Call for papers: US Foreign Policy Working Group annual conference
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 on other centres of power.
We welcome proposals from the fields of International Relations; Sociology; Political Science; History; Economics; and other related disciplines. Possible topics for papers and panels might include US foreign policy in relation to race, gender, migration, and human rights; political extremism, artificial intelligence/cyberwarfare; democratic oversight of foreign policy; terrorism; intelligence services & covert operations; energy security; nuclear weapons; trade and finance; multilateral organisations; and concepts, such as empire, hegemony, unipolarity, or multipolarity; and political theories that impact foreign policy, such as imperialism, fascism, oligarchy, liberalism, conservatism, and progressivism.
We are supportive of panels and papers that incorporate Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Iranian, African, Arabic, Israeli or European reflections on US foreign policy.
The conference will take place 5-6 September 2025 at University College London and will feature a keynote from Professor Christopher McKnight Nichols (Ohio State University). We will also organise a conference dinner, which all delegates are invited to and can attend for an extra fee, paid at the point of conference registration. Please also indicate with your submission if you wish to attend the conference dinner. The pricing structure for conference attendance is as follows:
BISA members: free
Non-BISA members: £75
Non-BISA ECRs: £25
Proposals for individual papers (200 word abstract, including institutional affiliation), panels (4 paper abstracts plus chair/discussant), and roundtables (5 participants including chair) should be submitted to the organiser of the USFP Working Group, Dr Thomas Furse (usfp.group@bisa.ac.uk) by Monday 21 July 2025.