The Union of International Associations (UIA) is a non-governmental organization with a history dating back to 1907. It has a longstanding commitment to supporting and documenting internationalism, as reflected in the data gathering and analysis for its Yearbook of International Organizations. The UIA also organizes regular Associations Round Table events, conceived as a space for exchange and learning for members and staff of different kinds of international associations.
In order to highlight the value of historical perspectives for contemplating present-day challenges, two projects teamed up to offer sessions at the UIA’s 2025 Round Table event, which took place on 21 November 2025 in Brussels: our history delegation comprised Ria Kapoor, Jessica Reinisch, Gordon Barrett and Daniel Laqua, based on our involvement in “Rethinking Internationalism: Histories and Pluralities” (a project funded via a Curiosity grant from the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council) and the Trans-Atlantic Platform project on “Global Governance, Trust and Democratic Engagement in Past and Present” (GLO). Each of these projects ran two sessions, and Daniel Laqua also chaired an opening plenary discussion for the event.
The “Rethinking Internationalism” workshop sessions at the Round Table had been prepared by Ria Kapoor, Jessica Reinisch and Margot Tudor. Entitled “Learning from the Past? Making Sense of Internationalism and its Histories”, the session highlighted the multifarious nature of internationalism: alongside the “liberal” variant of internationalism, the sessions also drew attention to counter-hegemonic variants of internationalism. Moreover, they also tackled the existence of discriminatory and oppressive forms of internationalism. To stimulate discussion (and offer a flavour of the language adopted by different protagonists of internationalism), participants received a number of primary sources. Engagement with these documents sparked many interesting discussions.
Meanwhile, Gordon Barrett and Daniel Laqua ran workshop sessions under the heading “From Problem to Progress: Conflict as Creativity for International Organisations” (with conceptual input from GLO team member Sophie Scott-Brown). The session began with Daniel Laqua offering an overview of the history of international organizations. Following on from this, Gordon Barrett presented two case studies, drawn from his research on the relationship between science and international affairs. His examples highlight potential sources of conflict within international organizations: the first case concerned contestation surrounding questions of membership and national representation; the second case revolved around competing interpretations regarding an organization’s ideals and mission. These examples then were used as a basis for joint reflection with the participants, who shared experiences from their own organizations, including ways of how to tackle potential sources of conflict.
The different sessions were well-attended and generated many interesting conversations, making this a success exercise in public engagement for both the “Rethinking Internationalism” and GLO projects. We very much appreciated the overall framework and impeccable organizing skills of UIA staff and look forward to future collaborations.
