IPSA RCSCD 2021 WEB CONFERENCE

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

organized by

International Political Science Association

Research Committee on Security, Conflict and Democratization (RC44), 

on 

New Nationalisms and Changing Patterns of Conflict 

21 - 22 September 2021, 10:00-15:30 UTC (GMT) Time, Online

 Concept

The conference examines the dynamics of new nationalisms and the changing patterns of conflict and violence in the contemporary world. Nowadays we are witnessing the rise of nationalisms in a wide variety of countries around the world, including the developed ones, like the USA, France, or Hungary, and developing ones, like Brazil, the Philippines, or Sudan. Nationalism is not new but in recent years there has been a resurgence of national, ethnic and political mobilization which is exclusivist and inward looking, and which makes it stand out from its predecessors. It is a product in part of new socio-political circumstances, among them, new digital tools of mobilization and communication and new political agendas. Today’s “new nationalisms” are characterized by the rise of populism, authoritarian political style, mass mobilization through social media, proliferation of fake news and conspiracy theories, consolidation of identarian politics and fundamentalisms, mobilization of sentiments based on anger and hatred, and the use of brutality and genocide against stigmatized minorities. The purpose of this conference is to explore changing aspects of nationalism, especially in relation to collective identity formation, and their relationship to the new patterns of conflict. Of particular interest is the decline of interstate war and great power geopolitical contestation, and the rise of ethnic, religious, or value-based local conflicts, which have often been de-legitimized as acts of criminality, insurgency, and terrorism, but which have gained trans-regional or global significance.

Rise of new nationalisms

The 21st century is marked by smartphones, virtual social networks, bitcoin, drones, and many other technologies that have revolutionized our lives. These technologies open new horizons, shatter physical boundaries, and allow for expansion of free market and globalization. But the changes have also resulted in withdrawal from integrative projects such as BREXIT and NAFTA, building borders and walls, raising new discriminatory standards, and resorting to violence against invisible threats and enemies. We have arrived at new forms of nationalism, which build their agendas on the sentiments of dissatisfaction with the social shift arising from globalization and late modernization. As Louis Snyder or Ernest Gellner once argued about modernization or industrialization, globalization has been accompanied with social destabilization and anxieties which became important drivers of this kind of nationalism. New nationalisms rely on populist rhetoric and diverse blends of neoliberal managerialism, logic of action, and mass-based authoritarianism. Despite these claims, the conference does not envision a singular vision of “new nationalisms” as a sort of Cultural Backlash. Rather, it will focus on different pathways and forms of the rising wave of nationalisms and assess their contexts, significance, as well as relationship to globalization, neoliberalism, and technological change.

Changing forms of identity politics

In the words of Bertrand Badie, new nationalisms are  different from the original modernist ones of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which were more focused on inculcating national unity, tolerance and equality with peoples coming from different backgrounds and classes. They emerged as a part of struggles for constitutional freedoms and political rights and against feudal absolutist rulers and colonial governorates. Some such movements turned into racist and genocidal aberrations of the fascist or Nazi types, which became the early notorious prototypes of nationalisms that we encounter in the present day. The focus of today’s new nationalist ideologies is more oriented inwards, with ethnicizing and exclusionist undertones and xenophobic or chauvinistic content. They appeal with the message of hatred of minorities such as refugees, immigrants, infidels, aborigine, women, LGBTQ, and dehumanize their political rivals. In many political contexts especially in the Global South, nationalist rhetoric does not contribute to boosting national growth, but rather it is a tool with which unstable regimes in weak states divide the society, build mass support, capture control over the state apparatus, and exercise domination and control. Nationalist rhetoric thrives on depicting the evil nature of the stigmatized Others, turns to surveillance of its political enemies, attempts at regulation and delegitimization of critical media, and recourses to alternative information networks to distribute distorted versions of truth. 

New patterns of conflict and violence

In many countries especially in the Global South, the new nationalist rhetoric has existed since the wave of decolonization, beginning in the late 1950s. As Hans Kohn argued early on, in one way, the new nationalisms appeared to be consistent with the Western model of national unification and state building, but this was set within the framework of former ethnic, religious or regional secession, power fragmentation, and insurgency. Decolonization was more about resistance and resentment, than about security, stability, and nation building. It was a wave of protest movements which led to the formation of weak states and authoritarian structures, exacerbated internal resistance, and prevented monopolization of violence by state institutions such as military and police. This blurred the modern distinction between public and private affairs, and allowed for several actors such as tribal chiefs, religious leaders, warlords, local bosses, criminal networks, and even mafias to challenge state authorities and influence global politics through civil wars, insurrections, criminal wars, and incitements of insurgency, terrorism and genocide.

Temptations at proliferation of nuclear weapons

One area where the linkage between the rise of new identity politics, new nationalisms and changing forms of violence is of the largest concern, is the area of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are considered the ultimate new technologies of war-making. They serve as superior security guarantees to states and their elites, but they are also symbols of modernity, progress and respect. The logic of security dilemma ensures that nuclear states will never be secure enough, no matter how many stockpiles they build. Still, old and new actors, including states, quasi-states, failed states, insurgent entities, or illicit trading networks have one thing in common. The temptation to proliferate, which is often made for reasons other than security. Among such reasons is the quest for respectable status, frustrations, humiliation, thirst for recognition, and ethnic or religious hatreds. 

Today, the world is faced with pervading violent conflicts which challenge the way we define the state and the public sphere, and respond to such challenges. The conference will provide opportunity to critically examine and share experiences on the causes and consequences of conflict, security threats, social risks, dilemmas of nuclear proliferation, puzzles of populist nationalisms, dynamics of ethnic insurgencies, and consequences of large-scale violence. The themes do not insist on upholding the “newness” of the contemporary “new nationalisms” and “new conflicts”, but they consider it as a working hypothesis to re-examine foundational concepts in political sciences, such as nation, state, and violence within their current contexts. The discussions will be carried on both metaphysical and practical levels, and many will attempt to furnish possible strategies as well as theoretical implications for the future.

 Program  (* tentative as of 10 September 2021)

Convening times are in UTC/GMT universal time. Double check your local time with UTC/GMT shown below in bold. You can use the link below to confirm your local times. 

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Day 1, 21 September 2021 

Opening Keynote Speech: 

      Prof. Steven Ratuva (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)

10:30 - 10:50 (UTC)   

22:30 - 23:50 NZ,     19:30 - 19:50 JP,     14:30 - 14:50 UAE,     12:30 - 12:50 FR,     06:30 - 06:50 US-EDT     

Session 1: Populism, authoritarianism and manipulation of truth 

11:00 - 13:00 (UTC)   

23:00 - 01:00 NZ,     20:00 - 22:00 JP,     15:00 - 17:00 UAE,     13:00 - 15:00 FR,     07:00 - 09:00 US-EDT     

     Chair: Rosalie Arcala Hall (University of the Philippines Visayas, Philippines)

     Discussant: Sergio Aguilar (Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Brazil)

(1) Hamdy Hassan (Zayed University, United Arab Emirates) - “Populist" Transformations and the Crisis of Governance in Africa: From State Building to the Death of Politics

(2) Mariana Janot (Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Brazil) - The third authoritarian wave: new nationalism and the military in South America

(3) Halime S. Atalay (Istanbul Medipol University, Turkey) - Trivialisation of the Truth and Vulgarising Discourse of Daily Life

(4) Ito Ryuta (Hiroshima University, Japan) - Why Does Nationalism Cause War? A New Defensive Realist Theory Based on Neuro-biological and Psychological Research on Tribalism

Session 2: Ethnicity, religion, gender, and the changing forms of identity politics 

13:30 - 15:30 (UTC)  

01:30 - 03:30 NZ,     22:30 - 00:30 JP,     17:30 - 19:30 UAE,     15:30 - 17:30 FR,     09:30 - 11:30 US-EDT  

     Chair: Yasmin Calmet (Catholic University of Santa Maria, Brazil)

     Discussant: Aminul Mohd Karim (Independent University, Bangladesh)

(1) Huma Khwaja (University of Lucknow, India) - Religious Nationalism in India: A Threat to Democratic Values

(2) Hala Thabet (Zayed University, United Arab Emirates) - Politics of Ethnicity and Governance in Sudan: Prospects for the Post al-Bashir Period

(3) Shaimaa Moheyeldin (Cairo University, Egypt) - Ethnicity and Conflict in Africa: The Case of South Sudan

(4) Samuel Ritholtz (Oxford University, United Kingdom) - Gendered Violence, Moral Order, and Social Control during Colombia’s Paramilitary Incursion

Day 2, 22 September 2021

Session 3: Insurgency, terror and crime - local disputes and transnational patterns of violence 

11:00 - 13:00 (UTC)   

23:00 - 01:00 NZ,     20:00 - 22:00 JP,     15:00 - 17:00 UAE,     13:00 - 15:00 FR,     07:00 - 09:00 US-EDT     

     Chair: Sergio Aguilar (Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Brazil)

     Discussants: Jovanie Espesor (Mindanao State University, Philippines), Yasmin Calmet (Catholic University of Santa Maria, Brazil)

(1) Hassanein Ali (Zayed University, United Arab Emirates) - Iran and Its Violent Non-State Actors in the Arab World: An Examination of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces

(2) Marta Jaroszewitz (University of Warsaw, Poland) - Securitisation in the shadow of armed conflict: the internal othering and electoral rights of IDPs in Ukraine

(3) Hamdy Hassan and Hala Thabet (Zayed University, United Arab Emirates) -African Salafism and the Rise of Violent Extremism in Northern Mozambique

(4) Raúl Zepeda Gil (King's College London, United Kingdom) - The Debate about the definition of the Mexican Violent Conflict

 Session 4: New nationalisms and proliferation of nuclear weapons 

13:30 - 15:30 (UTC)     

01:30 - 03:30 NZ,     22:30 - 00:30 JP,     17:30 - 19:30 UAE,     15:30 - 17:30 FR,     09:30 - 11:30 US-EDT  

     Chair: Aminul Mohd Karim (Independent University, Bangladesh)

     Discussant: Rosalie Arcala Hall (University of the Philippines Visayas, Philippines)

(1) César Rodrigues (Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, Japan) - I want my nukes: nuclear proliferation, regime survival and nuclear nationalism in North Korea

(2) Christopher K. Lamont (Tokyo International University, Japan) - Libya’s Nuclear Nationalism and Status-Seeking: From Ambition to Abandonment

(3) Orion Noda (King's College London, United Kingdom) - Nukes and Nationalism: Brazil’s PROSUB and the Question of Status

(4) Radomir Compel (Nagasaki University, Japan) - Apartheid nationalism and nuclear proliferation in South Africa

Closing Keynote Speech: 

      Prof. Bertrand Badie (Sciences Po, France) 

15:50 - 16:10 (UTC)   

03:50 - 04:10 NZ,     00:50 - 01:10 JP,     19:50 - 20:10 UAE,     17:50 - 18:10 FR,     11:50 - 12:10 US-EDT    

Participation Application Form

Send your application early. The form will be discontinued after the limit of participants is reached.

The form is below or at this web link.

Important dates

Full papers are due on 15 September 2021. Papers should be in the Chicago 19 style, best with in-text citations. All papers should be sent in MS Word format to: cmplrad@nagasaki-u.ac.jp

The web conference will take place on 21-22 September 2021.

All time schedules for the conference are based on UTC Coordinated Universal Time and the timetable will be drawn up and advertised on this website to ensure that all participants are accommodated.

You can find more on time zones and time converter here:

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

https://www.timeanddate.com/time/map/

Venue

The whole conference will be held online over ZOOM hosted by the organizing committee. If you have concerns about connectivity, let us know.

Instructions

1.   Executive board members will serve as the technical assistants and web managers of the panels.

2.   The Zoom link and forum administration will be provided by the assigned board members. The Zoom link will be sent out to registered participants one day before the conference.

3.   The conference will be conducted on the basis of paper presentations, comments, and interactive discussions between participants based on the panel theme.

4.   The procedures for panel presentations and discussions will be arranged by panel chairs, and they should follow the established procedure in IPSA.

5.   Generally panel presentations are about 12-20 minutes long, followed by about 5-10 minute comments, responses by the panelists to the comments, and replies to questions from the floor (chat or raised hands in ZOOM).

6.   The microphone should be muted when listening, and must be unmuted only when speaking.

7.   To request your turn to speak, raise your hand or send a message through Zoom Chat.   

8.   Because of the extreme time differences, all panel chairs are requested to stick to the original timetable.

9.   The participation application form will be closed when the number of applicants reaches the conference limit.

Panel procedures

The chair, co-chair, and organizer will be the shared hosts for each online panel. Links to the panel websites will be available to all participants. Presenters will deliver their presentations in person, and share their presentations through shared screens in ZOOM.

Expenses

The conference is free of charge.

Organizing committee

Radomir Compel, Nagasaki University, Japan

Hamdy Hassan, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates

Hala Thabet, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates

Rosalie Hall, University of Philippines Visayas, Philippines

Sérgio Luiz Cruz Aguilar, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Brazil

Jovanie Espesor, Mindanao State University, Philippines

Mohammad Bashir Mobasher, American University of Afghanistan

Yasmin Calmet, Federal University of Fronteira Sul, Brazil

Contact

In case you need further assistance, please contact us at cmplrad<a>gmail.com.