CfP WORKSHOP: Reframing the Nation: Media Publics and Strategic Narratives‏

CALL FOR PAPERS INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP: Reframing the Nation: Media Publics and Strategic NarrativesDATE: 18-19 May 2009VENUE: The Open University, Hawley Crescent, Camden Town, London. Keynote speakers:Sir Lawrence Freedman (King's College, London)Nick Cull (Annenberg School, University of Southern California)Laura Roselle (Elon University)Philip Seib (Annenberg School, University of Southern California) Nation states have always used the media to project strategic national narratives on the world stage. But recent shifts in geopolitical and diplomatic imperatives, especially the 'war on terror', and the changing digital media ecology, have generated new kinds of public diplomacy initiatives. For example, the BBC World Service, funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, has recently cut radio services in Eastern Europe to make way for BBC Arabic and Persian TV channels, with accompanying tri-platform online services (text, audio and video). These initiatives place high value on interactive debate, citizen journalism, and user generated content. But does such interactivity really contribute to the BBC's declared aim of fostering a 'global conversation', i.e. democratic debate in the Muslim world in particular? And is a coherent strategic narrative about British interests abroad projected by these channels? Several English-language transnational television channels recently launched, including Al Jazeera English, Press TV (Iran), CCTV9 (China), France 24, and Russia Today. They pose further questions about strategic narratives and public diplomacy in the new media ecology. Diasporic groups, increasingly connected via digital media, are being recognised as exploitable for diplomacy purposes. States can mobilise citizens both at home and abroad in diplomatic media initiatives via internet chat rooms and news discussion sites. How are we to research and evaluate changing configurations of media 'audiences' or 'publics', and the uses of digital diasporas by states for diplomacy purposes? And what about the ways in which diaspora actors use digital media to challenge strategic national narratives? The media are essentially storytelling machines. When political narratives represent future-oriented identity claims, they typically invoke the past in order to articulate distinctive national positions on events, issues, policy domains, or a country's place in world political narratives. As social lives and political events become more open to being digitally recorded, narrated, stored and transported in unpredictable ways, the potential for citizens to disrupt such strategic narratives and public diplomacy efforts also grows. Can citizen journalism and digital storytelling constitute an effective form of resistance to strategic national narratives? At a moment when emerging state powers such as China, India, and the EU pose a challenge to US pre-eminence globally, there is a need for comparative studies of how citizens as well as state, political, and military actors are using media to reframe and/or contest national narratives. This exploratory workshop addresses these dynamics through discussion of studies of how the 'strategic narratives' of nation-states and also of transnational actors, like the EU, are projected and interpreted domestically and internationally. It brings together scholars from Sociology, Media Studies, Political Communications and International Relations to address these key questions: * How can we identify, analyse and assess the impact of strategic narratives?* How are configurations of audiences and publics changing as a result of migration and media technologies, and how do such changes affect the meanings and practices of (mediated) citizenship?* How do strategic narratives translate (or not) across linguistic or cultural boundaries within and/or between nations?* How do state actors work with the media, the military, NGOs, corporations, and other institutions to project strategic narratives?* How do political leaders assimilate international events into established national narratives and/or change the narratives?* How do media users respond to attempts to shift strategic national narratives?* What difference do strategic narratives make to international alliances, military interventions, and the domestic legitimacy of leaders?* What forms of knowledge and understandings of history are drawn upon in mobilising and/or challenging strategic narratives?* What methodological tools (from the Arts and Humanities and the Social Sciences) can help us research and interpret the political, social and cultural significance of strategic national narratives? Please send an abstract (150 words max) by 20th April to Karen Ho: k.d.ho@open.ac.uk. For further information contact either Marie Gillespie (m.gillespie@open.ac.uk) or Ben O'Loughlin (Ben.OLoughlin@rhul.ac.uk) or call Ben on 01784 443153. The exploratory workshop is funded by the Open University's ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) and the New Political Communication Unit and the Centre for European Politics at Royal Holloway College. It is also supported by the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex.-- ________________________________________Dr Andreas AntoniadesDirector, Centre for Global Political Economy (CGPE)Lecturer, Department of International RelationsUniversity of SussexBrighton BN1 9SN, UKTel: +44 (0)1273 872735Email: A.A.Antoniades@sussex.ac.uk Webpage: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/ir/profile215111.html_CGPE Website: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/cgpe

CfP: Panel on Foreign Policy Analysis, BISA Annual Conference‏

Call for PapersBISA Annual Conference, University of Leicester14-16 December 2009 Panel on Foreign Policy Analysis For this year’s BISA Annual Conference in Leicester, we are planning tosubmit a panel on ‘Foreign Policy Analysis: The Promise and Pitfalls ofTheoretical Integration’ (for a synopsis, see below). On the occasion ofthis panel, we would like to invite paper proposals. Abstracts shouldcontain a maximum of 200 words and should be sent to us by 27 April 2009 atthe latest. Please submit your proposals to: Kai.Oppermann@uni-koeln.de andKlaus.Brummer@polwiss.phil.uni-erlangen.de. We are looking forward to your proposals, and we hope that we can puttogether an interesting panel for the conference. ----------------------Foreign Policy Analysis: The Promise and Pitfalls of Theoretical Integration The field of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) is multifaceted. Its approachescan be differentiated along several dimensions, such as levels of analysis(e.g. individual decision-makers, decision-making in groups, bureaucracy),whether they are structural or agent-orientated, or whether they areconstructivist, rationalist or cognitive/psychological. Against thisbackground, Carlsnaes (2002) referred to the ‘eclecticism’ of FPA, andrightly so. At the same time, the diversity of approaches could be one ofFPA’s major strengths, particularly if one manages to integrate insightsfrom several approaches into one model. In this sense, Hudson (2007) arguesthat theoretical integration is FPA’s ‘true promise’. Indeed, most of therecent theoretical innovation in FPA has emerged from efforts that took upthe challenge of integrating insights from different approaches. One exampleis Poliheuristic Theory (e.g. Mintz 2003), whose two-stage model ofdecision-making comprises a cognitive and a rational dimension. Overall, thepromise of theoretical integration is to receive a more nuanced and accuratepicture of foreign policy decision-making. On the other hand, the mostserious pitfall seems to be that integrated approaches turn into grab bagswhich include everything but explain nothing. This aim of this panel is to examine the promise and pitfalls of theoreticalintegration in Foreign Policy Analysis. We invite papers that (a) addressthe possibility (and desirability) of generating integrated approaches inFPA in general, (b) discuss existing integrated approaches, or (c) proposenew integrated approaches. Best regards,Klaus Brummer, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, GermanyKai Oppermann, University of Cologne, Germany Dr. Kai Oppermann- Assistant Professor -Chair for International Politics and Foreign PolicyUniversity of CologneTel.: 0221-470-2854; Fax: 0221-470-6732http://www.jaeger.uni-koeln.de/oppermann.html

The Biopolitics of Resilience Workshop -Keele June 18-19 2009‏

ESRC-Biopolitics of Security Research Network Seminar Series on‘Contemporary Biopolitical Security’Second Workshop: THE BIOPOLITICS OF RESILIENCE Keele University, 18-19 June 2009Keynote Address: Prof Pat O’Malley, University of Sydney ‘Giving fear a respectable name’: Military resilience, liberalism andscientific governance Programme: Thursday 18 June 13.00 – Registration and coffee 13.30 – Introduction: -Luis Lobo-Guerrero and Peter Adey (University of Keele) ‘The Biopolitics of Resilience’ 14.00 –16:00 Panel 1: Ecologies Melinda Cooper (University of Sydney) and Jeremy Walker (University ofTechnology Sydney) ‘Genealogies of Resilience: from Systems Ecology to the Political Economy ofCrisis Adaptation’ Mike Hodson and Simon Marvin (University of Salford) ‘Urban Ecological Security’ A new urban paradigm? Doerthe Rosenau (King’s College London) ‘‘Leave it Alone!’ - Genetic Engineering and the (Counter-)Discourse ofResilience’ 16.00 – tea and coffee 16.30- 18.00 Keynote address: Prof. Pat O’Malley (University of Sydney) ‘Giving fear a respectable name’: Military resilience, liberalism andscientific governance 19.00 – Drinks reception: Claus Moser Research Centre, lobby 19.30 – Workshop Dinner: Keele Hall Friday 19 June 9.00-11:00 Panel 2: Scales Will Medd (Lancaster University) ‘Flood, drought and the neoliberal resilience’ Jon Coaffe and Marian Hawkesworth (Manchester University), and DavidMurakami Wood (Newcastle University) ‘We are all risk managers now! The everyday impact of urban resilienceagainst terrorism’ Nadine Voelkner (Sussex University/Keele University) ‘‘It’s about prevention’: human trafficking risk and resilience in Vietnam’ 11.00-11.15 coffee 11.30-13.30 Panel 3: Science and Systems Judith Verweijen (University of Utrecht / Netherlands Defence Academy) ‘Resilient communities: a new target of stabilization operations’ Christopher Zebrowski (Keele University) ‘The Resilience Apparatus: An interdisciplinary examination of resiliencestrategies’ Peter Adey (Keele University), Steve Graham (Durham University), BenAnderson (Durham University) ‘Preparing for the end of the world as we know it’ 13.30-14.30 Lunch 14.30-15.30 Roundtable and conclusion For more information in relation to the workshop rationale and abstracts ofpresentations, please visit:http://www.keele.ac.uk/research/lpj/research/BiopoliticsResearchUnit/index.html Please register your attendance with Rosie Shepherd(r.e.shepherd@ilpj.keele.ac.uk) -- Dr Luis Lobo-GuerreroLecturer in International RelationsSchool of Politics, International Relations and PhilosophyChancellor's BuildingKeele UniversityKeele, ST5 5BGUnited Kingdom Deputy-Postgraduate Research DirectorResearch Institute for Law, Politics and JusticeClaus Moser BuildingKeele University BPS-RU@ Keele Biopolitics of Security Research Unit @ Keelehttp://www.keele.ac.uk/research/lpj/research/BiopoliticsResearchUnit/index.html

Seminar on Rhetoric and Politics in Contemporary Democracy‏

Persuasion: Rhetoric and Politics in Contemporary Democracy
A seminar organized by the Goldsmiths' Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy and the Centre for the Study of Culture and Politics, University of Swansea.
May 5 2009, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2-5pm
Venue: Small Hall Theatre, Richard Hoggart Building, followed by a wine reception in the SCR
Speakers:
Aletta Norval (University of Essex)
Michael Carrithers (Durham University)
Rochana Bajpai (SOAS)
Alan Finlayson (Swansea University)
Chair: James Martin (Goldsmiths)
Persuasion is one of the most fundamental of democratic political activities. But it is also one of the most ambiguous. Does democratic development and expansion require the slow substitution of persuasion or rational conviction or, on the contrary, the proliferation of opportunities for rhetorical contestation? Where is the line between persuasion and force? Are there standards of truth or consent that guarantee the democratic character of a persuasive activity? What forms of rhetoric distinguish a democratic polity from tyranny? What happens to political persuasion in an economy and culture dominated by commercial persuasion? How can we best understand and analyse the forms, modes and locations of contemporary political rhetoric as manifested in visual and media cultures?
This interdisciplinary seminar explores the modes of democratic persuasion, the methods for its explication and interpretation and the prospects for rhetoric both in the academy and in the contemporary multifaceted polis.
The event is free and open to all, but please contact James Martin (j.martin@gold.ac.uk) if you'd like to attend.

CFP: Reassessing Critiques of Liberal Peace - BISA 09‏

Call for Papers: ‘Reassessing Critiques of the Liberal Peace’ From Meera Sabaratnam (LSE) and David Chandler (Westminster) Panel proposal for annual BISA conference, University of Leicester, 14-16December 2009. The ‘liberal peace’ is regularly bandied around as a critical indictment ofinternational intervention and frameworks of statebuilding: subject tocritiques from advocates of extended intervention (such as Roland Paris) andthose critical of intervention (such as Roger MacGinty, Oliver Richmond andMichael Pugh). Apparently intervention is structured around the needs of power, capital,and ideology, and articulated through demands for democratisation andopening up to market relations and legitimised through classical liberalassumptions about progress and individual autonomy. We are seeking toorganise one or perhaps two panels at BISA in order to discuss the validityof the liberal peace critique both empirically and theoretically. Empirically, we seek papers which might problematise the assumptions of theliberal peace in practice: does this critique fit the practices and concernsof interveners and 'subjects' on the ground? Theoretically, we seek papers which might engage with the assumption thatthis ‘liberal’ framing of policy and practice is indeed what is at stake,and the direction in which critical research in this area should bedeveloped. Abstracts and full participant details should be sent to the panel convenersMeera Sabaratnam (LSE) M.Sabaratnam@lse.ac.uk and David Chandler(Westminster) D.Chandler@wmin.ac.uk by Friday 24 April at the latest.

What is the outlook for reaching ambitious climate agreement in Copenhagen?'Chatham House‏

The Politics of Climate Change AgreementMonday 6 - Tuesday 7 July 2009Chatham House, London A major two-day international conference How ambitious will climate agreement be in Copenhagen in December?Register at this high-level event to find out first hand what the prospects are for reaching ambitious climate agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009. New speakers at this conference include: Kevin Conrad, Prime Minister's Special Envoy & Ambassador for Environment and Climate Change, Department of the Prime Minister and National Executive Council, Papua New Guinea; Elliot Diringer,Vice President, International Strategies, Pew Center on Global Climate Change; Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Sudan to the United Nations and Chairman of the Group of 77.They and other representatives from key countries, experts and commentators will discuss: * The science: which elements of the deal are essential to avoid dangerous climate change? * The UN discussions: what is the state of play, politically?* How will 'common but differentiated responsibilities' be interpreted?* How 'green' are governments' stimulus packages?* If agreement is not reached, what will business do?Visit our website for the full agenda. Register now to benefit from the early bird rateJoin these and other high-level experts to gain an understanding of the outlook for reaching agreement, and what the alternatives might be. Register now to benefit from the early booking rate and ensure your place at this essential forum. SponsorsMedia partner Registration & information Book by 6 May to benefit from the early booking rate.www.chathamhouse.org.ukconferences@chathamhouse.org.uk+44 (0)20 7957 5754 Keynote speakers Yvo de BoerExecutive Secretary United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Kevin ConradPrime Minister's Special Envoy & Ambassador for Environment and Climate ChangeDepartment of the Prime Minister and National Executive Council, Papua New Guinea Marthinus Van SchalkwykMinister of Environmental Affairs and TourismSouth Africa Speaker highlights Elliot DiringerVice President, International StrategiesPew Center on Global Climate Change Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Sudan to the United Nations andChairman of the Group of 77

CfP Graduate Workshop on Classical IR and Political Theory‏

CALL FOR PAPERS GRADUATE WORKSHOP ON CLASSICAL IR AND POLITICAL THEORY organised by CRIPT (a BISA working group) in association with theDepartment of International Politics, AberystwythUniversity Friday, May 29th, 2009Main Hall, Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University Since Martin Wight's landmark article 'Why is there no InternationalTheory?' IR theorists seem to have developed two main responses to Wight's argument. They have either considered thelack of a distinctively international body of thought as a rather alarming state of affairs to be amended under thepressures of globalisation and the gradual convergence of the politicalwith the international, or they have returned to the rather neglectedclassical tradition of political thought in order to employ this literature as ameans of achieving a better understanding of the contemporary world. It should not come as a surprise then thatthe use of the classics of political thought by contemporary IRtheorists usually reveals more a bout the latter than the former.Lately, some revisionist literature advocating a more contextualist approach has attempted tooffer an alternative, less presentistinterpretation of the classical tradition of political theory and itssignificance for the study of international politics. Classical authorssuch as Vitoria, Grotius, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant and Millare being revisited and their legacy in international relationsreappreciated under a new light and away from the distortions imposed by the study of IR as a social science. At the same time, new interpretations of 'classical' IR thinkers aregradually seeing the light of day. The work of classical realists like Carr, Niebuhr, Morgenthau and Herz is beingreappraised in order to reveal the critical and normative elements intheir thought. Similarly, the contribution of interwar idealists isbeing re-evaluated beyond simplifications and disciplinary distortions.Some scholars even talk about a positivist 'detour' of the disciplinethat has contributed to the silencing of any complexity and ambiguity inthe work of canonical IR thinkers and the discrediting of the criticalelements of classical realist thought. With the emergence of a criticaland post-structuralist preoccupation in the field, the suppressedaspects of classical realism have come to the fore revealing hiddenprospects and fruitful opportunities for a critical re-engagement withcanonical IR thinkers. This workshop seeks to investigate the nature and significance of thisre-engagement with classical thinkers both in political theory and IR and to assess the ways in which it has beenconducted. We invite paper proposals from graduate students and youngacademics working in the fields of international politics, social andpolitical theory and the history of ideas. Possible topics may include: 1) Why do classical thinkers remain integral to the study ofInternational Relations (as a discipline and a subject matter) andinternational political theory in a globalised world?2) To what extent does the critique of traditional accounts oftimeless concepts in international political theory reflect similardebates already conducted in the domain of political theory?3) Is it possible to theorise international politics beyond the'perennialist' vs. 'contextualist' divide in order to create a newsynthesis that would move the field forward?4) In what way might such synthesis retrieve key concepts of ourpolitical culture (such as democracy, liberty, human rights) and addressthe complex issues of our time without succumbing to presentism orideological misuse?5) What could be the basis of a fruitful re-engagement with thecanonical thinkers of classical realism and idealism?6) What are the lessons we can draw for IR as a discipline andfor international politics as a subject matter from the work of'classical' IR thinkers such as Woolf, Niebuhr, Morgenthau and Mitrany(to name only a few)?7) Is there room to re-think possible connections and conceptualoverlap between classical realist thinking and critical international theory?8) Teaching the classical tradition of IR and internationalpolitical theory: how to engage and challenge students? Deadline for abstracts: FRIDAY, MAY 8 2009 Please send paper title, abstract (of no more than 300 words), and yourinstitutional affiliation to cript@lse.ac.uk. Registration fee: A33 (students)/ A35 (staff). Some limited fundswill be available to cover paper givers expenses. For any furtherinformation, please contact CRIPT conveners Anthony Cooper (RoyalHolloway), Susanna Karlsson(Aberystwyth), Vassilis Paipais (LSE) and Andreja Zevnik (Aberystwyth),at cript@lse.ac.uk.