International Student Conference about geopolitics

As part of the International Student Conference “The Resource Nexus: From Ancient Empires to Future Earth – Resources, Conflict, and Global Security,” taking place from 11–13 March 2026 in Basel, we will explore how resource demand, sustainability, and geopolitics are interconnected and influence each other. We deliberately take a broad temporal perspective – from historical empires to the sustainable societies of the future. The central guiding question is: how do the resource demands of economies and societies affect peace and conflict worldwide, the fairness of global value chains, and the opportunities for sustainable societal and economic models?

• From a historical perspective, we analyze how resource demand has shaped social developments, dependencies, and power constellations over long periods, and what lessons can be drawn from the history of colonialism.
• The political science approach of the conference focuses on current geopolitical challenges: from Greenland’s role as a potential future resource supplier to cross-border cooperation in the energy market at the Polish-Czech-German border, and the question of fair governance of global value chains.
• From the perspective of sustainability sciences, we explore which strategies could be promising for resilient societies with low resource dependency – including questions of behavioral change, circular economy, and fair resource management.

The International Student Conference takes place as part of a joint course between Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the University of Basel. The course is part of the cooperation between Eucor and the European University Alliance EPICUR. It is financially supported within the EPICUR project at the University of Basel. This financial support is made possible thanks to funding from Movetia, the Swiss Agency for Mobility and Exchange, which is funded by the federal government.

Events organized as part of the International Student Conference are open to students from all Eucor and EPICUR universities. It is part of the anniversary program for the 10 years of the EGTC Eucor. For registration and further information: eucor-epicur@unibas.ch.