About this Event
The Research Centre in International Relations (RCIR) is delighted to invite you to the book talk by Dr Adam B Lerner, ‘A Theory of Agency in International Politics’ to be published by Oxford University Press.
A Theory of Agency in International Politics offers a new social theory of agency in international politics. Instead of assuming who the persons of the international system are and which goals they pursue, Adam’s theory explains how social relationships of recognition empower actors at multiple levels to reason through goals and procedures for achieving them. He defines international agency as the capacity to make meaningful choices with impacts across state borders. Drawing on recognition theory, critical realist philosophy of science, and feminist theories of relational autonomy and care ethics, he offers a framework for understanding agency as an emergent property of social systems. This framework explains what agency means in real-world politics, as well as where it comes from, how it operates, and how it informs attributions of moral responsibility. Moreover, he develops theoretical tools to flip from the detached perspective of structure to the first-person perspective of agency, revealing patterns of affordances and obstacles through which agents reason in decision-making. Adam’s theory thus provides initial basis to—as in the film Being John Malkovich—begin travelling down the hallway into an agentive perspective on international politics.
The book is an outcome of the Critical Actuarial Science Project supported by the British Academy. The Critical Actuarial Science Project is led by Dr Pauline Heinrichs and Adam B Lerner.
The book will be discussed by Dr Pauline Heinrichs, Lecturer in War Studies (Climate and Energy) and the event is chaired by Elif Kalaycioglu, Lecturer in International Relations, both at the Department of War Studies.
Please join us for this special event, followed by a Q&A and a drinks reception.
This event will take place in the King’s Building, G38, at King’s College London. A member of our team will be stationed at the King's Building reception to register you and direct you to the room.
Speaker: Dr Adam B Lerner
Discussants: Dr Pauline Sophie Heinrichs
Chair: Dr Elif Kalaycioglu
RCIR Speaker Series:
The RCIR Speaker Series is an initiative of the Research Centre in International Relations (RCIR) in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. RCIR is defined by an interdisciplinary orientation to the theorisation and analyses of the changing nature of international relations, with a particular focus on questions of security, conflict, and their social and political implications.
About the speaker:
Dr Adam B Lerner is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and an affiliate of the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. His first book, From the Ashes of History: Collective Trauma and the Making of International Politics, was published by Oxford University Press in March 2022. It received the 2025 IPSA Award for Concept Analysis, the 2023 Peter Katzenstein Book Prize, the 2023 Edgar S. Furniss Book Award, the 2023 ISA International Ethics Book Award, and the 2023 APSA Ideas, Knowledge, and Politics Book Award. His refereed articles have appeared in European Journal of International Relations, International Studies Quarterly, International Affairs, Review of International Political Economy, and Perspectives on Politics, among other outlets. His articles have received the 2024 APSA Heinz I. Eulau Award, the 2024 ISA Theory Section Best Post-PhD Paper Award, the 2024 ISA-NE A. Leroy Bennett Award, and the 2018 Northedge Prize.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
King’s Building, G38, London, United Kingdom
USD 0.00
