On 23 and 24 April 2026, the Fort of San Diego in Acapulco, Mexico, became an unlikely but fitting venue for a conversation about the future of global governance. The IPSA Acapulco 2026 International Symposium — organised within the framework of RC37 and RC40, in partnership with IIEPA-IMA-UAGro and the Autonomous University of Guerrero — gathered researchers, public decision-makers, students, and practitioners around a single animating question: how does interregional cooperation shape political and socio-economic development?


The answer, over two dense days of panels, workshops, and structured dialogue, was less a thesis than a demonstration.

Academic Diplomacy as Method
The symposium’s opening keynote, delivered by Professor Jesús Tovar — former President of the Mexican Association of Political Science (AMECIP) — set an ambitious tone. His call for bridge-building between regions, institutions, and research communities was not rhetorical. It was the operating logic of everything that followed.

RC37 and RC40 members, including Dr. Peter Rada of Budapest Metropolitan University and Dr. Yan Vaslavskiy of Moscow State University, anchored the event’s intellectual architecture. The coordination work of Professor Tovar and Ms. Laura Mondragón, alongside the IIEPA-IMA-UAGro leadership team, ensured the symposium moved from ambition to execution.

Themes at the Centre
Panels addressed inclusion, interregional governance, public policy innovation, geopolitical reconfigurations, climate resilience, and the expanding frontiers of security. The programme combined academic presentations with interactive workshops, creating space for contributions from diverse national and regional contexts.

The closing keynote by Dr. Ligia Tavera Fenollosa, one of Latin America’s foremost sociologists, synthesised the discussions and mapped pathways for future collaborative work.

Training for Public Action
Among the symposium’s most consequential elements was the executive workshop “National Security and the Environment”, led by Luz-Marina Cabrera-Suarez, President of Recydir Inc. and RC37 member. Designed for 120 mayors, senior officials, and public leaders from the State of Guerrero, the workshop drew on Québec and Canadian experience in public administration to explore decision-making under conditions of climate risk, geopolitical tension, and territorial vulnerability.

The session was not a transfer of models. It was, as its design intended, a co-development of knowledge — a space where local experience and international practice could meet on equal terms.

A complementary presentation by Fabrice Terrier examined the institutionalisation of international development cooperation within universities, using Montréal’s École de technologie supérieure as a case study.

Diplomatic Resonance
The presence of Mr. Graeme Clark, Canada’s Ambassador to Mexico until 2024, gave the event symbolic weight — a reminder that academic diplomacy and institutional diplomacy are not separate registers but mutually reinforcing ones. Expressions of support from Canadian Members of Parliament Greg Fergus and Linda Lapointe further underscored the event’s reach beyond the academy.

A Note on What Was Built
IPSA Acapulco 2026 will be remembered not only for its programme but for what it demonstrated: that knowledge can close distances between regions, that cooperation can be practised and not merely discussed, and that political science — at its best — remains a discipline in service of the world it studies.

RC37 and RC40 extend their gratitude to all participants, partners, and hosts who made Acapulco a point of convergence.