CALL FOR PAPERS - 5th HITIT INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON SECURITY STUDIES (2026)
The 5th Hitit International Congress on Security Studies, organized by the Department of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Hitit University, will be held in 2026 for the fifth time. To date, more than 500 papers have been presented at the congress, bringing together numerous academics, researchers, and experts in both general and thematic sessions. The congress will take place on 20–22 November 2026 in a hybrid format, allowing participants to attend either online or in person, depending on their preference.
The congress aims to serve as a platform that brings together researchers working in the field of security, where both traditional and contemporary issues in security studies are discussed and new perspectives that may shape the field are examined. Taking into consideration the fragmented nature of the world system in many respects, the disregard of international norms by various actors, and ongoing international debates and trends concerning the return of a multipolar world, the 5th Hitit International Congress on Security Studies will focus on debates surrounding the “rules-based order,” which lies at the heart of these discussions. Accordingly, while not limited to this topic, the main theme of this year’s congress will be “Challenges to the Rules-Based Order: Debating the Future of Security in the International System.” As detailed in the list of congress topics, the congress aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of security studies in terms of both theoretical and conceptual frameworks, as well as current dimensions of key issues in the field.
Security, and more specifically international security, has been one of the core areas of inquiry within the discipline of International Relations and has remained among the most extensively studied subjects since the emergence of the discipline. With its dynamic nature, security studies has become a field that increasingly incorporates new dimensions and continues to face new questions and challenges as a result of transformations within the discipline and in international politics. In the current period, in which questions and problems are becoming increasingly diverse and complex, there is a growing need for comprehensive analyses, particularly from the perspective of regional security, as well as for the examination of policies pursued by international political actors in response to this new context and for a thorough evaluation of their adequacies and inadequacies.
This congress aims to bring together researchers and distinguished scholars working in the field in order to revisit and discuss these debates in security studies by also incorporating the search for peace in international politics. The congress will address a wide range of subfields, including international security, ontological security, migration studies, intelligence, energy politics, environmental security and policies, terrorism, the defense industry, economic security, cybersecurity, the crypto economy, geopolitics, area studies, criminology, transnational crimes, war and peace studies, conflict and crisis management, debates on globalization, public security, and current issues in international security.
Through the congress, it is aimed to foster comprehensive oral academic discussions and to contribute to the literature through scholarly publications. As in previous years, submitted abstracts will be evaluated in 2026 through a double-blind peer-review process, and qualified papers will be included in the congress program. In addition, selected full-text papers that are found successful may have the opportunity to be published in the Hitit Journal of Economics and Politics.
