Summer at the ISN

Last week we concluded the second part of our external pageEditorial Plancall_made. Over the course of 14 weeks we considered how the profound changes occurring in the international system have impacted the way we understand and exercise power within a variety of regional contexts. Currently, we are finalizing storylines and topics for the third and last part of our plan. Indeed, starting on August sixth we’ll finally consider what impact changing power dynamics have had on a variety of topical issues that are familiar to us all.

Until then, we’re going to “play jazz” again – i.e., over the next month, we’re going to look at four areas of immediate interest to us. First, we’ll fly an epilogue-like pass on how different international actors perceive and exert power in the contemporary international system. In particular, we’ll present case studies that look at how states, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and the ‘virtual community’ are perceived to exercise power today.

Second, we’ll focus on the role of small states in today’s world. More specifically, we’ll consider how they use and abuse bilateral relations, their interactions with international organizations and their tricky relations with global powers to forge viable, self-sustaining paths in the international system.

During our third “jazz” week we’ll take a long, hard look at the future of NATO, particularly in the wake of the recent Chicago summit, a backdrop of general economic hardship, and the United States’ strategic shift in focus to the Asia-Pacific region.

Finally, we’ll dedicate a week to serious navel watching – i.e., we’ll look at the study of international relations as a discipline, as a concept and as educational endeavor in an internet-saturated and social media-dominated age.

While playing all this jazz, we will of course continue to provide you with a comprehensive overview of hot current events topics in the Security Watch section of our website and through our very active blog postings.

We hope that you enjoy our coverage over the summer period and that you will stick with us as we launch the final (and highly topical) part of our Editorial Plan in early August.