When does the ISA-SAWP Colombo conference take place?

The conference is scheduled to run from the sixth of August through the eighth of August.

Where is the ISA-SAWP Colombo conference being held?

The conference will be held in the city of Colombo, LKA.

What is the format of the ISA-SAWP Colombo conference?

The conference is an in-person event, taking place in Colombo.

ISA-SAWP Colombo 2026

Name: ISA-SAWP Colombo 2026
Start: 2026-08-06 00:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-08-08 00:00:00+00:00
Location: Colombo

Aug 6–8, 2026Colombo, Sri LankaIn-person

ConcludedRegistration closed

The ISA-SAWP Colombo conference, hosted in Colombo, LKA, serves as a significant forum for scholars and practitioners in international studies. This event brings together diverse perspectives to analyze global challenges and regional dynamics within the broader South Asian context. It provides a platform for in-depth discussions on contemporary issues shaping international relations, fostering academic exchange and collaboration.

Committees & topics

Topics
South Asia in a Changing International Order · Technological Transformation and World Politics · Weaponized Interdependence in the Global Economy · Changes in the Global Distribution of Power · The Evolution of Multilateral Institutions · International Norms and Global Governance · South Asia's Security Environment · Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy in South Asia

Why it matters

This conference holds particular importance due to its focus on South Asia, a region characterized by complex geopolitical interactions and significant global implications. The discussions will likely delve into the evolving roles of regional powers and their engagement with international norms and institutions. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for comprehending shifts in the global balance of power and the future of multilateralism.

The gathering in LKA offers a unique opportunity to examine how local and regional issues intersect with broader international trends. Participants will explore critical topics that influence stability and development across the region, including economic integration, security challenges, and socio-political transformations. The insights generated from these discussions can inform policy-making and academic discourse on a global scale.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the discussions at the ISA-SAWP Colombo conference, participants should prepare by familiarizing themselves with key theoretical frameworks in international relations. Concepts such as the "power-interest grid" and "dynamic analysis" can provide valuable lenses through which to interpret the complex interactions and strategic considerations that will be central to the conference agenda. Understanding these analytical tools will enable a more nuanced appreciation of the presentations and debates.

Furthermore, an understanding of "engagement strategies" and the identification of "hidden stakeholders" will be beneficial, particularly when considering the multifaceted nature of international diplomacy and regional cooperation. Given the conference's location, a foundational knowledge of the political and economic landscape of LKA, and its interactions with other regional actors, will enhance one's ability to contribute meaningfully to the discourse. Preparing with these frameworks in mind will allow attendees to critically assess the various perspectives presented and to formulate informed questions and contributions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Sri Lanka

As the host nation, LKA provides the geographical and contextual backdrop for discussions on South Asian international relations.

Role in topic

LKA's unique geopolitical position in the Indian Ocean makes it a critical focal point for discussions on regional security, trade routes, and the influence of larger powers. Its experiences with post-conflict development, economic challenges, and strategic partnerships will likely feature prominently in analyses of regional stability and external engagement.

India

A major regional power, IND's foreign policy and economic trajectory are central to South Asian dynamics.

Role in topic

IND's significant economic and military presence, coupled with its 'Neighborhood First' policy, profoundly shapes regional interactions. Discussions will likely explore IND's role in regional security architectures, economic development initiatives, and its relationships with other South Asian nations and global powers.

China

An external power with growing influence in South Asia, CHN's strategic and economic engagements are a key topic.

Role in topic

CHN's Belt and Road Initiative and increasing economic investments across South Asia have significant implications for regional geopolitics and the sovereignty of smaller states. The conference will likely examine the strategic implications of CHN's presence, its impact on regional power balances, and the responses of other international actors.

United States

A global power with strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific, USA's engagement in South Asia is a recurring theme.

Role in topic

The USA's strategic pivot to the Indo-Pacific and its alliances in the region influence security dynamics and economic partnerships. Discussions may cover USA's counter-terrorism efforts, its role in promoting democracy, and its competition with other major powers for influence in South Asia.

Topics & background

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

South Asia in a Changing International Order

South Asia sits at the intersection of several overlapping transitions: the relative decline of unipolar US primacy, the rise of China as a structural power, and the assertion of India as a leading voice for the Global South. Since the end of the Cold War, the region's external orientation has shifted from non-alignment and bilateral aid dependencies toward a more crowded landscape of strategic partnerships, connectivity initiatives such as China's Belt and Road, and competing visions of the Indo-Pacific. Smaller states — Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Maldives, and Bhutan — increasingly hedge between Delhi, Beijing, and Washington, while Pakistan's economic fragility and Afghanistan's post-2021 isolation under the Taliban add further volatility. The core analytical dispute is whether South Asia is becoming an arena of great-power competition imposed from outside, or whether regional states are themselves agents reshaping the international order through coalitions like BRICS+, the SCO, the Quad, and the I2U2. SAARC has been moribund since 2016, leaving the region without a functioning multilateral architecture even as transboundary challenges — climate, migration, debt — intensify. Today the question facing policymakers is how middle and small powers in South Asia can preserve strategic autonomy while navigating Sino-American rivalry, Russian recalibration, and a fraying liberal order.

Key players

Technological Transformation and World Politics

The current wave of technological transformation — generative AI, advanced semiconductors, quantum computing, biotechnology, and ubiquitous digital infrastructure — is reshaping the material foundations of state power. Unlike earlier general-purpose technologies, today's frontier technologies are concentrated in a small number of firms and jurisdictions, predominantly the United States and China, with critical chokepoints in the Netherlands (ASML), Taiwan (TSMC), South Korea, and Japan. Washington's October 2022 export controls on advanced chips, subsequent tightening rounds, and Beijing's countermeasures on gallium, germanium, and rare earths have made tech policy inseparable from grand strategy. For South Asia, the transformation is double-edged. India has emerged as a software and digital public infrastructure leader, exporting the India Stack model, while seeking to build domestic semiconductor fabrication through partnerships with the US, Japan, and Taiwan. Smaller economies face a widening digital divide, dependency on foreign cloud and platform providers, and acute concerns about data sovereignty, surveillance, and algorithmic governance. The central debate is whether technological transformation will entrench a bipolar tech order, fragment into regional digital blocs, or be governed through new multilateral arrangements on AI safety, data flows, and standards.

Key players

Weaponized Interdependence in the Global Economy

The concept of weaponized interdependence — coined by Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman in 2019 — describes how states with privileged positions in global networks (finance, data, energy, semiconductors) can use those chokepoints for coercive ends. The post-2014 SWIFT restrictions on Russia, the comprehensive sanctions package after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the freezing of Russian central bank reserves, US secondary sanctions on Iran, and China's restrictions on rare-earth and critical-mineral exports have all demonstrated how economic interdependence, once celebrated as a force for peace, can be turned into a tool of statecraft. The dispute is no longer whether interdependence is weaponized, but how states should respond. Affected powers are pursuing de-risking, friend-shoring, alternative payment systems (CIPS, BRICS-pay proposals, INSTEX), local-currency settlement, and reserve diversification including gold accumulation. For South Asian economies dependent on dollar-denominated trade, remittances, energy imports, and Western financial markets, weaponized interdependence raises difficult choices about sanctions compliance, secondary exposure, and the costs of strategic autonomy. The governance question is whether existing WTO and IMF frameworks can constrain coercive economic statecraft or whether a more fragmented, bloc-based system is now structurally locked in.

Key players

Changes in the Global Distribution of Power

The international system is in the midst of its most significant power redistribution since the end of the Cold War. China's share of global GDP at purchasing power parity surpassed that of the United States in 2014, India became the world's most populous state and fifth-largest economy, and the BRICS grouping expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE, with Saudi Arabia in ongoing deliberation. At the same time, the United States retains decisive advantages in military power projection, alliance networks, frontier technology, and financial centrality, complicating any simple narrative of decline. Scholars debate whether the emerging order is bipolar (US–China), multipolar (with India, the EU, Russia, and middle powers as independent poles), or 'multiplex' — characterized by overlapping institutions, regional orders, and issue-specific leadership. Russia's war in Ukraine, the Gaza conflict, and shifting voting patterns at the UN General Assembly have exposed the limits of Western coalition-building in the Global South. The core question is whether power transitions can be managed peacefully, whether new institutions will rebalance representation (UNSC reform, IMF quotas, World Bank governance), or whether the period ahead will resemble historical episodes of great-power rivalry and systemic conflict.

Key players

The Evolution of Multilateral Institutions

The post-1945 multilateral order — the UN system, Bretton Woods institutions, GATT/WTO, and a dense web of specialized agencies — was designed by and for a much narrower set of powers than today's membership. Reform debates have run for decades: UNSC enlargement (the G4 bid by India, Japan, Germany, and Brazil; the Ezulwini Consensus from the African Union), IMF quota recalibration, WTO appellate body paralysis since 2019, and WHO reform after COVID-19. Parallel institutions — the AIIB, the New Development Bank, the SCO, BRICS+, and minilateral formats like the Quad and I2U2 — have emerged, sometimes complementing and sometimes competing with the universal system. The central dispute is whether existing institutions can be reformed from within to reflect contemporary power realities and Global South priorities, or whether legitimacy will continue to migrate to alternative venues. The Pact for the Future adopted in September 2024 set ambitious goals for Security Council reform, international financial architecture overhaul, and digital governance, but implementation remains uncertain. For South Asia, the stakes are concrete: India's permanent seat aspirations, Pakistan's elected seat for 2025–2026, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh's roles in development finance reform, and regional coordination on climate finance under the UNFCCC.

Key players

International Norms and Global Governance

International norms — sovereignty, non-intervention, human rights, the Responsibility to Protect, international humanitarian law, non-proliferation, and emerging norms on cyber conduct, AI, and outer space — have come under sustained strain. The 2022 invasion of Ukraine challenged the foundational prohibition on the use of force; the conduct of the Gaza war has reopened debates over proportionality, civilian protection, and the credibility of universal jurisdiction following ICC arrest warrants and the ICJ genocide case brought by South Africa. UN General Assembly voting patterns reveal deep North–South divides on selectivity, double standards, and what constitutes legitimate enforcement. At the same time, new normative agendas are being negotiated: the OEWG on ICTs, the UN AI Advisory Body, the BBNJ Agreement on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, the Global Digital Compact, and ongoing GGE work on lethal autonomous weapons. The dispute is whether liberal-internationalist norms remain a shared foundation, whether they are being supplanted by a more pluralist 'civilizational' framing advanced by China, Russia, and some Global South states, or whether a hybrid governance order will emerge through issue-specific compromises. South Asian states, with their varied positions on sovereignty, intervention, and human rights, are pivotal swing voters in these debates.

Key players

South Asia's Security Environment

South Asia hosts three nuclear-armed states (India, Pakistan, and, by extension through deterrence, China), unresolved territorial disputes including Kashmir and the China–India Line of Actual Control, and recurring crises that have escalated to limited military confrontation — most notably the 2019 Balakot strikes, the 2020 Galwan clash, and continued tensions along the LAC. Pakistan faces a resurgent TTP insurgency emanating from Afghanistan, Bangladesh has experienced a major political transition in 2024, the Maldives has recalibrated its India–China balance, and Sri Lanka continues to manage post-crisis reconstruction with significant Indian and Chinese roles in port and energy infrastructure. The maritime domain has become equally contested. The Indian Ocean is now a theatre of Chinese naval deployment, Indian Navy patrols, US presence through Diego Garcia, and increasing engagement from France, Australia, and Japan. Houthi attacks in the Red Sea since late 2023 have disrupted shipping through the region. Non-traditional security threats — climate displacement, transnational organized crime, narcotics flows from Afghanistan, and radicalization — compound interstate tensions. The central question is whether South Asia's security environment is drifting toward a more managed competitive equilibrium or toward higher risk of inadvertent escalation in the absence of robust CBMs and a functioning regional architecture.

Key players

Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy in South Asia

Foreign policy in South Asia is increasingly shaped by domestic political dynamics: electoral cycles, populism, identity politics, civil-military relations, and economic crises. India's 2024 general election returned the BJP to power in a coalition government, recalibrating but not reversing the Modi government's foreign policy posture. Pakistan held contested elections in February 2024 amid the political marginalization of Imran Khan and continued military influence over national security policy. Bangladesh experienced a dramatic transition in August 2024 with the resignation of Sheikh Hasina and the establishment of an interim government under Muhammad Yunus. Sri Lanka elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the NPP in September 2024, marking a generational political shift after the 2022 economic collapse. The Maldives under President Muizzu has pivoted toward Beijing, while Nepal continues to experience coalition turbulence. These domestic transitions interact with foreign policy in immediate ways: debt renegotiation with the IMF and bilateral creditors, decisions over Chinese versus Indian infrastructure projects, treatment of minorities and refugees, and posture toward the US, EU, and Gulf partners. The analytical question is how durable the region's foreign policy orientations are when domestic politics shift so rapidly, and whether civil society, diasporas, and economic constituencies create constraints that smooth or amplify these swings. Understanding domestic politics is therefore inseparable from understanding South Asia's external behaviour.

Key players