Registration open for CIS conference, `Effective Multilateralisms: Cross-regional Perspectives`

Registration is now open for this Centre for International Studies conference, `Effective Multilateralisms: Cross-regional Perspectives`, to be held on 17-19 December 2009. Delegates may register to attend 18-19 December.

The question of how to manage global security relations in the 21st century needs to be addressed in the context of the debate about the future of the Western liberal order. This U.S.-led order is becoming increasingly challenged by the gap between hugely increased geographical, functional, and normative ambitions of international society and the lack of means to deliver them.

Nuclear non-proliferation and climate change constitute two key uncertainties where the potential consequences of collective action failure are particularly severe. Improvements in governing the nuclear non-proliferation and climate change regimes heavily depend on deeper cooperation between emerging powers and established ones; relations between Brazil, China, EU-Europe, India, Russia, and the United States are of particular relevance here. There is a striking need for better platforms to forge common agendas. There is also a need to re-think statist conceptions of legitimacy and develop a more dynamic understanding of collective action. Multilateral pluralism is, indeed, in high demand.

The conference will therefore discuss principles, problems, and prospects of effectively governing the nuclear and climate change regimes from a cross-regional perspective, drawing in particular on the expertise of scholars coming from Brazil, China, Europe, India, Russia, and the United States.

The conference will be held at St Anne`s College.

The conference is convened by Dr Jochen Prantl and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.