[Chern.fsw] CfP: EISA 2025 Bologna, Geopolitics and Economic Statecraft: Elite Strategie in a Fragmenting World Order

[Graaff, N.A. de (NA)]

18th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, University of Bologna, 25-29 August 2025

S12 - Geopolitics and Economic Statecraft: Elite Strategies in a Fragmenting World Order
Section Chairs: Bastiaan van Apeldoorn & Nana de Graaff, with Imogen Liu and Jasa Veselinovic (all Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

The emergence of China as a potential rival to the United States in the global political economy has intensified geopolitical rivalry over leadership in strategic technologies, production, finance, infrastructure and (global) governance. The European Union and an expansionist BRICS among other region formations are trying to position themselves in the midst of these escalating great power tensions.
This is all set against the backdrop of a protracted war in Ukraine, the reignited conflicts in the Middle East, a looming escalation over Taiwan (as the worlds epicentre of chips production), the rise of right-wing populism and domestic polarization in the West and a global climate crisis. In this volatile environment, the future direction of globalization and world politics remains unclear and heavily debated. Will we see a fragmented world order emerge, or are we moving towards a decoupled two-sphere East-West world with the spectre of a new Cold War? What are the pathways, whether toward renewed collaboration or conflict, within a multi-polar world order?
This Section will organize five panels to investigate the geopolitical driving forces behind these deepening rifts, the resurgence of economic statecraft, and geoeconomic competition reshaping the highly integrated yet unevenly structured capitalist world economy. In particular, this section is interested in perspectives and analyses that highlight the role of political and economic elites i.e. those in positions of power and decision making power in global politics, how they navigate these uncertainties and shape the direction of world order and global politics.
We invite paper proposals speaking to the above and below preliminary panel themes:

     *   Economic statecraft and industrial policy in trade, technology, production and finance;
     *   Derisking, decoupling and recoupling: trajectories of deglobalization and reglobalisation;
     *   Foreign policy and elite agency in a fragmenting world order;
     *   Geopolitics and geoeconomics of the green transition;
     *   Changing elite coalitions and geographies

Submit your 1800-characters abstracts HERE<https://eisa-net.org/abstract-submission-guidelines-pec25/> by March 20. Make sure to submit to section “S12 - Geopolitics and Economic Statecraft: Elite Strategies in a Fragmenting World Order”

Contact for questions: e.b.van.apeldoorn at vu.nl<mailto:e.b.van.apeldoorn at vu.nl> or n.a.de.graaff at vu.nl<mailto:n.a.de.graaff at vu.nl>
Conference Website: https://eisa-net.org/pec-2025/


Prof. Dr. Nana de Graaff | Professor in Global Politics and Networks, VU Amsterdam  https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/na-de-graaff  | Principal Investigator ReGlobe: https://www.re-globe.eu/about | Chair China in Europe Research Network (CHERN): https://china-in-europe.net<https://china-in-europe.net/>

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Selected publications

Van Apeldoorn, Veselinovic, and de Graaff (2023). Trump and the Remaking of American Grand Strategy: The Shift from Open Door Globalism to Economic Nationalism. <https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-34692-7> Palgrave.
De Graaff & Valeeva (2021) Emerging Sino-European Corporate Elite Networks, Development and Change (52(5): 1147-1173 (open access):
https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12682
Henderson & De Graaff eds. (2021) Special Issue: The Wind From the East: China and the Economic Future of Europe. Development and
Change, 52(5): 1045-1273: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14677660/2021/52/5
De Graaff et al. (2020) Forum: China’s rise in a liberal world order in transition. Review of International Political Economy, 27(2): 191-301,
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rrip20/27/2


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