It gives me great pleasure to present to you the program of the 2001 Convention of the International Studies Association in Chicago.  The theme of the conference, International Relations and the New Inequality: Power, Wealth, and the Transformation of Global Society at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century, offers a unique occasion not only to explore more fully one of the most neglected concerns of our times, but also, perhaps, to provoke a reflexive accounting of the imbrication of International Relations with the new international inequality.  The richness and heterogeneity of our growing field is clearly in evidence in the intellectual concerns and commitments of the 468 individually or jointly sponsored panels included in this conference. With nearly 2000 committed participants as the program goes to press, the Chicago Convention promises to be the largest and the most diverse in the Association’s forty-two year exciting history.  It is, indeed, a privilege to be associated with a program rich in content, and so self-consciously ecumenical and tolerant of intellectual difference and dissent.

At the heart of this convention are the forty-eight key theme panels.  Underscoring the virtues of a genuinely cross-disciplinary dialogue, they mark perhaps a return to a regime of porous disciplinary boundaries, and a quiet repudiation of cozy methodological and theoretical certitudes.  The scholars participating in the theme program are drawn from disparate fields of inquiry and theoretical practice, materializing their own commitment to understanding the complex world of the new inequality and a world made more complex by its presence. A majority of the theme panels this year are organized around single paper presentations by eminent international scholars specifically invited to the 2001 Convention to address the problem of the new international inequality from a multiplicity of perspectives and disciplinary engagements.  The presenters include (in alphabetical order): John Agnew, Giovanni Arrighi, Richard Ashley, Mohammed Ayoob, Tariq Banuri, James Bohman, James Caporaso, Craig Calhoun, Thomas Callaghy, William Connolly, Fred Dallmayr, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Cynthia Enloe, Edward Friedman, Jonathan Friedman, Stephen Gill, Fred Halliday, Sandra Harding,  Ankie Hoogvelt,, Ronald Inden, Douglas Kellner, Vendulka Kubalkova,  Timothy Luke, Ashis Nandy, Martha Nussbaum, Leo Panitch, Bruce Robbins, Julian Saurin, Michael Shapiro, Steve Smith, Christine Sylvester, and R.B.J. Walker.  To the presenters and others on the theme program, my profound gratitude. 

I am very grateful to Craig Murphy, ISA President, for inviting me to serve as Program Chair and for creating the space to design the program in particular ways and with specific foci.  To David Blaney (Macalester College), my sincere thanks  for sharing the burden of programming, especially during the summer of 2000, despite other pressing commitments.  Without his intervention, this program would not have been possible.  On behalf of the entire Program Committee, I wish to express my gratitude to Rakhi Sehgal, for her dedicated work and unsurpassable devotion as Program Assistant.  A special word of thanks to my predecessors-- Frank Harvey (2000), Jo Hagan (1999) and Robert Denemark (1998) for providing excellent orientation to the intricate world of convention programming, which clearly made the present undertaking more manageable and its pitfalls more apparent.

A program of this scale and significance ultimately assumes collaboration, coordination, team-work and perseverance.  The 2001 Convention Program Committee did its work in exemplar fashion.  I am indebted to all the Section Program Chairs for their hard work, indulgence, and understanding--Stephen Wrage (Active Learning in International Affairs), Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel (Comparative Interdisciplinary Studies), Paul Sharp (Diplomatic Studies), Dimitris Stevis (Environmental Studies), Emily Copeland (Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Studies), Geeta Chowdhry (Feminist Theory and Gender Studies), James  M. Scott (Foreign Policy Analysis), Michael Niemann (Global Development), Jim Wirth (Intelligence Studies), Robin Brown (International Communication), Joseph C. Rallo,  (International Education), Nicholas J. Rengger (International Ethics), John King Gamble (International Law), Jan Aart Scholte (International Organization), Philip Cerny (International Political Economy), Joyce Kaufman (International Security Studies), Alice Ackermann (Peace Studies), Houman A. Sadri (Post-Communist States in International Relations), Glen Palmer (Scientific Study of International Processes), Heiddi Hobbs (Women’s Caucus) and Gale A. Mattox (Women in International Security).

I have been very fortunate to receive unqualified institutional support at the School of International Service (SIS).  Dean Louis Goodman’s effective leadership and generous backing ensured a smooth operation.  I thank him for his commitment to the ISA program. Dean Nanette Levinson also deserves my heartfelt appreciation.  Also at SIS, I must acknowledge the valuable support of Joseph Clapper, Leeanne Dunsmore, Will Baker, Ali Ghobadi and Margo Thoresen.

In addition to programming, American University was also the site this past year for data-entry for a sizeable proportion of all convention participants.  An able team of graduate students, interns and volunteers--Seira Tamang, Ashleigh Balsavage, Kenneth G. Bishop, Vera Gomes, Clair Cretors, and J.P. Yorro-- worked long hours to produce a revised data base for the ISA. I am very thankful for their effort. Finally, I wish to thank Kevin Friday, Jeffrey Leary, and Robert Imam for critical assistance in the final stages of the program.

The success of any convention program ultimately rests upon the quality of support extended to the organizers by the Association. My deepest thanks to all at ISA headquarters in Arizona.  Thomas Volgy, Executive Director of the ISA, not only deserves my deep gratitude, but also high commendation from all ISA members, for providing with grace and good humor leadership, direction, and support. I have received generous cooperation and support from Dana Larsen, who has always been there for us.  As the data base and information systems coordinator, Miguel Escalante has signified the difference between chaos and order and deserves the highest approval.  At ISA headquarters, I also wish to thank Jeanne White, Lyn Avery-Jones, Eva Monnier and Joel Davis for their assistance and support.