The annual Conference of the Italian Standing Group on International Relations is a two-day session that brings together scholars, researchers and PhD students from Italian academia to discuss issues related to global politics, European Studies, foreign policy, regional dynamics and international theory. The 2018 Conference will be held for the second time in Bologna. The event is sponsored by the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Bologna, within the framework of the MIUR Progetto di Eccellenza 2018-2022, and co-organized by IP Lab with the support of the School of International Studies (SIS) of the University of Trento and of the Fondazione Bruno Kessler.
This year’s topic is about technology and geopolitics.
Over the last two decades, the world has experienced significant changes in both technology and geopolitics. Technological advancements – such as the emergence of robotics and unmanned systems – are transforming the way war is fought in new conflict zones, while geopolitical shifts and the rise of emerging powers have changed the patterns of negotiation and cooperation among states in key issue-areas (like energy, foreign policy and defense). In this new framework, regional orders in the MENA region and in the Asia-Pacific are still under definition, as witnessed by the presence of proxy wars and new security challenges. For their emphasis on traditional arguments and assumptions, mainstream approaches to IR seem unable to fully explain those transformations. To understand current changes, IR scholars should adapt their methodology –further integrating qualitative and quantitative analyses on international phenomena – and open up their theoretical models to insights coming from other fields of knowledge: this led to increasing attention given to economics, but also more distant disciplines such as cognitive psychology and engineering. Efforts made in this direction may enhance our understanding of key dynamics taking place in a truly globalized world.
The annual SGRI Conference is an opportunity for scholars throughout Italy to come together and discuss topics that are relevant to international relations.
Further information can be find on the Conference website
