KOMKRIS contributes to an increased understanding of the interactions between civil, societal, and state security actors, to explore trade-offs under conditions of antagonism, and to develop tools for communication and collaboration thereby increasing security and resilience. The project harnesses shared features of the region – such as societal trust, decentralised governance, strong civic engagement, and transparency – while exploring how these attributes are challenged during times of crisis.
Through comparative analysis and co-creative engagement across the participating countries, KOMKRIS develops a joint understanding of what antagonistic threats are, how they are governed, who governs them, what the role of civil society is, and how communication infrastructures enable or hinder sustainable responses. These dimensions are operationalised and approached from a multimethod perspective, identifying institutional and civic capacities and potential for innovations.
Its integration of innovative methodologies, governance studies, legal analysis, and crisis communication underpins a new competence area at the intersection of civil security and governance. Harmonised knowledge production, such as the creation of multilingual datasets, comparative legal mappings, and best practices, raises the competitiveness of Nordic researchers in both EU and global contexts. KOMKRIS expands the Nordic research ecosystem by building shared infrastructure with legal and governance analysis across borders, and pioneering practice-based, co-creative methodologies.
RQ1: How are antagonistic threats defined, identified, and prioritised in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Estonia?
RQ2: What actors are involved in responding to different types of threats, and what legal frameworks and institutional and regulatory mechanisms shape these responses?
RQ3: How can civil society actors be involved in responding to antagonistic threats, and how do societal trust and a sense of belonging shape their agency?
WP 0 leader: University of Helsinki (FI), Sebastian Godenhjelm
WP0 covers the overall coordination, monitoring of implementation, and stakeholder collaboration throughout the KOMKRIS project. It ensures that project activities are integrated across thematic WPs and partner institutions, that the project advances on ethically sound and sustainable grounds, and that outputs are co-created to be relevant for end users across the Nordic-Baltic region. WP0 is the backbone of the managerial, ethical, empirical, and practical coherence of the project.
WP 1 leader: University of Helsinki (FI), Kanerva Kuokkanen
WP1 lays the conceptual and epistemic groundwork for the project. It maps how antagonistic threats are defined, identified, and prioritised across country contexts and civil society. It addresses how threat understandings and hierarchies are operationalised within different layers of governance and policy work. The work package employs an inductive, comparative approach to explore how threats are conceptualised by different actors, supporting all analytical work and co-creative WP components.
WP 2 leader: University of Tartu (EE), Kairi Kasearu & Sten Torpan
WP2 extends the analytical focus from conceptual definitions (WP1) to the institutional architectures and actor constellations that define societal responses to antagonistic threats in the Nordic-Baltic region. It systematically maps legal frameworks, governance practices, and organisational responsibilities across levels of government, with particular attention to regional and municipal structures, civil society contact points, and the evolving logic of total defence in each participating country.
WP 3 leader: Oslo Metropolitan University (NO), Are Haug
WP3 addresses the relational and cultural infrastructures of societal security. While WP1 maps threat perceptions and WP2 delineates institutional responsibilities, WP3 focuses on the role of citizens and civil society actors under antagonistic threats, with a comparative approach. Special emphasis is placed on the role of civil society as both responder and sense-maker – particularly when institutional legitimacy or coordination is under strain or falters. This supports democratic and sustainable means in developing resilience.
WP 4 leader: Lund University (SE), Misse Wester
WP4 examines how communication, media, and governance systems can be strengthened for resilience under threats. While WP1 maps threats, WP2 analyses institutions, and WP3 studies civil society, WP4 focuses on communicative infrastructures and practices.
WP 5 leader: University of Helsinki (FI), Sebastian Godenhjelm
WP5 relates strongly to WP0 and covers actions relating to the project completion, highlighting the Nordic added-value by presenting results on how the Nordic-Baltic region could operate in complex, dynamic and transnationally embedded societies (see section on Nordic added value). The core task of WP5 is to present, validate and disseminate the project´s overall results in order to facilitate future collaborative arrangements and knowledge exchange, thereby contributing to the Nordic-Baltic region becoming the most integrated region in the world by 2030 in terms of governance and resilience under antagonistic threats in times of complex crisis.