Professor George Lawson1
1The Australian National University, Australia
Biography:
George Lawson is head of the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University. His work is oriented around the relationship between history and theory, with a particular interest in global historical sociology. His most recent book 'On Revolutions: Unruly Politics in the Contemporary World' (OUP) is coauthored with Colin Beck, Mlada Bukavansky, Erica Chenoweth, Sharon Nepstad and Daniel Ritter. His 2019 book 'Anatomies of Revolution' (CUP) won the ECPR's 2020 Hedley Bull Prize in International Relations.
Abstract:
Global order is in flux. But what is driving it, and what are the implications of this change for International Relations? This panel addresses one potential aspect of this process of change: developments in information technology. Papers address the implications of a range of information technologies on questions of global order, disorder and change. They focus on changes in political units, on questions of materiality, responsibility and agency, and on the relationship between epistemology and order. The panel opens space for debate on drivers of change, and for questions on the nature of order in the information age.