War, the Crisis of Liberal Democracy, and Resistance to Authoritarianism

Abstract

This panel addresses the entanglement of contemporary warfare with the structural crisis of liberal democracy, situating both within the accelerating global turn toward authoritarian governance. Prolonged large-scale violence—most notably the war in Ukraine and the destruction of Gaza—has intensified geopolitical fragmentation while exposing the declining capacity of liberal internationalism to regulate conflict, protect civilian lives, and uphold international law. These developments have not only revealed, but actively deepened, a crisis of legitimacy and authority affecting international organisations, including the United Nations and the European Union, whose normative and political credibility has been increasingly eroded in the current geopolitical constellation. This erosion has been further amplified by renewed Trump administration in the United States, contributing to the destabilisation of multilateral governance. The panel invites theoretically informed and empirically grounded contributions that critically examine how war, authoritarianism, and democratic regression mutually reinforce one another. Particular attention is given to processes of delegitimisation affecting international organisations, international law, and human rights regimes, as well as to the political uses of information warfare, disinformation, education and strategic narratives in sustaining authoritarian power. At the same time, the panel seeks analyses of civic resistance, democratic resilience, and counter-hegemonic practices that emerge under conditions of war, repression, and shrinking political space. Contributions employing innovative methodological approaches—capable of capturing the interaction between competing narratives, actors, and power relations across fragmented European and global information environments—are especially encouraged.

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