Conspiracy Theory In International Politics

CALL FOR PAPERS: Conspiracy theories in international politics

Panels for the ISA's annual convention, San Fransisco 2013

Theme: The Politics of International Diffusion: Regional and Global Dimensions
April 3-6, 2013, at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square; San Francisco, California, USA

http://www.isanet.org/annual_convention/call-for-papers.html/

Co-convenors: Stefanie Ortmann (University of Sussex) and John Heathershaw (University of Exeter)

Conspiracy theories have been identified as an increasingly prevalent mode of social and political discourse which seem to have important transnational and international dimensions. Research has shown that they have proliferated in American society and politics through the twentieth century, and can be found in all regions of world politics, perhaps especially in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. Early analyses suggested that conspiracy theories were pathologies, evidence of a 'paranoid style' of politics or dysfunctions of pubic discourse found particularly in totaliterian societies, subject to social psychological explanations. However, the emergence of Conspiracy Theory Studies since about 2000 has been dominated from scholars in History, Humanities and Cultural Studies. This research embarks from the premise that CTs can be understood in sociological terms as the expression of an increasing lack of autonomy in the face of uncontrollable forces, such as globalization, narratives of terrorist threats etc. In spite of this obvious link to themes of international politics, conspiracy theories have recevied little or no attention from scholars in Political Science and International Relations.

We intend to submit up to two panels on conspiracy theories to address the conference theme of international diffusion, focusing particularly on a comparative study of conspiracy theories in different regions of world politics and considering their transational forms and international diffusions. On the other hand we are interested in the workings of conspiracy theories in Europe and the US, relating to globalization, terrorism, the fall-out from the global economic crisis and similar themes. These are preliminary suggestions: We would like to here from potential presenters interested in submitting a paper on any aspect of conspiracy theories in international politics.

Please contact:

John Heathershaw (j.d.heathershaw@ex.ac.uk)

Stefanie Ortmann (s.ortmann@sussex.ac.uk)

Deadline for expressions of interest: Friday 25 May, 2012

Deadline for full abstracts: Tuesday 29 May, 2012