Chair Delivers Conference Section at EISA PEC 2025

Our Chair in cooperation with Dr. Nicoló Fasola—Adjunct Professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Bologna—has successfully delivered a section, titled "Patron-Client Relations in a Changing World Order," at the EISA 18th Pan-European Conference on International Relations. The conference took place between 25-29 August 2025, and was hosted by the University of Bologna, Italy.

Our section, chaired by Prof. Dr. Rafael Biermann and Dr. Nicoló Fasola, furthered the patron-client relations research program that has been ongoing at the Chair since 2021. Several authors from our "Patron-Client Relations in World Politics" edited volume (to be published in 2026) as well as previously uninvolved colleagues presented their papers in one of the four panels. The participants integrated the patron-client concept into their research across a wide range of topics including international security, finance, philanthropy, terrorism, regionalism, human rights, and gender studies.

Several members of our Chair also presented their papers. These included the following:

• Prof. Dr. Rafael Biermann: "Patron-Client Relations in Global Governance: A Conceptualization"; "International Organizations as Patrons in Global Governance" (co-authored with Dr. Nicoló Fasola)
• Géza Tasner: "Interpatronal Rivalry"
• Sung Jin Park: "United States-South Korea Relations: Explaining Crises within Patron-Client Relations"
• Lea Zuliani: "China-Myanmar Relations: The Role of Domestic Preferences in Shaping Client Autonomy"
• Christopher Brucker: "Civil Society Patronage: Activists as Patrons in Self-Determination Conflicts"

Two Chair members participated in other sections as well. Sung Jin Park presented his paper titled "What Explains the Absence of Official Memory in Post-Conflict States? Evidence from Nepal, 2006–2024" at a panel dedicated to peace studies. Xueru Zhang delivered a presentation regarding her paper titled "The Responsibility to Protect in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding: A Case Study of Venezuela." She also acted as a discussant for the panel "International Security in the Times of Multiple Crises: Theory and Practice of Crisis Management."

The section has successfully raised awareness about our patron-client research, and was an important step in promoting the upcoming "Patron-Client Relations in World Politics" edited volume.

For more information about our research program, please refer to the dedicated subpage of our website.

For a full list of the panels and participants of our EISA section (S31), please refer to the conference programExternal link and locate panels WB-S31, WD-S31, TA-S31, and TB-S31.