In this interview, political scientist Marc Sanjaume‑Calvet examines the constitutional status of Catalonia, the distribution of powers within the Spanish state, and the evolving debates surrounding Catalan autonomy and identity. The discussion also explores Catalonia’s external action, from its relations with the European Union and international organisations to the constraints imposed by Spanish constitutional law, including the legacy of the 2017 referendum and Article 155.

Marc Sanjaume-Calvet is Associate Professor of Political Science at Pompeu Fabra University. He has also served as an advisor at the Self-Government Studies Institute, a research centre linked to the Government of Catalonia. His work sits at the crossroads of federalism, self-determination, and territorial conflict, with broader interests in national and ethnic conflicts. 

Selected Publications

• Asymmetry as a Device for Equal Recognition and Reasonable Accommodation of Majority and Minority Nations. A Country Study on Constitutional Asymmetry in Spain
• The Political Use of de facto Referendums of Independence The Case of Catalonia
• Defensive Federalism: Protecting Territorial Minorities from the "Tyranny of the Majority"
• The Exodus That Never Was? An Empirical Analysis on Territorial Conflict and Foot-Voting
• The Politics of Independence Referendums: Never Mind the Ballots

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:50 Constitutional Status of Catalonia

05:21 Identity and Demography in Catalonia

08:15 Distribution of Competences

11:46 The Future of Catalan Autonomy

16:10 “Unity of Foreign Action” in Spanish Constitutional Law and Its Constraints on Regional Diplomacy

21:04 Coordination and Tension between Catalonia’s External Action and Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

23:39 Catalonia and the European Union

29:40 International Agreements and Catalonia’s Network of External Delegations

33:53 Catalonia’s Interaction with International Organisations and Multilateral Forums

37:51 The 2017 Independence Referendum and Article 155

44:21 Emerging Research Agendas in the Study of Catalonia’s Autonomy

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In this episode, Professor McCourt unpacks the foundations of New Constructivism: where it came from, what it demands of researchers, and where it's heading. From the theory/method distinction to the practice and relational turns, from C. Wright Mills to Multiple Correspondence Analysis, this is a wide-ranging conversation about how social science can move beyond positivist inheritances without losing analytical rigor. We also explore New Constructivism's blind spots, its uneven development across the US and Europe. 

David McCourt is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Davis, where he teaches sociological and international theory. His research sits at the intersection of political sociology and international relations, with a focus on the social foundations of state action in world politics. Empirically, his work centres on the foreign policies of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. Theoretically, he usually draws on constructivist, practice-based, and relational approaches to examine how states define and enact their roles on the international stage.

Selected Publications

• Constructivism’s Contemporary Crisis and the Challenge of Reflexivity
• Practice Theory and Relationalism as the New Constructivism
• Domestic Contestation Over Foreign Policy, Role-based and Otherwise: Three Cautionary Cases
• The New Constructivism in International Relations Theory
• The End of Engagement: America’s China and Russia Experts and U.S. Strategy Since 1989
• The Dragon Defined: How Washington, Canberra, and London Reimagined China

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

02:37 Core Principles of New Constructivism

19:24 Is the Theory/Method Distinction Itself a Positivist Inheritance?

24:00 Methodology vs. Methods: The Root of Constructivist Misreadings

33:33 Constructivism as Classic Social Analysis: The C. Wright Mills Connection

37:25 Broadening the Methodological Repertoire Without Fetishising Technique

41:27 What Must Stay Constant as Constructivism Evolves?

46:14 Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) as a Constructivist Tool

52:15 The Practice Turn and Relational Turn in New Constructivism

57:23 Diverging Trajectories: New Constructivism in the US and Europe

01:00:43 New Constructivism, Global South Scholarship, and Postcolonialism

01:05:11 The Weakest Link: Where New Constructivism Falls Short

01:07:54 The Limits of New Constructivism: Where It Should Not Be Applied

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In this episode, together with Dr Reuben Steff, we explore how New Zealand’s geographic isolation, colonial legacies, and small-state status have shaped a distinctive strategic culture; one that combines alliance cooperation with a persistent commitment to autonomy, non-nuclear norms, and multilateralism.

Reuben Steff is a Senior Lecturer at Mendel University in Brno whose scholarship engages some of the most pressing questions in contemporary international relations and security. His research spans the implications of artificial intelligence for the global balance of power, the interaction between nuclear deterrence theory and ballistic missile defence within the security dilemma, New Zealand and United States foreign policy, and the dynamics of great-power competition between the United States and China. 

Selected Publications

• New Zealand’s Geopolitics and the US-China Competition
• ‘Our region is now a strategic theatre’: New Zealand’s balancing response to China
• The strategic case for New Zealand to join AUKUS Pillar 2
• US Foreign Policy in the Age of Trump: Drivers, Strategy and Tactics
• Emerging Technologies and International Security: Machines, the State, and War
• Examining the immanent dilemma of small states in the Asia-Pacific: The strategic triangle between New Zealand, the US and China
• Hard Balancing in the Age of American Unipolarity: The Russian Response to US Ballistic Missile Defense during the Bush Administration (2001–2008)

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Conceptualising New Zealand’s Strategic Posture

02:03 Geographic Isolation and the Evolution of New Zealand’s Strategic Culture

13:56 From the South Pacific to the Indo-Pacific: Regional Order and Strategic Repositioning

18:06 The Treaty of Waitangi and Its Implications for External Partnerships

21:47 Strategic Autonomy, Nuclear-Free Norms, and the AUKUS Question

30:44 Domestic Debates on Nuclear Policy and National Identity

34:21 ANZUS (1951) in Contemporary Perspective: Alliance Politics and Strategic Recalibration

36:25 Trans-Tasman Relations: Convergence, Friction, and Structural Asymmetry

40:38 Economic Interdependence with China and Security Alignment with Western Partners

45:22 Engagement with India and ASEAN: Diversification and Indo-Pacific Strategy

49:23 The European Union and New Zealand: Trade, Norms, and Strategic Convergence

53:54 Hedging in Practice: Small-State Strategy Amid Great-Power Competition

56:34 The War in Ukraine and Its Implications for New Zealand’s Foreign Policy

01:01:11 Multilateralism, Liberal Order, and China’s Parallel Institutional Architecture

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In this episode, Professor Charlotte Epstein reflects on how postcolonial perspectives reshape the study of norms in international relations, challenging conventional accounts of diffusion, compliance, and legitimacy. The conversation explores colonial inheritances embedded in contemporary normative orders, while examining positionality, experience, and the epistemological stakes of critical scholarship.

Charlotte Epstein is Professor at Tokyo College, University of Tokyo, where her work examines how language and political power have jointly constituted the modern international order.

Selected Publications

• The power of words in international relations: Birth of an anti-whaling discourse
• Who speaks? Discourse, the subject and the study of identity in international politics
• Constructivism or the eternal return of universals in International Relations. Why returning to language is vital to prolonging the owl’s flight
• The postcolonial perspective: an introduction
• Against international relations norms: Postcolonial perspectives
• Birth of the state: The place of the body in crafting modern politics

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:42 Colonialism and Postcolonialism: Conceptual Clarifications

04:08 Rationale for Employing Postcolonial Perspectives

07:22 Postcoloniality as Positionality Beyond Historical Periodisation

12:29 Studying Norm Diffusion and Compliance Beyond Coercion

22:50 Why Norms Reveal Colonial Inheritances More Sharply than Concepts

27:53 From Norms as Practices to Norms as Epistemological Categories

32:25 Situated Perspectives, Critical Authority, and the Risk of Relativism

35:42 The Role of Experience in Postcolonial Norm Research

39:26 Key Sources on the Concept of Experience

43:02 ‘Norming’ and ‘Re-Norming’ in a Foucauldian Perspective

47:54 The Ambivalences of Research Success

50:39 Principal Challenges in Postcolonial Approaches to Norms

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In this episode, we sit down with political analyst Marc Saxer to explore his theory of Transformative Realism and why he believes we’re living through a profound systemic crisis. From the erosion of international norms to the urgent need for reimagined statecraft, Marc offers a compelling framework for understanding the forces reshaping our world and what political leadership must look like in response.

Marc Saxer is a political analyst, strategist, and writer with two decades of experience in international relations. He heads the Asia Pacific office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Shtiftung and convenes the Asia Strategic Foresight Group.

Selected Publications

• Transformative Realism: How to overcome the system crisis
• Geopolitical Conflict in the Wolf World: Great Power Competition and the Illiberal Revolt against the Liberal Order

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:38 Understanding Transformative Realism

04:50 Defining Systemic Crisis

07:39 Marc’s Most Compelling Crisis Case Study

15:08 The Erosion of International Norms and Rules

18:24 Recognizing the Signs of Systemic Crisis

20:18 The Role of Agency in Transformative Realism

28:18 Reimagining Statecraft and Political Leadership

33:44 The Crisis in Modern Statecraft Education

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In this episode, Vineet Thakur unpacks the historical and intellectual foundations of Indian diplomacy. We discuss classical strategic traditions, civilisational and colonial legacies, caste and elite networks in diplomatic culture, non-alignment and strategic autonomy, neighbourhood diplomacy, and India’s contemporary practice of multi-alignment amid shifting great-power rivalries.

Vineet Thakur is a University Lecturer in International Relations at the Institute for History, Leiden University. He received his doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in 2014 and has held academic positions and fellowships across India, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. His professional experience includes teaching appointments at Ambedkar University Delhi, the University of Johannesburg, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, following which he joined Leiden University in 2017. He has been a fellow at the University of Cambridge, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, and Rhodes University.

His research is situated in postcolonial international relations, with a particular focus on the politics of knowledge, disciplinary hierarchies, and the global intellectual history of International Relations, especially in the Indian context.

Selected Publications

• V.S. Srinivasa Sastri: A Liberal Life
• India’s First Diplomat: V.S. Srinivasa Sastri and the Making of Liberal Internationalism
• Postscripts on Independence: Foreign Policy Discourses in India and South Africa

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Framing of India’s Diplomatic Trajectories

02:03 Mandala Theory and Kautilya’s Arthashastra as Lenses for Contemporary Regional Policy

05:10 Intellectual and Historical Inspirations Behind India’s Diplomatic Traditions

06:32 Civilisational State Narratives Versus Colonial Administrative Foundations of Indian Diplomacy

10:53 Social Stratification and the Influence of Caste Networks on Diplomatic Recruitment and Culture

22:12 Nehruvian Idealism and Non-Alignment as Strategy: Autonomy, Hedging, and Principled Neutrality

27:55 Overlooked and Marginalised Practices in India’s Cold War Diplomatic History

30:30 The Strategic Logic and Practical Outcomes of the “Neighbourhood First” Diplomatic Doctrine

35:18 Structural Constraints and Policy Stalemate in India–Pakistan Diplomatic Engagement

37:34 China’s Strategic Shadow and Its Effects on India’s Diplomatic Posture Towards Pakistan

39:08 India’s Diplomatic Approach to Tibet in Historical and Contemporary Perspective

43:29 Multi-Alignment as Strategy: Balancing Great Powers in India’s Contemporary Foreign Policy

47:45 The Absence of a Permanent United Nations Security Council Seat and Its Diplomatic Consequences

51:15 India–Africa Relations and the Underdeveloped Economic Dimension of South–South Diplomacy

54:21 Hindu Nationalism and Its Influence on the Ideational Foundations of Indian Diplomacy

58:24 Neglected Themes and Under-Researched Domains in the Study of Indian Foreign Policy

*** at 10:29, there is a missing word ‘overstated’

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In this episode, Martin Vladimirov unpacks Bulgaria’s evolving energy landscape in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine. We discuss shifts in the country’s energy mix, offshore wind prospects in the Black Sea, the strategic role of gas pipelines and interconnectors, and the future of key assets such as the Chiren gas storage facility, the Maritsa Iztok lignite complex, and potential new nuclear reactors.

Martin Vladimirov is Director of the Energy and Climate Program at the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), where his work focuses on European and Balkan energy security, energy transition pathways, and the geopolitical dimensions of Russian and Chinese economic influence. He has extensive experience as an energy analyst for The Oil and Gas Year, contributing in-depth reports on Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Saudi Arabia, and has consulted for international oil companies across the GCC and MENA regions. Martin is also an affiliated expert with the European Geopolitical Forum in Brussels and previously worked as an energy and economic analyst for CEE Market Watch, covering Iran and Central Asia.

Selected Publications

• Managing Assets Under OFAC Sanctions
• Energy and Climate Security in Europe: From Crisis Response to Structural Transformation
• The Kremlin Playbook in Mexico: Asymmetric Influence
• The Imperative to Weaken the Kremlin’s War Economy: What the West Can Do
• Closing the backdoor: The new TurkStream is here. Can the West stop it?

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:38 Bulgaria’s Evolving Energy Mix after the War in Ukraine

09:07 Exploring Bulgaria’s Offshore Wind Potential

12:45 Strategic Energy Pipelines Crossing Bulgaria

17:16 Bulgaria’s Relationship with Gazprom and Gas Contracts

24:14 The Greece–Bulgaria Gas Interconnector (IGB)

27:05 Alexandroupolis LNG Terminal and Regional Gas Connectivity

28:53 The Role of Chiren Underground Gas Storage

34:31 The Future of the Maritsa Iztok Lignite Power Complex

40:50 Assessing the Feasibility of Two New Nuclear Reactors

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This episode of The IR thinker features a wide-ranging conversation with Professor Dimitry Kochenov on what it really means to “belong” in a world where citizenship is conditional, unequal, and sometimes absent altogether. We unpack the paradox of citizenship as both a legal fiction and a lived necessity, probing whether institutions truly “grant” citizenship, what it means to live as stateless, and whether “real” EU citizenship exists beyond the rhetoric. The discussion traces how EU citizenship can simultaneously empower individuals, through mobility, rights, and protection, while also hollowing out democratic accountability in member states. We examine “market citizenship” and the monetisation of legal status, asking whether citizenship-by-investment schemes that effectively sell access to the EU should be abolished, and close with a critical look at multiple citizenship: is it an emerging path towards global justice or simply an additional layer of privilege for the already mobile?

Professor Dimitry Kochenov is a leading scholar of global citizenship and constitutionalism, with a particular focus on the rule of law, EU federalism, and external relations law. He heads the Rule of Law research group at the Democracy Institute of Central European University in Budapest and teaches Global Citizenship at CEU’s Department of Legal Studies in Vienna. Through his work on statelessness, EU citizenship, and the political economy of “citizenship for sale”, he has become a key voice in contemporary debates on how legal status shapes human dignity, mobility, and the evolving architecture of international order.

Selected Publications

• EU enlargement and the failure of conditionality: pre-accession conditionality in the fields of democracy and the rule of law
• Citizenship
• Citizenship and residence sales: rethinking the boundaries of belonging
• Ukraine and the EU enlargement: what is the law and which is the way forward?

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

02:02 The Paradox: Can Institutions Grant Citizenship?

06:23 Living Stateless: Can Humans Exist Without Citizenship?

16:56 Does “Real” EU Citizenship Actually Exist?

36:06 Democracy’s Double Edge: How EU Citizenship Both Empowers and Undermines

50:26 Market Citizenship: When Human Worth Becomes Economic Value

56:39 Citizenship for Sale: Should the EU abolish those schemes?

01:08:06 One Citizenship or Many? The Multiple Citizenship Debate

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This episode of The IR thinker offers a clear and structured tour of contemporary nuclear strategy with Dr Stephen Herzog, moving from the basic categories of nuclear weapons to the political struggles surrounding their control. We unpack the logic of existential and extended deterrence, alliance commitments and escalation management, and examine how arms control agreements and the Non-Proliferation Treaty sustain, yet also entrench, a great power nuclear monopoly. The conversation tackles aspirant nuclear states, debates over “how many is enough”, and the tension between confidence and overconfidence in crisis signalling, before turning to how emerging technologies are reshaping verification, command-and-control, and the broader governance of nuclear weapons.

Dr Stephen Herzog is Professor of the Practice at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and an Associate of the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard Kennedy School. A leading specialist in nuclear non-proliferation and arms control, he combines academic expertise with policy experience gained as a technical nuclear arms control official at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he worked directly on the implementation and verification of nuclear agreements. His work bridges theory and practice to illuminate how deterrence, treaty regimes and technological change interact in shaping global nuclear security.

Selected Publications

• Atomic Backfires: When Nuclear Policies Fail
• Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Weapons Proliferation: The Technological Arms Race for (In)visibility
• ‘What about China?’ and the threat to US–Russian nuclear arms control
• Atomic responsiveness: How public opinion shapes elite beliefs and preferences on nuclear weapon use
• Winning Hearts and Minds? How the United States Reassured During the Russo-Ukrainian War
• The Trilateral Dilemma: Great Power Competition, Global Nuclear Order, and Russia’s War on Ukraine

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:57 Types and Categories of Nuclear Weapons

08:40 Tactical Nuclear Weapons: Historical and Contemporary Contexts

10:32 Understanding the Concept of Existential Deterrence

16:39 Extended Deterrence and the Logic of Alliance Security

25:54 The NPT and the Persistence of Great Power Monopoly

31:53 Treaty Reform or Status Quo? The Politics of Nuclear Governance

33:12 Aspirant States and the Quest for Nuclear Capability

34:47 Escalation Control: Between Arms Agreements and Overconfidence

43:15 The Dilemma of Quantity: Many vs. Few Nuclear Weapons

50:38 Authority and Legitimacy: Who Decides Nuclear Access?

55:58 Technological Challenges to Nuclear Security and Control

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This episode of The IR thinker features Professor Chenggang Xu on the conceptual and empirical foundations of his book Institutional Genes: Origins of China’s Institutions and Totalitarianism. The conversation unpacks what he means by “institutions” and “institutional genes”, how this framework helps to open the black box of political change, and why certain systems prove remarkably resilient over time. We explore the notion of “stemness”, the contrasts between imperial China and European monarchies, and how specific “genes” in the Russian system shaped Bolshevism. Professor Xu then traces Mao’s fusion of Marxism with the legacy of Qin Shi Huang, the institutional differences between Soviet and Chinese communism, and whether contemporary China should be understood as totalitarian or authoritarian. The discussion closes by examining tyrannical incentive structures, the risks of Soviet-style stagnation, and how the institutional genes framework can be extended beyond domestic politics to foreign policy and other domains of global governance.

Professor Chenggang Xu is a Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI) and a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. A leading scholar of institutional economics, political economy and the Chinese political–economic system, he is widely known for developing the concept of regionally decentralised authoritarianism and, more recently, for his work on institutional genes and the historical roots of Chinese totalitarianism. His research is extensively cited in both academic and policy circles, and he has been awarded the China Economics Prize and the Sun Yefang Economics Prize in recognition of his contribution to the study of institutions, development and authoritarian governance.

Selected Publications

• The fundamental institutions of China’s reforms and development
• Incentives, information, and organizational form
• Industrial clustering, income and inequality in rural China
• Clustering, growth and inequality in China

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:45 Why this book? The story behind ‘Institutional Genes’

06:34 Defining ‘institution’ in the institutional genes framework

10:45 Opening the black box: How institutional genes explain political change

16:29 The concept of ‘stemness’ explained

20:01 Imperial China vs European monarchies: Why China was more autocratic

28:28 The three Russian genes that created Bolshevism

33:43 Mao’s fusion: Marx plus Qin Shi Huang

38:58 Soviet vs Chinese communism: Key institutional differences

42:23 Totalitarian or authoritarian? Defining modern China

48:35 Tyrannical incentive-compatibility: How totalitarian systems motivate

53:01 Will China face Soviet-style economic stagnation?

58:52 Applying institutional genes to foreign policy

01:03:16 Beyond domestic politics: Where else can we apply this framework?

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