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International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR - 26)

Sep 22–23, 2026Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesVirtual

The International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR - 26) is set to convene in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. This event provides a platform for scholars and practitioners to delve into the intricate relationship between Islamic political thought and contemporary international relations. Participants will engage in discussions aimed at fostering a deeper understanding of how Islamic perspectives influence global political dynamics. The conference aims to bridge academic discourse with practical applications, exploring various facets of Islamic political theory and its implications for international diplomacy, conflict resolution, and global governance. It offers an opportunity for networking and collaboration among attendees from diverse backgrounds.

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

Why it matters

Understanding Islamic political thought is crucial for navigating the complexities of modern international relations. With a significant portion of the global population adhering to Islamic principles, their political philosophies and interpretations have a profound impact on state behavior, regional stability, and international cooperation. Events like ICIPTIR - 26 facilitate a nuanced exploration of these influences, moving beyond simplistic narratives to foster a more informed global dialogue.

This conference is particularly relevant given the ongoing geopolitical shifts and the increasing prominence of actors whose policies are shaped by Islamic political frameworks. By examining these foundational ideas, participants can gain insights into the motivations and strategies of various states and non-state actors, thereby enhancing their capacity for effective engagement and policy formulation. The discussions in Abu Dhabi, ARE, will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of these dynamics.

The insights gleaned from such gatherings can inform diplomatic strategies and contribute to more effective approaches in addressing global challenges. For policymakers and analysts, a deeper appreciation of Islamic political thought can lead to more robust and culturally sensitive international relations, fostering greater understanding and reducing potential misunderstandings. This is vital for promoting peace and stability in an interconnected world.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the themes presented at ICIPTIR - 26, participants should undertake a thorough review of foundational texts in Islamic political philosophy and contemporary international relations theory. Understanding key concepts such as sovereignty, justice, and governance from both Islamic and Western perspectives will be essential for contributing meaningfully to discussions. Consider how these concepts are interpreted and applied in different contexts, particularly within states like SAU, IRN, TUR, and EGY.

Delegates should also prepare by conducting a "Dynamic Analysis" of current events and regional conflicts where Islamic political thought plays a significant role. This involves identifying the various "Hidden Stakeholders" and their motivations, as well as mapping out their interrelationships. Familiarity with the political systems and foreign policies of key Muslim-majority countries such as PAK, MYS, IDN, and QAT will provide valuable context for the conference's discussions.

Developing an understanding of the diverse schools of thought within Islamic political theory will be beneficial. This includes examining historical developments and contemporary interpretations that influence foreign policy decisions and international engagements. Participants might also consider how different "Engagement Strategies" can be employed when interacting with states and organizations guided by these principles, fostering more productive dialogues and collaborations.

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

As the host nation, ARE often seeks to project an image of moderation and stability, promoting dialogue between different cultures and political systems.

Role in topic

ARE plays a significant role in fostering regional stability and economic development, often engaging in diplomatic initiatives that balance traditional values with modern international relations. Hosting this conference underscores its commitment to intellectual discourse on these critical topics.

Saudi Arabia

SAU's foreign policy is deeply intertwined with its interpretation of Islamic principles, particularly its role as the custodian of holy sites.

Role in topic

SAU's influence in the Islamic world and its approach to international relations are heavily shaped by its religious and political doctrines. Its perspective on Islamic political thought is central to understanding its regional and global actions.

Iran

IRN's political system is founded on a unique interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence, directly impacting its foreign policy and relations with other nations.

Role in topic

IRN represents a distinct model of Islamic political thought in practice, with its revolutionary ideology and its impact on regional and international security. Its perspective offers a contrasting view to many other Muslim-majority states.

Türkiye

TUR navigates a complex identity, balancing its secular constitutional framework with a growing emphasis on its Islamic heritage in its foreign policy.

Role in topic

TUR's historical and contemporary role as a bridge between East and West, coupled with its evolving political identity, makes its approach to Islamic political thought and international relations particularly insightful for analysis.

Egypt

EGY's political landscape has seen various interpretations of Islamic political thought, influencing its domestic governance and regional diplomacy.

Role in topic

EGY, as a historically significant Arab and Muslim nation, has a rich tradition of Islamic scholarship and political movements that have shaped its foreign policy and its interactions within the Arab and wider Islamic world.

Topics & background

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

Islamic Political Thought: Historical Perspectives

Islamic political thought emerged in the immediate aftermath of the Prophet Muhammad's death in 632 CE, when the question of succession produced the first major political dispute in Muslim history and the eventual Sunni-Shia divide. The Rashidun, Umayyad, and Abbasid caliphates institutionalized debates over legitimate authority, the relationship between revelation and reason, and the obligations of rulers, producing a rich corpus of writing from figures such as al-Farabi, al-Mawardi, al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn Khaldun. These thinkers grappled with questions of justice, consultation (shura), the imamate, and the moral purpose of government that continue to shape contemporary debate. The early modern period saw Islamic political ideas develop within the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires, before colonial encroachment in the 18th and 19th centuries triggered reformist and revivalist responses. Thinkers such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, and Rashid Rida sought to reconcile Islamic governance with modern statehood, while later figures like Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Abul A'la Maududi, and Ayatollah Khomeini articulated more activist and ideological visions. The 1924 abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate by the Turkish Republic marked a watershed, leaving the umma without a unifying political institution. Today, historical Islamic political thought remains a contested resource drawn upon by states, movements, and scholars to legitimize varied projects: monarchical rule in the Gulf, clerical guardianship in Iran, secular constitutionalism in Turkey and Tunisia, and transnational Islamist movements. Understanding the historical genealogy of these ideas is essential to interpreting current debates over sovereignty, citizenship, and religious authority in the Muslim world.

Key players

Islam and International Relations: Theoretical Frameworks

Classical Islamic jurisprudence developed its own framework for international relations, dividing the world into dar al-Islam (the abode of Islam), dar al-harb (the abode of war), and intermediate categories such as dar al-sulh (the abode of treaty). Concepts like jihad, aman (safe conduct), and dhimma (protected status for non-Muslims) provided rules for war, diplomacy, trade, and minority rights long before the emergence of the Westphalian system. Scholars such as al-Shaybani are often described as among the earliest theorists of international law, predating Grotius by centuries. The consolidation of the modern sovereign state system, accelerated by European colonialism and codified through the UN Charter, displaced these classical categories but did not erase them. Muslim-majority states joined the United Nations and accepted its principles of sovereign equality and non-intervention, while also creating parallel institutions such as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and adopting documents like the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam. Contemporary IR scholarship has increasingly engaged with Islamic frameworks through the lens of constructivism, the English School, and post-secular theory, examining how religion shapes identity, norms, and foreign policy. Current debates center on whether Islamic concepts can be reconciled with liberal international order, how transnational religious solidarities interact with state interests, and whether distinctly Islamic approaches to peacebuilding, humanitarianism, and economic relations offer alternatives to Western paradigms. The rise of non-Western IR theory has given these questions renewed scholarly attention.

Key players

Governance in Islamic Societies: Challenges and Innovations

Governance in Muslim-majority societies spans an extraordinary range: absolute monarchies in the Gulf, a clerical republic in Iran, parliamentary democracies in Indonesia and Malaysia, military-influenced regimes in Egypt and Pakistan, and fragile post-conflict states such as Iraq, Libya, and Somalia. This diversity reflects different colonial legacies, sectarian compositions, resource endowments, and contested settlements between religious and secular authority. The Arab uprisings of 2010-2012 exposed deep public demand for accountability, dignity, and economic opportunity, but produced widely divergent outcomes from Tunisia's troubled democratic transition to Syria's civil war. Key governance challenges include reconciling sharia-based legal traditions with constitutional democracy and international human rights standards; managing sectarian and ethnic pluralism; combating corruption and youth unemployment; and responding to demographic pressures, climate stress, and migration. Several states have experimented with innovations such as Indonesia's Pancasila pluralism, Morocco's 2011 constitutional reforms, the UAE's emphasis on technocratic governance and tolerance initiatives, and Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 social and economic liberalization. Digital authoritarianism, surveillance, and restrictions on civil society have grown across the region, even as civic activism, women's movements, and Islamic feminist scholarship press for reform. Debates over the role of religious establishments, the status of minorities, and the legitimacy of dissent remain central to the future trajectory of governance in Muslim-majority states.

Key players

Islamic Law and Political Authority

Sharia, derived from the Qur'an, Sunna, scholarly consensus (ijma), and analogical reasoning (qiyas), historically operated as a jurists' law independent of, and often a check upon, political rulers. Classical theorists such as al-Mawardi and al-Juwayni articulated doctrines of the caliphate and imamate that bound rulers to uphold the sharia while granting them discretionary authority (siyasa shar'iyya) over public administration. The Ottoman codification of law in the 19th-century Mecelle and the gradual displacement of sharia courts by European-inspired codes during the colonial period transformed this relationship, subordinating fiqh to state legislation in most Muslim-majority countries. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the place of sharia in national legal systems has become deeply contested. Saudi Arabia and Iran constitutionally enshrine Islamic law, though through very different institutional architectures. States such as Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria's northern states, Brunei, and Afghanistan under the Taliban have applied hudud penalties with varying scope and consequence. Others, including Tunisia, Turkey, and the Central Asian republics, maintain largely secular legal frameworks while regulating religious life through state institutions. Family law remains the most common domain of continued sharia application. Contemporary debates focus on the compatibility of classical fiqh with constitutionalism, gender equality, freedom of religion and belief, and international human rights instruments. Reformist scholars argue for maqasid-based (purposive) interpretation and renewed ijtihad, while traditionalists emphasize fidelity to inherited scholarship. The question of who has authority to interpret Islamic law in the modern state, clerics, parliaments, courts, or the public, remains unresolved and politically charged.

Key players

The Role of Religion in Global Politics

The expectation of secularization that dominated mid-20th-century social science has been overturned by the conspicuous return of religion to global politics. The 1979 Iranian Revolution, the rise of the Christian right in the United States, Hindu nationalism in India, political Buddhism in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, the global influence of evangelical Christianity in Latin America and Africa, and the persistence of religious nationalism in Israel and the Orthodox world have collectively reshaped domestic politics and international relations. Scholars such as Jose Casanova, Talal Asad, and Elizabeth Shakman Hurd have argued that the secular-religious divide is itself a political construct rather than a natural condition. Religion now intersects with virtually every major international issue: armed conflict and counterterrorism, humanitarian assistance, migration and refugee protection, climate advocacy, debates over gender and reproductive rights, and contests over the universality of human rights. Faith-based actors, ranging from the Holy See and the OIC to transnational Islamic charities, evangelical networks, and Buddhist sanghas, exercise significant soft power. At the same time, religiously framed violence, blasphemy laws, and persecution of minorities pose ongoing challenges to international order. The global politics of religion is also shaped by great-power competition: US-China rivalry encompasses disputes over Uyghur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists; Russia projects itself as a defender of conservative Christian values; and Gulf states compete to define authoritative Sunni Islam. Multilateral forums increasingly grapple with how to engage religion constructively while protecting freedom of religion or belief and preventing instrumentalization of faith for repression or conflict.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR - 26).

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

United Arab Emirates September 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR - 26)

Sep 22–23, 2026Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesVirtual

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

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

As the host nation, ARE often seeks to project an image of moderation and stability, promoting dialogue between different cultures and political systems.

Role in topic

Saudi Arabia

SAU's foreign policy is deeply intertwined with its interpretation of Islamic principles, particularly its role as the custodian of holy sites.

Role in topic

Iran

IRN's political system is founded on a unique interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence, directly impacting its foreign policy and relations with other nations.

Role in topic

Türkiye

TUR navigates a complex identity, balancing its secular constitutional framework with a growing emphasis on its Islamic heritage in its foreign policy.

Role in topic

Egypt

EGY's political landscape has seen various interpretations of Islamic political thought, influencing its domestic governance and regional diplomacy.

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

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR - 26).

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

United Arab Emirates September 2026

By committee

International Conference on Islamic Political Thought and International Relations (ICIPTIR - 26)

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

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

Resources