Transnational Political Networks – Early-Career Workshop
Transnational Political Networks and the Future of Global Order is a multi-year research project supported by Andrew Carnegie Foundation that investigates why certain transnational political networks achieve (or fall short of) breakthroughs in international cooperation, even amid polarization and geopolitical crisis.
This workshop will bring together early-career scholars to investigate how transnational political networks – and the transformational ideas they champion – shape the possibilities for international cooperation. It will be held at the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures, Northeastern University, Boston, MA on 24-25 September 2026.
Transnational political networks – groups of individuals who transcend national boundaries – are major forces shaping global order, despite great power competition. At both the societal and elite levels, they have catalyzed new areas of international cooperation across a wide range of issue areas, such as climate change, nuclear weapons, outer space, and artificial intelligence. We aim to break new ground through our focus on transnational political networks driven by transformational, rather than transactional, ideas for international cooperation.
Workshop Schedule
DAY ONE – Thursday, September 24
9:00 – 9:30 Breakfast & Networking
9:30 – 9:40 Welcome and Framing Remarks
Professor Mai’a Cross, Director, Center for International Affairs and World Cultures, Northeastern University
9:40 – 9:45 Introductions
9:45 – 11 Panel 1: Digital Networks, Movements, and Mobilization
This panel examines transnational networks operating through digital infrastructure and grassroots mobilization to advance transformational political ideas across borders.
Janine Schroeder (Technical University of Munich)
“Distant Acquaintances or Close Allies? The Impact of Transnational Collaboration on Antifascism as an Ultrasocial Endeavor”
Jyot Shikhar Singh (O.P. Jindal Global University)
“Digital Populism and Informal Diplomacy: How Networked Political Communities Reshape International Cooperation”
Wichuta Teeratanabodee (University of Cambridge)
“Transnational Memory Networks and Global Geopolitics”
11 – 11:15 Coffee Break
11:15 – 12:30 Panel 2: Transnational Networks and the Politics of Cooperative Reform
This panel explores networks operating across state, intergovernmental, and civil society levels to shift the norms and practices of global public goods delivery and transnational advocacy.
Jeeyon Choi (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)
“The Grand Bargain: An Ultrasocial Transnational Political Network toward Localization in International Aid”
Patricia Capelini Borelli (Centro Universitario Faculdade de Campinas, Brazil)
“La Via Campesina and the Transnational Politics of Digital Sovereignty”
Jayasuriya J (O.P. Jindal Global University / Central European University)
“The International Network for AI Safety and the Politics of Transformational Cooperation”
Chair & Discussant: Brandon Sullivan (Boston University)
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch
1:30 – 2:45 Panel 3: Security, Environment, and Contested Cooperation
This panel examines cases in which transnational networks pursue cooperative breakthroughs under conditions of geopolitical pressure, contested sovereignty, or competing governance logics.
Nathan M. Colvin (Old Dominion University)
“Internal Cohesion, External Confusion: The Dual Impact of NATO’s Securitization Strategies”
Shauna N. Gillooly (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile)
“ACTO, COICA, and the Securitization of Governance in the Amazonian Basin”
Eda Ayaydin (University of London Institute in Paris)
“From Jus Soli to Jus Actus: Transnational Networks and Resilient Arctic Cooperation”
Chair & Discussant: (TBC)
2:45 – 3 Coffee Break
3 – 3:30 Breakout Session on Cross-Cutting Themes
A short, facilitated conversation drawing out analytical threads across the day’s three panels – particularly around the relationship between network emergence and transformational ideas, and what the cases collectively reveal about the conditions for cooperative breakthroughs.
Facilitated by Mai’a Cross
3:30-4:30 Keynote Speaker
Dr. Marianna Lovato (Tallinn University)
6:00 Workshop Dinner
DAY TWO – Friday, September 25
9:00 – 9:30 Breakfast and Networking
9:30 – 10:45 Panel 4: Frontier Governance and the Commons
This panel brings together cases in which transnational networks are extending global governance into domains beyond conventional state-centric frameworks, from polar regions to outer space.
Robert U. Nagel (Augusta University)
“The Artemis Accords and the International Lunar Research Station: Promoting or Impeding International Cooperation?”
Anne-Sophie Martin (Sapienza University of Rome)
“The Role of Transnational Political Networks in Cooperative Space Traffic Management”
Nathanial Walker (Brandeis University)
“The Antarctic Treaty as an Ultrasocial Political Project: Elite Networks and the Cooperative Turn”
10:45 – 11 Coffee Break
11 – 12 Plenary Panel: Transnational Networks and the Future of Global Order
Panelists:
Martha Davis, University Distinguished Professor of Law; Faculty Co-Director, Center for Global Law and Justice; Co-Director, Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy; Faculty Director, NuLawLab
Matthew Fleming,Graduate Fellow, Center for International Affairs and World Cultures
Dennis Kwok, Faculty Affiliate, Center for International Affairs and World Cultures; Former Pro-Democracy Hong Kong Legislator, Hong Kong Government
TBD
12 – 1pm Lunch Synthesis Session: What the Cases Tell Us
A structured conversation across all participants organized around three questions: What patterns emerge across network types and issue areas? Where does the framework illuminate and where does it invite refinement? What are the shared priorities for moving from workshop papers to publishable manuscripts?
Facilitated by Mai’a Cross
This workshop is the fifth in the series after previous workshops in Boston, Oslo, Dublin, and New Delhi. Across the series as a whole, we find that groundbreaking ideas are more likely to succeed when they have transformative potential, optimism, and the capacity to harness “ultrasociality” – the human inclination to be empathic, cooperative, and socially-oriented (Cross 2024).
Support for this project is provided by a grant from Andrew Carnegie Foundation. Andrew Carnegie Foundation is a philanthropic foundation created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to do “real and permanent good in this world.”