Voices: The EISA Podcast

Episode 44

What is China's role in the global economy, and how should we understand its growing power in a world of shifting financial hierarchies and intensifying geo-economic competition? In this episode, we are joined by Johannes Petry to explore China's expanding economic influence and what it means for the global financial system, the institutions that govern it, and the future of global order itself. Johannes Petry is Senior Researcher at Goethe University Frankfurt and Principal Investigator of the DFG-funded research project “Financial Empire” which examines China’s growing global financial footprint in a world of growing geo-economic contestations as part o...

Ep. 43

As artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly moves onto the battlefield, the nature of war itself is being transformed. How are automated systems reshaping the conduct of war, and what happens when decision-making is partially or fully delegated to machines? To explore the role of automation in contemporary warfare and the ethical questions raised by the increasing use of AI in military contexts, we are joined by Elke Schwarz, Professor of Political Theory at Queen Mary University of London. Her work sits at the intersection of ethics, technology, politics, and warfare, with a particular focus on emerging military technologies such...

Episode 42

In this episode, we tackle a question that cuts to the heart of today’s global power struggles: Why is the Gulf so geopolitically important? To unpack this question, we are joined by Laleh Khalili, Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins she discusses the escalating tensions surrounding the US and Israeli war on Iran, the strategic implications of a potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the wider risks of oil price shocks and global economic disruption. Moving beyond headline geopolitics, the conversation situates these developments within broader hi...

Episode 41

What happens to the global financial order when the world starts losing faith in the US dollar - and in the United States itself? In this episode, host Polly Pallister-Wilkins speaks with Tobias Pforr (University of Copenhagen) and Fabian Pape (University of Edinburgh) about how the Second Trump administration is undermining the dollar’s hegemony. Tobias Pforr is a political economist and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Employment Relations Research Centre in the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen. His research bridges political economy, philosophy, and public policy, and he has held positions at the European University In...

Episode 40

Why has Denmark - once known for its humanitarian ideals - become so unwelcoming to refugees? In this episode, Michelle Pace, Associate Fellow at Chatham House, joins us to discuss her new book "Un-Welcome in Denmark: The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration" (Manchester University Press, 2025), co-authored with Sarah El‑Abd. A leading voice on Europe-Middle East relations, migration, and democratization, Pace has published widely in journals such as Mediterranean Politics, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Third World Quarterly. Her books include Knowledge Production in Higher Education (MUP, 2023), The Routledge Handbook of EU–Middle East Relations (2021), and Syrian Refu...

Episode 39

In this episode, we speak with Dr Esther Marijnen, Associate Professor and Political Ecologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Esther’s work explores the uneasy entanglements of nature, military conflict, and authority - from the militarisation of conservation efforts to the ecological and social impacts left by colonial violence. Drawing on over a decade of field research in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and more recent work in Uganda and Europe, Esther introduces her current project Wounded Landscapes funded by the Dutch Research Council. The project examines how slow violence and historical legacies of conflict reconfigure bo...

Episode 38

What is the arms trade, and how does it shape our world? In our first episode of 2026, we explore why scholars of international relations should pay closer attention to the arms trade, and what its dynamics reveal about power, security, and global inequality. Joining us is Professor Anna Stavrianakis (Sussex), leading expert on the international arms trade, UK arms export policy, and militarism in North–South perspective. Anna teaches at the University of Sussex and serves as Director of Research and Strategy at Shadow World Investigations, an organisation that exposes corruption and abuse in the arms industry. She ha...

Episode 37

In this episode, host Polly speaks with Daniel Quiroga-Villamarín (New York University), winner of this year’s EISA Best Dissertation Award for his dissertation Architects of the Better World: Democracy, Law, and the Construction of International Order (1919 - 1998), which he is currently developing into a monograph. Daniel’s research examines how the metaphorical use of architectural language in international law discussions often obscures the real, material spaces where international law is shaped, challenged, and debated. He argues that that the metaphorical language of architecture in international law - epitomised by Truman’s call for “architects of the better wo...

Episode 36

In this special Voices episode, we unpack the recent recognition of Palestinian statehood by several Western governments, including the UK, France, Portugal, Canada, and Australia. The move came shortly after a UN Special Committee report finding Israel’s actions in Gaza consistent with genocide. This historic decision has sparked intense debate about the timing, motivations, and consequences of recognising Palestine as a state. Emile Badarin (University of Oxford) and Victor Kattan (University of Nottingham) join host Polly Pallister-Wilkins to discuss these developments and examine the broader politics and legal aspects of recognition within the long struggle for Palestinian st...

Episode 35

In this episode, we welcome Alvina Hoffmann (SOAS), winner of EISA’s 2025 Best Article Award from the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR). In her award-winning article “What Makes a Spokesperson? Delegation and Symbolic Power in Crimea” (2024, vol. 30, Issue 1, pp. 27-51), Alvina unpacks questions about who gets to speak for others, exploring themes of symbolic power, authenticity, and the universalism of human rights. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Alvina draws on her research to explore the struggles and stakes involved in speaking on behalf of others through the lens of human rights politics in Crimea. She also talks...

Ep. 34

This month, we are flipping the script a little: Our new episode features our producer Judith Koch (University of Sussex), whose recent PhD research offers a fresh perspective on Brexit: rather than a sudden rupture, she interprets it as the latest chapter in a decades-long tension between the UK and Europe. What if Brexit wasn’t a bolt from the blue, but just the latest instance in a decades-long struggle between the UK and its European counterparts? In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Judith talks us through the longer history of Brexit, all the way back to the Su...

Episode 33

What do recent controversies over statues reveal about global politics and the legacy of empire? In this episode, Rahul Rao (University of St. Andrews) joins us to discuss his new book “The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire” (Pluto Press, 2025). In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Rahul Rao talks us through his work in which he explores how debates over statues – from Cape Town to Bristol and Richmond – uncover deeper struggles over race, caste, and decolonisation, and how these disputes have reshaped anticolonial political thought. Journeying through sites of contestation across South Africa, England, the US...

Episode 32

In this episode, we are joined by Noam Leshem (Durham University) to discuss his new book Edges of Care: Living and Dying in No Man’s Land. Noam Leshem explores the spatial politics of abandonment, highlighting how marginalised communities – like the Israeli Black Panthers fought against systemic discrimination faced by Mizrahi Jews in the 1970s united with marginalised Palestinians - found moments of solidarity in shared struggles against state neglect. Noam Leshem is associate professor of Political Geography at Durham University where he works closely with communities grappling with the impacts of violent conflict, emphasising creative methods and inno...

Episode 31

What does a just energy transition look like, and how do politics and power shape the global transition to low-carbon energy? In this episode, we speak with Peter Newell (University of Sussex), a leading expert on the political economy of environment and development, whose career spans more than three decades of research at different universities, including the Universities of Sussex, Oxford, Warwick and East Anglia, and FLACSO Argentina, policy advising, and activism. From climate change governance to corporate accountability and trade policy, he has worked across multiple continents, including Argentina, China, India, and South Africa, to analyse how...

In this episode, we are joined by Iosif Kovras, winner of the 2024 EISA Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR) Award, who explores the transformative role of forensic technologies in reshaping how societies confront their violent pasts. Iosif Kovras, an Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus, and a leading voice in the fields of comparative transitional justice and human rights, focuses on questions of accountability, transitional justice, and the pursuit of truth in post-conflict settings. His current research explores the logic of the crime of disappearances in...

Episode 29

What does it mean to take love and care seriously in the "deathworlds" of International Relations? How can these concepts reshape how we understand and navigate worlds marked by loss and violence? This episode shifts the focus of International Relations’ traditional preoccupation with war, violence, and insecurity to the themes of love and care. Host Polly Pallister-Wilkins is joined by Roxani Krystalli (University of St Andrews) and Philipp Schulz (University of Bremen), who explore the roles of love and care in reshaping worlds after loss, including ecological and interpersonal grief, as part of a collaborative project funded by th...

Episode 28

What are the politics of human mobility through the lenses of visibility and invisibility? What does it mean for movement to be seen - or unseen - and who controls that? Joining us in this episode is Anna Finiguerra (King’s College London), whose Phd thesis “Ecologies of Visibility: Assembling the Politics of Mobility through Multiple Practices of Knowledge Production” won this year’s EISA best dissertation award. Anna Finiguerra’s research rethinks traditional frameworks of (in)visibility in studies on migration by examining events like the construction of the Gateway to Europe and migrant self-narration at the same site...

Episode 27

Why do women still die when they don´t have to? Despite global advancements and available resources, preventable deaths among women persist. Women continue to shoulder the weight of healthcare work and the socio-economic impact of health crises. Sophie Harman, prize-winning Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary London, is – as her new book flags – sick of it. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins they discuss Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women’s Health which maps out how women´s health is manipulated for political gain, from health-washing to attacks on maternity hospitals and the exploitation of healt...

Episode 26

Dependency Theory provides a crucial framework for understanding the persistent inequalities shaping our global society which extend beyond borders, influence global conflicts, financial systems, and work at the intersections of gendered and racialised oppression. In this episode, Dr Felipe Antunes de Oliveira (Queen Mary University of London) is in conversation with host Judith Koch (University of Sussex) to discuss Dependency Theory which is rooted in Latin American thought. Felipe's unique dual perspective as a scholar of Latin American Political Economy and International Relations Theory on the one hand, and as a career diplomat on the other hand deeply...

Episode 25

This episode explores the experiences of migrant academics. We are joined by Olga Burlyuk (University of Amsterdam) and Ladan Rahbari (University of Amsterdam), editors of "Migrant Academics’ Narratives of Precarity and Resilience in Europe" (2023, Open Book Publishers) who have curated this essential collection of narratives by migrant academics. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, they tease out the multifaceted experiences of migrant academics, shedding light on various forms of precarity. From challenging hiring practices and systemic sexism and racism to economic disadvantages and the often 'culturally accepted' yet problematic divisions of labour within academic spaces, these narratives are bo...

Episode 24

Since South Africa brought the case of applying the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 29 December 2023, the topic of genocide has re-entered both popular and scholarly debates. How is genocide comprehended - or rather, misunderstood - within International Relations, and as a legal concept? In this episode Jo Bluen, educator, writer, and PhD researcher (University of Cape town & London School of Economics) is in conversation with Polly Pallister-Wilkins (University of Amsterdam). Jo Bluen explores the multifaceted interpretations and political ramifications of...

Episode 23

In times marked by escalating challenges to academic freedom, this episode unravels the essence of academic freedom, its significance, and the pressing need to safeguard it. From institutional repression and public curtailment to professional reprisals faced by academic staff due to their research findings and public advocacy, this episode explores one of the timeliest issues of our era. In conversation with Prof Toni Haastrup (University of Manchester), Dr Lewis Turner (Newcastle University), and Prof Joel Quirk (University of the Witwatersrand), host Polly Pallister-Wilkins (University of Amsterdam) tackles pivotal questions: What does academic freedom entail? And, more importantly, how...

Episode 22

This episode delves into the dynamics of institutional power and explores the implications when power in transnational orders, such as the EU, undergoes de-institutionalisation. Professor Jonathan White´s (LSE) article “The De-institutionalisation of Power beyond the State” which has been awarded the EISA`s Best Article in EJIR 2023, introduces a groundbreaking perspective on the normative consequences of informality in global politics. In conversation with Host Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Prof. Jonathan White explains how recent crisis politics has shifted the balance, with individuals and their networks reshaping institutions. He argues that informal diplomacy, such as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen...

Episode 21

Almost every major political event over the past decade has been "memed". This episode delves into the dynamic world of internet memes and their significance for the study of International Relations. In his paper "Cucktales: Race, Sex, and Enjoyment in The Reactionary Memescape", that has been awarded the EISA´s Best Graduate Paper 2023, Uygar Başpehlivan, PhD candidate at the University of Bristol, takes us on a journey into the world of internet memes. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins (University of Amsterdam), he explains the ways in which memes are integral to the political space by being si...

Episode 20

This episode introduces the new EISA "Voices in International Relations" book series, published with Oxford University Press (OUP). Professor Debbie Lisle (Queen's University Belfast), and series editor of the EISA/OUP book series talks us through EISA´s new initiative that seeks to further the contours of IR by going beyond the conventional boundaries of the field. In conversation with our new host, Polly Pallister-Wilkins (University of Amsterdam), Debbie Lisle elucidates the new book series´ mission to foster innovative scholarship that not only broadens discussions on key IR debates but also reimagines and challenges the discipline itself. Bridging ga...

Episode 19

Why should IR scholars pay attention to new technologies, big data, and algorithms? In this episode, we are joined by Claudia Aradau, Professor of International Politics at King's College London, who unpacks the significance of digital technologies for practices of governance. In conversation with Felix Berenskötter (SOAS University of London), Professor Aradau shares her research into the datafication of border security, the operation of algorithms in producing identities and controversies around them. They discuss the importance of a critical and interdisciplinary approach that captures what these new technologies do, who uses them and to what effect. Tune i...

Episode 18

The Covid 19 Pandemic highlighted, once again, the importance of sharing scientific knowledge about deceases internationally. What are the hurdles to sharing information about the nature of a deadly virus in a timely manner, and how can they be overcome? How does knowledge gathered in medical laboratories become a matter of global politics? In this episode, Professor Stefan Elbe (University of Sussex) addresses these questions through his article “Bioinformational Diplomacy: Global Health Emergencies, Data Sharing and Sequential Life”, which won the EISA’s Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR) Award in 2022. We discuss Professor Elbe’s cross...

Episode 17

How can the study of friendship inspire and enhance our understanding of international politics? Evgeny Roshchin (Princeton University) draws on conceptual history inspired by Quentin Skinner to trace the development of the concept of friendship in international diplomatic practice and in Western political philosophy. In conversation with Felix Berenskötter (SOAS University of London), Roshchin discusses his research into contractual forms of friendship, embedded in treaties, and their function in ordering colonial spaces. He explains why this understanding disappeared from social contract thinking following Hobbes and was replaced by an ethical and normative reading that remains dominant today, a...

Episode 16

Decolonising knowledge in academia can be understood as the process of interrogating and reshaping research and teaching born out of a Eurocentric, colonial lens and maintained by power structures invested in it. How it this expressed in and what are the implications for the field of International Relations? What are the challenges? In this episode, we discuss such questions with Meera Sabaratnam (SOAS University of London), who has been working on issues of decolonisation, Eurocentrism, race and methodology in IR for many years, and has also been proactive in advancing the decolonisation agenda in academia. In conversation with...

Episode 15

What are ‘tricksters’ and how do they exert power in international politics? This podcast takes a closer look at political actors that seek to undermine order and sow confusion around their actions by employing contradictory logics. Discussing their article ‘Trickstery: pluralising stigma in international society’, which won the EISA’s Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR) Award in 2022, Xymena Kurowska (Central European University) and Anatoly Reshetnikov (Webster Vienna Private University) shed light on ‘trickstery’ as a form of behavior that appears to simultaneously conform with and deviate from dominant norms. In conversation with Felix Berenskötter...

Episode 14

What does it mean to remember in IR? How does collective memory shape global politics, including inter-state relations, foreign policy formation, security, and peacebuilding? Furthermore, what does the erasure of collective memory mean for international (and domestic) politics? Tune in to this episode with Maria Mälksoo (University of Copenhagen), who alerts us to the instrumentalization of remembrance, and to the politics at play in acts of commemoration.

Maria Mälksoo

Mälksoo, Maria (2021): Militant memocracy in International Relations: Mnemonical status anxiety and memory laws in Eastern Europe. In: Review of International Studies, 47 (4), pp. 489 - 5...

Episode 13

Where are the women in international thought? Why have they been excluded from the discipline of IR, and where does this neglect of female scholars come from? In their Leverhulme Project on 'Women and the History of International Thought', Patricia Owens, Katharina Rietzler and Kimberly Hutchings recover the contributions of 'historical women'. In this episode, host Vineet Thakur (University of Leiden) interviews Patricia Owens (University of Oxford) who discusses the absented presence of women's IR history and thinking.

Patricia Owens

Owens, P.; Rietzler, K.; Hutchings, K. and Dunstan, S. C. (2022): Women's International Thought: Towards...

Episode 12

Uneven and Combined Development (UCD) is a social theory of the international. Originating in the writings of Leon Trotsky, most explicitly in the opening chapter of Trotsky's The History of the Russian Revolution (1932), scholars of UCD aim to expand on what Trotsky never fully formulated. First introduced into the discipline of IR at the 1995 Deutscher Memorial Lecture by Prof. Justin Rosenberg (University of Sussex), UCD has gained considerable attention both in IR and Historical Sociology. In this episode Justin Rosenberg is in conversation with Judith Koch (University of Sussex). Among other things, they talk about UCD's contemporary applications...

Episode 11

Political Marxists have produced a variety of compelling contributions in several disciplines, not least in IR. In this episode, Dr Maïa Pal (Brookes University), who is in conversation with Judith Koch (University of Sussex), discusses the foundations of Political Marxism, the advantages of its radical historicist method, as well as its main critiques. Dr Pal's work engages with the relationship between capitalism and law, emphasizing jurisdiction as a key concept of international order. Tune in for a deep dive into Political Marxism and its continuing relevance for the analysis of large-scale societal and (geo)political transformations.

Epsiode 10

What does it mean to do Area Studies, and what is the relationship between Area Studies and IR? In this podcast, Lindsay Black (Leiden University) explains the research agenda of Area Studies. Area Studies broadens our understanding of how to locate power, uncover inequalities, and re-politicize the effects of globalization. He tells us how area studies approaches open up scope for a more nuanced understanding of the social embeddedness of world politics, as well as of current global conflicts, such as the disentanglement of ethnic groups and state borders through imperialist practices. Tune in to a compelling conversation...

Episode 9

Sankaran Krishna (UH Manoa, Hawaii) is a leading postcolonial scholar in International Relations whose work is concerned with the long-ignored but integral elements of the international system - colonialism, racism, genocide, among others. His work, as he says in this podcast with Vineet Thakur (Leiden University), is influenced by scholars such as Samir Amin, Edward Said and Ashis Nandy. He highlights the inseparable relationship between the racialized violence of colonialism and the emergence of the international system. In this conversation, he discusses key elements of postcolonialism, the depoliticizing abstraction of IR theory and critiques of postcolonial approaches, including...

Episode 8

In the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, geopolitics has assumed greater salience in both public discourse as well as academic discussions. Theoretically, geopolitics is considered integral to Realism in IR. It refers to a particular form of Realism which centers the role of geography and technology in the making of state preferences. Continuing the discussion from our previous episode on realism, our interview guest Stefano Guzzini, Professor at Uppsala University and PUC-Rio de Janeiro and Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, delineates how geopolitics is very specifically 'the militaristic gaze of Realism. To learn...

Episode 7

Realism has been one of the most influential theories in the discipline of International Relations. Its critics often label it variously as positivist, state-centric, militaristic, imperialistic, materialistic, immoral and a warmongering theory. In this episode, Stefano Guzzini, Professor at Uppsala University and PUC-Rio de Janeiro and Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, is in conversation with Vineet Thakur (Leiden University). Himself a 'fallen Realist', Prof Guzzini discusses the core ideas, theoretical contributions and indeed misunderstandings related to Realism. He differentiates three different dimensions of Realism: as an ontology of politics, as an explanatory theory of...

Episode 6

What does a 'practice turn' mean in International Relations? In this episode Ingvild Bode (University of Denmark), Associate Professor of International Relations, and Principal Investigator of an ERC research project on autonomous weapons systems and international norms (AUTONORMS) and host Beste İşleyen (University of Amsterdam) engage in an in-depth conversation about Practice Theory in IR. Although IR scholarship, such as Constructivism, has long emphasised the importance of practices in shaping the world, this episode sheds light on the ways practices present IR scholars with a fruitful concept to engage with the process in which international relations are made. In...

Episode 5

How can we theoretically engage with linear borders as cartographic practice, thereby acknowledging their political dimension and place within projects of colonialism and partition? Kerry Goettlich (University of Reading), winner of the EISA's Best Dissertation Award 2021 for his thesis “From Frontiers to Borders: The Origins and Consequences of Linear Borders in International Politics” (LSE 2019), suggests to examining linear borders by unpacking their historical causes and consequences. In conversation with Catherine Charrett (University of Westminster), Kerry Goettlich elaborates on his account which theorizes modern linear borders as an outcome of ‘survey rationality', and thereby challenges the idea of linear border...