The Specter of Sovereignty: Populism, Antisemitism, and the New Class
A Telos-Paul Piccone Institute Conference • Call for Papers
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Specter of Sovereignty: Populism, Antisemitism, and the New Class
A Telos-Paul Piccone Institute Conference in cooperation with the Junges Forum of the German-Israeli Society (JuFo/DIG)
July 30–31, 2026, in Potsdam, Germany
Presentation proposals due April 1, 2026
Conference Description
After the pogrom of October 7, 2023, antisemitism in the West has—ironically, tellingly—resurged on both the left and the right, while retaining its long-standing prominence within Islamic communities. At the same time, as transnational institutions seek to undermine the sovereignty of the world’s only Jewish state, most visibly through the United Nations, Islamic counter-sovereigns have emerged across Europe, particularly in its major cities, amid the broader erosion of national sovereignty.
The New Class (sometimes used synonymously with Professional-Managerial Class)—theorized by Djilas, Burnham, Galbraith, Bell, Moynihan, Ehrenreich, and many others—overflows with members who support, excuse, relativize, or willfully ignore the rise of antisemitism and Islamic terrorism. Indeed, this may be one of its structural characteristics as a historical phenomenon. Without the backing of postcolonial studies and its left-wing adherents, for instance, the gradual establishment of Islamic counter-sovereigns in Europe’s cities would hardly be conceivable. Moreover, the New Class promotes all manner of expert rule, curtailing both individual freedom and community self-determination in the name of “science” and “humanity,” while dismissing the needs and worries of ordinary people.
In Europe and America, the New Class has sparked a populist backlash that seeks to reestablish the Western principle of national and popular sovereignty. Yet the backlash also comes with its own set of urgent political and theoretical challenges. Populism takes many forms—conservative, reactionary, and socialist—and whether any of these forms offers a solution to our political condition is open to question. In the West, antisemitism is endemic in left-wing populism, but there are also deep antisemitic tendencies within right-wing populism that need to be addressed.
To reflect on this state of affairs, the JuFo/DIG and the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute, led by its Berlin chapter, calls for papers that examine the specter of sovereignty today in Europe and the United States. Our conference will take place in Potsdam, Germany.
Potential topics include but are not limited to:
Pressures on National Sovereignty: National sovereignty today is under pressure from Islamism, jihadism, mass migration, and supranational institutions. How should we understand these pressures? What are the implications of digital sovereignty, border control, and Germany’s and Europe’s military dependency?
Political Economy: What are the economic structures behind the West’s political and cultural disintegration? Topics include strategies of class conflict, the tension between economic and political primacy, and the specific features of the German, European, and American New Class/PMC. What is the relation between the New Class and the “Old Class”?
Populism and the Public Sphere: How do populist mobilizations arise in the context of the perceived or actual exclusion of social groups? What role do elites, NGOs, and other actors who shape the public sphere institutionally or communicatively play in this? How is the current restructuring of political communication, driven by social media, changing traditional gatekeeping mechanisms, and what consequences does this have for the democratic public sphere?
Bad Actors at the University: How do foreign influence, postcolonial ideology, antisemitism, and political pressures toward conformity within academic institutions shape contemporary understandings of sovereignty?
AI and Social Media: How do technological monopolies, algorithmic control, and digital censorship shape public discourse on national sovereignty?
The Attack on Israel’s Sovereignty: How should we understand the erosion of Israel’s sovereign agency through global political and legal mechanisms, including the use of lawfare?
Idealism vs. Realism in Global Conflicts: How should we view a range of concrete geopolitical conflicts—Israel/Palestine, Ukraine/Russia, and the United States/China—in relation to the foreign policy paradigms that shape national interests and the available strategic responses?
President Trump: Prospects and Dangers: How have President Trump and his circle reframed debates over sovereignty, institutional authority, and populism, and how should we assess the Trump administration’s impact on the reordering of the West?
Globalization and National Security: How do Islamic terrorism, mass migration, and open-border ideologies challenge the internal security of Western states?
Political-Philosophical Concepts of Sovereignty: How did early modern political thought shape the modern concept of sovereignty? Which political and theological assumptions from the traditions of Bodin, Hobbes, and Schmitt continue to resonate today? And where do the main fault lines lie among competing theories of the state and political authority, including liberal, conservative, and revolutionary approaches?
In addition to the prospect of a fruitful discussion, the conference’s ultimate goal is to foster intellectual friendships that could lead to future collaborations, even across lines of potentially deep disagreement. In that spirit, we welcome contributions from all kinds of theoretical approaches or polemical interventions in what we expect to be a stimulating exchange between intellectual communities. As we aim to host the conference in English and German, we will accept contributions in both languages.
Submissions Guidelines
Presentations at the conference should be no more than 15 minutes long and between 1,500 and 2,000 words. Our conference has a two-stage process for acceptance: first, submission of a presentation proposal and, second, following proposal acceptance, submission of a presentation draft. Both stages must be completed for final acceptance to the conference. Both proposals and drafts may receive suggestions from conference organizers to ensure a fruitful dialogue across presentations.
Presentation proposals should describe the topic of a talk or of a full panel in 100–250 words. Proposals for full panels, which can include up to four presenters, should include proposals for each presentation as well as for the panel as a whole.
Please submit proposals or inquiries to potsdam2026@telosinstitute.net. Proposals should be accompanied by a curriculum vitae or resume and should include both an email address and a postal mailing address.
Proposals are due April 1, 2026. Presentation drafts are due May 15, 2026.