WORKSHOP: Authors’ Workshop on Patron-Client Relationships in World Politics

Organisation: Géza Tasner & Rafael Biermann (both FSU)

Summary

Between June 13 and 16, 2024, we successfully completed an Authors’ Workshop on Patron-Client Relationships in World Politics in the medieval Dornburg Castle of World Cultural Heritage (Thuringia, Germany). The goal is to publish a volume which re-invigorates research on this topic in International Relations, edited by Rafael Biermann (FSU Jena), Nicoló Fasola (University of Bologna) and Ivica Petrikova (Royal Holloway, University of London).

The workshop is an integral part of a multi-year research project facilitated by the Chair of International Relations at FSU. The project, initiated in 2021 with another workshop in the Dornburg Castle, seeks to develop a systemic conceptualization of patron-client relationships and explore its analytical utility, explanatory potential, and limitations in contemporary international relations research. In a first stage, we had focused on patron-client relations in secessionist conflict. An upcoming special issue on this topic in the interdisciplinary journal Territory, Politics, Governance will soon make the first insights from this research program available to the scientific community. In a second stage, we have expanded the scope of the project to investigate patron-client relations in world politics in general. Consequently, the project has advanced through further workshops: one in the summer of 2022 in Thessaloniki (Greece), a European Workshop in International Studies (EWIS) by the European International Studies Association (EISA), and another in the spring of 2023 in Toulouse as part of the Joint Sessions of Workshops of the European Consortium of Political Research (ECPR). These events have brought together a group of senior academics and early career researchers who now form the backbone of the project. In Toulouse, we decided to take the next step and aim for the edited volume mentioned above.

Our recent multiday Authors’ Workshop in Dornburg was dedicated to this task. The event began on the evening of June 13 with an insightful public lecture in the Astoria Lecture Hall of FSU Jena, delivered by General Heinrich Brauß, a former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning. General Brauß talked about current global security shifts. In his lecture, he identified and analyzed the major threats and challenges faced by NATO and Germany from a political-military perspective. These included, among others, a hostile Russia, various consequences of climate change including armed conflicts over shrinking resources, and the potential return of Donald Trump, with his NATO skepticism, to the Presidency of the United States.

The next morning, fifteen of us gathered for three days in Dornburg to discuss each other’s individual contributions to the book and provide feedback on the chapter drafts submitted beforehand by the participants. Some more who could not physically attend were looped into our discussions online. We were delighted by the interest in our research project, which attracted scholars based in Australia, Italy, Norway, and the United Kingdom, among others. The topics were also very diverse, ranging from more theoretical pieces to applications of the patron-client concept in a wide range of issue areas and across many state and non-state actor types. Geographically, the case studies covered almost all global regions. The most innovative papers explored the application of the concept beyond the state-to-state orthodoxy and narrow focus on security, both of which dominate the existing scholarship.

All in all, the latest workshop was a success and moved us closer to our goal of publishing the book. As the next step, revised chapters will be submitted and discussed by the editors in Rapallo (Italy) within the framework of EISA’s Exploratory Symposia in October 2024. Our ultimate goal is to have the final text ready for publication by 2025.

Programme

13 June 2024 – Thursday

18:30 Public Lecture by Gen. Heinrich Brauß, former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning Astoria-Hörsaal

14 June 2024 – Friday

9:15-10:30 Opening session: Welcome by the organizers and editors for Patron-client Relations in World Politics (Rafael Biermann)

10:30-10:45 Coffee Break

10:45-13:00 Panel I: Conceptualizing PCRs – Moderator: Nicolò Fasola
● Civil Society Patronage: Transnational Advocacy in Self Determination Conflicts (Christopher Brucker) – Discussant: Géza Tasner
● Patron-Client Relations in a Changing International Environment (Martin Welz) – Discussant: Christopher Brucker
● Interpatronal Rivalry (Géza Tasner) – Discussant: Martin Welz

14:30-15:15: Panel II: Delineation from other concepts – Moderator: Géza Tasner
● Patron-Client Relationships and Clientelism (Sebastian Hoppe) – Discussant: Rafael Biermann

15:15-15:30 Coffee Break

15:30-17:00 Panel III: Great power patronage – Moderator: Géza Tasner
● United-States-South Korea Relations: Explaining partnership-threatening crises in PCRs (Sung Jin Park) – Discussant: Nicolò Fasola
● Russia-Syria Relations: A Patron-Client Lens on Motives, Resources, and Long-Term Sustainability (Nicoló Fasola) – Discussant: Sung Jin Park

15 June 2024 – Saturday

9:15-10:45 Panel IV: Great power patronage continued + Middle and rising power patronage – Moderator: Sung Jin Park
● Sino-Burmese Relations (Lea Zuliani)  – Discussant: Loretta Dell’Aguzzo, online
● Patron-client state relations and the geopolitics of authoritarian survival and breakdown: evidence from the MENA countries (Loretta Dell’Aguzzo, online) – Discussant: Lea Zuliani

10:45-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Panel V: Non-state actors as patrons – Moderator: Christopher Brucker
● IOs as patrons: EU Gender Policies in Tunisia (Clara della Valle) – Discussant: Sara Berloto
● Individuals as Patrons: The Case of Philanthropy (Sara Berloto) – Discussant: Clara della Valle

14:00-15:30 Panel VI: Terrorism and migration – Moderator: Ivica Petrikova
● Patron-client Relations in International Terrorism: The Relationship between Al-Qaida and AQAP (Anne Likuski, online) – Discussant: Andres Kroknes
● Patron-client Relations in Migration: The Complex Dynamics between the European Union and Niger (Andres Kroknes) – Discussant: Anne Likuski , online

15:30-15:45 Coffee break

15:45-16:30 Panel VII/1: International finance and development aid – Moderator: Rafael Biermann
● Patron-client Relations in Development Assistance (Ivica Petrikova) – Discussant: Ad van Riet

16 June 2024 – Sunday

9:15-10:00 Panel VII/2: International finance and development aid – Moderator: Rafael Biermann
● Patron-Client Relationships in International Money and Finance: The Case of France and the CFA Franc Zone (Ad van Riet) – Discussant: Ivica Petrikova

10:00-11:30 Panel VIII: Secessionism and surrogate warfare – Moderator: Géza Tasner
● Surrogate Warfare and Patron-Client Relationships (Leontine von Felbert) – Discussant: Ivan Laškarin
● Patron-client Relations in Secessionist Conflicts: The Formation and Termination of the Relationship between Serbia and Serb Krajina (Ivan Laškarin) – Discussant: Leontine von Felbert

11:30-11:45 Coffee Break
11:45-12:30 Wrap up and conclusions

(c) FSU Jena