SOC ACE Researchers Explore Illicit Finance at EISA Conference in Lisbon

SOC ACE researchers attended the 19th Pan-European Conference on International Relations (PEC), organised by the European International Studies Association (EISA) at Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal, from 1–4 September 2026.

The conference brought together international scholars to examine contemporary challenges in international relations under the theme Even better than the real thing? Questioning knowledge production, positionality, and authenticity in IR. Discussions explored how knowledge is produced, whose perspectives are recognised and how technologies such as generative AI are challenging established approaches to research and scholarship.

Among the conference sessions was the panel Offshore Power: Transnational Kleptocracy, Corrosive Capital, and the International Politics of Illicit Finance, co-chaired by Tena Prelec and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira. The panel examined the political and geopolitical significance of illicit finance, focusing on the infrastructures and intermediaries that enable it, alongside its connections to money laundering, sanctions evasion, offshore structures and criminalised networks.

Discussions also considered how research on illicit finance and transnational kleptocracy can inform wider debates in international relations about power, authority and the changing nature of international order, highlighting connections between international political economy and broader questions of global governance.