Events

Since the 1980s there has been a steady shift from West to East in the international system, first economically, then increasingly also politically and culturally. Emerging markets in Asia have moved up the value chain of industrial production processes and the share of Western industrialized countries in global GDP has declined. Beside the G7 the G20 has emerged as an international platform to discuss challenges of economic cooperation, with mixed success. Asian nations like China and India also assert themselves in security matters and seek new avenues for investment flows and development cooperation.

What will be the role of Africa and Latin America in the approaching “Asian Century” and associated reconfigurations of global value chains? Will they be able to assert themselves and find a voice of their own? Will they manage to develop industries of their own and diversify trade relations? Will they launch new ways of regional south-south cooperation like the three Africa-South-America (ASA) summits that have been held thus far and in which way might they differ from earlier attempts during the non-alignment movement of the 1960s and 1970s? What is the role of migrant communities and cultural exchange? Do Western and Asian approaches to the two continents differ (Washington vs. Beijing consensus)?

Against this backdrop the OCP Policy Center and CIDOB, the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, invite the submission of papers that explore Reconfiguration of the Global South: Africa, Latin America and the “Asian Century”. Papers can deal with a broad based variety of topics that explore the mutual relationship and the positioning of the two continents in the emerging “Asian Century”, such as:

- Rise of emerging markets countries and what it means for an increasingly multilateral international system.

- New geopolitical constructions of the Global South: Asian vs. Western interests in Africa and Latin America.

- Theoretical approaches to democratization, transition and development.

- Trade and investment relations.

- Domestic growth strategies and development cooperation, particularly in infrastructure financing, energy, environmental preservation, agriculture and food security.

- Port cities and their role in facilitating exchange between the two continents.

- Maritime security and hard security issues.

- Free trade areas and regional association agreements.

- Migrant communities and cultural relations.

- Sustainable management of cities.

The papers will be presented at the annual conference of the CIDOB-OCP Policy Center partnership in Barcelona on 27-29 January 2016, which will be held in cooperation with think tanks in Latin America and Africa. Selected papers will later published in Afers Internacionals. Afers Internacionals was founded in 1982 and is a leading peer-reviewed journal of International Relations in the Spanish-speaking world. Papers can be submitted in Spanish, English, French or Portuguese. For non-Spanish articles a translation will be provided. Beside Spanish this special issue will be later published as a book in English.

The organizers invite detailed proposals and preferably draft research papers. Proposals should be submitted electronically to ewoertz@cidob.org and lilia.rizk@ocppc.ma no later than 30 October 2015. Authors of selected papers will be notified by 14 November 2015 and should submit their papers by 8 January 2016.

The papers should have a length of 7,000-8000 words and represent original research not presented or published elsewhere. Authors will receive an honorarium of $1,000 and be expected to present their paper at the conference. For selected papers a contribution towards travel and accommodation costs can be made available. After the conference, revised drafts will be sent to peer-review for possible inclusion in the last issue of Afers Internacionals in 2016.

Download the Call for Papers (English version)

Download the Call for Papers (French version)