Call for Papers: Populist World Order Narratives

The World Order Narratives of the Global South, WONAGO, project, led by GIGA Hamburg and the University of Hamburg, invites submissions for a two-day workshop on Populist World Order Narratives. The workshop brings together scholars working on populism, international politics, foreign policy, regionalism, political communication, and related fields to examine how populist actors imagine, narrate, legitimise, and contest world order.

Rather than treating populism as a purely domestic phenomenon, the workshop starts from the premise that populist actors also advance claims about the structure, crisis, and future of international order. By world order narratives, we mean representations of global politics that identify hierarchies and antagonists, diagnose injustice and decline, and project desirable futures for the nation, the region, or “the people”. Populist actors may frame world politics through sovereignty, civilisational struggle, anti-imperialism, anti-colonial memory, regional leadership, status recognition, or moralised opposition to global elites. Such narratives help organise foreign policy agendas, public legitimation, coalition building, and contestation over war, migration, trade, security, and global governance.

We invite theoretically ambitious and empirically grounded papers that analyse how populist world order narratives are produced, circulated, institutionalised, and challenged. We are especially interested in contributions that trace the link between domestic populist claims and broader visions of international hierarchy, geopolitical change, regional order, strategic autonomy, global justice, or anti-hegemonic politics. Contributions from political science, international relations, history, sociology, anthropology, media and communication studies, and adjacent disciplines are welcome. Historical and contemporary studies, as well as single-case, cross-regional, and comparative designs, are all encouraged. Papers that focus on domestic populism without a clear world order dimension are unlikely to be selected.

Possible topics

• The relationship between populism, foreign policy, and competing visions of international order

• Populist diagnoses of global crisis, decline, transition, and disorder

• Sovereignty, strategic autonomy, dependency, and anti-hegemonic discourse

• Status, humiliation, recognition, and prestige in populist narratives of world politics

• Civilisational, religious, nationalist, anti-imperial, and anti-colonial repertoires

• Regionalism, multilateralism, South-South cooperation, and alternative institutional visions

• Narratives of war, peace, sanctions, trade, borders, migration, and security

• The production and circulation of world order narratives through speeches, manifestos, party texts, media, and digital platforms

• Historical genealogies and cross-regional comparisons of populist world order narratives

• Conceptual and methodological approaches to identifying, tracing, and comparing populist narratives

The workshop is designed as a space for intensive discussion of work in progress. Selected participants will be invited to pre-circulate a draft paper or a substantial paper outline ahead of the event. Possible future publication formats will be discussed during the workshop. Submission guidelines

Please submit a single PDF that includes the following:

• an abstract of 300 to 500 words

• a short biographical note of up to 100 words

• your institutional affiliation and contact details

• an indication of whether you would need funding in order to participate.

Abstracts should clearly state the paper’s central research question, empirical focus and data, and main contribution to the study of populist world order narratives. Please send submissions to Cansu Güngör ([email protected]) with the subject line "Populist World Order Narratives submission". Funding is available to cover accommodation and travel expenses for participants who need support. Applicants who wish to be considered should include a brief statement of need in their application. Submissions will be evaluated on thematic fit, conceptual clarity, empirical grounding, and likely contribution to workshop discussion. Important dates Submission deadline: 31 May 2026

Notification of acceptance: 15 June 2026

Draft paper or extended outline due: 1 September 2026

Workshop: 24 and 25 September 2026

Organiser

Dr. Hakkı Taş (GIGA) For questions, please contact [email protected].