Online Writing Retreat for Early Career Scholars
2026-02-25 13:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Prague) | Zoom Event
ZOOM EVENT: WEDNESDAY, 25 FEBRUARY 2026, 13:00-16:00 CET

REGISTER HERE

Description

The EISA ECD Group is organizing an Online Writing Retreat for Early Career Scholars aimed at sharing writing strategies and creating a friendly, encouraging environment for writing. The event does not require any prior preparation – just booking and dedicating time for focused writing on anything you are currently working on: your thesis, paper, or application. At the beginning, Dr. Tom F. A. Watts will share suggestions and his experience on writing. The event will continue with a writing retreat and conclude with a brief reflection at the end.
Structure

13:05-13:10 – introduction of the event
13:10-13:30 – writing strategies with Dr. Tom F. A. Watts
13:30-15:45 – online writing retreat
15:45-16:00 – participant reflection

Speaker

Dr. Tom F.A. Watts, Postdoctoral Researcher, the Center of War Studies, University of Southern Denmark

IR 101 Under Stress: Theory and Practice at Odds
2026-04-15 16:00 - 18:00
EISA-ISA JOINT ROUNDTABLE ZOOM EVENT: WEDNESDAY, 15 APRIL 2026, 16:00 CET

REGISTER HERE

Description

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
