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The Complexity of Religion in International Relations: Theoretical, Legal, and Geopolitical Perspectives

Tentative Schedule

Day 1 - Thursday, April 21st: Panels

Day 2 - Friday, April 22nd: Workshops and Keynote Panel

The Complexity of Religion in International Relations:

Theoretical, Legal and Geopolitical Perspectives

Paris, 21-22 April 2016

Conference Theme

The American Graduate School in Paris invites submissions for its 11th annual AGS Graduate Student Conference. The theme for this year’s conference is titled “The Complexity of Religion in International Relations: Theoretical, Legal and Geopolitical Perspectives”. The links between religious beliefs and global politics was not extensively explored before 9/11 and the ‘war on terror’. Today, we know that religion can change the basic patterns of how international relations is done, raising crucial questions about who the main actors are, what they want, and how they change the landscape of politics, law and diplomacy in contemporary IR. As Ikenberry states, “religious movements can reinforce state authority or undermine it, and religion can reinforce the territorial boundaries of state or mobilize loyalties that cut across borders.”

The function of religion in international relations might seem like a challenging topic, but nonetheless a crucial one. As scholars of IR, it is imperative to constantly analyze influences that impinge on world politics. There has been prominent focus on how religious differences create barriers to peace, and leads to war. However, all religions have deep roots in peace and have subtle conflict resolution mechanisms rooted in their scripture. Religion, like nationalism, allows its followers to rationalize peace or war depending on a variety of variables.

Theoretically, it is interesting to assess how religion asserts influence on the various levels of analysis i.e. individual, societal, state and international. It pushes the need for definitions and redefinitions and forces us to identify ‘a nouveau’ our choice of problems in IR, redefine our theoretical starting points, hypotheses and conclusions

Legally, the treatment of religion in national and international laws, as a human right, as a factor leading to the responsibility to protect, in theocracies as well in secular states, are dynamic topics to explore, among several others.

Geopolitically, the evaluation can deal with the interaction between the different religions – the various ways in which they influence each other, the identity politics of, and in between, religions – giving a richer and fuller understanding of international conflict and collaboration.

See schedule

See information on keynote panelists

10th AGS International Graduate Student Conference

The Influence and Role of NGOs in Global Governance:
From Grassroots to Global

Paris, 23-24 April 2015

This 10th edition of AGS's International Graduate Student Conference will discuss the impact of NGOs on the evolving global sphere through their involvement and influence on global governance through campaigns, lobbying, policy development, and social media mobilization. The sphere of influence of the NGO network has altered the landscape of domestic and national decision-making, from the State being the primary decision-maker to global governance and civil society holding increased power and legitimacy in decision-making and policy formation. This can be seen in core issues such as climate change, children’s rights, international development, and gender equality at the local, national, and international levels.

Through information, debate, and dialogue, this conference will offer a platform for exchanges of ideas and research among graduate students and scholars from around the world, as well as professional from think tanks, NGOs, Intergovernmental Organizations, governmental agencies, and research centers.

AGS's International Graduate Student Conference is organized every year by graduate students in its International Relations and Diplomacy programs, with the supervision of Dr. Ruchi Anand, Professor at AGS.

Thursday, April 23:

The first day of the conference will host four panels with various themes such as the role of NGOs in influencing policy change, development, LGBT rights and gender equality. It will also feature a keynote panel with Jean-Marie Fardeau, France Director of Human Rights Watch.

Attendance is free, no registration is required to attend (based on space available.)

Friday, April 24:

The second day of the conference will be devoted to workshops with the conference participants, focusing on themes such as NGOs and International Law, NGOs in Democratic vs. Non-democratic States, and NGO partnerships with Multinational Corporations.

Pre-registration is mandatory for the workshops (50 Euros).

• Contact: conference@ags.edu

Tentative program

Call for Papers

Visa Info, Directions, Accommodation

DAY 1: Thursday, April 23, 2015

Day 2: Friday, April 24, 2015

AGS Conference 2015:
The Influence and Role of NGOs in Global Governance: From Grassroots to Global

Paris, 23-24 April 2015

The American Graduate School in Paris invites submissions for its 10th annual AGS Graduate Student Conference. This year’s theme, entitled “Non-Governmental Organizations: The Influence and Role of NGOs in Global Governance: From Grassroots to Global”, covers the emergence and role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the global sphere.

The unrelenting rise of the global public square’s role in decision-making has led to an increase in the role and influence that NGOs possess. The sphere of influence of the NGO network has altered the landscape of domestic and national decision-making from the state being the primary decision-maker to global governance and civil society holding increased power and legitimacy in decision-making and policy formation.

For example, NGO influence was prevalent in the Ottawa Treaty to ban landmines in 1997 and the influence of NGO’s can be seen in current global issues such as climate change, children’s rights, international development, and gender equality. The increasing impact of NGOs across the global sphere (international, national, and local) shapes and contributes to the evolution of the global agenda, global development, and general awareness of a vast number of core issues at the national and international levels. 

The aim of this conference is to analyse and discuss the impact of NGOs on the evolving global sphere through NGO involvement and influence on global governance, including influence on states, international organizations, international relations theory, and the global public square, through campaigns, lobbying, policy development, and social media mobilization.

Possible Sub-themes and examples of discussion themes include (but are not limited to):

• NGOs and International Relations Theory

• NGOs and International Law

• Management and Organizational Issues

• NGOs: Democratic vs. Non-democratic States

• NGOs and Microfinance

• International Development

• Youth Engagement via NGOS

• Education Development

• Response to Humanitarian Crisis

• Multinational Corporation and NGO Partnerships

About the Annual AGS Graduate Student Conference (+ Workshop)

This conference is a student-led and organized event and offers a forum for looking at timely issues and events in the disciplines of Political Science and International Relations. The conference provides opportunities to discuss real-world application, inviting discussion from students, academics and professionals on a new theme each year.

In addition to the conference, AGS will also be organizing an applied workshop (in English and French). This workshop will be run by senior level practitioners with a wide range of backgrounds working in International Relations with a focus on NGOs. This workshop will provide a forum for discussing how an NGO is created, developed, implemented, and connected to other sectors of society at the regional, national, and international level. The workshop will be tailored to the interest of the attendees and participants. A certificate of attendance will be provided at the conclusion of the conference. If you are interested in registering to attend the workshop, please contact the Student Conference Coordinators for the registration form at conference@ags.edu.

Submission Instructions

Who can submit?

Submissions will be accepted from senior level undergraduate students, graduate and doctoral level students, academics, and professionals in the fields related to the theme of the conference.

Attendees are not restricted to those that submit papers. All are welcome to attend the conference.

Submission Deadlines

Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 January 2015

Contributors are welcome and encouraged to submit their abstracts as soon as possible.

Final Paper Submission Deadline: 27 March 2015

How to Submit the Abstract and Final Paper

Abstracts are to be a maximum of 500 words and submitted electronically to conference@ags.edu as an attachment (Microsoft Word or PDF).

The subject line should include the name of the candidate as well as “AGS Conference Abstract Submission.” Please also give a potential, if not finalized, title for your paper.

Additional Information (Abstract):

• Research question

• University affiliation (degrees earned and those in the process of concentration and completion)

• Professional affiliation (if applicable)

• If the applicant has prior conference presentation experience

• Letter of reference from institution faculty (if applicable)

• The subject line of the final paper (if applicable) should include the name of the candidate as well as “AGS Conference Final Paper Submission.”

Fees and Conditions

Conference Presenters: All accepted candidates will be required to pay a non-refundable 60-euro registration fee (payable here) that will help pay for organizational and administrative costs. This fee does not cover personal costs to the applicant, such as transportation, accommodation, etc. Fees are due from accepted candidates within 10 days of receiving acceptance letters.

Practical Workshop: The accepted candidates who are also interested in participating in the practical workshop will be required to pay an additional non-refundable fee of 40-euros (for a total of 100-euro). If you are not an accepted candidate but are interested in participating in the practical workshop, there will be a non-refundable fee of 50-euros that will help pay for organizational and administrative costs. Fees are due from all parties interested in attending the practical workshop within 10 days of registration acceptance. Certificates will be provided for completion of the practical workshop.

Panel Moderator: If you are interested in becoming a Panel Moderator, please contact the Conference Organizers for additional information. All accepted Moderators will be required to pay a non-refundable 100-euro fee that will help pay for organizational and administrative costs. Moderators will be selected once panels have been organized NLT February 15, 2015. Fees are due from selected Moderators within 10 days of receiving acceptance letters.

The conference committee will provide visa letters upon request to accepted candidates and moderators. In addition to verifying attendance to the conference, candidates may be asked to sign a visa liability agreement. Please note that participants are responsible for fulfilling the visa procedure according to their home country’s rules and regulations in connection to entering France.

For Visa information, transportation and housing please click here

Conference Location

American Graduate School in Paris

101 boulevard Raspail
75006 Paris
France

Telephone: +33 (0)1 47 20 00 94
Website: www.ags.edu

Contact

Graduate Student Conference Committee
American Graduate School in Paris
101 boulevard Raspail
75006 Paris
France

Telephone: +33 (0)1 47 20 00 94
Email: conference@ags.edu

For questions about the conference, feel free to contact Rebecca Apperson or Andrew Lowe, Student Conference Coordinators, at conference@ags.edu

Published under the initiative and coordination the American Graduate School in Paris Research Center, Crimes Against Women (New York: Nova Publishers, 2010) is a collective work edited by AGS professor Professor Wingeate Pike, with a foreword by Bangladeshi author and Human Rights advocate Taslima Nasrin.

The book presents a survey of acts of violence, past and present, that women have endured throughout the world, and calls upon governments, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs to address this issue. The 29 chapters are organized around a three-fold focus : examining gender-related crimes rooted in concept and law, those deriving from religion, customs and traditions, and those perpetrated in times of conflict. The twenty-eight articles take a broad variety of approaches, ranging from the philosophical and legalistic to the narrative reporting of contributors working in the field.

The painting on the cover of the book was done by the British figurative painter Charlotte Lyon.

See book on Amazon.com

28 November 2014, 2:30 pm-7:00 pm

Théâtre des Cultures du Monde (same building as the American Graduate School in Paris)
101, boulevard Raspail - 75006 Paris - France

Metro: L4: Saint-Placide; L12: Notre-Dame des Champs, L6: Montparnasse-Bienvenüe
RER B: Port-Royal
Bus: 58, 68, 82, 89, 91

For any questions: info@ags.edu or Tel. +33(0)1.47.20.00.94

The November 28th AGS Conference on Crimes Against Women organized with the support of institutional sponsors, who have shared their premises and other resources to make this event possible. We thank them for their support and engagement in the cause of women's rights.

Founded in 1883, the Alliance Française is in charge of the promotion of French language and the diffusion of French culture in the world. It is comprised of the Fondation Alliance Française, a Paris-based nonprofit organization of public interest, and over 800 centers spread over 135 countries across all continents, operating under the coordination of the Foundation. In this international network, 8,000 teachers and over half a million students of all national origins act together for the dynamism of, and growing interest in French language and culture in the world.

More information

The Maison des Cultures du Monde (World Cultures Institute) was created in 1982 to promote cultural and artistic exchanges between France and other countries across the globe. As the key organization in France for intangible cultural heritage, it seeks to protect cultural diversity and the expression of cultural identities through :

- raising awareness and encouraging respect for difference;

- promoting the various forms of performing arts and the intangible cultural heritage that they represent;

- documenting and recording rare and endangered music.

The MCM is funded by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and the cities of Paris and Vitré. It receives the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Alliance Française Foundation.

More information

The American Women's Group in Paris is a secular, nonprofit volunteer organization. Its purpose is to foster and encourage social, educational and cultural activities among English-speaking women in France, and to assist in furthering Franco-American relations. One of its principal goals is to support organizations that serve women and children in need.

More information

Nova Science Publishers is a New York-based publishing house that works with authors from around the globe to publish a wide array of academic books, encyclopaedias, handbooks, e-books and journals. While the firm diversifies in several fields of academia, most of its publications cover fields of science and social sciences. Nova worked in collaboration with the American Graduate School in Paris Research Center to publish Crimes Against Women in 2010.

More information 

 Header picture: Crimes Against Women book cover, painting by Charlotte Lyon, detail

Nazir Afzal OBE

Nazir Afzal is Chief Crown Prosecutor of the UK's Crown Prosecution Service for North West England. He is Britain's most senior Muslim lawyer, and the first Muslim to have been appointed to such a position. He is responsible for over 100,000 prosecutions a year, and was awarded an OBE in 2005. He has campaigned for women's rights, and against forced marriage, FGM, and honor killings.

Dr. Ruchi Anand

Dr. Ruchi Anand is an Indian-born academic and author living in France. She has authored or contributed to several books in the field of international relations and environmental politics. She teaches International Relations at the American Graduate School in Paris as well as in the JSA summer programs at Stanford, Yale and Georgetown.

Chiara Condi

Chiara Condi is the founder and President of HERA France, a Paris-based NGO that provides training and mentorship to empower women in vulnerable situations, such as former victims of trafficking, violence, or sexual exploitation. She is a graduate of Harvard University, Sciences Po, and the London School of Economics.

Erin Helfert

Erin Helfert is a gender advocate who has worked on various donor-funded projects, including with USAID, the UN, and the EU. She speaks globally on issues of gender and justice, and women-led economic grownth. She also played an integral role in the formation of the US Department of Justice "Vision 21" program.

Lorraine Koonce Farahmand, Esq

The initiator of this conference, Lorraine Kooce Farahmand, Esq is an English solicitor and New York attorney. She is currently an International Law professor at AGS and in the Anglo-American Law degree program at the Université de Cergy-Pontoise, where she lectures on International Public Law and Human Rights. Her area of expertise is gender and the human rights of women.

Carolina Lasén Diaz

Carolina Lasén Diaz is a Programme Officer in the Gender Equality Unit of the Equality Division at the Council of Europe. She previously worked at the Secretariat of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.

Dr. Susanna Greijer

Dr. Susanna Greijer is an independent expert on Children's Rights for the Council of Europe, and serves as Project Coordinator at End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) in Luxembourg. She has been researching and working on the issue of children's rights since 2006, particularly children in armed conflict and international crimes against women.

Dr. Tobe Levin

Dr. Tobe Levin is an activist against FGM and the Vice-President of FORWARD Germany, which focuses on fighting FGM around the world. She is most known for combining this advocacy with academic scholarship in comparative literature, and has published over 100 articles, edited three books, and founded UnCUT/VOICES Press.

Angela Melo

Angela Melo works at UNESCO, where she is the Director of the Division of Ethics, Youth and Sport in the Social and Human Sciences sector. She is a former Criminal Prosecutor and Senior Legal Counsellor for the Mozambican Ministry of Justice. She was previously the Vice-President and Special Rapporteur of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR), an African Union organ.

Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov, Esq

Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov is an American lawyer, Children's Rights advocate, and Law professor at AGS. She founded the Crossing Guard Consulting, which focuses on Internet safety issues and child protection. She is an international consultant and speaker on themes of women's rights and leadership, who recently spoke on women's empowerment at the US Embassy in Senegal.

Violeta Neubauer

Violeta Neubauer is an international expert and member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and gives expert assistance to State parties to the CEDAW Convention in their reporting obligations. She is also a member of the Council of Europe steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men.

Jennifer Obaseki

Jennifer Obaseki is a senior partner and advocate in London, specializing in Immigration and Family Law. She has over twenty years of experience in prosecuting forced marriage, trafficking and domestic violence cases. Her law firm has a strong record of supporting women seeking asylum based on gender violence.

H.E. Ambassador Ursula Plassnik

A lawyer and career diplomat, Ambassador Ursula Plassnik is the Austrian Ambassador to France. She was Chief of Staff for the Austrian Chancellor from 1997 to 2004, and Foreign Affairs Minister of Austria from 2004 to 2008. She often speaks on gender violence issues and gender-related UN resolutions.

Navroop K. Sahdev

Navroop K. Sahdev is a graduate student at Université Paris 13, France and University of Turin, Italy. She has recently worked at the United Nations Environment Programme in Geneva. She is the co-author of "Honor Killings in North India. An Enquiry into the Causes of the Social Menace."

Dr. Eileen Servidio

Dr. Eileen Servidio is a Professor of International Law and the President of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at the American Graduate Shool in Paris. She is a specialist in both International Criminal Law and Comparative Law, and has authored several works on violence against women.

Marlise Simons

Marlise Simons is a journalist who has been with The New York Times since 1982. She has previously worked extensively in Latin America, which, along with her own experience of having been kidnapped, led to her later work in Human Rights reporting. She has published several books and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Linda Weil-Curiel

An internationally-renowned French lawyer and Human Rights activist, Linda Weil-Curiel is France's leading crusader against FGM. Thanks to her prosecutorial actions, France became the first nation to bring criminal charges against those who perform FGM, resulting in more than a hundred prosecutions.

• See Conference theme

• See conference program

• See conference sponsors

Header picture: Crimes Against Women book cover, painting by Charlotte Lyon , detail

Open to the public on RSVP to info@ags.edu

• See conference speakers

• See conference sponsors

•  Download conference program booklet

Header picture: Crimes Against Women book cover, painting by Charlotte Lyon , detail