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THE QUESTION
THE COMMITMENT PROBLEM
How can undertakings on which others depend be held through uncertain times?
Commitments are made under one set of conditions and have to survive another: a revised budget, a lapsed mandate, a changed majority, a creditor’s loss of patience. The consequences fall on societies that took no part in the decision.
THREE SUB-THEMES · ONE PER PROPOSAL
I.A
Debt and the reliability of financial commitments
How relief, restructuring and concessional undertakings survive changes of creditor, government and appetite.
I.B
Exit and continuity
What is owed between a decision to withdraw or defund and its effect, and what must persist regardless of membership.
I.C
Making commitments verifiable
Indicators, reporting, and what non-performance should cost.
DATES FOR CYCLE I
KEY DATES
Proposals are read after the call closes. Selected authors join the working group for their sub-theme and are invited to the panel day in Paris.
WHO MAY SUBMIT
Any individual or institution: researchers in every discipline, from law and economics to international relations, political science, sociology, anthropology and history; officials in a personal capacity; practitioners; students. Any number of co-authors.
24 OCTOBER 2026
Call opens, on United Nations Day
24 FEBRUARY 2027
Submissions close
EARLY MARCH 2027
Selection announced, selected authors contacted
MARCH TO APRIL 2027
Working group, by correspondence and online
3 APRIL 2027
Practice Cycle I, Paris: one day of panels on the three sub-themes
AFTER THE PANEL DAY
Silence procedure closes ten working days after the revised text circulates
APRIL TO MAY 2027
Report I published, selected authors credited
HOW TO SUBMIT
A SUBMISSION IN TWO PARTS
One file, PDF or Word, combining the Proposal Record, the Case and any annexes.
PART ONE · REQUIRED
The Proposal Record
One page. Short answers, not paragraphs. Where a field does not apply, write “not applicable” and say why in one line.
FIELD
WHAT IS ASKED
Title
A descriptive title, not a slogan.
The measure
What should be done, and by whom, in one sentence.
Cycle and sub-theme
One only. For example: Cycle I, sub-theme I.B.
Type of measure
Rule or procedure, financing instrument, institutional design, treaty provision, standard or indicator, change of practice.
Who must decide
The institution and, where possible, the specific organ.
Legal or statutory basis
The article, rule, mandate or practice; or the need for a new instrument.
Time horizon
Within one year, within a budget or mandate cycle, or a longer negotiation.
Cost
An order of magnitude, who pays, new money or reallocation.
Expected effect
A change in the world, not an intention.
Indicator of success
Observable within three years, and capable of showing failure.
Evidence base
A case, a dataset, a body of literature, professional experience.
Principal objection
The strongest objection, stated fairly, and your answer.
Author and affiliation
Name, institution, country, contact, interests declared.
PART TWO · REQUIRED BUT UNCONSTRAINED
The Case
Any length. Any structure. Any of the three languages. The Case answers five questions somewhere, in whatever order the argument requires.
1
What is failing, concretely?
Not that cooperation is under strain, but what specifically does not work, for whom, with what evidence.
2
Why have existing arrangements not fixed it?
What has been tried, formally or in practice, and why it did not hold.
3
Why this measure rather than the alternatives?
Name at least one serious alternative and say why yours is preferable.
4
How would it actually be adopted?
The sequence of steps, the decision points, and the moment it could realistically reach an agenda.
5
Who resists, and what would change their mind?
Political economy, stated plainly. Measures fail because somebody loses.
Annexes, data, models and drafting language are welcome and are not counted against you. If you have draft treaty or rule text, please include it.
PRACTICAL REQUIREMENTS
BEFORE YOU SEND
LANGUAGES
English, French or Spanish. No translation is required and none is preferred.
The Record’s author field is removed by the Editorial Board before reading, so that every proposal is judged on its argument alone.
FILE FORMAT
PDF or Word. One file including the Record, the Case and any annexes.
ANONYMITY
Do not remove your name from the file: the Editorial Board strips the author field before reading.
SELF-IDENTIFICATION
Avoid phrasings that identify you in the Case. Cite yourself in the third person.
PRIOR PUBLICATION
Admissible if you hold the right to have it republished alongside the report. Say so in the Record.
CO-AUTHORSHIP
Any number of authors. Name a corresponding author.
USE OF AI TOOLS
Permitted for drafting assistance and disclosed in one line. The argument, the evidence and the responsibility must be yours. Fabricated citations end consideration.
WHERE TO SEND
Through the form below, or to info@andaluscommittee.com with the cycle and sub-theme in the subject line.
ASSESSMENT
HOW SUBMISSIONS ARE ASSESSED
Proposals are read with author and institution removed. The criteria and their weights are published with the call and applied by the named Reading Group. Identities are restored only at selection.
Readers’ scores are not published individually and are not communicated.
Specificity of the measure
30
Could this be drafted into a decision, a rule, a budget line or a procedure as written?
Feasibility
25
Is there a named actor, a named basis and a plausible cost?
Evidence base
20
Does the case rest on something, and is that something correctly represented?
Originality against existing proposals
15
Does this add to what is already proposed in the field, rather than restate it?
Completeness of the Record
10
Is the Record answered in full, including the indicator and the objection?
TOTAL 100
IF YOU ARE SELECTED
WHAT SELECTED AUTHORS RECEIVE
01
Collaborator status
Named as a collaborator on the published report, in the section your proposal contributed to. The report is carried to the organizations concerned.
02
Publication in full
Your submission is published alongside the report, citable under your own name, whatever the report finally retains.
03
The working group
A place in the stream for your sub-theme, where the draft is reconciled, by correspondence and short online sessions.
04
The panel day
An invitation to Paris on 3 April 2027. Travel is not funded and not required: remote participants take part on equal terms.
IF YOU ARE NOT SELECTED
Your submission is listed by title and author with a short abstract, with your consent, and remains citable. You may submit again to a later cycle, including a revised version of the same proposal.
INTEGRITY
STANDARDS WE HOLD EVERY PROPOSAL TO
Conflicts of interest
Declared in the Record. A reader recuses from submissions from their own institution, from a co-author of the past three years, and from any proposal in which they have a financial interest.
Originality
Submissions must be the authors’ own work. Reused material must be identified. Plagiarism ends consideration and is reported to the author’s institution.
Citation
Any consistent style. Primary sources where they exist. Figures must be traceable to a source a reader can check.
Data
Where a proposal rests on original data, state whether it can be shared. Sharing is encouraged and is not required.
Non-partisanship
The campaign takes procedural positions, not substantive political ones. Advocacy on a specific conflict, government or party is out of scope.
Right of reply
An author whose measure is materially altered in the final report may have the alteration described in the merge map in their own words.
SUBMIT
SEND YOUR PROPOSAL
Cycle I submissions are open until 24 February 2027. Use the form to send one file, PDF or Word, containing the Proposal Record, the Case and any annexes, and select the sub-theme it addresses.
You can also send your file to info@andaluscommittee.com, with the cycle and sub-theme in the subject line, for example “Cycle I, I.B”.
BEFORE YOU SEND
— One file, PDF or Word, in English, French or Spanish
— The Proposal Record complete, including the indicator of success and the principal objection
— One sub-theme only
— No phrasing in the Case that identifies you
— Use of AI tools disclosed in one line, if any
— Interests declared and a corresponding author named