The CEUSS | Center for European Security Studies has been part of Sigmund Freud University since June 2009 and its German name is the Forschungsstelle für europäische Sicherheitsforschung.

CEUSS unites staff from four different countries, with background in political science, diplomatic studies, sociology, psychology, public administration and cultural studies. Research activities include international security, "new" or "post-strategic" security, home affairs and disaster management, including exploration of the use of new social media. CEUSS was honoured to chair the panel on "The Role of Social Media in Understanding and Managing Complex Catastrophic Events" at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science Conference in April 2011 in Washington, D.C . A further focus is on the EU as a comprehensive security actor along the civil-military and the internal-external security continuum.

As regards methodology, CEUSS puts an emphasis on security cultures (strategic cultures, national security cultures, and citizen security cultures).

CEUSS is a research active institution that in the first place executes security research projects in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Union, as well as from other programmes. Currently, CEUSS has the following active research projects:

• FOCUS: Foresight Security Scenarios: Mapping Research to a Comprehensive Approach to Exogenous EU Roles (CEUSS flagship project) - completed and under final reporting

• AEROCEPTOR: UAV Based Innovative Means for Land and Sea Non-Cooperative Vehicles Stop

• VITRUV: Vulnerability Identification Tools for Resilience Enhancements of Urban Environments

• POGAR: Peak Oil and Gas Resilience. Conceptualizing the Capacity Of The Austrian Economy To Adapt To Peak Oil and Gas 

Moreover, CEUSS is active in Ph.D-level teaching at Sigmund Freud University and organizes the conference series ESCI | European Security Conference Initiative.

CEUSS cooperates with a couple of international partners, including NATO School and the Kölner Forum für Internationale Beziehungen und Sicherheitspolitik e.V. (KFIBS) (Cologne Forum for International Relations and Security Policy, registered association). In the FOCUS project, CEUSS collaborates with 12 partners from 8 countries within and beyond the EU.

(european-security.info – 09-08-2013)