IR 101 Under Stress: Theory and Practice at Odds

EISA-ISA JOINT ROUNDTABLE     
ZOOM EVENT: WEDNESDAY, 15 APRIL 2026, 16:00 CET

International Relations has long offered conceptual maps for making sense of global politics. Today, many of the discipline’s core concepts are being actively stress-tested by contemporary political practice. Leaders operate in a world in which the velocity of change, the intensity of geopolitical competition, and the personalization of power often outpace the analytical frameworks we rely on to interpret them. This roundtable asks what IR’s classical paradigms still offer to contemporary decision-makers. How might global politics look different if leaders—from Washington, to Brussels, to Moscow, to Beijing—took IR 101 seriously? And conversely, to what extent are the assumptions underpinning IR 101 unsettled by a world in which individual leaders, domestic politics, unconventional means and shifting norms play increasingly decisive roles? At the same time, IR scholars face their own challenge: how to remain intellectually relevant without overstating the discipline’s capacity to predict or prescribe or how to use old concepts to explain an emerging order in class. The discussion explores whether core concepts—power, order, sovereignty, influence, and cooperation—require rethinking, or whether they continue to anchor understanding of international change; and what can IR offer leaders and publics navigating a moment in which expertise is contested, institutions are strained, and world order itself appears unsettled? Through a joint EISA–ISA conversation and cross-community dialogue, this event invites an open exploration of what IR theory helps us see when the conditions that once stabilized international politics are under pressure—and why that perspective may matter now more than ever.

Speakers

• Beatrix Futak-Campbell, University of Leiden 
• Maria Malksoo, University of Copenhagen  
• James Goldgeier, American University 
• Paul Poast, University of Chicago