CALL FOR PAPERS
Fourth Global International Studies Conference, 6 – 9 August 2014
Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main/Germany
Deadline: November 18th 2013
Panel: Transnational Dimensions of Violent Dissidence
Chair: Prof. Dr. Christopher Daase
This panel aims to investigate the transnational dimensions of violent dissidence. Violent dissidence, i.e. radical and militant resistance against a political order, is both a historic and contemporary phenomenon. Transnational embeddedness has always been an important characteristic: Dissident groups cooperate with peers (as well as states) across borders, exchange weapons and human resources, learn from each other, and adopt or emulate tactics and strategic frames for their purposes. However, even though this diffusion of material and ideational factors can have a crucial impact on the political and violent strategies pursued by dissident groups, research on social movements, political violence and terrorism has largely ignored such transnational dimensions. As a consequence, there is a lack of theoretically-grounded research on the nature and impact of diffusion and other similar cross-border processes. Nevertheless, in studies on civil war the transnational dynamics of intra-state conflicts have been recently addressed from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. At the same time, transnational politics have (re)gained considerable attention in both International Relations and Sociology. In light of these contributions, it is crucial to go beyond the traditional “closed polity approaches” not only in studies on civil war, but other forms of violent conflict and resistance as well.
The types of possible historical and contemporary examples are numerous, ranging from historical anarchism over anticolonial armed struggles to contemporary jihadism. Again, analyzing cases in their local or national context is too narrow a perspective. Though investigations into transnational aspects of conflicts often struggle with a limited data, some significance of cooperation, interaction, or material/ideational diffusion across type, time and space can be usually identified. As a consequence of this influence, groups may gain or lose leverage, power and support, act on the behalf of certain ideologies and adopt specific forms of organization, strategy and tactics.
We welcome empirical and theoretical papers from a broad range of perspectives addressing the following or related questions: How can we describe and conceptualize transnational dimensions of violent dissidence? Which types of transnational relations can be distinguished? What are the conditions of their establishment in the first place? What impact do transnational dimensions have on violence? Who are the targets? Does transnational cooperation lead to a change in tactics, political strategies or organizational structures, and if so, how? How can we study such transnational phenomena? What are the mechanisms underlying these processes (e.g. diffusion, scale shift), how do they interact, and how do they change? How are they related to (contemporary) phenomena like globalization and international migration? What are the causal mechanisms driving processes of (de)radicalization and (de)escalation of violence?
We are looking forward to contributions trying to tackle these and other questions related to the transnational dynamics of violent dissidence. Please submit proposals in the form of an abstract of up to 500 words before November 18th 2013 to daniel.kaiser@soz.uni-frankfurt.de.
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Daniel Thabang Kaiser, M.A.
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
Institut für Politikwissenschaft
Lehrstuhl für Internationale Organisationen
Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main
PEG-Gebäude, Raum 2.G 157
Grüneburgplatz 1
60323 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: +49 69 798 366 41
Mobil: +49 178 55 101 85
www.dissidenz.net