Baltimore Workshop: Interested? Send email before July 20! Also see PHISO reminder and memo re workshops to come

Aigul Kulnazarova and Jason Strakes would like to propose and organize a workshop during the ISA 58^th Annual Convention in Baltimore, MD on “South-South Cooperation in a Changing World Order: Post-Soviet Interactions with the Global South”. Please read below the brief description of this new project.

Since the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the international system has undergone major political and economic transformations. Several independent states of the former Soviet South – the Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) – have complimented this new environment as well as the fragmentation of the previous bipolar world order with efforts to construct multiple regional and cross-regional associations.    

Yet, while the states of CCA exhibit various characteristics and conditions associated with post-colonial or developing nations, including struggles with hegemonic influences, resource dependency, economic inequality, institutional incapacity and unresolved internal conflicts, the study of these countries in conventional IR has traditionally been either relegated to a generic “post-communist” or “Russian and Eastern European” subfield, or framed according to narratives of an enduring geopolitical dichotomy between competing power centers representing an objectified “East” and “West”. Most recently, the major global powers and attendant political elites have presented these states with a choice between two possible hegemonic orders: the neoliberal development model signified by integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions and trade/investment regimes, and its alleged alternative advocated by the newly established structures of BRICS and post-Soviet regional integration projects such as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). These dominant paradigms and discourses have caused many to overlook Eurasian states’ growing relationships with Asian, African, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries and international organizations during the past two decades. Such disciplinary conventions have imposed unnecessary limitations on the ability of regional scholars to introduce new approaches, and more importantly, to generate novel findings regarding the domestic and international trajectory of CCA states.

In response to these concerns, we would like to offer an intensive workshop that will invite a group of scholars (both junior and senior) from varying theoretical perspectives to jointly organize an integrative forum, in which we will analyze Eurasian and developing world regions as part of evolving South-South interactions in international relations, and thus contribute further to global interpretive frameworks in IR.

The workshop will take place the day before the next Annual Convention, Tuesday, 21 February 2017. We are currently communicating with a publishing house in the UK that has expressed interest in this project. We plan to accommodate 15-20 scholars and publish the papers presented in the workshop as an edited volume. In the event of a successful application, there will be funding available for 1-2 nights’ hotel accommodation and 1-2 days per diem (1+1 for North American, and 2+2 for non-North American participants). If you would like to participate and present a paper in such workshop, please send a 200-word abstract and brief bio of maximum two pages to Aigul Kulnazarova (kulnazarova@tama.ac.jp) and Jason Strakes (j.strakes@osce-academy.net) by Wednesday 20 July 2016.

Please note that we are particularly interested in contributions that discuss the diverse and multifarious relationships of CCA countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the North Caucasus republics of the Russian Federation) both at institutional and nation-state levels with Asian, African, Middle Eastern and Latin American regions.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Cordially,

Aigul Kulnazarova, Ph.D. Professor of International Relations and International Law School of Global Studies (SGS) Tama University, Shonan Campus 802 Engyo, Fujisawa, 252-0805 Japan Email: kulnazarova@tama.ac.jp Tel: +81-(0)466-83-7932 Fax: +81-(0)466-82-5070

Jason Strakes, Ph.D. Associate Fellow and Visiting Lecturer  Politics and Security Programme OSCE Academy in Bishkek 1A Botanichesky Pereulok 720044 Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic Email; j.strakes@osce-academy.net Tel:+996(070)861 3536

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MEMBERS: A REMINDER

PHISO WORKSHOP March 9-10, MANILA. Go to:
http://gscis.blogspot.com/2016/05/convention-2017-notes-from-convention.html


MEMO RE CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

Dear Members:
In the summer newsletter which is on its way to you, you will note that the Third GSCIS Conference  scheduled for Brazil has been postponed in order to avoid clashing with other ISA conferences scheduled for next summer. Instead the Committee on Outreach is currently negotiating to hold a few smaller workshops in 2017. One such will take place in Manila within the larger PHISO conference, and a second is tentatively (Note: tentatively) scheduled for Havana. We will update you soon regarding the latter.
Best,
jbw, Chair, Outreach
Hope you are having a great and productive summer.