nationalism, armed conflict, ethics of intervention, and the impact of climate change on security.

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