What is the format of the ICIPTIR conference?

The event is structured as a conference, providing a forum for academic discourse and exchange.

International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR)

Name: International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR)
Start: 2026-09-22T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-09-23T00:00:00Z
Location: Abu Dhabi

Sep 22–23, 2026Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesIn-person

Registration open

The International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR) is an academic gathering held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. This event serves as a platform for scholars, researchers, and practitioners to delve into the intricate connections between Islamic political thought and contemporary international relations. Participants will engage in discussions that explore historical perspectives, theoretical frameworks, and practical applications of Islamic principles in global affairs.

Committees & topics

Topics
Islamic Political Thought: Historical Perspectives · Islam and International Relations: Theoretical Frameworks · Governance in Islamic Societies: Challenges and Innovations · Islamic Law and Political Authority · The Role of Religion in Global Politics · Social Science and the Study of Muslim Societies · Humanities and the Islamic Intellectual Tradition · Islamic Studies as an Academic Field

Why it matters

Understanding Islamic political thought is crucial for navigating the complexities of modern international relations. This conference addresses how diverse interpretations of Islamic texts and traditions influence state policies, regional dynamics, and global interactions. By fostering dialogue on these topics, ICIPTIR contributes to a more nuanced comprehension of the motivations and actions of key actors in the international system.

The discussions at ICIPTIR are particularly relevant given the significant role of countries with predominantly Muslim populations in global politics and economics. The conference provides insights into the ideological underpinnings that shape foreign policy decisions and international engagements in regions from North Africa to Southeast Asia. This understanding is vital for diplomats, policymakers, and academics seeking to engage effectively with these states and societies. The event's focus on bridging historical thought with current events offers a unique lens through which to analyze ongoing geopolitical developments.

How to prepare

To prepare for engagement with the themes of ICIPTIR, delegates should undertake a comprehensive review of foundational texts in Islamic political thought, alongside contemporary analyses of international relations in the Muslim world. Familiarity with diverse schools of thought, from classical Islamic jurisprudence to modern political Islam, will be beneficial. Consider how different interpretations of concepts such as sovereignty, justice, and inter-state relations have evolved and are applied in various national contexts, such as in TUR, EGY, or IDN.

Delegates should also consider the broader geopolitical landscape and the role of key regional powers like SAU, IRN, and QAT in shaping Islamic political discourse and international relations. Analyzing specific case studies and historical events where Islamic political thought has influenced foreign policy decisions will provide valuable context. Employing frameworks such as "Dynamic Analysis" and "Engagement Strategies" can help in understanding the interplay of religious and political factors. Furthermore, exploring "Hidden Stakeholders" and conducting a "Stakeholder Mapping Workshop" can illuminate the various internal and external actors influencing these dynamics.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

United Arab Emirates

Host nation, promoting dialogue on Islamic thought in a modern context.

Role in topic

As the host country, ARE plays a significant role in facilitating discussions on Islamic political thought and its relevance to international relations, often emphasizing moderation and economic development in its foreign policy.

Saudi Arabia

Influential actor, promoting a specific interpretation of Islamic political thought.

Role in topic

SAU is a major player whose interpretation of Islamic political thought, particularly Wahhabism, has significant implications for regional and international relations, influencing religious institutions and political movements globally.

Iran

Key state with a distinct model of Islamic governance and foreign policy.

Role in topic

IRN's unique model of Islamic governance, based on Velayat-e Faqih, profoundly shapes its foreign policy and its interactions with other states, making its perspective on Islamic political thought critical for understanding regional dynamics.

Türkiye

Historical and contemporary bridge between Islamic and secular political traditions.

Role in topic

TUR offers a compelling case study of a state grappling with its Ottoman Islamic heritage and modern secular governance, influencing its approach to international relations and its role in the broader Muslim world.

Pakistan

Nuclear power with a strong Islamic identity influencing its foreign and domestic policies.

Role in topic

PAK's identity as an Islamic republic significantly impacts its foreign policy, particularly its relations with neighboring countries and its stance on global issues, making its perspective on Islamic political thought highly relevant.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Islamic Political Thought: Historical Perspectives

Islamic political thought emerged from the early debates following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 CE, when the question of succession produced the Sunni-Shia divide and the institution of the caliphate. Classical thinkers such as al-Farabi, al-Mawardi, al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn Khaldun developed sophisticated theories on the relationship between revealed law (sharia), the ruler's authority, and the welfare of the community (umma), drawing on Quranic principles, prophetic tradition, and Hellenistic philosophy. The Abbasid, Fatimid, Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal experiences each produced distinct institutional models for fusing religious legitimacy with imperial governance. The abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924 by the Republic of Turkey created an unresolved vacuum that shaped twentieth-century reformist and revivalist currents, from Rashid Rida and Muhammad Abduh to Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Abul A'la Maududi, and Ayatollah Khomeini. These thinkers responded to colonialism, secular nationalism, and modernization by reformulating concepts such as shura (consultation), bay'a (allegiance), and hakimiyya (sovereignty of God). Contemporary scholarship now revisits this canon to assess its relevance to questions of citizenship, pluralism, and constitutional order in Muslim-majority states.

Key players

Islam and International Relations: Theoretical Frameworks

Mainstream International Relations theory developed largely within a Westphalian, secular paradigm that long marginalized religious traditions as analytic categories. Classical Islamic jurisprudence, by contrast, articulated its own framework of inter-polity relations through concepts such as dar al-islam, dar al-harb, dar al-sulh, the law of treaties (mu'ahadat), diplomatic immunity (aman), and the ethics of war and peace (siyar), most systematically codified by jurists like al-Shaybani in the eighth century. These concepts shaped centuries of diplomatic practice across the Islamic world and influenced early modern European international law through figures such as Hugo Grotius. Since the 1990s, scholars including Fred Halliday, John Esposito, and Sohail Hashmi have worked to integrate Islamic normative categories into constructivist, English School, and post-colonial IR theory, while the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has sought to articulate a collective Muslim voice in multilateral fora. Debates today center on whether Islamic frameworks offer alternative conceptions of sovereignty, just war, humanitarian intervention, and global order, or whether they are best understood as one civilizational input into a pluralist international society. The rise of non-state Islamist movements and the foreign policies of self-identified Islamic states have further complicated theoretical mapping.

Key players

Governance in Islamic Societies: Challenges and Innovations

Governance arrangements in Muslim-majority states span absolute and constitutional monarchies, clerical republics, secular republics, military-led regimes, and hybrid democracies. Post-colonial state-building largely imported European administrative templates, often grafted onto inherited Islamic legal and customary institutions, producing persistent tensions over the role of sharia, the status of religious minorities, gender equality, and the legitimacy of elected versus appointed authorities. The 2010-2012 Arab uprisings exposed deep deficits in accountability and inclusion, and yielded divergent trajectories from Tunisia's troubled democratic transition to renewed authoritarianism in Egypt and state collapse in Libya, Syria, and Yemen. More recent innovations include Indonesia's and Malaysia's experiments with democratic Islamic parties, Morocco's constitutional reforms after 2011, Gulf states' top-down modernization agendas such as Saudi Vision 2030 and the UAE's regulatory liberalization, and the expansion of Islamic finance, halal economy regulation, and zakat-based social protection. At the same time, conflicts in Afghanistan under renewed Taliban rule, Sudan, and the Sahel highlight the fragility of governance where state capacity is weak and contested Islamic authority competes with tribal and militant actors.

Key players

Islamic Law and Political Authority

The relationship between sharia and political authority has been contested since the formative period of Islam, when the caliph's role as both political leader and guardian of religious law was negotiated against an emerging class of independent jurists (ulama). Classical Sunni theory generally separated the derivation of law (fiqh) by scholars from its enforcement by rulers under the principle of siyasa shar'iyya, while Twelver Shia jurisprudence developed distinct doctrines on the authority of jurists during the occultation of the Imam, culminating in Khomeini's theory of wilayat al-faqih implemented in Iran after 1979. Modern states have codified portions of sharia, particularly in family and personal status law, while criminal and commercial domains are typically governed by civil codes derived from European models. Constitutional clauses declaring Islam the state religion or sharia a source of legislation appear across the Muslim world, but their interpretation varies dramatically: from Saudi Arabia's official Hanbali framework, to Pakistan's Federal Shariat Court, to Malaysia's dual civil-syariah system, to Indonesia's largely secular national law with Aceh as an exception. Contemporary debates focus on apostasy and blasphemy laws, hudud penalties, women's rights, minority protections, and the compatibility of sharia-based legislation with international human rights obligations.

Key players

The Role of Religion in Global Politics

The post-Cold War period has seen a marked resurgence of religion as a variable in international politics, contradicting earlier secularization theses. Samuel Huntington's 1993 'clash of civilizations' thesis, the September 11 attacks and the ensuing Global War on Terror, the rise of Hindu nationalism in India, evangelical influence on U.S. foreign policy, the Russian Orthodox Church's alignment with the Kremlin, and the political mobilization of Buddhism in Myanmar and Sri Lanka have all foregrounded religion in security, diplomacy, and identity politics. Conflicts in Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Nagorno-Karabakh, the Sahel, and Myanmar's Rakhine State carry significant religious dimensions, even where their root causes are territorial or political. Multilateral institutions have responded through frameworks such as the UN Alliance of Civilizations (2005), Human Rights Council resolutions on religious intolerance including the 2011 Resolution 16/18 process, and faith-based engagement in mediation and humanitarian work. Yet tensions persist between freedom of religion or belief, restrictions on hate speech and blasphemy, the protection of minorities, and the rights of non-believers. The instrumentalization of religion by states and non-state actors alike continues to shape global politics, from transnational Islamist and far-right networks to interfaith diplomatic initiatives sponsored by Gulf states and the Vatican.

Key players

Humanities and the Islamic Intellectual Tradition

The humanities provide the disciplinary home for the study of Islamic philosophy, theology, literature, history, art, and languages, encompassing a tradition that has shaped global intellectual history from the translation movement of Abbasid Baghdad to the philosophical schools of Andalusia, Persia, and Mughal India. Manuscripts, calligraphy, architecture, poetry in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Malay, and other languages, and the rich traditions of Sufi thought constitute a vast cultural heritage now studied in universities worldwide. Contemporary humanities scholarship faces both opportunities and challenges: digitization of manuscript collections in Istanbul, Cairo, Tehran, Rabat, and Timbuktu has democratized access, while conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Mali, and Afghanistan have endangered heritage sites and archives. UNESCO has played a central role in heritage protection, while debates over restitution, the politics of canon formation, and the place of non-Arab and non-Sunni voices animate the field. Translation initiatives and the rise of Islamic humanities programs outside the Muslim world reflect growing global interest in this intellectual tradition.

Key players

Islamic Studies as an Academic Field

Islamic Studies as an organized academic field emerged in nineteenth-century European universities, drawing on philological methods and colonial administrative needs, before gradually broadening to incorporate theology, law, history, and the social sciences. The field has undergone significant transformation since Edward Said's critique of Orientalism in 1978, with growing participation of scholars from Muslim-majority countries, integration of insider theological perspectives, and methodological pluralism. Major centers now operate in Cairo, Medina, Qom, Najaf, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, and across North America and Europe. Contemporary debates concern the boundary between confessional and academic study of Islam, the place of traditional madrasa scholarship within modern universities, state funding and political constraints on Islamic Studies in both Muslim-majority and Western contexts, and the field's role in counter-extremism agendas after 2001. Initiatives such as the International Institute of Islamic Thought, the Aga Khan University's Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, and the expansion of Islamic Studies chairs in European universities reflect ongoing institutional development, even as concerns about academic freedom, surveillance of Muslim scholars, and securitization of the field persist.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR).

Recent reporting to ground your prep

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis 2026

Rahul Gandhi Defends Tamil Nadu's Autonomy

India's 131st Amendment Bill

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Media & Press Relations

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

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Country dossier

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Country dossier

United Arab Emirates September 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR)

Sep 22–23, 2026Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Islamic Political Thought: Historical Perspectives · Islam and International Relations: Theoretical Frameworks · Governance in Islamic Societies: Challenges and Innovations · Islamic Law and Political Authority · The Role of Religion in Global Politics · Social Science and the Study of Muslim Societies · Humanities and the Islamic Intellectual Tradition · Islamic Studies as an Academic Field

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

United Arab Emirates

Host nation, promoting dialogue on Islamic thought in a modern context.

Role in topic

Saudi Arabia

Influential actor, promoting a specific interpretation of Islamic political thought.

Role in topic

Iran

Key state with a distinct model of Islamic governance and foreign policy.

Role in topic

Türkiye

Historical and contemporary bridge between Islamic and secular political traditions.

Role in topic

Pakistan

Nuclear power with a strong Islamic identity influencing its foreign and domestic policies.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Islamic Political Thought: Historical Perspectives

Key players

Islam and International Relations: Theoretical Frameworks

Key players

Governance in Islamic Societies: Challenges and Innovations

Key players

Islamic Law and Political Authority

Key players

The Role of Religion in Global Politics

Key players

Humanities and the Islamic Intellectual Tradition

Key players

Islamic Studies as an Academic Field

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR).

Recent reporting to ground your prep

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis 2026

Rahul Gandhi Defends Tamil Nadu's Autonomy

India's 131st Amendment Bill

West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Media & Press Relations

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

United Arab Emirates September 2026

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

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