Historical approaches to the study of International Relations have gained ground among scholars, providing innovative long-term vistas on the formation of international orders. Empires and hierarchies have stimulated, in recent years, new research agendas that seek to understand the historical and conceptual foundations of the contemporary international system.

This one-day international conference intends to probe the role of imperial and hierarchical structures, practices and ideologies in shaping the international sphere, from historical and conceptual perspectives.

The main themes of the conference include the formation of political authority and the rise of new powers, the evolution of the laws of war and racial hierarchies, the end of empire and creation of new states, and competing visions of economic hierarchy. The day concludes with a roundtable featuring leading historians and IR scholars, on the function of ‘empire’ and ‘hierarchy’ as conceptual frameworks for understanding politics in the past, present and future.

Participants in the conference inlcude Andrew Arsan (Cambridge), Duncan Bell (Cambridge), Julia Costa Lopez (Groningen), Jeremy Green (Cambridge), Jaakko Heiskanen (Cambridge), Iza Hussin (Cambridge), Beate Jahn, (Sussex),Ira Katznelson (Columbia/Cambridge), Edward Keene (Oxford), James Mayall (Cambridge), Or Rosenboim (City), Jason Sharman (Cambridge), Joshua Smeltzer (Cambridge), Maja Spanu (Cambridge), Hendrik Spruyt (Northwestern), Claire Vergerio (Leiden) and Ayşe Zarakol (Cambridge).

The conference is convened by the Cambridge IR/History working group, and organized by Maja Spanu and Or Rosenboim.