Non-State Actors in East-West Relations

Abstract: The research seminar focuses on the role of non-state actors in International Relations more broadly and in the context of post-1945 East-West relations specifically, introducing a recently completed Palgrave Handbook of the same title, with over 50 chapters by as many authors. The key theoretical frameworks of the inquiry include an understanding of non-state actors as plausible sites of political agency and highly-probable sites of domain-specific agency, with both types of agency capable of taking on significance in shaping international politics in various ways. For the analysis of state-to-non-state-actors relationships, two distinct conceptual models serve the process-tracing analysis of partnerships and 'proxyships,' with the understanding that the latter two configurations do not exhaust the possibilities there are in terms of the diversity of interactions between state and non-state actors, respectively. The volume's case studies offer a rich set of examples to consider, both informed by the above frameworks and serving to illustrate as well as refine them in various ways.

Two authors will present their study cases using the handbook’s theoretical framework.
Ekaterina Pierson-Lyzhina, associated researcher at Repi will present her book chapters on the Kastuś Kalinoŭski regiment and the Belarusian opposition-in-exile. Gaëlle Le Pavic, associate researcher at UNU-CRIS and UGent, will present her chapter on the Abkhaz Civil Society Organization.

Péter Marton is Associate Professor at the Institute of Global Studies at Corvinus University and Adjunct Professor at McDaniel College Budapest. His fields of research include Security Studies, Foreign Policy Analysis and Global Public Health. He has published, inter alia, in Defence Studies, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, the Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, the Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe and New Perspectives. He is co-editor of the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies.

Moderation: Ekaterina Pierson-Lyzhina, Université libre de Bruxelles

The event will be held in a hybrid format.
Registration required: https://forms.office.com/e/NZYvH3SW4n?origin=lprLink

Tuesday, November 5th, 2024, from 12:00 to 2:00 pm
REPI - Université libre de Bruxelles
Campus du Solbosch – REPI RT39 Geremek Room
39 Avenue Franklin Roosevelt
1050 Bruxelles