Pardee School Faculty & Student Participate in ISA Conference

Faculty and students from the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University are presenting their expertise at the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Conference, taking place virtually from April 5-9, 2021.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Globalization, Regionalism and Nationalism: Contending Forces in World Politics.” Pardee School faculty and students attending and speaking at the ISA conference included:
- Ambassador Vesko Garčević, Professor of the Practice of International Relations, discussed the Russian and Chinese influence in the Western Balkans during a panel on the “Dimensions of Soft Power” on Tuesday, April 6. He also chaired a panel on the “Politics of Secession in a Globalized World” on the same day.
- Muskaan Khemani (Pardee BA ’22) presented a poster on “The More Things Change, The More They Remain the Same: British Economic, Military, and Geopolitical Influence in Independence
India, 1947-1965” on April 6. - Noora Lori, Assistant Professor of International Relations, chaired a panel discussion international organization and political economy in the context of “Global Migration Governance” on April 6.
On Thursday, April 8, Lori will discuss disciplining mobility/temporality and the potential for rescaling political science during a panel titled “Emergent Infrastructures of Global Migration Governance 1: Human Mobility and Global Space Time.”
- Jayita Sarkar, Assistant Professor of International Relations, chaired a panel titled “Foreign Policy-Making in Small States” on April 6.On April 9, Sarkar will chair a panel titled “Top-Down Diplomacy: The Actions of Leaders in World Politics,” which will look at examples of how political leaders are engaging not only in the formulation of strategies but in the actual execution of diplomacy when engaging with other leaders at summits, in bilateral contacts, and through multilateral forums.
- Kaija Schilde, Associate Professor of International Relations, will discuss international arms collaboration projects during a panel titled “Weaponized Interdependence and International Relations” on Friday, April 9.
- Vivien Ann Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration; Professor of International Relations and Political Science, will participate in a roundtable discussion titled “The State of the European Union in 2021” on April 9. On the same day, Schmidt will chair a panel titled “Finance and the State in Times of Crisis,” which will explore the economic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and ways to mitigate it.
- Henrik Selin, Associate Dean for Studies, and Associate Professor of International Relations, will participate in a roundtable discussion on environmental studies titled “Anthropocene Securities: Recollections and Reflections 50 Years After the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment” on April 9.
- Joshua Shifrinson, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School, discussed how to keep new Great Powers at bay and suppression strategies in world politics during a panel titled “Research on Power Shifts: Theory, Evidence and Application,” which took place on April 6. On the same day, he discussed the external sources of rising state strength during a panel titled “Great Power Competition and Rising Power Strategies: The Dynamics of U.S.-China Rivalry.”
On April 8, Shifrinson will chair a panel titled “Nuclear Strategy, Proliferation and Crisis – Challenging Conventional Wisdom.” On the same day, he will participate in a panel titled “Underexplored Sources of Grand Strategy.”
- Joseph Wippl, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School, participated in a panel on “The Diversity and Development of Counter-Intelligence” on April 6. He also chaired a panel titled “Public Health Intelligence: Pre-Outbreak Assessment & Post-COVID Lessons Learned” on the evening on April 6.
On April 8, Wippl will discuss congressional oversight and contact with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during a panel titled “Intelligence-Policy-Society Relationships.”
- Min Ye, Associate Professor of International Relations, will discuss China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and U.S.-China relations during a panel titled “Global IR and the Rise of China: Theories and Practices” on April 9. On the same day, Ye will discuss the adaptation of the BRI after the COVID-19 pandemic during a panel titled “Bridging Domestic Politics and International Political Economy: Actors and Anxieties in Globalizing China and Recipient Countries.”
Details on the 2021 ISA Annual Conference, including a full schedule of panels, can be found online.