Judging under constraint

Tuesday 10 March 2026
6.30pm - 8pm
In-person public event (Old Theatre, Old Building)

International courts are regularly called upon to address some of the most pressing issues of international and regional affairs. Policymakers, practitioners, and scholars observe variation in how international courts respond to the cases brought before them. At times, international courts defer to states, whereby they accept a state’s exercise of authority. Other times, they reject states’ exercise of authority. How can we explain this variation in judicial deference?

During this event, Dr Theresa Squatrito will present her new book, which examines deference by international courts. She will explain how a judicial deference is shaped by judicial independence and the political preferences of states. She will demonstrate this argument based on evidence on the East African Court of Justice, Caribbean Court of Justice, and African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Meet our speaker

Dr Theresa Squatrito is Associate Professor in International Organisations in the Department of International Relations at LSE. She teaches international organisations and international institutions at LSE. 

Discussants

Kofi Oteng Kufuor is Professor of Law in the University of East London. He is the author of The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: The Development of a Regional Rules-Based Trading Order (2024) Routledge; and World Trade Governance and Developing Countries: the GATT/WTO Code Committee System, (2004) Blackwell.

Mark A Pollack is Thomas J. Freaney Professor of Political Science and Law and Jean Monnet Chair at Temple University. His research focuses on international law, international organizations, and EU law and politics. He is the co-host, with Katerina Linos, of the Borderlines CJEU Profiles series of interviews with judges and advocates general of the European Court of Justice.

Chair

Jens Meierhenrich is Professor of International Relations in the Department of International Relations at LSE.

This public event is free and open to all. No ticket or pre-registration is required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis.

For any queries email ir.events@lse.ac.uk.

Find out more about the event and speakers

Resilience and community in International Relations: Lessons from Central Eurasia

Thursday 19 March 2026
6.30pm - 8pm
In-person public event (MAR 1.04, Marshall Building, LSE)

Hosted by the Department of International Relations and the European Foreign Policy Unit

In this book launch, Professor Elena Korosteleva will present her new book, Complexity and Community in International Relations: Nurturing Resilience in Central Eurasia (Oxford, 2025).

The book offers an innovative perspective on how communities in Central Eurasia - including Belarus, Ukraine, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia - display a much higher degree of resilience. This is based on centuries-long traditions, social memory, ideas of community and culture to nurture resilience in the face of poverty, climate emergency, conflict, and war. Rather than treating resilience as a mere policy tool, the study reframes it as a complex, communal process of identity, relations-building and a political agency, with capabilities to design more sustainable futures and a lesson for all social and political actors across the globe in the Anthropocene.

Professor Korosteleva's talk will be followed by a discussion with IR scholars and Q&A.

Meet our speaker

Elena Korosteleva is Professor of International Politics and Director of the Institute of Global Sustainable Development (IGSD). In April 2024 Elena was appointed Chair for the Sustainability Spotlight, Warwick-wide interdisciplinary research-focused network to address planetary challenges collectively; and in July 2024 she was elected to be a member of the Scientific Council for COP29. 

Discussants

David Chandler is Professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster. 

Teona Giuashvili is the DINAM Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE, pursuing research on EU foreign policy towards Eastern Europe and on the political and security implications of Russia’s war against Ukraine for the EU, NATO and the Black Sea region. 

Emilian Kavalski is Professor of International Relations at Tampere University in Finland. 

Chair

Federica Bicchi is Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of International Relations at LSE. 

This public event is free and open to all. No ticket or pre-registration is required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis.

For any queries email ir.events@lse.ac.uk.

Find out more about the event and speakers

Europe after 'The West'?

Thursday 26 March 2026
6.30pm - 8pm
In-person public event (MAR 1.04, Marshall Building, LSE)

What happens to Europe’s identity when the very idea of ‘the West’ begins to fracture? This event examines Europe’s evolving place within an international system marked by a diffusion of power, contested norms, and growing patterns of multi‑alignment.

Meet our speakers

Dimitar Bechev is the Director of the Dahrendorf Programme at the European Studies Centre, which explores Europe’s role in a changing world. 

Karen E Smith is Professor of International Relations Theory in the Department of International Relations at LSE. Her main research interests lie in the fields of foreign policy analysis and the study of international organisations. 

Chair

Teona Giuashvili is the DINAM Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE.

This public event is free and open to all. No ticket or pre-registration is required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis.

For any queries email ir.events@lse.ac.uk.

Find out more about the event and speakers