Call for Paper Proposals

***This call for paper proposals is for two conferences to be held on consecutive days in the same venue to help planners benefit from collaboration and to help scholars get the most out of their travel allowances by attending two conferences over 3 days.  So presenters can present papers at one or both conferences.***

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When vaccines became widely available for COVID-19 much of the world breathed a collective sigh of relief and began to imagine a return the pre-pandemic status quo. Alas, this has turned out to be a far greater challenge than anyone could have predicted.  Three major issues seem to dominate at the moment.  First, as much as the world wants COVID-19 to be over, the effects on national economies continue via disruption of supply chains, the mosaic of COVID-19 responses, and the failure of the international community to provide equitable access to vaccines and therapeutic treatments. Second, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia shook the foundations of international society and the rules-based order, bringing into question the sovereignty of small states on the borders of revisionist great powers and threatening the food security of numerous states.  Third, climate change continues to challenge states with droughts, large scale fires, and unprecedented weather events, threatening food supplies, causing damage to infrastructure, and even threatening some states’ continued existence. 

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With these issues in mind, responsible actors in international society have tried to respond, both one their own and in concert.  The unified response by democracies in Europe and beyond to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine shows that large scale action is possible.  The world’s rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines also shows the power of collaboration.  We should not however, be too quick to pat ourselves on the back.  Every year record setting temperatures result in faster melting of polar ice and extreme weather events.  In summer of 2021 a heat dome struck the Pacific Northwest in the US and British Columbia Canada, resulting in temperatures of 49 degrees Celsius and an estimated 1408 deaths.  This roughly two-week event portends our future if we do not take more serious and concrete steps to address climate change.

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KISA's 14th Annual Convention and NKR/JTMS Joint Conference, in collaboration with Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies, Ewha Womans University Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) and Institute for International and Area Studies (IIAS), invite papers exploring the dynamics these existing challenges and future challenges will pose to governance in East Asia, as well as the potential for new initiatives from the region to address them or their underlying causes.

 

Suitable paper topics include, in addition to the conceptualizations listed above:

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NKR/JTMS Joint Conference November 24th to 25th:

• Beyond CVID: Recognizing the Untenability of Denuclearization/North Korea and Nuclear deterrence

• Breaking the Cycle: North Korean Economic Engagement Beyond Antagonism & Appeasement

• The state of environmental degradation in DPRK and its effect on social and economic issues. 

• Humanitarian aid, global health diplomacy and North Korea under the COVID 19 crisis

• Re-establishing contact with North Korea after they re-open

• The New Pyongyang - Kim Jong-un’s development of NK's capital

• North Korea’s cyber capabilities and crypto utilization 

• Gender roles and issues in modern North Korea

• North Korean media online (YouTube)/New media, Social Network Service and ‘MZ’ generation 

• Emergent Disputes: An Outlook on Territorial Conflicts Poised to Escalate in the Next Decade

• Changing power dynamics and strategic stances in the Indo-Pacific post-COVID/Ukraine

• Globally Significant Resources: Sovereignty & the Right to Protect

• Challenges in Combating Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported Fishing 

• Sea Level Rise and UNCLOS: towards maintaining maritime boundaries

• The latest ICJ order related to the dispute between Equatorial Guinea and the Gabonese Republic 

• UNCLOS at 40: an assessment of its achievements 

• Future of counter-piracy (based on the expiration of counter-piracy EU operations in May 2022) 

• Two independent legal systems UNCLOS and Montreux, and their application in the Black Sea 

• The law of naval warfare and the War in Ukraine

 

KISA 14th Annual Convention November 25th to 26th:

• international health co-ordination/pandemic response

• global biosphere/Anthropocene/climate change and natural disasters;

• bilateral relations and/or institutional cooperation; minilateralism/multilateralism;

• aid and development;

• distributive justice and economic security;

• economic policy, cooperation and antagonisms;

• peacebuilding, statebuilding and humanitarian interventions;

• cybersecurity (including fake news, propaganda, and influence operations);

• demographics (including migration and refugees);

• counterterrorism;

• alliance politics;

• middle powers;

• strategic studies and great power competition;

• global governance.

 

The conference is open to scholars and students of international studies, as well as practitioners in the field. There will be no registration fees for the 14th KISA Convention or the NKR/JTMS Joint Conference. Selected submissions may be considered for publication the Asian International Studies Review, North Korean Review, and the Journal of Territorial and Maritimes studies.  All three journals are indexed in Scopus. 

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Submissions should include an abstract (150 words), a short bio (120 words) and should be emailed to paperproposals2022@gmail.com by October 1, 2022. Accepted participants (notified by October 8) will be required to submit their full draft papers/presentations by November 10, 2022.