Conference Program

Classical international theory had been based on the presumption that the domestic realm is hierarchic, whereas the state system is anarchic. Marxist and poststructuralist critics have sometimes, with some success, argued for an ontology based on more hierarchic principles, such as in world systems theory or in biopolitical approaches. Moreover, the problem of state/society dichotomy is mirrored in the subject matter of IR, and specifically in differences between political and social ontologies. IR, despite its declared focus on relations, is actually rather centred around power. The roundtable addresses this problem by discussing approaches used to tackle the state/society dichotomy. For example, a more varied palette of options for the description of the international has recently been generated by theoretical innovations based on concepts such as societal multiplicity, heterarchy, differentiation, and contestation. The guiding question for this roundtable is: how should these concepts be utilized to understand a world that is increasingly being shaped by a brutal war of aggression, renewed great power competition, democratic backsliding, and the looming threat of climate catastrophe—in other words, a world that finds itself in a period of severe crisis?