Abstract The variety of topics studied in the field of International Relations contrasts sharply with the relatively anemic theoretical framework that IR scholars use to study those topics. The search for “midlevel theory” has led to a vast proliferation of explanatory variables that matter for specific questions. While that approach has significant advantages, a significant disadvantage is that it leads to an intellectual blizzard. Computers might thrive on hundreds of variables, but humans need efficient ways to understand problems. This essay proposes three ordering principles as a framework for teaching and guide for intellectual inquiry: Anarchy, Nature, and Innovation. Ordering principles are not the same as variables: they provide holistic information about how a system fits together. While Anarchy has long been recognized as an ordering principle, treating Anarchy as the sole ordering principle leads to a flawed, static, overly conflictual view of the world. That mistake can be substantially remedied by treating Nature and Innovation as similarly important ordering principles. A critique of three recent books illustrates the intellectual gains of using this set of three ordering principles to guide inquiry.

Abstract Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are operating in a challenging environment as governments are shrinking civic space and there is increasing competition for funding. Scholars have begun to examine how NGOs are adapting to these external challenges, but IR scholars have not yet systematically studied variation in their legal status and funding models. This article draws on scholarship from the NGO, not-for-profit, and political science literature, as well as publicly available datasets of NGOs’ legal status and finances. It identifies differences in legal form and funding models across large, well-established international NGOs. NGOs are often registering with multiple legal types, which enables them to adapt to shrinking civic space and engage in partisan politics. In addition, NGOs have different funding models; some rely on member donations, while others rely on large grants from philanthropic donors and/or the government. These funding models lead to different accountability dilemmas: member capture and donor capture. If IR scholars were to examine in detail the legal forms and funding models of NGOs, it would enrich our existing theories of resource competition, accountability, population ecology and shrinking civic space. It would also open new, exciting research agendas into the relationship between issue-based advocacy and partisan politics.

Abstract Central banks lie at the interface between domestic and international political economy. Powerful technocracies tasked with domestic and international macroeconomic governance functions are responsible for monetary policy, sometimes banking supervision, and to contribute to overall financial stability. On occasion, they supervise a variety of non-banking financial services and other functions, such as anti-money laundering. During economic and financial turmoil, central banks can be crisis managers of last resort, or actually crisis managers of first resort. Today, many central banks often enjoy independence from the political authorities. They are important actors in the international monetary and financial systems acting separately from government actors. Central banks contribute to shaping these systems, and are, in turn, affected by them. Major geopolitical developments pose significant challenges to central banks and thus to the scholars studying them. This forum takes stock of current academic and policy debates on the European Central Bank (ECB) and the euro. Individual contributions explore key aspects of the ECB and the euro: the ECB as an overstretched multi-tasking technocracy, struggling with multiple goals; the distributive effects of ECB’s policies; the ECB as a global normative and policy entrepreneur in combating climate change; and the geopolitics of the euro, in particular, the failed promise of the euro as a leading international currency. Together, these contributions tackle fundamental questions about the past, present, and future of the euro and the ECB; offer contending perspectives on the success (or otherwise) of this experiment; and point out what features would warrant further study. We reflect on how these analyses feed into the broader literature on central banks and international organizations in the global political economy more generally.

This paper will explore the gendered implications of online education during the pandemic in Canada.The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the educational environment by transporting in-person social developments within conventional school structures into an online and unfamiliar environment ( Bilodeau, Kehler, and Minnema 2021 ).In this new setting, young women face a range of barriers to education and exacerbated forms of cyberbullying ( Kusumawaty et al. 2021 ; Mkhize and Goapl 2021 ).Moving forward with the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda and efforts for recovery (as mentioned by K.C. and Mackenzie in the forum introduction), Canada's COVID-19 educational recovery plan requires a comprehensive gendered perspective, with attention to the impacts of COVID-19 on young women's education.This paper explores the intersectional gendered impacts of educational shifts associated with COVID-19, with attention to unpaid labor, unequal access to technology, unreliable access to health resources, and cyberbullying.Although these were preexisting issues for young women, this paper highlights how the pandemic exacerbated them in ways that could have long-term implications for education quality and equity.Conducting schooling online and within the home has contributed to the retraditionalization of gender roles.Young women students are more likely to be relegated to unpaid and additional home-making labor during periods of school closures ( Reliefweb 2021 ; Canadian Partnership for Women and Children's Health 2022 ).This impedes their ability to balance educational responsibilities with homemaking duties.Elevated rates of stress and decreasing resilience to educational changes can lead to education disengagement ( Whitley, Beauchamp, and Brown 2021 ), resulting in poorer results in reading, math, and sciences among youth ( Frenette, Frank, and Deng 2020 ).These factors are compounded by attitudinal factors toward the expectation of women to maintain the home while minimizing the need for digital skills ( Webb et al. 2021 ).This argument corroborates Azmi's findings (from this forum) on women migrant returnees who face diverse economic and domestic challenges upon their return home during the pandemic, intensified by existing inequalities.Research indicates that a decrease in access to quality education over time can lead to sustained disadvantages in future vocational opportunities ( Maldonado and De Witte 2022 ;Sabates, Carter, and Stern 2023 ).While this analysis warns of the impact from gender roles and domestic challenges to education,

Abstract Does economic deprivation fuel terrorist recruitment? A large empirical literature has explored this question, but the findings remain contradictory and inconclusive. We argue that this is due to inconsistencies in the way deprivation has been defined and measured. This article identifies these deficiencies and provides a roadmap toward more precise measurement of deprivation and consequently toward a better understanding of its potential impact on the emergence of terrorism. More specifically, we propose a conceptual framework that distinguishes three different dimensions of relative deprivation: individual vs. collective, objective vs. subjective, and synchronic vs. diachronic. Combining them yields eight different mechanisms that could link economic status to terrorist radicalization. Drawing inspiration from fields such as conflict studies, social psychology, and political behavior, we outline some measurement approaches that could capture the mechanisms in a targeted way. The findings have implications for how researchers should collect data and design studies as well as for how policymakers should interpret the statistical results.

Abstract In various conflict contexts where the state is unable to maintain security and public order, non-state armed groups (NSAGs) and the United Nations (UN) conduct their activities alongside one another. While previous research has focused on hostile relations between the UN and NSAGs, less attention has been given to collaborative interactions. This paper aims to address this research gap by formulating a novel conceptual typology of NSAG–UN interactions in the context of a peace operation. The typological framework comprises two-dimensions: firstly, the thematic field of interaction including human rights, humanitarian needs and governance, security, and political processes and, secondly, the nature of interaction ranging from confrontation to cooperation. Based on the typology, interaction activities between the UN and NSAGs in two peacekeeping operations—the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) and the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA)—are systematically documented and described. While both cases show confrontation in the security field, UNOCI also commonly cooperated with NSAGs on security-related issues; MINUSMA instead cooperated with NSAGs primarily regarding the political process. The analysis further proposes factors that may explain such variation, including institutional arrangements and NSAG characteristics. The conceptual framework presented in this paper is crucial in advancing knowledge about an empirical phenomenon that we know little about and that has important implications for different forms of “local” engagement in peace operations and the effectiveness of UN policies and practices.