This study examines the international trade network of four component groups in the medical instruments sector: disposables, medical & surgical instruments, therapeutic devices, and diagnostic/imaging equipment. We examine the structure of the trade network before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 and assess whether the global structure of the industry has remained resilience to the shock that the pandemic posed. We apply Temporal Exponential Random Graph Models (TERGMs) to examine whether the process of forming trade ties has changed following the outbreak of COVID-19.

The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) was an international organisation created under the League of Nations (LoN) to promote intellectual relations for global peace. As UNESCO’s direct forerunner, it functioned between 1925 and 1946, with a hiatus during World War II, playing a central role in coordinating intellectual cooperation globally. Despite its significance, the IIIC has been largely examined through qualitative methods, with limited data-driven research exploring its networks and interactions. However, the digitisation of archival records has revolutionised access, enabling new computational approaches to reassess historical narratives.

In this study, we employ network analysis to examine two subsets of digitised IIIC letters, focusing on administrative and artistic/literary correspondence. By analysing sender-receiver pairs and their geographical origins, we reconstruct international networks, shedding light on the structure and function of intellectual exchanges. Our findings indicate significant differences between administrative and literary communication. Administrative correspondence exhibits a relatively egalitarian distribution of interactions, incorporating a broad range of countries, including those from Latin America and Eastern Europe, challenging traditional Eurocentric perspectives. Conversely, literary exchanges reveal a more exclusive network, with prominent participation from Western European countries such as Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain, reflecting geopolitical influence attempts and reinforcing established cultural hierarchies.

These results invite a reassessment of the IIIC’s geographical organisation and intellectual cooperation during the interwar period, highlighting the value of computational methods in uncovering hidden patterns and revising historical interpretations. By combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, we aim to contribute to a more nuanced and globally inclusive understanding of intellectual cooperation.

International Branch Campuses (IBCs) are one of the most evident manifestations of the globalisation of the Higher Education sector. Despite a large amount of studies in this field, prevailing discourse tends to simplify the analysis of globalising phenomena, or remain limited to specific case studies. Framing IBCs as Foreign Direct Investment, this paper maps the global diffusion of IBCs since the 1990s. Through the identification of brokerage roles played by different countries, the study not only quantitatively demonstrates the emergence of educational hubs, but provides a more nuanced analysis of the different roles countries can play in the global IBCs network. Results show how political objectives pursued by different countries result in specific network positions, leading to implications for both managers and policy makers. The paper builds on an original dataset and, to the knowledge of the Authors, it is the first attempt to use SNA on IBCs data.

The transformation of international trade dynamics under the Trump administration (2017–2021) has reinvigorated debates on globalisation, trade policy, and networked economic relations. This paper examines whether and the extent to which these policy shifts—characterised by trade wars, renegotiated agreements, and an emphasis on economic nationalism—have altered the structure of the International Trade Network (ITN). Using dynamic blockmodelling (BM), a clustering technique that has historically informed world-systems analysis but has since fallen out of favour, we propose methodological guidelines for its application to weighted, directed, and dynamic trade networks. Our analysis highlights the advantages of BM in detecting structures in the patterns of trade, policy-induced trade realignments, and the evolving topology of the ITN. We compare different dynamic BM approaches, assessing their suitability in capturing longitudinal trade patterns amidst exogenous shocks such as tariffs and sanctions. Given the ITN’s scale-free properties and heterogeneities in relational capacities, we address critical methodological challenges, including data normalisation, state succession, and exogenous covariates (e.g., tariffs, exchange rates). By bridging social network analysis and international trade theory, this study not only provides an empirical reassessment of whether there was a ‘Trump Effect’ on international trade but also revitalises BM as a valuable tool in trade economics and global network research.

The aim of this research is to understand the collaborative relationships and assess the influence of contributing factors in shaping the collaboration network structure in projects developed in Global Supply Chains (GSC), considering each stage of the project lifecycle and the nature of the project. The study employed a case analysis methodology to eight global projects executed by a prominent Austrian company specializing in intralogistics solutions. Two approaches were applied in the network analysis at each stage of the project lifecycle. First, a visual and descriptive analysis was conducted to outline structural aspects of the network. Second, a stochastic network analysis was used to assess how contributing factors influence the structure of the collaboration network. The results of this study indicate that, depending on the nature of the project, there is a stage in the project lifecycle where characteristics and attributes are more prominent. Additionally, the importance of the project manager's role is highlighted, as their presence facilitated collaboration between the Project Team Roles (PTR) in high and medium complexity projects, resulting in increased collaboration intensity. Finally, the methodology used in the research allowed for the identification of the PTR with greater centrality and prestige in each stage of the project lifecycle. This research provides a framework to identify key actors and contributory factors that shape collaborative relationships in GSC at each stage of the project lifecycle. The findings could be used to support the decision-making process and formulate strategies for effective collaborative relationship management in GSC.

*Purpose:* Literature is exchanged across nations and languages. The exchange is very unequal, however, and prioritizes a handful of mostly Western countries. Existing research is split over the question of whether these inequalities are driven by the prestige of national literary traditions, economic infrastructures, political support, or cultural proximity. To advance the debate, this presentation leverages newly collected data on N = 147,443 translations of literary works to reconstruct the network of translation flows between 32 European countries for the time period 2018 to 2020. *Methods:* The effects of literary prestige, economic infrastructure, political support, and cultural proximity on translation flows were estimated with a combination of Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) and the Quadratic Assignment Procedure (QAP). Data on over 10,000 writers were compiled from eight encyclopedias of world literature to construct a comprehensive measure of literary prestige. Flexible P-splines were used to control for nonlinear effects of country size that otherwise pose the risk of confounding analyses of ecological units such as countries. *Results:* Countries with a prestigious national literature and a powerful publishing industry were found to have more out-translations but fewer in-translations. Surprisingly, countries with higher state investment into culture generated fewer out-translations. Countries with higher cultural proximity did not exchange more translations. *Contributions:* This presentation contributes significantly to ongoing research on the factors that (re)produce the unequal representation of national cultures in transnational exchanges, showing that symbolic status orders and unequal economic infrastructures contribute to asymmetric cultural exchange.

Why do some countries impose sanctions while others refrain, even when faced with similar geopolitical pressures? This paper critically examines how affinity, broadly conceptualized across political, economic, and cultural dimensions, influences the likelihood of sanction imposition. While extant research focuses primarily on direct material and strategic interests, this paper posits that deeper, structurally embedded ties shape the likelihood of sanctioning. Countries with stronger affinity through political preferences, economic links, or cultural bonds are less likely to impose sanctions on one another due to inherent preferential attachment and the cost of disrupting these interdependencies. Methodologically, this paper applies an advanced statistical network analysis method called the Temporal Exponential Random Graph Model (TERGM) to assess how affinity structures shape sanctions over time. The TERGM enables a rigorous analysis of how sanctions evolve within broader geopolitical and geoeconomic systems, capturing the role of affinity in mitigating coercive statecraft. By integrating affinity as a multidimensional factor into the study of global sanctions, this research advances theoretical debates on statecraft, interdependence, and international coercion, offering new insights into how structural ties moderate geopolitical contestation and influence the stability of international cooperation.