The School of Social & Political Sciences is calling for proposals for the Crisis, Global Policymaking and the North American Upheaval Symposium on 8th July 2025. 

Recent political developments in the United States have marked a new phase of the ongoing crisis of the liberal order, impacting institutional frameworks that used to ground global policymaking. From aid to traide to defence to climate change, and from international institutions to Canada, Europe and the Global South, policymaking processes and potential futures have experienced profound disruptions.

We believe that significant opportunities exist to historicise and theorise these changes in a comparative, interdisciplinary way, exploring the intellectual developments that have driven them, their deeper historical roots and relevant historical analogues, and the continuities and discontinuities they entail in policymaking. We invite contributions that explore one of the following themes:

  • What policy failures have led to this iteration of the crisis of the liberal order; 
  • What new policy ideas, configurations and processes have emerged from it;
  • What potential policy solutions might exist to address it.

Abstract submissions of 200 words maximum are due by 18 June 2025. Please direct these, and any informal enquiries to João Almedia (joao.almeida@glasgow.ac.uk), Graeme Young (graeme.young@glasgow.ac.uk) and Tabitha Beavitt (tabitha.beavitt@glasgow.ac.uk) 

Presentations will be 15 minutes each, and participants are encouraged to use their time in ways that will allow for longer interdisciplinary dialogue between participants and panellists. 

Please note that we have a small budget to cover travel within the UK, accommodation and a symposium dinner. 

First published: 12 June 2025

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