This panel focuses on the regional implications of the evolving international order, with particular attention to the growing importance of regions and subregions in shaping global political outcomes. While contemporary debates often concentrate on great-power competition and systemic change at the global level, many of the most significant political, economic, and security developments are increasingly unfolding within regional contexts. The interaction between global and regional power structures has become a defining feature of the twenty-first-century international system.
Drawing on emerging perspectives, the panel explores how global, regional, and subregional dynamics influence one another and generate distinct patterns of cooperation, competition, and governance. Rather than viewing the international system as characterized by a single polarity configuration, this approach recognizes that different distributions of power may coexist across spatial layers. Consequently, regions are not merely passive arenas of great-power rivalry but increasingly important sites of agency, adaptation, and strategic decision-making.
The panel welcomes theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented contributions examining how regions respond to changing global power structures, how regional actors navigate increasing geopolitical uncertainty, and how regional governance mechanisms evolve under conditions of growing complexity. Particular attention will be given to the ways in which regional developments contribute to broader transformations of the international order.
Suggested Topics
• Regions and Subregions in the Changing International Order: Challenges and Opportunities.
• Regional Responses to Global Power Shifts: Adaptation, Resilience, and Strategic Choice.
• The Interaction Between Global, Regional, and Subregional Power Structures.
• Regional Security Complexes in an Era of Change.
• The Impact of Great-Power Competition on Regional Stability and Security.
• Regional Powers, Middle Powers, and Smaller States as Agents of Regional Order.
• Regional Organizations and Governance in a Fragmented International System.
• Strategic Autonomy and Regional Agency in Contemporary World Politics.
• Comparative Perspectives on Regional Order-Building Across Different Regions.
• Interdisciplinary Approaches to Regional Studies and International Order.
• Measuring Regional Influence and Power Across Different Functional Domains.
• Regional Dynamics and Their Contribution to Global Order Transformation.
