5XÉçÇø

Contemporary global politics is marked by uncertainty not only because established international orders are under pressure, but also because the actors, sites, and practices through which political authority is exercised are being transformed. This panel asks how power and governance are being reconfigured in the Global South as state authority increasingly interacts with non-state, subnational, transnational, and socially embedded forms of political agency.
The panel brings into dialogue three complementary perspectives. First, it examines the transformation of sovereignty, security, and biopolitical governance, including the ways in which states manage populations, territories, borders, and globalized security concerns. Second, it considers decolonial and critical approaches to political agency, asking how historically marginalized actors challenge established categories of authority and representation. Third, it explores the pluralization of international action through non-state diplomacy, transnational networks, and emerging forms of cooperation and governance that operate across and beyond formal interstate institutions. Rather than treating the state and non-state actors as separate spheres, the panel conceptualizes governance as a contested and multi-scalar process in which different forms of authority interact, overlap, and sometimes conflict. It therefore invites contributions that examine how actors from the Global South navigate geopolitical uncertainty while challenging, reproducing, or transforming existing international hierarchies. The panel welcomes theoretical, comparative, and empirical contributions addressing political agency, sovereignty, security, diplomacy, transnational activism, South-South cooperation, environmental and biosecurity governance, indigenous and subaltern politics, migration, regionalism, or other forms of pluralized global governance. Contributions may focus on Latin America or other regions of the Global South and are encouraged to engage critically with the geographical, political, and epistemological boundaries of the category itself. By bringing together state-centered, decolonial, and pluralist approaches, the panel seeks to contribute to broader debates on how governance is being rethought in a changing global system.