British Academy - Call for Discussion Papers
Call for Discussion Papers: Global (Dis)Order
The British Academy and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace are inviting applications for the Call for Discussion Papers: Global (Dis)Order – the first call for evidence-based insights to inform a new multi-year international policy programme on Global (Dis)Order during its first year, which began with a launch conference from 13-14 January 2025 in London.
Today’s international system is in flux and fragmenting with the need to navigate competing power aspirations, modes of order and national interests. Change is happening to global order and there is a clear need to explore and understand the implications and lessons of reordering and disorder (positive, negative or otherwise).
Aims
This call is seeking to commission up to 40 discussion papers that will contribute to the first year of activity of the programme. Please see below for the full detail on the scope of the call. It is intended that the discussion papers will provide crucial evidence-based insight and innovative ways of thinking that inform the programme in its initial phase. Authors will be invited to join meetings and events convened by the Academy as part of this programme.
The fee paid for each paper will be £2500. Payment will be made in two tranches, with 50 per cent upon receipt of a good-quality first draft submitted before the stated first-draft deadline and 50 per cent on completion.
Scope of the call
Although, we expect there to be fluidity across the years of the programme, we intend that the programme will broadly progress in the following phases across its first three years:
Foundational considerations and drivers of global (dis)order: Engaging with the dynamics, discontents and understandings of a broad spectrum of regional and international orders, disorders and re-orderings.
Perspectives and practices: Engaging with change, inertia, challenge, contestation and turbulence in relation to orders and disorders, including through considering granular bottom-up case studies to examine broader systemic issues and challenges. We are interested in the perspectives offered through the lens of key human and non-human actor groups such as non-state actors, NGOs, the multilateral system, the international normative framework, local/municipal governments, the private sector/financing, technology and technology companies, philanthropy, future generations, the rights of nature and planetary agencies.
Policy pathways, scenarios and trajectories: Engaging primarily with a long-term horizon and considering scenarios and visions for the future and their implications, including how those could compete and/or align, as well as (re)imagining possible trajectories and how these can be tackled within the here and now.
We are conscious that the subject of Global (Dis)Order has the potential for exceptional breadth, therefore, we are focusing our initial activity across four workstreams. These are:
Dynamics of and within international order
Fragmenting global economy
Transnational and planetary challenges
Violence and (in)security
Please see the webpage for this call for further important detailed information on the discussion papers the call aims to support related to the above workstreams.
Deadlines
The call has multiple deadlines. The Academy has reviewed the scope of the call following the January 2025 conference and made updates and revisions to the timelines to take on board new insights. PLEASE NOTE that deadlines have been updated to reflect these insights.
The first deadline is now closed to new applicants. The second submission deadline is as follows:
Submission of proposal for a discussion paper: Monday 14 April 2025 at 17:00 (GMT)
Further calls will be published through the course of the programme.
Responding to this call
To respond, please submit a proposal comprising a brief two-page only CV, and a short outline or abstract that describes the paper you would like to contribute. These should be sent by email to p.strigel@thebritishacademy.ac.uk and s.rahman@thebritishacademy.ac.uk by the deadline above.
Please ensure that your outline/abstract describes how your paper will respond to the objectives and the scope of the call. There is no set minimum or maximum length for the outline/abstract, however we suggest around a page (not including references). It should aim to give us a fairly good sense of what you propose to do and indicate how you will respond to the call framing we have put forward.
Your proposal will be evaluated by members of the Global (Dis)Order programme, alongside members of the Academy’s Global Strategy, Policy & Engagement Team.
In order for assessment to be considered, applications must meet the following mandatory criteria:
They must submit a brief CV that is not more than two pages in length and a short outline or abstract.
They must demonstrably and clearly meet the requirements as set out in the call, including the objectives and scope of the call.
They must confirm in writing in their abstract/outline the proposition and workstream that they are focusing on.
They must confirm in writing in their abstract/outline that they have understood the timeline as set out in the call and agree to meet it in all respects.
For further information, on this scheme, including full eligibility requirements, expected author profile, a detailed timeline, and fees, please see the webpage for this call.
Contact details
Please contact Paige Strigel (p.strigel@thebritishacademy.ac.uk) and Samera Rahman (s.rahman@thebritishacademy.ac.uk) for more information. Find out more