Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world

In-Person
Seminar

Strategy through the Gray Zone: How Non-Legally Binding Agreements Shape Contemporary Security Politics

Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

In an era of intensified great-power competition, states increasingly rely on non-legally binding agreements to coordinate behavior, signal intentions, and manage escalation—without the costs of formal treaties. Dr. Vassileva will explore how such agreements function as strategic tools.

For more information, contact susan_lynch@hks.harvard.edu

 

Date: Time: - Location: One Brattle Square, 350

Speaker
Julia Vassileva

Julia Ivova Vassileva
Light show
Legal-strategic gray zones: how soft, non-binding forms structure security politics 

Speaker: Julia Vassileva, Postdoctoral Fellow, International Security Program

In an era of intensified great-power competition, states increasingly rely on non-legally binding agreements to coordinate behavior, signal intentions, and manage escalation—without the costs of formal treaties. Dr. Vassileva will explore how such agreements function as strategic tools, allowing both powerful and small states to shape expectations and balance flexibility, legitimacy, and control. By theorizing non-binding agreements as legal–strategic gray zones, the seminar shows how international law operates within the dynamics of security politics.

Admittance is on a first come–first served basis.  Tea and Coffee Provided.

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