Deadline: 26.05.2008.

In response to theme for the next ISA Convention in New York (Exploring the Past – Anticipating the Future), I am organising a panel on the following question: Can (Should) Constructivists Forecast?

In recent years constructivism has become increasingly wide-spread in scholarly attempts to understand and theorise international politics. However, when constructivists emphasise the power of identities, ideas, norms, discourses and cultures on various actors’ behaviour, they usually shy away from using their insights for the purpose forecasting. Can constructivists tell us anything about the likelihood of increasing humanitarian interventions, the future potency and influence of political Islam or about the future foreign policies of the EU and China? Can it even play a role in global trends forecasting or does it only work for narrowly defined cases?

Forecasting serves the purpose of helping citizens, publics and decision-makers to anticipate and better prepare for consequences of current trends and decisions. The panel aims to explore whether constructivism can help to anticipate future developments, or whether it is primarily a means to „understand“ changes over time in retrospect.

Possible topics for paper submissions are:

• Critical assessments of whether constructivist ontology allows for forecasting • Taking stock of the constructivism literature from the perspective of its contribution to forecasting • Theoretical refinements of constructivism for the purpose of forecasting • Empirically-informed forecasts that are rooted in constructivism in any policy field • Combinations of constructivism with other theoretical approaches in order to produce forecasts.

Please send your submissions (title and abstract of not more than 200 words) by 26 May to Christoph Meyer, King’s College London, christoph.meyer@kcl.ac.uk. Thank you.