US Foreign Policy annual conference 2025 U.S. foreign policy in the post-unipolar world

The theme of the 2025 US Foreign Policy Working Group Annual Conference is US foreign policy in the post-unipolar world. Panels, papers, and roundtables will broadly address how the United States is navigating a turbulent world of wars, Great Power competition, feuds against allies, migration, and catastrophic climate change. The Trump administration is shaping foreign policy with radical gusto. Its senior officials are renegotiating the structure of US alliances and redesigning how the US competes in the world. At the core of this foreign policy is a critique of a form of internationalism that, according to the administration, has transformed the United States into a ‘piggy bank’ for the world.  

The new administration is pressing ahead with a negotiated freeze in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, expecting European states to defend Europe so the United States can be more of an associate on the continent rather than the ultimate security guarantor. Pete Hegseth spoke for the administration when he said, “We also face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific.” This shift away from Europe to the Pacific has sparked public debate and scrutiny regarding foreign policy. 

Now, different strains of internationalism are hotly debated from Washington to cable news to podcasts. Does the Trump administration promote radical and racialized imperialism with its talk of territorial annexation and restrictive border control? Can the Democratic Party offer more than just liberal internationalism to voters increasingly weary of lofty rhetoric and endless wars? How does inequality and extractive capitalism within the United States shape its foreign policy? Will the mid-2020s mark the decline of long-term American commitment to multilateralism? What economic powers will the US harness to confront the BRIC nations and the European Union? What does a multi-order world in the 21st century entail? Discussions of US foreign policy in a post-unipolar world necessitate attention to other centres of power. 

Programme 

 9 am

Welcome Drinks & Opening Remarks 
 

09.30-11.00 am

Panel 1: U.S. Hegemony and the Changing World Order

Chair: Christopher McKnight Nichols (The Ohio State University)

Theme: Rethinking power, unipolarity, and international hierarchy

1. Afsah Qazi (Air University, Islamabad) – American Foreign Policy in a Post-Unipolar World: Revisiting the Hegemon’s Dilemma

2. Rishika Chauhan & Soumya Mishra (King’s College London) – BRICS and Trumpism: Situating BRICS in the “Non-West” and “Anti-West” Discourse

3. Jeremy Levine (Stony Brook University) - A New Axis in the Making? Understanding what Hungary and Serbia Represent to the Sino-Russian Alliance’s Challenge to U.S. Hegemony

4. Noor Omar (iNNOV8 Research Center) – US Foreign Policy: Multipolarity and Tech-Security Rivalries in the Middle East

Panel 2: Strategic Cultures and Identity in US Foreign Policy

 09.30-11.00 am

Chair: Inderjeet Parmar (City St. George’s, University of London)

Theme: Comparative worldviews, national identity, and foreign policy representation

1. Alin Barbantan (Romanian Academy) – Mission Accomplished? Comparing the Strategic Cultures of the U.S. and Romania, 1990–2024

2. Eda Ayaydin (The Ohio State University/University of London Institute in Paris) – U.S. Arctic Policy Amid Sino-Russian Alignment and Nordic Realignment

3. Marieta Lefort & Sam Jardine (virtual) (UCL/Center of Space Governance) – Governance and Bilateralism Beyond Earth: The US and the Artemis Accords

4. Georg Löfflmann (Queen Mary University) – The Politics of Antagonism: The Populist Security Imaginary and the Remaking of Political Identity

Panel 3: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East and Asia

11.15-12.45 pm

Chair: Tom Furse (UCL)

Theme: Regional strategies, resource politics, and historical conflict

1. Abhishank Mishra (Jawaharlal Nehru University) [virtual] – Irrevocably Broken or Ephemeral Disconnection: Third World Responses to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

2. Imad Farhadi (iNNOV8 Research Center) – Pipelines and Power: U.S. Foreign Policy and Iraqi Kurdistan’s Gas Venture

3. Hirad Mokhayeri (Islamic Azad University) – Representation of Iran in the United States Foreign Policy: Hegemony Theory & Far-Right Movements

Lunch
1pm-2pm
 

Panel 4: Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy Decision-Making

2pm-3pm

Chair: Rubrick Biegon (Kent University)

Theme: Executive authority, ideology, and polarization

1. Bailey Schwab (York St. John University) – How Presidential Doctrines Expand Executive Authority in U.S. Foreign Policy

2. Marina Duque (Newcastle University) – Political Polarization and Responses to Status Threats in Great Power Politics

3. Jonny Hall, (LSE) The Politics of Blame: How U.S. Presidents Navigate War Termination Narratives 

Afternoon Teas

3.45-4.45 pm
 
Roundtable: State of the Field on US Foreign Policy 

4.45-6.00 pm
Matthew Hill (Liverpool John Moores University)
Ché Spencer-Pote (Liverpool John Moores University)
Inderjeet Parmar (City, St. George’s University of London)
Maria Ryan (University of Nottingham)
Tom Furse (UCL)

 6.15-7.30 pm (approx.): Keynote speaker: Christopher McKnight Nichols (The Ohio State University) on “American Unilateralism” and Q&A

Dinner 

7.30 pm - onwards

The deadline for registration is 30 August 2025 at 5pm (UK time)