About the Journal

Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science (ISSN [online] 2414-6633)  is an open access peer-reviewed academic journal published by the International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS). Founded in 2001, IAPSS Politikon publishes rigorous scholarship across all major subfields of the discipline, with a particular commitment to developing early-career research.

All submissions, whatever the author's career stage, pass through the same double-blind peer review process. What distinguishes IAPSS Politikon is the developmental model built around that process: accessible editorial guidance and free professional copy-editing that help promising work meet the standards of international scholarship. Through this model, the journal brings new voices and perspectives into the discipline's debates.

IAPSS Politikon publishes two regular issues per year and welcomes high-quality submissions from scholars at all career stages on a rolling basis. Special issues on timely and significant themes appear throughout the year, prospective guest editors are encouraged to contact the Editor-in-Chief.

As a diamond open access journal, IAPSS Politikon ensures free global access to all published work and encourages broad dissemination and citation of its content.

Current Issue

Vol. 27 No. 2 (2026)
View Vol. 27 No. 2 (2026)

This issue brings together three research contributions and two book reviews spanning institutional design, media representation, and diaspora politics. Christopher Ebikebena traces twenty-five years of Nigerian electoral technology, arguing that biometric innovations have displaced rather than resolved fraud, generating a "trust paradox" that culminated in the 2023 IReV crisis. Hasta Aisyah Trida Pramita and Dwi Ardhanariswari Sundrijo apply a postcolonial lens to a German documentary on child jockeys in Sumbawa, showing how visual framing and production context marginalise Indonesian perspectives. Vasili Ioannidis extends hold-up problem theory to EU enlargement, using the North Macedonia–Bulgaria dispute to show how unanimity and multiple decision points incentivise Member States to extract bilateral concessions from candidate states. The issue closes with reviews of a North Korean diplomat's insider testimony and a journalistic account of elite Russian emigration since 2022, both probing how authoritarian systems shape those who serve, flee, or defect from them.

Published: 2026-07-28

Full Issue

Research articles

Research notes

  • Framing the Global South Through Film Postcolonial Representation of Indonesia in Riders of Destiny

    Hasta Aisyah Trida Pramita, Dwi Ardhanariswari Sundrijo
    27-41
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.27.2.2

  • Bilateral Disputes and Hold-Up Problems in EU Enlargement A Case Study of North Macedonia and Bulgaria

    Vasili J. Ioannidis
    42-57
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.27.2.3

Book reviews

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