Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has experienced a long, complex and sometimes complicated engagement with different great powers. For the most part, European powers, USA and Russia have been key for the fortunes of CEE. However, as non-Western powers rise and the global balance of power changes, it seems inevitable that CEE’s interactions with non-Western powers will become more important. For example, CEE was (has been) in the spotlight of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the last decade or so. Simultaneously, other rising non-Western powers are also becoming, or have the potential to become, more relevant for CEE than ever.
The CEJISS Editorial Team invites contributions exploring the topic of CEE’s relations with emerging non-Western powers. We welcome a wide range of contributions, including manuscripts on bilateral relations, comparative studies, papers on a specific emerging power’s perceptions of or attitudes towards CEE or, vice versa, a specific CEE country’s approach to a broader set of emerging powers. Prospective authors may focus on political, security, economic or cultural dynamics and state or non-state actors given they are important for influencing mutual interactions between CEE and emerging non-Western powers. While we hope to receive papers focusing on contemporary dynamics, we are also open to historical papers as long as they demonstrate the relevance of historical processes or heritage for contemporary politics. We expect the submitted papers to draw on relevant theoretical perspectives or the existing academic debates, including those originating from International Relations, International Political Economy, Security Studies, Geopolitics, Area Studies and other fields.
We define ‘emerging powers’ broadly, but they should be countries with considerable significance in their ‘domestic’ regions or globally. Countries such as Egypt, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Vietnam are relevant examples of this thematic section’s understanding of emerging non-Western powers. The thematic section should primarily focus on powers that demonstrate growing potential for deepening relations with CEE, are rising and situated outside Europe and Europe’s immediate neighbourhood. Hence, Russia, China or Türkiye and their relations with CEE are not the primary focus of this thematic section. However, contributions to this thematic section may include them for the purposes of a broader discussion as long as other emerging non-Western powers are considered alongside them. By CEE, we mean a region stretching from the Czech Republic and Poland in the west to Ukraine and Belarus in the east and from Estonia in the north to Greece in the south.
Thematic section information
The thematic sections of CEJISS aim to facilitate a forum for authors to publish timely academic reflections on selected topics. The length of thematic section contributions is 4,000-8,000 words (including abstract, references, footnotes).
Contributions to thematic sections may include the following types of articles.
- Standard research articles whose ambitions, research goal and framework are adjusted to the length of thematic section contributions (4,000-8,000 words). Papers with a strong narrative are particularly encouraged.
- Sophisticated academic essays (op-eds) that develop or build on the existing theoretical repertoire of International Relations (or related disciplines), offer a clear argument and contribute to academic debates.
Articles that lie between the two aforementioned types of papers are also appreciated. In any case, thematic section contributions should be of a scholarly character.
Please follow our submission guidelines. For more information about our thematic sections, please see here.
Timeline
- Deadline for abstracts (about 200 words): extended to 31 January 2024
- Abstract selection (acceptance emails): 15 February 2024
- Manuscript submission deadline: 31 May 2024
- Review process and paper revisions: June-October 2024
- Standard (print) publication: mid-December 2024
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In order to submit your abstract or get more information, please contact Dr Ales Karmazin (CEJISS editor-in-chief) at karmazin@cejiss.org. Please use the following email subject: thematic section – CEE and non-Western powers.
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About CEJISS
CEJISS is a quarterly journal that publishes peer-reviewed scholarly articles across the entire field of International Relations and International Security. Since its foundation in 2007, it has been proudly committed to the principle of open access publishing (no fees to publish, no fees to read). It is indexed by SCOPUS, ERIH Plus, ProQuest, EBSCO, Google Scholar and other databases.
CEJISS is a pluralist journal. It favours a variety of theories and methods used as well as topics and geographical areas covered. Nonetheless, CEJISS is particularly (but not exclusively) interested in drivers of the contemporary world’s change – from geopolitical shifts, nationalist resurgence and regionalisation to environmental and technological changes. Rather than specialising in a particular theme, it prefers to understand the broader impacts and mutual entanglements of these processes. CEJISS has published articles focused on Central and Eastern Europe as well as on other regions and the global international system. It is open to inter-disciplinary, cross-thematic and trans-regional works discussing international aspects of politics and security. CEJISS also welcomes policy-relevant articles. However, please note that all articles must meet the usual research standards (they need to be research articles in the first place).