The Fifth Annual Conference of the BISA US Foreign Policy Working Group 14-15 September 2010
The Fifth Annual Conference of the BISA US Foreign Policy Working Group will be held at the University of Leeds on 14/15 September 2010. The plenary speaker is confirmed as Dr. Stefan Halper, Senior Fellow at the Cambridge Centre of International Studies. Many will know Dr. Halper as co-author of “America Alone. The Neoconservatives and the Global Order” CUP 2004 and “The Silence of the Rational Center. Why American Foreign Policy is Failing” Basic Books 2007. He will be analysing and reflecting on the Obama administration at mid-term.
We invite papers that address any aspect of US foreign policy - contemporary or historical. Those which focus on US foreign and security policy, human rights /democracy promotion and multilateralism during and after the Bush Jnr administration will be particularly welcome. As the Obama administration approaches the mid-term elections has US foreign and security policy changed at all? Has the administration matched the shift in rhetoric with a real change of direction? Have broken alliances and regional relations been mended or do they continue to be strained by different policy approaches and worldviews? Has there been a shift in the US approach to international organisations like the UN and to global problems like climate change? Has the “war” on terror ended or has it merely shifted focus? Why has it been so difficult to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and reverse other aspects of what Harold Koh calls “the law of 9/11”?
Thanks to the continuing support of the American Embassy in London we will be able to offer a number of postgraduate bursaries that will defray the cost of attending the conference. Thanks also to Taylor and Francis and the International Journal of Human Rights there will be additional support for those selected to give papers with a human rights and/or democracy promotion theme.
Please send individual paper or panel proposals by 16 April to Dr. Jason Ralph, School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, LS2 9JT - j.g.ralph@leeds.ac.uk
