Call for Papers: Cooperation or Domination: International Organisations as Imperial Designs, Submission Deadline- 23 March 2025
The Center for Global Public Law (CGPL) at Koç University is pleased to announce a Workshop to be held in Istanbul on 4 July 2025. The workshop will focus on the intersection between international organisations and imperialism, capitalism and race exploring whether and how these institutions have served as instruments of domination under the guise of cooperation. Each paper will be assigned a discussant who will provide detailed feedback, fostering an in-depth discussion and critique of the presented work. Discussants include Catherine Brölmann (University of Amsterdam), Jean d’Aspremont (Sciences Po, University of Manchester), Lys Kulamadayil (Geneva Graduate Institute), and Fuad Zarbiyev (Geneva Graduate Institute). Scholars at all stages of their careers, including PhD students, junior and senior academics, are invited to submit abstracts.
We invite submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
- The relationship of international organisations with imperialism, capitalism and race in post-colonial contexts
- Universalism versus particularism: the imposition of values through international organisations
- Theoretical approaches to understanding international organisations as instruments of hegemony and capitalism
- Historical approaches to understanding international organisations and their relationship with imperialism, capitalism and race
- Regional international organisations and their transformative influence on member states
- The role of European international organisations in continuing European imperialism
- Imperial ambitions of non-European organisations and their implications
- The creation of inequalities and hierarchies through membership and decision-making in international organisations
- Techniques and tools used by international organisations to enforce transformations on states
- The lack of transparency, unequal voting rights, and issues of democratic legitimacy in the functioning of international organisations as mechanisms that consolidate the dominance of powerful states
- Regional human rights courts and their role in promoting specific interpretations of human rights
- The variety and plurality of imperialist projects at work in the framework of international organisations
- The potential of universal and regional international organisations as sites of resistance towards other forms of imperialism
- The convergence of international organisations’ imperialist practices with other forms of imperialism
Submission Guidelines
Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent to [email protected] by 23 March. Please include your affiliation in the abstract, indicate whether you require funding, and provide a 200-word bio.
Workshop Format
The Workshop will adopt a roundtable format to foster in-depth discussions. Each presentation will be followed by comments from discussants and an open discussion. Participants are expected to read the papers before the Workshop and actively engage in the discussions. Selected papers may be published in a special issue.
Timeline
- Deadline for abstract submissions: 23 March
- Notification of acceptance: 6 April
- Submission of 3.000-word draft papers: 20 June
For more details, refer here
