International politics from the Dinaric Karst

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• GGP: Global Governance Programme
• Eastern Europe as Laboratory of Change Working Group

While several decades of globalisation were expected to transcend the banality of physical location in political thought and practice, questions of territory and land control have returned to the forefront of international politics.

In this talk, we will explore how approaching landscape as a form of situated knowledge can deepen our understanding of these dynamics in International Relations. Focusing on the Dinaric Karst, a vast region in the Balkan Peninsula stretching roughly from Italy to Albania, the presentation examines how the region’s physicality, including its geomorphology and ecology, and the ways it has been interpreted, shape both the practice and study of international politics.

We will consider two key dimensions. First, how the Dinaric Karst can serve as an archive for writing more global and inter-imperial histories of an area too often reduced to the ethnic parochialism of nation-states. Second, how human-nature relations informed nation-building and ‘race mapping’ in the interwar period.

At the EUI and the Robert Schuman Centre, we are dedicated to removing barriers and providing equal opportunities for everyone. Please indicate in the registration form your accessibility needs, if any. Alternatively, you can contact the logistics organiser of the event.