Changing perception of the roles and capabilities of small states | University of Westminster

Researchers from the Centre for the Study of Democracy discuss the vital role small states play in changing and maintaining world order.

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Conversation on Small States (CoSS) is an event series set up by Dr Nitasha Kaul at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the School of Social Sciences, University of Westminster.

During the event, researchers from the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) will present their arguments on how to conceptualise small states and why these states, whether in Central Asia, the Indian Ocean or beyond, play a vital role in changing and maintaining world order.

The speakers will aim to bring together the complex history and significant practices of these states and will discuss how small states not only have agency but are also equally important players in the international order.

Event format

6–6.30pm: on-site registration
6.30–6.45pm: introduction to CoSS by Dr Nitasha Kaul and welcome from the Head of School of Social Sciences, Professor Dibyesh Anand
6.45–7pm: Think Small by Aishath Leesha
7–7.15pm: Small states as Order-Makers by Birzhan Bakumbayev
7.15–7.30pm: Small state as a Norm Creators: A case of Community forestry in Nepal by Promod Tandan
7.30–8pm: response from Dr Nitasha Kaul and Q&A from the floor for the three speakers
8–8.30pm: drinks reception

Event speakers

Chair/Moderator: Dr Nitasha Kaul
Aishath Leesha
Birzhan Bakumbayev
Promod Tandan

Event location

Portland Hall, 4–12 Little Titchfield Street, London W1W 7BY

Accessibility: Together with AccessAble, we have created online Disabled Access Guides for our buildings.

About the speakers

Aishath Leesha

Aishath Leesha

Aishath Leesha is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Westminster. She holds a bachelor’s Degree (Hons) in Law from the International Islamic University, Malaysia, and a MA in International Relations and Democratic Politics from the University of Westminster. Her research is on democratisation and foreign policy, specifically the impact of democratisation on Maldivian foreign policy. She has served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives as Legal Counsel, and as an Additional Secretary at the Ministry’s Economic Corporation Department. Prior to this, she served the government of the Maldives at the President’s Office and worked at the Judicial Service Commission. Having experienced the opportunities and challenges of a small state through her work on governance, her aim is to add small state perspectives to the existing literature on democracy and foreign policy.

Birzhan Bakumbayev

Birzhan Bakumbayev is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Westminster. He joined the PhD program at University Westminster in October 2019. Before commencing his doctoral studies, Birzhan worked at Nazarbayev University, as a consultant and as an MBA program manager. He has MA in International Studies from Oxford Brookes University, class of 2009, and a BA in International Relations from Eurasian National University obtained in 2004, in Kazakhstan. Birzhan was born in Soviet Kazakhstan and grew up witnessing extreme changes within the Soviet Union, its later collapse, and the emergence of post-Soviet independent Kazakhstan. Being a Kazakh and trained in International Relations, Birzhan was driven to make sense of the inconsistencies of Kazakhstan’s post-independence behaviour viewed against traditional IR literature in terms of small state foreign policy behaviour. His research project thus focuses on Kazakhstan and illuminates the way in which small states can be order makers.

Promod Tandan

Promod Tandan has been a PhD candidate at the University of Westminster since September 2018. He has a master's degree in environmental science from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu and a master's degree in international relations from the University of Westminster. Before commencing his studies in International Relations, he conducted numerous conservation projects in Nepal and served at the Embassy of Nepal, London. In the context of a small state, he is interested in how politics and resources are intertwined. His doctoral thesis focuses on Nepal's geopolitics, hydropolitics, and border politics from a postcolonial perspective.

Dr Nitasha Kaul (Chair/Moderator)

Dr Nitasha Kaul (PhD, MSc, BA Hons) is a multidisciplinary academic, novelist, poet, artist, and economist. Over the last two decades, she has published on themes concerning international relations, democracy, political economy, technology/AI, identity, rise of right-wing nationalism, feminist and postcolonial critiques, Bhutan, India and Kashmir. A continuing strand of her research over time has been on small states and on different aspects of small-state representation, political history, and international relations. The Himalayas, small states, and Bhutan have been an important focus area in her work since 2006. She is the author of over 140 publications, including seven single-authored or edited scholarly and literary books, book chapters in numerous critical and ground-breaking edited collections, plus peer-reviewed original research articles in numerous journals across humanities and social science disciplines. She is on twitter at @NitashaKaul. For details and links to all her work, read her CV.