International ConferenceFAILED STATE: Boundaries, Current Cases, Practical Issues

6-7 October, 2023
Istanbul University Faculty of Political Sciences
Istanbul, Türkiye

Although we can find many definitions of the modern state in the literature of the related disciplines, the constant emphasis in each definition is that this political structure has internal and external sovereignty. However, states can lose their internal and external sovereignty for many reasons, from losing their monopoly of using legitimate violence over their lands in Weber's classical definition to being unable to provide public services, from the bankruptcy of political decision making processes to losing the ability to interact with other actors in the international system. Today many states are considered within the scope of "failed state" for various reasons or are seen as having the risk of falling into this scope. On the other hand, the concept has been criticized from various points of view, especially for the ambiguity of its boundaries and, in some cases, its instrumentality that provides justification for external interventions. The main purpose of this conference is to gain a deeper insight to understand and explain the content, boundaries, and the problems of this concept by analyzing and discussing it on both theoretical basis and empirical ground through current cases. To this end, the conference will attempt to bring together perspectives from different academic disciplines on this concept, primarily political science, international relations, and sociology.

Papers with analyzes and discussions focusing on different aspects of the concept in question, including but not limited to the following topics, are expected:

• Current theoretical discussions on the concept of the failed state

• Qualitative and quantitative frameworks of measurement on the concept

• Status of failed states in the international system

• Foundations and reasoning of interventions within the context of international law

• Linkages between failed states and internal/external migrations

• Relationship between nation building processes and state failure

• Interrelations between terrorism and failed states

Please send an abstract of your proposed paper (maximum 300 words) and a short academic CV to Dr. Aylin Ece Çiçek (aylin.cicek@istanbul.edu.tr) or Dr. Giray Gerim (giraygerim@istanbul.edu.tr) by May 30, 2023.

After all the submissions are evaluated by the scientific committee, invitations will be sent to the accepted participants by June 15, 2023. The deadline for the full paper admissions is August 30, 2023. An abstract book containing the abstracts (and optionally full texts) of the papers presented will be published as conference proceedings with ISBN. It is planned to send the selected full texts to a reputable international academic publisher at the beginning of 2024 to be published as an edited book after the necessary review processes.