Prof. Robert Hassink (Kiel University)

Robert Hassink is Professor of Economic Geography at Kiel University in Germany and Visiting Professor at Newcastle University, UK. After receiving his PhD in 1992 from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, he has worked as a research fellow, consultant, and professor at several research institutes and universities in the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and South Korea. Over the years, he has carried out various research projects on old industrial areas, clusters, regional innovation policy, and digital platforms in Europe and East Asia, as well as on theories and paradigms of economic geography. He is Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Economic Geography and Editorial Board member of the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society.

Title of the presentation:

The Defence Industry and its Economic Geographies

Recent geopolitical tensions and conflicts, related to increasing nationalism have had a profound effect on defence spending. Between 2015 and 2024 global defence expenditures increased by 37% (Liang et al., 2025). In fact, from 2023 to 2024, we saw the steepest increase since the end of the Cold War (SIPRI, 2025), with worldwide increase of 9.4% (Liang et al., 2025). This trend brings the defence industry and its economic geographies back on the research agenda, after it received much attention during the Cold War. After the Cold War until recently, the focus was strongly on defence conversion and dual use technologies and their geographies. Against this background, this keynote speech aims at reviewing the economic geographies of the defence industry during these three periods, particularly focusing on the structure and spatial distribution of defence expenditures, the dependence of regional economies and relatedly military industrial complexes on these expenditures, the changing character of the defence industries and its economic geographical consequences, and the role of defence policy in boosting some regional economies. Moreover, an agenda will be presented pointing at potential future research avenues on the defence industry and its economic geographies.