Rajagopalan attends the Regional Powers Conference at Sciences Po, Paris

Cross-posted from Rajesh Rajagopalan's The Real World


I recently attended the third conference of the Regional Powers Network (RPN) project, organized by the Sciences Po, Paris (8-9 October 2009).

The RPN is a multi-year project that aims to examine, both theoretically and substantively, the role of various regional powers in the global system. The project brings together the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) of the University of Hamburg, the University of Oxford, and Sciences Po, Paris. The first conference, titled "Ideas, Interests, Resources and Strategies of Regional Powers – Analytical Concepts in Comparative Perspective" was held in Hamburg last September. Professors Alka Acharya and Ummu Salma Bava from SIS attended that conference. The second conference, Regional Powers and Global Orders, was held in Rio de Janeiro was held in April this year. The one I attended was titled "Regional Powers and Regional Order" and I presented a paper on Pakistan as a regional power and a global problem. I stuck to to the first part: Pakistan as a regional power. I argued that unlike much of the literature on regional powers, which saw regions and regional powers as subjects and victims of global powers and processes, regional powers (indeed, smaller powers in general) are quite adept at pursuing their regional agenda by using and shaping global power interests. The paper is still in draft form, though . . .