Call for Papers (ENG)

Portugal and International Organizations Conference

Lisbon, 10^th and 11^th November 2011

Call For Papers

Deadline 30^th April 2011

Scientific Board:

José Medeiros Ferreira, CHI/FSHS/New University of Lisbon

Maria Manuela Tavares Ribeiro, CEIS20/Coimbra University

Maria Fernanda Rollo, CHI/FSHS/New University of Lisbon

Pedro Aires de Oliveira, CHI/FSHS/New University of Lisbon

International organizations are a recent feature in the international system. By the time they were created, the bilateral relationship between states was enlarged with the emergence of multilateralism in the world stage. Such emergence shaped a new relationship between states, generating mechanisms designed to promote the peaceful resolution of conflicts and international cooperation. Having regional or universal scope, international organizations introduced an aggregate dimension in international relations, as a result of the knowledge that the world was a small place, that problems were wide-spread and that solutions should be attained through common efforts.

Portugal was not immune to these mutations in the international system. For contemporary Portugal the dilemma whether or not to participate in the international organizations was acute. As a founding member of organizations such as the League of Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Portugal’s integration in the international system was highlighted by the role it aimed to fulfill in the world. Nowadays, Portugal is a member of 82 international organizations some of them with broad scopes such as the United Nations Organization and the European Union, as well as others less well-known, such as the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, the International Organization of Tropical Wood and the Postal Union of America, Spain and Portugal.

The significance of Portuguese participation in international organizations raises some questions. For instance, we need to discuss the political, economical and social basis that explain why Portugal decided to participate in some organizations and refused to integrate others. On the other hand, the research cannot neglect the other side, that is to say, how different organizations conceived Portuguese participation in their core. At the same level, it is necessary to study the internal transformations, if they occured, and the resistances generated by Portuguese integration in some international organizations. The evidence also suggests that the scientific approach to the subject must examine how the ruptures in Portugal demanded an effort of readjustment to different organizations. Finally, it seems fair to say that it is almost compulsory to explore the challenges that, nowadays, in the post-9/11 world, participation in international organizations poses to Portugal.

Having in mind these questions, we intend to approach the distinct dimensions of the Portuguese integration in international organizations through an interdisciplinary conference, open to researches form the social, political and economical sciences, that will take place in Lisbon, at the Contemporary History Institute of the New University of Lisbon, between 17^th and 18^th November, 2011.

We request abstracts with maximum 200 words, a brief CV and the form attached no later than April 30^th, 2011. The final notification of selection will be communicated by May 15^th, 2011. The abstracts should be sent to conference2011ihc@fcsh.unl.pt

Organizers

Maria Fernanda Rollo (CHI-FSHS-New University of Lisbon)

Alice Cunha (CHI-FSHS-New University of Lisbon)

Aurora Almada (CHI-FSHS-New University of Lisbon)

Yvette Santos (CHI-FSHS-New University of Lisbon)