The Global South and World Order Project
Call for Papers. Special Issue on “Global South and Multipolar Imperialism:
Alliances, Fractures, and Possibilities”
As the international system moves decisively toward multipolarity, the political, economic, and intellectual landscapes of the Global South are undergoing profound transformation. South-South cooperation, the expanding influence of GCC states and China, and the revitalization of long-standing forums such as the Non-Aligned Movement – alongside the emergence of new platforms such as BRICS+ – are reshaping global politics and multilateralism, creating new alliances and hierarchies with potentials for cooperation and friction. Political and economic alliances within the Global South are inevitably informed and structured by ongoing unequal relations of power between the Global North and South. Yet we lack a deep understanding of (1) the motivations and calculations driving the actions of Global South political elites, particularly when compared to their counterparts in the United States, Europe, China, and Russia; and (2) perceptions and models for internationalism and solidarity from social movements and popular protest in the Global South.
This special issue therefore asks what a view from the Global South can tell us about the shifting configurations of geopolitics and about the multiplicity of Souths within “the South”. It seeks to illuminate the contradictions and fractures shaping the contemporary moment, including new forms of predatory capitalist accumulation and militarisation. By centering diverse standpoints and experiences, and the continued significance of hierarchies of race, class, gender, and sexuality, we aim to explore whether current shifts merely redistribute processes and practices of oppression, violence, and dependency. Simultaneously, however, we are interested in studies that foreground cracks and fissures in existing power formations, wherein social movements are mobilizing for more democratic and liberatory futures.
We reject the privileging of securitised approaches that dominate Western narratives when analyzing multipolarity and the Global South and instead prioritize consideration of how geopolitical processes shape and are shaped by the experiences of people in their daily lives. How might we decenter state-centric framings of a singular “global order” in need of reform by members of the political elite, and instead explore people-to-people solidarities, internationalist sensibilities, and the multiplicity of imaginings and processes of remaking the world?
We particularly welcome papers that:
- Engage with concepts and theories, i.e., critically examine the vocabularies and analytical frameworks – such as “Global South,” “sub-imperialism,” or “multipolar imperialism” – that have emerged to make sense of contemporary geopolitical change. Further, is the distinction between “Global South” and “Global North” of any analytical or empirical value?
- Utilize feminist approaches to geopolitics, i.e., attending to interconnections across various scales of power, from the global/imperial to the national to the body; acknowledging the significance of everyday experiences of global power formations, and of fragmented and partial knowledge.
- Analyze the disjunctures and tensions between the international image projection of Global South states as progressive actors through elite diplomacy and the realities of the domestic suppression of rights and popular aspirations by these same elites.
- Investigate how everyday struggles over land, livelihood, and survival, and the forms of solidarity that emerge around them, generate their own imaginaries and practices of transnational connection and emancipatory politics.
- Consider the influence of the past on the present, i.e., whether earlier internationalist movements – “liberation memories” – could provide insights into understanding the potential for collective action and liberatory futures. Further, what does anti-imperialism and solidarity mean in the context of imperious and militaristic actions undertaken by Global South states?
Editorial team:
This special issue is organized under the auspices of the Global South and World Order project based at the University of California-Irvine, in partnership with Security in Context, funded by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. It will be edited by Muneira Hoballah, Samar Al-Bulushi, and Mandy Turner.
We will seek publication with a journal such as Third World Quarterly or Globalizations once the abstracts have been received and agreed upon.
Important dates and timeline:
- Submission of title and abstract of no more than 400 words: 1 April 2026.
- Notification of acceptance/rejection: 1 May 2026.
- Manuscript submission: 1 October 2026.
- Peer-review comments back on submission: 1 December 2026.
- Deadline for final manuscripts: 31 January 2027.
- Publication of special issue: 2027/ Spring 2028.
Please submit your title, abstract of no more than 400 words, and short biography of no more than 50 words to: GSWOspecialissue@gmail.com. Please also direct any questions/queries to this email address.
