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The Transnational Institute (TNI) is issuing an open call for essays, accessible papers, infographics and artistic collaborations for its 13th State of Power report to be launched in January 2025. The focus for our 13th edition is on the geopolitics of capitalism. Deadline for 1-2 page pitches: 5 June.
TNI’s annual State of Power reports have, since their launch in 2012, become a must-read reference point for citizens, activists and academics concerned to understand the nature of power in our globalised world in order to inform struggles for justice. With a mixture of compelling infographics and insightful essays, State of Power has examined different dimensions of power (economic, political, social, cultural), exposed the key actors who exercise power, and highlighted movements of counter-power seeking to transform our world. State of Power reports have also been widely praised for their inspiring essays and brilliant art.
As well as an English edition, TNI also co-produces a Spanish edition of the report in collaboration with Fuhem Ecosocial and the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO)
We live in an age of empire and resistance - a shifting geography of global power. The military, political and financial support of one country, the US, above all others has allowed a small country - Israel - to commit genocide in Gaza, to the horror of the vast majority of people worldwide. The US military, its corporations, its digital giants, its banks, and its culture continue to dominate globally.
Yet at the same time, US-led imperialism has never felt more fractured and resisted. The heavily-resourced US army has been forced out of Afghanistan and this year was expelled from Niger. Nations such as Nicaragua and South Africa are taking powerful former colonial countries to court. Other international institutions, long seen as vehicles for exporting or enforcing US-led neoliberalism, such as the World Trade Organisation have seemingly run out of steam. The US is also increasingly isolated globally: Brazil, China, India, Russia and other nations are directly challenging its hegemony, and the US’ dysfunctional democracy is less and less cited as a model by other countries. There is a growing popular sense that the post-Cold War neoliberal globalised order is in crisis.
There is a need, though, to properly examine where geopolitical or geoeconomic power lies today – and how it is being exercised and how that might be changing. Is US hegemony really fading? Does any other nation, including China, pose any real challenge to US power, let alone offer a political or economic alternative? Has the heralded hope of a BRICS bloc collapsed amidst its contradictions? Are there any competing imperialist or sub-imperialist nations to the US whose power needs reckoning with? What does the reorganisation of supply chains on arguments of national security mean for the neoliberal idea of a borderless world for capital? How will the unfolding climate crisis affect this? What are transnational movements fighting for in terms of global governance? What would it take to build a more equitable and just new international political and economic order?
For its 2025 edition, TNI is interested in proposals that explore these geopolitical shifts within capitalism in creative ways that help deepen understanding. We need to understand how power is shifting, what is changing and not, and where the new challenges and opportunities lie for transnational social movements. We welcome reflections from different disciplinary fields in order to create as rounded a picture as possible. We are also interested in producing some infographics or artwork that expose the reality.
In sum, our ultimate goal is not analysis for its own sake but rather to equip and empower international activists and movements with the analysis to sharpen their strategies to challenge, confront and overcome entrenched power.
These are some questions – but not an exclusive list – that we are interested in exploring and understanding better. In every case, we are interested in analysis of power relations – the what, the who, the how:
As well as analysis, TNI would also be interested in specific case-studies that draw out general lessons as well as stories and artwork and films that help us understand the energy and power in creative and imaginative ways.
TNI has a small number of grants of 250-500 euros – to be prioritized for activists with low-incomes and/or working in the Global South. Please mention in your submission if you wish to apply for this grant, which will be awarded if your essay is published in the main report.
While TNI is proud of our high standard of scholarship, this call does not require any specific academic qualifications. Contributors to earlier editions of State of Power have included students, professors, well-known authors, journalists, activists and artists - all at different stages of their careers and lives. TNI particularly welcomes submissions by women, young scholars/artists and people based in the Global South.
The final report will be made up of a mixture of essays from this open call, a number of pre-commissioned essays, infographics as well as accompanying podcast(s) and webinar(s). The decision on which papers are featured will be decided by an Editorial Panel made up of editors of the report and a number of TNI’s associates. The selection process will follow five stages:
1. In the first stage, researchers will be asked to send to stateofpower@tni.org a:
a) 1-2 page pitch for your long-read essay
b) a short bio
c) 3-5 links to previous work. It will help your application if your previous work is not just limited to academic texts but includes some more accessible journalistic pieces.
Pitches should include:
• the main argument you are trying to make
• how it relates to and helps us understand geopolitical and economic power
• the key points you would include
• stories or examples that illustrate it
The pitch can be based on existing papers or be provisional ideas of what you hope to explore. If you would like to apply for the grant – available to low-income participants –please indicate this at this stage.
2. Those whose pitches are chosen will be asked to submit an essay. The top 4-5 essays will be selected for the report by the Editorial Panel.
3. Authors of the selected essays will be invited to a ‘virtual’ authors conference to both present their work and give constructive feedback on one other essay.
4. The selected essays will go through a final round of revisions based on feedback by the Editorial Panel, and subject to final copyedit.
4. Essays that do not make the top 8-10– and are considered good essays by the Editorial Panel - will be available as downloadable PDFs linked from the main report. Grants unfortunately won’t be available though for the essays that don’t appear in the main report.