Middle East Technical University (METU) Department of International Relations calls for proposals for pre-organised panels, roundtables and individual papers for its tenth METU Conference on International Relations to be held between June 15-17, 2011 in Ankara, Turkey.

Call for Papers:


In 2011, the METU Conference on International Relations, the oldest annual conference in Turkey on international relations, is going to mark its 10th year. The Conference takes pride in bringing together scholars from all around the world to exchange views in approximately 50 panels and roundtables.

In order to continue this tradition with a new vigour, Rethinking International Relations: Theory and Practice has been chosen as the theme of this year’s Conference.

Within this framework, the Conference aims to provide the broadest possible forum for evaluating and questioning the state of International Relations (IR), covering issues such as the underpinnings of IR as a separate academic discipline, the degree of success of interdisciplinary approaches to IR, research and teaching on IR in Turkey and around the world, and IR as an academic sector. Panel and paper proposals on what may be called sub-disciplines under the IR framework are also welcome in order to facilitate the exchange of views on, for instance, theories of IR, foreign policy analysis, political economy, critical security studies, politics of identity, or area studies.

In addition, the Conference invites scholars and practitioners of IR to critically assess traditional concepts of the discipline such as power, identity, norms, legitimacy, multilateralism, multipolarity, and nation-building. Participants are also encouraged to elaborate on these in relation to various contemporary questions including the financial crisis, climate change, terrorism, armament policies, energy security, development and aid policies, the rise of new powers in global politics, interventionism, and the future of international organisations.

The Conference will therefore facilitate a stock-taking exercise as well as identification of future trends in international relations, concerning not only the discipline itself but also the practice. A non-exhaustive list of themes for the Conference is provided below.

THEMES

- Change and continuity in IR as a discipline
- Theories of IR: Prospects for theory synthesis and alternative approaches to IR
- Concepts of IR: Essentially contested or not?
- Inter-disciplinary approaches to IR: How successful are these?
- Theory and Practice in IR: The interaction between scholars and policy-makers
- Foreign Policy and IR: The role of diplomacy, mediation and conditionality
- IR as an academic sector: A case of Western hegemony?
- Research and Teaching in IR: Trends and problems in methods and methodology
- Gender and feminism in IR: Mainstreaming gender in the discipline and practice?
- Critical security studies in IR: Revolution or a case of full-fledged securitisation?
- Geopolitics and IR: The role and impact of interventionism and nation-building
- Politics of identity and IR: Culture, religion and nationalism
- International law and IR: What role for international ethics, equality and justice?
- Global governance: Managing global capitalism, health and environment
- Multilateralism, IOs and NGOs: NATO, the UN, the EU, IMF and the World Bank
- Europeanisation and globalisation: Relevance of ‘Fortress Europe’?
- The US and the rising powers in IR: Back to multi-polarity?
- Turkey in the world: State, society and foreign policy