BISA: SAID CFP Annual BISA conference‏

BISA Sovereignty And Its Discontents Group Call for Papers Annual BISA conference, Leicester, 14-16 December 2009 We welcome paper proposals from research students and established academics,working in the fields of IR theory, strategic studies and the history ofideas, on the broad themes identified below for the SAID panels at thisyear's annual BISA conference. * New Sovereigntism to New Idealism? President Obama has promised re-engagement with America's allies and theworld, in contrast to the 'new sovereigntism' of the Bush Administration,characterised by Peter J. Spiro in his 2000 'Foreign Affairs' article as thespurning of international law and multilateral engagement in favour ofdefending American exceptionalism and national interests. The 'newsovereigntism', backed by conservative legal scholars and think-tanks,claimed that the American legal system and liberal democracy wasincompatible with the demands of global constitutionalism and newdevelopments in international law. This panel will examine the substance ofthe case put forward by the new sovereigntists. Possible questions to explore include: * Is 'sovereigntism' necessarily a conservative project? * Can an abstract 'sovereigntism' represent a coherent intellectualposition?* Is 'sovereigntism' only applicable to the USA and / or Western liberaldemocracies, or does it have wider lessons for states in general? * Does the end of globalism in the current economic crisis offer newpossibilities for sovereigntism in international affairs? * Has the new sovereigntism had any lasting impact on American foreignaffairs? * The return of realism? Realist thinkers have drawn attention to the rise of new great powers inAsia and the spectre of economic protectionism to argue for the inevitablereturn of power politics to international affairs, and the need for realisttheory to grasp these developments - a case put forward by Robert Kagan asawakening from the globalist 'dreams' of the 1990s. In the meantime, some ofthe most astute criticisms of the irrationality and purposelessness ofAmerican foreign policy and strategy since the end of the Cold War,including the invasion of Iraq and the war on terror, have variously comefrom realist thinkers such as Edward Luttwak, Henry Kissinger, ZbigniewBrzezinski and Andrew Bacevich. Despite the idealist rhetoric of the ObamaAdministration, the American war effort in Afghanistan is retreating frombuilding beacons of democracy to the simple pursuit of stability. Do the'happy 1990s' described by Mary Kaldor represent a twenty year detour frompower politics? Does the recent disciplinary re-appraisal of classicalrealism pave the way for the return of a more nuanced and sophisticatedrealist thought? Possible topics for paper proposals may include: * Is there a coherent and general realist critique of the strategies pursuedin the war on terror?* Does the new pragmatism of the American war effort signal a dangerousabandonment of democratic political ideals?* Does the normative re-appraisal of realist thinkers such as Hobbes, Carrand Morgenthau offer possibilities for better grasping recent developmentsin international order? * Does Obama's foreign policy vision signify a return to pragmatism, or adifferent iteration of the Wilsonian idealism of the Bush Administration?* How successful and important is the re-appraisal of classical realistthinkers such as E.H. Carr, Reinhold Niebuhr and Hans Morgenthau in anycontemporary return to realist thought? If you would like to propose a paper on any of these themes, please submitthe following information to Philip Cunliffe atpoliticswithoutsovereignty@gmail.com before FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2009: 1. Paper title and abstract of no more than 200 words.2. Your contact details, including institution, email, postal address andBISA membership number