Programme à télécharger [PDF - 1 Mo]

For decades, state as well as non-state actors have engaged in overt and covert activities so as to influence public opinion, political decisions, and the research and culture agendas of a given country. Those tendencies have only grown stronger in the age of ever more online communication tools and platforms, particularly through social media. We can nowadays observe influence and interference attemps in many areas and by a growing variety of actors. This development is a cause for concern for a number entities, among which there are media outlets, science, administration, and political institutions.

Given this situation, the Centre d’Etudes et de recherches sur l’espace germanophone (CEREG) and the Paris office of the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) have the pleasure to convene a 1,5-day conference at the Sorbonne Nouvelle university with experts from several European countries, in order to engage in a multinational, interdisciplinary, and “inter-institutional” dialogue on this matter. The participants will be academics as well as think tank researchers and practitioners from state institutions.

Via this meeting and discussion, the CEREG and FHS aim at contributing to the analysis of the state of play of influence and interference, among other things with regard to the consequences for our perceptions and our actions within the societal and institutional framework of democracies. To what extent does current research, university or otherwise, take influence and interference activities into consideration? What form should the links between research, media, and state institutions take with regard to such activities? Which elements should be taken into account when trying to strengthen resilience and to ensure the good functioning of the institutions? These are the key questions to be adressed during the conference on November 29^th and 30^th.