A year in working groups - 2024/25
Working groups are at the heart of BISA, so each year we bring you a summary of their activities over the previous 12 months. We hope this shows the strength, depth and hard work of each of the working groups. We are extremely grateful to the conveners who are all volunteers.
African and International Studies
Members: 154
The Africa and International Studies Working Group held six panels at the BISA 2025 annual conference including ‘Africa: politics and power’ and ‘Colonial Violence and the African Renaissance’. They also held three events including a book talk with Dele Kogbe ‘Rethinking civil society regionalism in Africa: Challenges and opportunities in democratic participation and peace building in the post-ECOWAS vision 2020’, and an in-person workshop event with Stephen Hurt, Melita Lazell, Manu Lekunze and Lesley Masters, titled ‘The Future of UK-Africa Relations’. This was held in collaboration with Chatham House.
Astropolitics
Members: 80
Over the course of this academic year the Astropolitics Working Group held four book talks: ‘The Oxford Handbook of Space Security’, by Saadia M Pekkanen and PJ Blount; ‘Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defense Initiative’ by Aaron Bateman; ‘Space Policy in the 21st Century’ by Wendy Whitman-Cobb and Derrick Frazier; and ‘Under the Nuclear Shadow: China’s Information-Age Weapons in International Security’ by Fiona Cunningham. They also hosted one in-person workshop supported by Canterbury Christ Church University. Astropolitics hosted five panels and roundtables at the BISA 2025 annual conference.
Colonial, Postcolonial, and Decolonial
Members: 413
The main event for the Colonial, Postcolonial, and Decolonial Working Group was their annual ECR workshop, which this year focused on anti-imperial feminism and was held at the University of Westminster. Alongside this they ran their annual ECR paper prize with BISA journal Review of International Studies. Their winner this year was Asad Zaidi with the paper ‘Pakistani contested worldmaking in international politics: The Afghan-Soviet War, Cold War counterinsurgency, and the struggles for decolonization’. They also had a runner up - Lucy Rebecca Cannon - with the paper ‘This Land, My sister, is a Woman’. Both presented their papers at a dedicated roundtable at the BISA 2025 annual conference. The group sponsored 30 roundtables and panels at the BISA 2025 annual conference and held an in-person AGM at Belfast.
Contemporary Research on International Political Theory
Members: 249
Contemporary Research on International Political Theory held two events this academic year, ‘On Global Learning’virtual roundtable, discussing the book by Jason Ralph, and ‘Theorising the Global Right’, a postgraduate masterclass. They also held five panels at the BISA 2025 annual conference and one roundtable ‘The Future of the ‘English School’ Approach to International Studies: Continuity, Adaptation, and Transformation in a Global World’.
Critical Military Studies
Members: 154
Over this academic year the Critical Military Studies Working Group held two events. The first was a knowledge exchange workshop with the Defence Research Network at the National Army Museum, focusing on the intersection between the MOD, academia and policy. The second was a virtual roundtable ‘Hostile terrain: researching gender and abuse in the military amid backlash and backsliding’ which included a collaboration with Megan MacKenzie from Simon Fraser University and speakers Hannah Richards, Beth Greener, Elin Berg, Nancy Taber, Brock University and Colleen Shoenfeld. They held 12 panels at the BISA 2025 annual conference.
Critical Studies on Terrorism
Members: 175
The Critical Studies on Terrorism Working Group won the Working Group of the Year Prize at the BISA 2025 annual conference. On top of this they hosted two events, their annual conference at the University of Sheffield, and a virtual event entitled ‘Nationalism as anti-americanism in Pakistani political cartoons’ - a work in progress feedback session. They held 10 panels and five roundtables at #BISA2025, touching on themes such as ‘Teaching ‘terrorism’ critically’ and ‘Palestine: The label of ‘terrorism’ and the permissibility of violence’. This also included their special edition roundtable ‘Abolition, Decoloniality, and Criticality: Can Critical Terrorism Studies remain “critical”?’.
East Europe and Eurasian Security
Members: 111
The East Europe and Eurasian Security Working Group had an active presence at the BISA 2025 conference, holding five panels. These included discussions on ‘Societal resilience and challenging power’, ‘Russia and the West: identity construction; disinformation and Western policy dilemmas’ and ‘Interrogating security from a relational standpoint: perspectives from Central and Eastern Europe’.
Emotions in Politics and International Relations
Members: 182
Emotions in Politics and International Relations had a busy year, hosting eight events. These included their EPIR virtual seminar series, their annual virtual postgraduate/ECR workshop on 'Intersection of Memory/Trauma and the Politics of Emotions in IR’ and their virtual reading group ‘Affect Theory Reader 2: Worldings, Tensions, Futures’. They held 11 panels and roundtables at the BISA 2025 annual conference including ‘Teaching emotions in Politics and IR’ and ‘Emotional Hierarchies in International Relations’. They also co-organised a roundtable in honour of Dr Emma Hutchison during the conference, which was extremely well received.
Environment and Climate Politics
Members: 141
The Environment and Climate Politics Working Group relaunched this year and held three successful and diverse events: ‘The IPCC and the Politics of Writing Climate Change’ book launch, ‘Circles of solidarity: Reimagining environment and climate politics scholarship in a crisis-ridden world’ lecture, and ‘Environment and Climate Politics on the Brink’ - their reception at the BISA 2025 annual conference. On top of this they held 19 panels and roundtables at #BISA2025, touching on a variety of important topics such as ‘Environmental injustice and inequality in a degrading climate’ and ‘No united Ireland on a dead planet’. Furthermore, they published seven blogs on their section of the BISA website, including their ‘spotlight’ series, and created a new Early-Career Environment and Climate Politics Paper Prize to honour the best environment or climate politics postgraduate/early-career paper presented at the BISA conference.
Ethics and World Politics
Members: 139
At the BISA 2025 conference the Ethics and World Politics held seven events, including four panels and three roundtables which touched on a variety of topics such as ‘What Should Be Done? Who Is To Blame? Navigating Individual, Collective, and Institutional Responsibility in War’ and ‘Avoiding Armageddon: Coral Bell's Contribution to International Relations’. They also held their AGM at the conference and had a successful discussion, focusing on ideas for revitalising the group moving forward.
Foreign Policy
Members: 262
The Foreign Policy Working Group put on a monthly seminar series. Titles included ‘What’s Next? Foreign Policy, Warfare, and Emerging Technologies’, ‘Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy: The Case of Shingal’ and two book talks: ‘Iranian Foreign Policy and the Empowerment of Ansar Allah’; and ‘Small states, Russia, and the West: Exploring the non-likeminded foreign policies in the South Caucasus’. They also facilitated a blog series and held their Annual General Meeting. At the BISA annual conference they hosted eight roundtables and panels including ‘Foreign Affairs, Theoretical Perspectives, and the Domestic Domain’, ‘Middle East Foreign Policy and Security Issues’ and ‘Foreign and Security Policy in the Indo-Pacific’.
Global Health
Members: 45
One of the Global Health Working Group’s main events this year was a book launch for ‘Global Health Governance 2nd Edition’ in December. In this they collaborated with Queen Mary University of London Global Policy Institute, School of Politics & IR, and Wolfson Institute of Population Health and held a thoughtful dissemination and discussion of research. They also held eight panels and roundtables at the BISA 2025 annual conference, and a further two social events aimed at strengthening the group’s community.
Global Nuclear Order
Members: 98
This academic year the Global Nuclear Order Working Group held two virtual events. The first was a one-day virtual workshop on ‘Pedagogical Approaches to Nuclear Politics’ including panels entitled ‘Broader discussions on nuclear governance’, ‘Syllabi status and innovations’ and ‘training the next generation of policy experts’. Their second event was their annual conference ‘Rethinking Nuclear Deterrence in an Era of Strategic Uncertainty’. This event sought to explore how deterrence theory and practice intersect with broader political, ethical, and strategic concerns and featured many academics from international institutions on panels. They also hosted eight events at #BISA2025 including two roundtables entitled ‘The Third Nuclear Age: Understanding and Addressing Contemporary Nuclear Challenges’,and ‘Stigma and Discourse in Nuclear Politics’.
Global Politics and Development
Members: 127
The Global Politics and Development Working Group held two events this year. These were an ‘Engaging with academic journals’ event aimed at early-career researchers to share and discuss information about different aspects of publishing and ‘Is the term Global South useful?’, an in-person event in Senate House, London, co-organised with RHUL's Global Politics and Development Centre. They also held six panels, two roundtables and their annual general meeting at the BISA 2025 annual conference. In addition to this they promoted their podcast series Global Aid Rethink which was listened to globally.
International Law and Politics
Members: 167
The International Law and Politics Working Group held four events with various joint collaborators. These included a webinar entitled ‘The genocide question before the International Court of Justice’ in collaboration with the International Studies Association, an in-person workshop at King’s College London ‘Penumbras and Grey Zones in International Law and War’ in collaboration with the War Crimes Research Group, an in-person workshop at the University of Glasgow ‘The Political Universes of International Courts’ with the University of Glasgow School of Law, ISA International Law Section and the ESIL Interest Group on Social Sciences and International Law, and a two-day workshop at the University of the West of England entitled ‘Ecocide in Global Politics’ in collaboration with the British Academy Early Career Research Network. Alongside this they held eight panels, two roundtables and their annual general meeting at the BISA 2025 annual conference.
International Political Economy
Members: 199
International Political Economy had a busy year hosting nine events which included their International Political Economy webinar series ‘Financialisation in Latin America’, their International Political Economy annual book prize lecture ‘Doing Political Economy 'for' the Global South? or 'from' the Global South?’, and their annual workshop held at the beginning of the academic year. Alongside this they hosted 19 panels and roundtables at #BISA2025. Their panels focused on a wide variety of topics including ‘China in the international political economy’ and ‘Relations between Global North and Global South’.
International Studies and Emerging Technologies
Members: 134
The International Studies and Emerging Technologies Working Group held two sponsored events this academic year. The first was a sponsored panel at the Imagining Future War Workshop at Queen’s University in Belfast in September 2024 and the second was ‘Interdisciplinary Dialogues on Artificial Intelligence IR’, a networking space for academics working on AI and leading industry figures invited from the tech sector in Northern Ireland to consider the future direction of travel for the technology, and regulatory policy. They also held 12 panels at #BISA2025 and at the end of the year had a successful handover of conveners to Professor Ben Farrand and Dr Mike Bourne.
International Studies of the Mediterranean, Middle East & Asia
Members: 194
The first event of the academic year for the International Studies of the Mediterranean, Middle East & Asia Working Group was a book talk for ‘Being Human: Political Modernity and Hospitality in Kurdistan-Iraq’ with speaker Fazil Moradi and discussants Dr Ibrahim Sadiq and Dr Stephen McLoughlin. In November they held another book talk, ‘Conscientious Objection in Turkey: A Socio-legal Analysis of the Right to Refuse Military Service’, with Dr Demet Asli Caltekin and chaired by Bahar Baser. Finally, they held an online panel discussion ‘East Asian stability and power transitions in the 21st century?’. At #BISA2025, International Studies of the Mediterranean, Middle East & Asia held eight panels and roundtables. They also launched their International Studies of the Mediterranean, Middle East & Asia paper prize for early-career scholars.
Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding and Human Rights
Members: 249
The Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding and Human Rights Working Group kicked off the year with their ‘Meet the editors’ event, inviting editors from International Peacekeeping, Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence and Global Responsibility to Protect - all of which connect to the group’s themes. They then hosted to their virtual café: ‘Peace operations on the African Continent’; and a book talk with Dr Aiko Holvikivi for ‘Fixing Gender: The Paradoxical Politics of Training Peacekeepers’. Finally, they held a Teaching and Learning Forum and a one-day workshop ‘Local-Level Peacebuilding: between Theory and Practice’, which included a keynote panel with speakers Jonathan Cohen, Dr Sukanya Podder and Dr Sarah Njeri. Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding and Human Rights held 13 panels and three roundtables at the BISA 2025 annual conference.
Security Policy and Practice
Members: 146
New this year, the Security Policy and Practice Working Group held five popular events including an in-person event in collaboration with King’s College London Centre for Grand Strategy, and Rethinking Security entitled ‘Effective peace and security approaches for the UK in a volatile world’. They also held a virtual event ‘Digesting the UK’s New National Security Strategy’ with speakers Professor Will Jessett, Professor Paul Rogers, Dr Christine Cheng, Dr Joseph Devanny, Lewis Brooks and Dr Claire Duncanson, which was a timely response to the new National Security Strategy. They held five panels and five roundtables at #BISA2025, and one roundtable at the BISA virtual conference: ‘Imagining a More Inclusive Security Agenda with speakers Aditi Gupta, Professor Harmonie Toros, Laura Aumeer and Toni Haastrup.
South East Europe
Members: 52
South East Europe Working Group hosted four events and seven roundtables/panels at the BISA annual conference. The first of their events was their third annual virtual workshop ‘Worlding from South East Europe, remaking International Relations’, which brought together contributions to rethink International Relations in and from the SEE. Their second was a book launch - Feminist encounters in statebuilding: The role of women in making the state in Kosovo - co-edited by Dr Vjosa Musliu and Dr Itziar Mujika Chao. This event included a collaboration with UCL's School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Finally, they hosted their 20th anniversary workshop entitled ‘Between continuities and ruptures: Exploring violence and resistance in the SEE’ to mark 20th anniversary of the group. This was collaborated with the University of Liverpool. They hosted their Annual General Meeting in June and their events at #BISA2025 included ‘Life and Death on the Balkan Route: Traces and haunting’ and ‘Laboratories or worldmakers? What are the Balkans in and for International Studies?’.
War Studies
Members: 301
The War Studies Working Group had a successful academic year, holding four events. They started the year with an online webinar in collaboration with the Foreign Policy Working Group, which included a panel made up with Lauren Gould, Kerry Chávez and Hendrik Huelss. They then hosted another two online webinars entitled ‘Lawfare: the utilisation of the law’ and ‘Should South Korea go nuclear?’. Finally, they hosted their ‘Future of NATO’ hybrid workshop at the Loughborough University London Campus – a successful event used to discuss various issues that face NATO in the immediate future. At the BISA 2025 annual conference they held 21 panels and roundtables. They also held two AGMs this year, one in January and one in June.