Voices: The EISA Podcast

What happens to the global financial order when the world starts losing faith in the US dollar - and in the United States itself? In this episode, host Polly Pallister-Wilkins speaks with Tobias Pforr (University of Copenhagen) and Fabian Pape (University of Edinburgh) about how the Second Trump administration is undermining the dollar’s hegemony. Tobias Pforr is a political economist and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Employment Relations Research Centre in the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen. His research bridges political economy, philosophy, and public policy, and he has held positions at the European University Institute, the University of Reading, and the University of Warwick. Fabian Pape is a political economist and Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, researching the US Treasury market as a source of geopolitical and financial power. Drawing on their recent article, co-authored with Johannes Petry, Senior Researcher at Goethe University Frankfurt, “Dollar Diminished: The Unmaking of US Financial Hegemony Under Trump” (2025), they discuss how eroding trust in US leadership threatens the dollar’s dominance as a trade, reserve, and investment currency, what this means for the liberal international order, and why this moment differs from past crises. The conversation also touches on what an “interregnum” in global finance might look like, and the implications for Europe and global stability.

Why has Denmark - once known for its humanitarian ideals - become so unwelcoming to refugees? In this episode, Michelle Pace, Associate Fellow at Chatham House, joins us to discuss her new book "Un-Welcome in Denmark: The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration" (Manchester University Press, 2025), co-authored with Sarah El‑Abd. A leading voice on Europe-Middle East relations, migration, and democratization, Pace has published widely in journals such as Mediterranean Politics, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Third World Quarterly. Her books include Knowledge Production in Higher Education (MUP, 2023), The Routledge Handbook of EU–Middle East Relations (2021), and Syrian Refugee Children in the Middle East and Europe (2018). In conversation with Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Michelle Pace unpacks how Denmark’s “paradigm shift” in refugee policy reflects deeper European anxieties about belonging, identity, and moral responsibility.

In this episode, we speak with Dr Esther Marijnen, Associate Professor and Political Ecologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Esther’s work explores the uneasy entanglements of nature, military conflict, and authority - from the militarisation of conservation efforts to the ecological and social impacts left by colonial violence. Drawing on over a decade of field research in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and more recent work in Uganda and Europe, Esther introduces her current project Wounded Landscapes funded by the Dutch Research Council. The project examines how slow violence and historical legacies of conflict reconfigure both environments and the communities that inhabit them. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, they discuss how international conservation organisations engage with these “wounded” spaces, and what their interventions reveal about broader understandings of nature, justice, and repair.

What is the arms trade, and how does it shape our world? In our first episode of 2026, we explore why scholars of international relations should pay closer attention to the arms trade, and what its dynamics reveal about power, security, and global inequality. Joining us is Professor Anna Stavrianakis (Sussex), leading expert on the international arms trade, UK arms export policy, and militarism in North–South perspective. Anna teaches at the University of Sussex and serves as Director of Research and Strategy at Shadow World Investigations, an organisation that exposes corruption and abuse in the arms industry. She has provided expert evidence to UK parliamentary committees, collaborated with civil society groups such as Campaign Against Arms Trade, Control Arms, and the UK Working Group on Arms, and written extensively on the politics of militarism and the arms trade. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, she tells us how the global arms trade operates, who benefits from it, and how critical scholarship and activism can challenge its political influence.

In this episode, host Polly speaks with Daniel Quiroga-Villamarín (New York University), winner of this year’s EISA Best Dissertation Award for his dissertation Architects of the Better World: Democracy, Law, and the Construction of International Order (1919 - 1998), which he is currently developing into a monograph. Daniel’s research examines how the metaphorical use of architectural language in international law discussions often obscures the real, material spaces where international law is shaped, challenged, and debated. He argues that that the metaphorical language of architecture in international law - epitomised by Truman’s call for “architects of the better world” - conceals the material realities of where international order is produced, and instead traces the emergence of a concrete “international parliamentary complex” that reshaped global governance from 1919 to 1998. Daniel Quiroga-Villamarín is a Hauser/Remarque Global Fellow in International Law and European History at New York University. He earned his PhD in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute and is the managing editor of the Journal of the History of International Law. Following his fellowship at NYU, he will join the University of Vienna as a postdoctoral researcher, supported by a SNSF two-year postdoctoral mobility grant, to pursue his lecturing qualification in Legal and Constitutional History.

In this special Voices episode, we unpack the recent recognition of Palestinian statehood by several Western governments, including the UK, France, Portugal, Canada, and Australia. The move came shortly after a UN Special Committee report finding Israel’s actions in Gaza consistent with genocide. This historic decision has sparked intense debate about the timing, motivations, and consequences of recognising Palestine as a state. Emile Badarin (University of Oxford) and Victor Kattan (University of Nottingham) join host Polly Pallister-Wilkins to discuss these developments and examine the broader politics and legal aspects of recognition within the long struggle for Palestinian statehood. Emile Badarin is a researcher based in Oxford and the author of Recognition Politics in Settler Colonial States: Normalizing Dispossession and Elimination in Palestine (Bloomsbury 2025) and Palestinian Political Discourse: Between Exile and Occupation (Routledge 2016). His work explores coloniality, settler colonialism, and the international politics surrounding Palestinian recognition. Victor Kattan is Assistant Professor in Public International Law at the University of Nottingham and has written extensively on the legal and historical dimensions of the Arab-Israeli conflict, including From Coexistence to Conquest (Pluto Press 2009) and The Palestine Question in International Law (BIICL 2008). He has also served as a legal advisor to the Palestinian Negotiations Affairs Department and advised the Palestinian leadership on international treaty accession and multilateral engagement.

In this episode, we welcome Alvina Hoffmann (SOAS), winner of EISA’s 2025 Best Article Award from the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR). In her award-winning article “What Makes a Spokesperson? Delegation and Symbolic Power in Crimea” (2024, vol. 30, Issue 1, pp. 27-51), Alvina unpacks questions about who gets to speak for others, exploring themes of symbolic power, authenticity, and the universalism of human rights. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Alvina draws on her research to explore the struggles and stakes involved in speaking on behalf of others through the lens of human rights politics in Crimea. She also talks us through the dynamics of delegation and representation that shape global diplomacy and shares insights from her ongoing work on elites and human rights in the UN. Apart from EJIR, Alvina’s work has appeared in International Political Sociology, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, and Global Studies Quarterly. She is currently writing her first monograph, Speaking for the Universal: Human Rights Elites in World Politics, which offers a historical and sociological analysis of independent human rights experts at the UN. Join us for this timely conversation on who truly speaks for "the universal" and at what cost.

This month, we are flipping the script a little: Our new episode features our producer Judith Koch (University of Sussex), whose recent PhD research offers a fresh perspective on Brexit: rather than a sudden rupture, she interprets it as the latest chapter in a decades-long tension between the UK and Europe. What if Brexit wasn’t a bolt from the blue, but just the latest instance in a decades-long struggle between the UK and its European counterparts? In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Judith talks us through the longer history of Brexit, all the way back to the Suez Crisis of 1956. Her work reframes Brexit as the collapse of a unique dynamic that had long sustained UK-European relations, challenging the usual story of the UK’s 2016 decision to leave the EU. Her work has been published in Global Political Economy, and she is currently working on her book. She has been a political journalist with Germany’s ARD for over a decade and now provides media training and produces podcasts for academic and research organisation - including this one!

What do recent controversies over statues reveal about global politics and the legacy of empire? In this episode, Rahul Rao (University of St. Andrews) joins us to discuss his new book “The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire” (Pluto Press, 2025). In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Rahul Rao talks us through his work in which he explores how debates over statues – from Cape Town to Bristol and Richmond – uncover deeper struggles over race, caste, and decolonisation, and how these disputes have reshaped anticolonial political thought. Journeying through sites of contestation across South Africa, England, the US, Ghana, India, Australia, and Scotland, he examines how societies grapple with justice, cultural memory, and belonging through the icons they choose to honour or remove. Rahul Rao´s research spans international relations, postcolonial and queer theory, and South Asian politics. His award-winning work focuses on the global politics of identity-especially gender, sexuality, race, and caste.

In this episode, we are joined by Noam Leshem (Durham University) to discuss his new book Edges of Care: Living and Dying in No Man’s Land. Noam Leshem explores the spatial politics of abandonment, highlighting how marginalised communities – like the Israeli Black Panthers fought against systemic discrimination faced by Mizrahi Jews in the 1970s united with marginalised Palestinians - found moments of solidarity in shared struggles against state neglect. Noam Leshem is associate professor of Political Geography at Durham University where he works closely with communities grappling with the impacts of violent conflict, emphasising creative methods and innovative collaborations. He is the current holder of a large grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK looking at the ability of displaced communities to determine the fate of cultural heritage collections when they are denied access to ancestral land that includes collaborations with museums and cultural institutions in the UK and Palestine. This project emerges out of earlier research focused on Arab urban space in Israel after the 1948 War that was the subject of his first book, Life After Ruin: The Struggles over Israel’s Depopulated Arab Spaces published by Cambridge University Press. Tune in to learn more about Noam Leshem’s unique perspective on resilience, radical uncaring, and the possibilities for political imagination in forgotten places.

What does a just energy transition look like, and how do politics and power shape the global transition to low-carbon energy? In this episode, we speak with Peter Newell (University of Sussex), a leading expert on the political economy of environment and development, whose career spans more than three decades of research at different universities, including the Universities of Sussex, Oxford, Warwick and East Anglia, and FLACSO Argentina, policy advising, and activism. From climate change governance to corporate accountability and trade policy, he has worked across multiple continents, including Argentina, China, India, and South Africa, to analyse how political and economic forces influence environmental decision-making. With extensive experience advising governments (UK, India, Ireland, Sweden, Finland), international organisations (UNDP, GEF, UNCTAD, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank), and NGOs (Friends of the Earth, Climate Network Europe), he explores the challenges and opportunities of a just transition to low-carbon energy with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins. A former Greenpeace UK board member and advisor to the Greenhouse think-tank, he has also edited the European Journal of International Relations and serves on the boards of Global Environmental Politics, Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Environment and Development, and Earth Systems Governance Journal. How do global power structures shape climate policy? What role do non-state actors play in driving or obstructing change? And how can governance be reimagined for more effective climate solutions? Tune in to learn why we must understand the energy transition through the lens of capitalism, ecology, and power.

In this episode, we are joined by Iosif Kovras, winner of the 2024 EISA Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR) Award, who explores the transformative role of forensic technologies in reshaping how societies confront their violent pasts. Iosif Kovras, an Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus, and a leading voice in the fields of comparative transitional justice and human rights, focuses on questions of accountability, transitional justice, and the pursuit of truth in post-conflict settings. His current research explores the logic of the crime of disappearances in repressive and (post)conflict settings and is funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant. His extensive research agenda spans policies of accountability in post-conflict societies, the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and the complexities of enforced disappearances in repressive and conflict-ridden contexts. His forthcoming book, Accountability after Economic Crisis (Oxford University Press), examines how nations tackled the fallout of the 2008 financial meltdown through prosecutions, inquiries, and public apologies. Tune in to learn about groundbreaking insights from Kovras’s research on forensic technologies’ role in transnational justice mechanisms, how these technologies are driving societal reckoning, and the challenges of achieving justice and recognition.

What does it mean to take love and care seriously in the "deathworlds" of International Relations? How can these concepts reshape how we understand and navigate worlds marked by loss and violence? This episode shifts the focus of International Relations’ traditional preoccupation with war, violence, and insecurity to the themes of love and care. Host Polly Pallister-Wilkins is joined by Roxani Krystalli (University of St Andrews) and Philipp Schulz (University of Bremen), who explore the roles of love and care in reshaping worlds after loss, including ecological and interpersonal grief, as part of a collaborative project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and the German Research Foundation. Roxani’s work bridges feminist peace and conflict studies with the politics of nature and place. Drawing on her experience as both a researcher and a humanitarian practitioner, she focuses on gendered harms, justice, and peacebuilding – themes her recently published book “Good Victims: The Political as a Feminist Question” (2024, Oxford University Press) explores. Philipp investigates the gendered dynamics of armed conflict and violence, with a particular focus on masculinities and queer experiences in conflict settings. His work also examines sexual violence against men and issues surrounding forced migration.Tune in for a groundbreaking perspective that challenges conventional approaches to International Relations, bringing attention to themes often dismissed as “lovey-dovey” yet essential for understanding and remaking worlds in the wake of loss and violence.

What are the politics of human mobility through the lenses of visibility and invisibility? What does it mean for movement to be seen - or unseen - and who controls that? Joining us in this episode is Anna Finiguerra (King’s College London), whose Phd thesis “Ecologies of Visibility: Assembling the Politics of Mobility through Multiple Practices of Knowledge Production” won this year’s EISA best dissertation award. Anna Finiguerra’s research rethinks traditional frameworks of (in)visibility in studies on migration by examining events like the construction of the Gateway to Europe and migrant self-narration at the same site. Her work challenges traditional perspectives on how knowledge about migration is generated and how it is rendered visible and opaque in fundamentally different ways than if we were only to consider migration in terms of borders, and checkpoints. Anna Finiguerra, now a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the ESRC-funded project "Practice, Assemblage, and Emergence in the Governance of Freight Shipping" at King’s College London, brings a unique perspective informed by her work on mobility, materiality, and knowledge.

Why do women still die when they don’t have to? Despite global advancements and available resources, preventable deaths among women persist. Women continue to shoulder the weight of healthcare work and the socio-economic impact of health crises. Sophie Harman, prize-winning Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary London, is – as her new book flags – sick of it. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins they discuss Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women’s Health which maps out how women’s health is manipulated for political gain, from health-washing to attacks on maternity hospitals and the exploitation of health workers. As we navigate a year of crucial elections, this book offers a candid reflection on the state of women’s health in global politics and a vision for reclaiming equality in health. Sophie Harman brings her extensive expertise to the discussion. With seven academic books and numerous articles on global health politics, she has been a voice in major media outlets and a consultant for the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She has also co-written and produced the feature film Pili (2027), highlighting the real-life struggles of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. Tune in for a groundbreaking contribution that reveals the causes for why politics is still jeopardising women’s health around the world.

Dependency Theory provides a crucial framework for understanding the persistent inequalities shaping our global society which extend beyond borders, influence global conflicts, financial systems, and work at the intersections of gendered and racialised oppression. In this episode, Dr Felipe Antunes de Oliveira (Queen Mary University of London) is in conversation with host Judith Koch (University of Sussex) to discuss Dependency Theory which is rooted in Latin American thought. Felipe's unique dual perspective as a scholar of Latin American Political Economy and International Relations Theory on the one hand, and as a career diplomat on the other hand deeply informs his critical approach to development discourses. Felipe worked at the Department of South American Politics of the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations from 2012 until 2014, he acted as advisor to the Brazilian Executive Director at the IMF from 2019 to 2020, and is currently on a secondment to the Brazilian Ministry of Finance working as Coordinator General of International Economic Cooperation. His latest book, "Dependency and Crisis in Brazil and Argentina: A Critique of Market and State Utopias" (2024, University of Pittsburgh Press) proposes a way to overcome the problematic binary distinction between development and underdevelopment. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation!

This episode explores the experiences of migrant academics. We are joined by Olga Burlyuk (University of Amsterdam) and Ladan Rahbari (University of Amsterdam), editors of "Migrant Academics’ Narratives of Precarity and Resilience in Europe" (2023, Open Book Publishers) who have curated this essential collection of narratives by migrant academics. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, they tease out the multifaceted experiences of migrant academics, shedding light on various forms of precarity. From challenging hiring practices and systemic sexism and racism to economic disadvantages and the often 'culturally accepted' yet problematic divisions of labour within academic spaces, these narratives are both eye-opening and crucial for the academic community. In their own words, Olga Burlyuk and Ladan Rahbari emphasize the importance of recognizing that academia, despite its status and prestige, is not immune to precarity. They remind us of the systemic power imbalances that permeate all social strata, including the academic environment. Don't miss this wake-up call for academia to strive for a more just and inclusive space.

Since South Africa brought the case of applying the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 29 December 2023, the topic of genocide has re-entered both popular and scholarly debates. How is genocide comprehended - or rather, misunderstood - within International Relations, and as a legal concept? In this episode Jo Bluen, educator, writer, and PhD researcher (University of Cape town & London School of Economics) is in conversation with Polly Pallister-Wilkins (University of Amsterdam). Jo Bluen explores the multifaceted interpretations and political ramifications of genocide, highlighting the inherent inadequacies of legal structures in fully grasping the complexity of genocidal violence. Arguing for a critical reassessment of our perception of genocide as a systemic issue, Jo Bluen challenges the traditional paradigms of International Relations rooted in colonial modernity, a history deeply intertwined with acts of genocide. The episode further delves into the nuances of intentionality, practices, and complicity behind genocidal acts, and offers a curated selection of essential readings. Tune in to this timely episode for a compelling exploration of one of the most pressing issues of our time.

In times marked by escalating challenges to academic freedom, this episode unravels the essence of academic freedom, its significance, and the pressing need to safeguard it. From institutional repression and public curtailment to professional reprisals faced by academic staff due to their research findings and public advocacy, this episode explores one of the timeliest issues of our era. In conversation with Prof Toni Haastrup (University of Manchester), Dr Lewis Turner (Newcastle University), and Prof Joel Quirk (University of the Witwatersrand), host Polly Pallister-Wilkins (University of Amsterdam) tackles pivotal questions: What does academic freedom entail? And, more importantly, how can the scholarly community rally together to defend this fundamental principle?

This episode delves into the dynamics of institutional power and explores the implications when power in transnational orders, such as the EU, undergoes de-institutionalisation. Professor Jonathan White´s (LSE) article “The De-institutionalisation of Power beyond the State” which has been awarded the EISA`s Best Article in EJIR 2023, introduces a groundbreaking perspective on the normative consequences of informality in global politics. In conversation with Host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Prof. Jonathan White explains how recent crisis politics has shifted the balance, with individuals and their networks reshaping institutions. He argues that informal diplomacy, such as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen´s “WhatsApp diplomacy” during the Covid-19 pandemic undermines accountability in power dynamics, shedding light on its broader implications for governance and, notably, sovereignty. Rather than acclaimed as flexible problem-solving, the step back from institutions should be viewed as a challenge to accountable rule. Tune in to this compelling first episode of the new year!

Almost every major political event over the past decade has been "memed". This episode delves into the dynamic world of internet memes and their significance for the study of International Relations. In his paper "Cucktales: Race, Sex, and Enjoyment in The Reactionary Memescape", that has been awarded the EISA´s Best Graduate Paper 2023, Uygar Başpehlivan, PhD candidate at the University of Bristol, takes us on a journey into the world of internet memes. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins (University of Amsterdam), he explains the ways in which memes are integral to the political space by being simultaneously used by political subjects and being themselves political. Introducing his concept of the memescape, Uygar Başpehlivan contends that the creation and consumption of memes shapes political relations, including resistance, reaction, capture, and excess. Envisioning memes as architects of a spatial realm, the memescape thus captures the agency of political subjects, as well as aesthetic objects, discourses, affects, and technological infrastructures that converge, interact, and transform across time and space. Inspired by Deleuze and Guattari´s concepts, Uygar Başpehlivan talks us through his notion of memes as "smooth spaces" that challenge the traditional "striated space" of the international, thereby offering unique political possibilities. In his paper, Uygar Başpehlivan further dissects how the reactionary memescape gives rise to racist and misogynistic politics through the infamous meme, "the cuck". Tune in to learn about meme´s role in knowledge production, and their specific relevance for the study of International Relations.

This episode introduces the new EISA "Voices in International Relations" book series, published with Oxford University Press (OUP). Professor Debbie Lisle (Queen's University Belfast), and series editor of the EISA/OUP book series talks us through EISA´s new initiative that seeks to further the contours of IR by going beyond the conventional boundaries of the field. In conversation with our new host, Polly Pallister-Wilkins (University of Amsterdam), Debbie Lisle elucidates the new book series´ mission to foster innovative scholarship that not only broadens discussions on key IR debates but also reimagines and challenges the discipline itself. Bridging gaps with sociology, history, anthropology, geography, economics, political theory, and law, "Voices in International Relations" is also committed to furthering diversity and inclusion in terms of authorship, location, topics and approaches from both inside and outside Europe. But there's more: Debbie Lisle shares the hidden gems of academic book publishing. Uncovering the academic book publishing process - from crafting a compelling book proposal to writing an original introduction - this episode uncovers the key elements that make academic book proposals truly stand out amid tough competition. Join us in this episode on the importance of thinking beyond the ordinary in academic book publishing.

Why should IR scholars pay attention to new technologies, big data, and algorithms? In this episode, we are joined by Claudia Aradau, Professor of International Politics at King's College London, who unpacks the significance of digital technologies for practices of governance. In conversation with Felix Berenskötter (SOAS University of London), Professor Aradau shares her research into the datafication of border security, the operation of algorithms in producing identities and controversies around them. They discuss the importance of a critical and interdisciplinary approach that captures what these new technologies do, who uses them and to what effect. Tune in to this episode exploring the transformative potential and the complexities of technological innovation for the study of IR, shedding light on the impact of algorithmic assemblages on contemporary global politics.

The Covid 19 Pandemic highlighted, once again, the importance of sharing scientific knowledge about deceases internationally. What are the hurdles to sharing information about the nature of a deadly virus in a timely manner, and how can they be overcome? How does knowledge gathered in medical laboratories become a matter of global politics? In this episode, Professor Stefan Elbe (University of Sussex) addresses these questions through his article “Bioinformational Diplomacy: Global Health Emergencies, Data Sharing and Sequential Life”, which won the EISA’s Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR) Award in 2022. We discuss Professor Elbe’s cross-disciplinary research linking IR and the life sciences, the political value of laboratory practices of sequencing life at molecular scale and how it relates to issues of sovereignty, power, and security in international relations, and the need for what he calls ‘bioinformational diplomacy’. Tune in for a stimulating conversation about the potential of IR to complement the technical gaze of the life sciences.

How can the study of friendship inspire and enhance our understanding of international politics? Evgeny Roshchin (Princeton University) draws on conceptual history inspired by Quentin Skinner to trace the development of the concept of friendship in international diplomatic practice and in Western political philosophy. In conversation with Felix Berenskötter (SOAS University of London), Roshchin discusses his research into contractual forms of friendship, embedded in treaties, and their function in ordering colonial spaces. He explains why this understanding disappeared from social contract thinking following Hobbes and was replaced by an ethical and normative reading that remains dominant today, and why he cannot offer a definition of friendship.

Decolonising knowledge in academia can be understood as the process of interrogating and reshaping research and teaching born out of a Eurocentric, colonial lens and maintained by power structures invested in it. How it this expressed in and what are the implications for the field of International Relations? What are the challenges? In this episode, we discuss such questions with Meera Sabaratnam (SOAS University of London), who has been working on issues of decolonisation, Eurocentrism, race and methodology in IR for many years, and has also been proactive in advancing the decolonisation agenda in academia. In conversation with Felix Berenskötter (SOAS University of London), Meera talks about her personal experiences and approach(es), the role of reflexivity, ethics and as well as obstacles to the practice of decolonising knowledge in academia more generally and IR in particular.

What are ‘tricksters’ and how do they exert power in international politics? This podcast takes a closer look at political actors that seek to undermine order and sow confusion around their actions by employing contradictory logics. Discussing their article ‘Trickstery: pluralising stigma in international society’, which won the EISA’s Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR) Award in 2022, Xymena Kurowska (Central European University) and Anatoly Reshetnikov (Webster Vienna Private University) shed light on ‘trickstery’ as a form of behavior that appears to simultaneously conform with and deviate from dominant norms. In conversation with Felix Berenskötter (SOAS University of London), Xymena and Anatoly explain how digital ethnography of folklore scholars and their research on the Russian blogosphere and foreign policy inspired them to develop the concept and introduce it to the field of International Relations. Tune in for an insightful contribution that intriguingly advances IR’s conceptual orbit.

What does it mean to remember in IR? How does collective memory shape global politics, including inter-state relations, foreign policy formation, security, and peacebuilding? Furthermore, what does the erasure of collective memory mean for international (and domestic) politics? Tune in to this episode with Maria Mälksoo (University of Copenhagen), who alerts us to the instrumentalization of remembrance, and to the politics at play in acts of commemoration.

Where are the women in international thought? Why have they been excluded from the discipline of IR, and where does this neglect of female scholars come from? In their Leverhulme Project on 'Women and the History of International Thought', Patricia Owens, Katharina Rietzler and Kimberly Hutchings recover the contributions of 'historical women'. In this episode, host Vineet Thakur (University of Leiden) interviews Patricia Owens (University of Oxford) who discusses the absented presence of women's IR history and thinking.

Uneven and Combined Development (UCD) is a social theory of the international. Originating in the writings of Leon Trotsky, most explicitly in the opening chapter of Trotsky's The History of the Russian Revolution (1932), scholars of UCD aim to expand on what Trotsky never fully formulated. First introduced into the discipline of IR at the 1995 Deutscher Memorial Lecture by Prof. Justin Rosenberg (University of Sussex), UCD has gained considerable attention both in IR and Historical Sociology. In this episode Justin Rosenberg is in conversation with Judith Koch (University of Sussex). Among other things, they talk about UCD's contemporary applications and critiques as well as new directions in UCD research, including ecology, literary theory, and science fiction.

Political Marxists have produced a variety of compelling contributions in several disciplines, not least in IR. In this episode, Dr Maïa Pal (Brookes University), who is in conversation with Judith Koch (University of Sussex), discusses the foundations of Political Marxism, the advantages of its radical historicist method, as well as its main critiques. Dr Pal's work engages with the relationship between capitalism and law, emphasizing jurisdiction as a key concept of international order. Tune in for a deep dive into Political Marxism and its continuing relevance for the analysis of large-scale societal and (geo)political transformations.

What does it mean to do Area Studies, and what is the relationship between Area Studies and IR? In this podcast, Lindsay Black (Leiden University) explains the research agenda of Area Studies. Area Studies broadens our understanding of how to locate power, uncover inequalities, and re-politicize the effects of globalization. He tells us how area studies approaches open up scope for a more nuanced understanding of the social embeddedness of world politics, as well as of current global conflicts, such as the disentanglement of ethnic groups and state borders through imperialist practices. Tune in to a compelling conversation that stands as the 10th episode of Voices.

Sankaran Krishna (UH Manoa, Hawaii) is a leading postcolonial scholar in International Relations whose work is concerned with the long-ignored but integral elements of the international system - colonialism, racism, genocide, among others. His work, as he says in this podcast with Vineet Thakur (Leiden University), is influenced by scholars such as Samir Amin, Edward Said and Ashis Nandy. He highlights the inseparable relationship between the racialized violence of colonialism and the emergence of the international system. In this conversation, he discusses key elements of postcolonialism, the depoliticizing abstraction of IR theory and critiques of postcolonial approaches, including their ready appropriation by the right wing. Tune in for an illuminating and in-depth conversation on postcolonial approaches in IR, as well as for some valuable reading recommendations.

In the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, geopolitics has assumed greater salience in both public discourse as well as academic discussions. Theoretically, geopolitics is considered integral to Realism in IR. It refers to a particular form of Realism which centers the role of geography and technology in the making of state preferences. Continuing the discussion from our previous episode on realism, our interview guest Stefano Guzzini, Professor at Uppsala University and PUC-Rio de Janeiro and Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, delineates how geopolitics is very specifically 'the militaristic gaze of Realism. To learn more about Geopolitical Theory, tune in to the second part of Vineet Thakur's (Leiden University) conversation with Stefano Guzzini.

Realism has been one of the most influential theories in the discipline of International Relations. Its critics often label it variously as positivist, state-centric, militaristic, imperialistic, materialistic, immoral and a warmongering theory. In this episode, Stefano Guzzini, Professor at Uppsala University and PUC-Rio de Janeiro and Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, is in conversation with Vineet Thakur (Leiden University). Himself a 'fallen Realist', Prof Guzzini discusses the core ideas, theoretical contributions and indeed misunderstandings related to Realism. He differentiates three different dimensions of Realism: as an ontology of politics, as an explanatory theory of power politics, and as a foreign policy strategy of prudent power politics. Tune in to this episode of our 'What is...' series that illuminates a theory of default conflictuality in times of global conflict.

What does a 'practice turn' mean in International Relations? In this episode Ingvild Bode (University of Denmark), Associate Professor of International Relations, and Principal Investigator of an ERC research project on autonomous weapons systems and international norms (AUTONORMS) and host Beste İşleyen (University of Amsterdam) engage in an in-depth conversation about Practice Theory in IR. Although IR scholarship, such as Constructivism, has long emphasised the importance of practices in shaping the world, this episode sheds light on the ways practices present IR scholars with a fruitful concept to engage with the process in which international relations are made. Ingvild Bode’s research agenda covers the area of peace and security, with a theoretical focus combining practice theories and constructivist International Relations. Her ongoing research zooms in on the United Nations and peacekeeping norms. By arguing that a wide gap between established normative understandings of peace and security and the actual norm implementation exists, Ingvild Bode integrates the concept of norm ambiguity to explore this gap.

How can we theoretically engage with linear borders as cartographic practice, thereby acknowledging their political dimension and place within projects of colonialism and partition? Kerry Goettlich (University of Reading), winner of the EISA's Best Dissertation Award 2021 for his thesis “From Frontiers to Borders: The Origins and Consequences of Linear Borders in International Politics” (LSE 2019), suggests to examining linear borders by unpacking their historical causes and consequences. In conversation with Catherine Charrett (University of Westminster), Kerry Goettlich elaborates on his account which theorizes modern linear borders as an outcome of ‘survey rationality', and thereby challenges the idea of linear borders as intrinsic to claims of territorial sovereignty. Stressing the political dimension of linear borders, Kerry Goettlich illustrates his argument historically by drawing on colonial projects, and ultimately demonstrates how borders underpin hierarchies by altering the distribution of geographical knowledge resources. Kerry Goettlich's account does not only contribute to the ‘spatial turn’ in IR, but also to the decolonisation of a prominent and powerful idea.

In this episode Bahar Rumelili (Koç University, İstanbul) discusses the concept of ontological security (OS) with host Beste İşleyen (University of Amsterdam). By unpacking the notion of ontological security, we learn how OS as a concept relates to, and differs from other critical security concepts within IR scholarship. Arguing that existing critical approaches to security tend to conflate ontological security and physical security, Bahar Rumelili elaborates on the relationship between identity and security, and her work on identity construction through difference. By drawing on the Hobbesian state of nature and existentialist philosophy, Bahar Rumelili emphasises the constitutive notion of anxiety for state behaviour in international relations, while contending that an integration of anxiety into the study of IR theory enriches our understanding of state ontological security. Finally, Bahar Rumelili explains how her understanding of security in Europe from an OS perspective provides fruitful avenues for the study of contemporary conflicts.

This first edition of the new VOICES series "What is...?" focuses on liberalism as a concept in International Relations (IR). Liberalism in its many contexts - be it in political tradition, in economic ideology, social understandings, or polemical attacks - elides a single definition. In this episode, Vineet Thakur (Leiden) talks with Prof. Beate Jahn (Sussex), who has devoted much of her academic career to the study of liberalism, about the empirical and methodological potential of the concept for research in IR. Prof. Jahn argues that the consistent failures of liberalism, for example in peacebuilding operations, are inherent in its contradictions. Indeed, war, imperialism, and economic depression are very much features, not anomalies, of the liberal system. For this, and more on liberalism, listen to Prof. Jahn in this episode.

What can the Grenfell Tower fire in London 2017 teach us about the racialized structure of the cities we live in? What are the implications of understanding the violence of neoliberal urbanism for the study of global cities in IR? In ‘The Fire This Time: Grenfell, Racial Capitalism and the Urbanisation of Empire’, Ida Danewid (Sussex), award-winner of the 2020 EISA Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations award, argues that the IR literature on global cities has largely neglected questions of race and racism. In this conversation with Maj Grasten (Copenhagen Business School), Ida Danewid discusses how her contribution connects urban studies and IPE with post- and decolonial, black and indigenous studies, and how we must situate our understanding of global cities in a much wider cartography of imperial and racial violence.

What makes ASEAN diplomacy distinct? Deepak Nair (NUS Singapore), the co-winner of EISA’s 2020 best article award, rejects both essentialist/orientalist as well as generic readings of ASEAN diplomacy and presents a micro-sociological account of ‘face-saving’ practices. In this conversation with Vineet Thakur (Leiden University), Deepak discusses his background, his interest in Southeast Asia and practice theory, his immersive fieldwork, and more.