The 10th Tartu Conference on East European and Eurasian Studies at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of University of Tartu came to an end. It brought together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. I am grateful to have engaged with such rigorous, policy-relevant scholarship.
💐 Many thanks for DIS – Study Abroad, especially to Helle Rytkønen and Neringa Bigailaitė Vendelbo, for providing this excellent opportunity. I met so many people whose experience I would love to share with another cohort of DIS students in the coming weeks and months. You can be sure that one way or another they will join our classrooms, online discussions, field trips and study tours. Thanks to them, my eyes have become more open than just a week ago.
The conversation between researchers and institutions needs to continue — and deepen. Here are three takeaways for me:
1️⃣ Academia + state institutions, working together. The research presented — on disinformation patterns, minority resilience, memory politics, and reflexive control — is exactly the kind of evidence base policymakers need. Bridging the gap between rigorous scholarship and government decision-making isn’t optional; it’s a strategic necessity.
2️⃣ Resilience is built locally, not just decided centrally. From Estonia’s community houses to Ukraine’s wartime civic identity shifts, the conference highlighted how societal cohesion at the grassroots level is itself a security asset.
3️⃣ Education as a long-term defence. Whether it’s media literacy among communities navigating “news repertoires,” or historical and civic education that builds resilience against revisionist narratives — investing in education today is what sustains the actions we take now. Hybrid threats are won or lost over years, not news cycles.