ISA 2025 PANEL Lawyers, professional service firms, and private intelligence in international political economy

[Corentin COHEN]

Dear all

For those of you who may be interested, we are organising together with Ronen Palan a panel for the ISA 2025 conference in Chicago.

Lawyers, professional service firms, and private intelligence in international political economy

PANEL

There is an important class of international professionals from management consultancies, private intelligence firms and public relations and strategic influence agencies around the world. These firms create durable private and public networks of professionals and state officials, serving an important link between private capital, government and state bureaucracies. Firms can play an important, even decisive, role in shaping international economic and foreign policy. Yet, while some of these firms wield great influence, the field of international relations and international political economy has barely touched these organisations. We know little about the impact of management consultancies in Africa, or of law firms and private intelligence companies in Asia and Latin America. The panel brings together papers that discuss the practices of these professionals, case studies of their work, and analyses of how they seek to influence state and corporate entities, often on behalf of other state and corporate entities. We are also interested in hearing about their business models and the circulation of these professionals. 

If you are want to contribute please be in touch or send a 200 word abstract and title by 31 May to corenti...@politics.ox.ac.uk.

With best wishes

Corentin

Dr. Corentin Cohen
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow

Department of Politics and International Relations
University of Oxford