The Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS), the pioneering think tank in Sri Lanka for International relations have been organizing Emerging Scholars Symposium (ESS) since 2017. The BCIS Emerging Scholars Symposium offers opportunities for discussion within conference sessions, providing a platform for the both young graduates and under-graduates to contribute new knowledge to the discipline.
The Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS), the pioneering think-tank in Sri Lanka for International Relations, proudly presents the Seventh BCIS” Emerging Scholars Symposium – 2024, to be held on November 24, 2024, under the thematic: “International Relations in the Digital Age.”
Young scholars of International Relations are witnessing rapid transformations in the global political landscape in the second decade of the 21st Century. These transformations are generating unprecedented local and political changes that affect every aspect of global politics. Thus, research, academic analysis and policy analysis of international affairs are increasingly challenging, forcing academics and analysts to revisit theories of IR, institutional analysis and explore research methods that are robust and resilient. In this context, it is imperative that an academic platform is provided for local and International young scholars to engage with these challenges and present their own perspectives in the domestic, regional and global settings.
The adverse effects of climate change, along with the continuing threats of global terrorism, pandemics such as Covid-19, the rippling effects of inflation, economic recession, poverty, and political instability, has affected millions of people worldwide and highlights the complex governing challenges which we face today. Due to the intensification of globalization; local, regional and global matters are not isolated but rather inter-connected. Hence, the solution to these issues requires the effective collaboration of stakeholders at all levels.
ESS 2024, under the thematic “International Relations in the Digital Age” will be a forum for dialogue and deliberations on related sub themes encompassing these broad areas of interest such as: Foreign Policy Making and Diplomacy, Reconfiguration of National Security, Use and Misuse of Information , Transnational Issues, Digital Governance, International Trade and Commerce.
Thus, BCIS takes pleasure in facilitating open deliberations among young scholars in this annual symposium to enable a peak at future directions of the study, research and evolution of International Relations.