CALL FOR PAPERS

International Conference on Business, Management and Social Sciences (ICB-MASS)

14 – 15 March 2023

National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan

The post-COVID-19 moment in both academia and state practice emphasizes the need to explore security challenges emanating from multifaceted ‘nontraditional’ quarters. Thus, a state-centric ‘top-down’ delineation of traditional ‘national security’ is insufficient for addressing emergent sectors and variables associated with an increasingly dynamic threat matrix.

The domestic attributes of ‘nontraditional’ security areas may be said to reflect the interplay of indigenous, inter-sectorial contexts, combined with the pressures of geo-proximity and key global processes such as climate change. Considering this, non-traditional security – encompassing such themes as food, economic and business, health, environmental, and even cultural security present a dynamic configuration beyond the scope of hard-power strategizing. In the South Asian context, particularly, a breakdown in ‘human security’, illustrated through resource scarcity, inter-state institutional instability, and the rise of ethnic and religious violence, necessitates a recognition of otherwise marginalized referents and agents of ‘security’.

The world after COVID-19 is unlikely to return to the world that was. Many trends already underway in the global economy are being accelerated by the impact of the pandemic. This is especially true of the digital economy, with the rise of digital behavior such as remote working and learning, telemedicine, and delivery services. The business world has been heavily affected with impacts saliently visible on global, regional, and domestic logistic, supply chain, organizational behaviour and by extension undermining basic necessities of life. This jeopardy constitutes risk to human security and the proliferation of the threat of non-traditional security.

Other structural changes may also accelerate, including the regionalization of supply chains and a further explosion of cross-border data flows. The future of work has arrived faster, along with its challenge, many of them potentially multiplied, such as income polarization, worker vulnerability, and the need for workers to adapt to occupational transitions. This acceleration is the result of not only the technological advances but also of new considerations for health and safety, and economies and labor markets will take time to recover and will likely emerge changed.

With the amplification of these trends, the realities of this crisis have triggered a reconsideration of several beliefs, with possible effects on long-term choices for the economy and society. These effects range from attitudes about efficiency versus resilience, the future of capitalism, densification of economic activity and living, industrial policy, our approach to problems that affect us all and call for global and collective action—such as pandemics and climate change—to the role of government and institutions. As history has shown, choices made during crises can shape the world for decades to come. What will remain critical is the need for collective action to build economies that deliver inclusive economic growth, prosperity, and security for all.

More troubling are the numerous protracted conflicts compounding the unfinished consequent(s) of the COVID-19 pandemic. With an end of the war not in the horizon, non-traditional security threats are expected to spike in coming months if not years. It is in this backdrop that the conference aims to analyze multi-faceted aspects of human security and the development of a world still recovering from the pandemic.

The call for paper welcomes contributions that offer both theoretical and empirical analysis on the subject of Non-traditional security challenges – NTSC. The papers should be premised within domestic, regional, and global context. In the light of theory and praxis of security studies, policy studies and international economy – business, the contribution should unravel the multifaceted manifestations of NTSC in contemporary global, regional and domestic affairs. The contributions should also seek to proffer answers to these questions, what are the socio-political, geo-economic, and geo-political implications of NTSC? Will the NTSC further accentuate the un-flattened world by growing the divide between the global north and south, and should the NTSC be estimated as the beginning of a new security challenges? To what extent is the new emerging (non-traditional security threat) a product of neo-liberal economy and how different are these challenges from the traditional security threats? How much pragmatism does the world holds to confront the pressing challenges posed by?

Sub themes

Security, Peace and Conflict and Non-Traditional Security

1. Non-traditional security and global peace
2. Security challenges and prospects of Human security
3. Peace, conflict management and eco development
4. Labour, globalization and economic development
5. Pandemic, disaster and global governance
6. Climate change and development challenges
7. Protracted conflicts and security of the world 
8. Climate change and the need for trans-boundary security management systems
9. Cyber security and Non-traditional security

Non-Traditional Security in Context of Social Sciences and Humanities

1. Health security, state crisis management mechanisms in post COVID-19
2. Development theory and the normative challenge of securing human security
3. Water and energy security
4. Role of social media and Non-traditional security
5. Mental well-being and human security
6. The neoliberal economic model and the pursuit of human security through development
7. Neoliberalism and Pakistan’s National Security
8. Pakistan’s National Security Policy design post-COVID-19
9. Regional Connectivity and Sustainable Economic Growth

Non-Traditional Security and Global Management

1. Logistics and supply chain
2. Human Resources management
3. Organizational Behavior
4. Digitalization, Disruption and Innovation
5. Cybersecurity, accounting and international finance 
6. International Business and management
7. Work & organizational psychology
8. Green energy and sustainable finance

Aim

The target audience of the book will be scholars of International Relations, Area Studies, Global Studies, Business Management and Policy Studies. The insightful contributions in the papers should be a useful reading material policymakers and academics, think tanks, diplomats, international relations experts, who are desirous to have rich theoretical and empirical underpinnings of the unfolding realities in the contemporary global security issues and politics.

Proposal Format/types

Papers need a title, abstract, name(s) of the author(s), and institutional affiliation. The abstract should be no longer than 300 words.

Review Process

For Abstract submission: https://forms.gle/ie9TVUuq8j7XRj7M9

Timeline – Important Dates

• Call for abstracts – 21 October, 2022
• Abstracts due date – 31 December, 2022
• Notification (acceptance and rejection of abstracts) – 15 January, 2022
• Submission of Full Paper – 15 February, 2023
• International Conference – 14 & 15 March, 2023

For More Details: https://icbmass.nust.edu.pk/call-for-papers/