At the 10th anniversary of the ISMS research conference in Warsaw, ÖMZ Director Brigadier Peischl succeeded Polish Professor Ryszard Szpyra as ISMS President.
The 10th annual conference of the International Society of Military Sciences (ISMS) took place from October 17 to 19 in Warsaw on the general topic of “Military Sciences and Future Security Challenges”. The National Defense Academy (LVAk) was present with a total of six representatives, including the commander of the LVAk, Lieutenant General Csitkovits, which underlined the relevance of the ISMS. The Institute for Peacekeeping and Conflict Management (IFK), which co-founded the ISMS research network on the initiative of Brigadier Feichtinger, was also present, as was Thomas Pankratz from the Institute for Strategy and Security Policy (ISS), who headed the “Security and Defense Policy and Strategy” working group.
The head of the “Österreichische Militärische Zeitschrift” (ÖMZ), Brigadier Peischel, took over the 2019 ISMS presidency from Polish Professor Ryszard Szpyra (War Studies University) at the end of the conference. Colonel Anton Dengg (IFK) gave the lecture “Hybrid Threats – Hybrid Warfare – War. A Suggestion to disentangle conceptual clarifications” and Markus Gauster (IFK) gave a presentation on “Strategic cultures and contemporary peace operations in transformation: Austria and the case of Mali”. ISMS was founded in 2009 by the Dutch Defense Academy, the Royal Military College of Canada and the LVAk with the aim of facilitating increased cooperation in the field of research and teaching in the military science sector between countries of a similar size. Particularly in view of the increasing academization of officer training, this institution is becoming increasingly important in its tenth year of existence. The division into eight working groups (War Studies, Military History, Military Technology, Command and Control, Leadership and Basic Competence, Law and Ethics, Security and Defence Policy and Strategy, Armed Forces and Society as well as Defence Management and Economics) makes it possible to use networks and contribute or maintain or supplement and expand knowledge in a wide variety of areas.
The special feature of ISMS lies in its informal character and the possibility of a systematic meeting of established researchers or professors and young academics from either the military or military-related sector. High-caliber lectures were held at the annual conference and the current status of research projects in the respective working groups was presented. Established researchers, who now come from all over the world, present their latest findings. This ideal opportunity is also used by military personnel and civilians who are in the PhD phase. This time, it was mainly Polish PhD candidates who attended the annual conference. The Swiss and Swedish participants also took advantage of the platform and were very active. Under the leadership of Brigadier Peischel, the LVAk took over the ISMS presidency in 2019, which will take place in Vienna in the fall of 2019. This will provide the opportunity to organize a top-class conference at research level.
