Jens Steffek

Projects and positions at the research center
Principal Investigator

Project management: Knowing the Rules and Acting Politically. Friedrich Kratochwil and his Critics | Research Focus 4 – Overstretched Orders: Global Governance between De- and Renationalization

Funding period 2012-2017
Project management: Legitimation through international law and legitimation of international law | Research field 3

Funding period 2007-2012
Project management: The justification narrative of “good functional governance” | Research field 3
Project management: Ambivalent universalization of democracy | Research field 3

Subject areas
Political science

Main research
Politics and history of international organizations, theory of international relations, transnational social actors, theory of democracy

• Biografische Angaben

  Since 2023: Speaker of the DFG Research Training Group “Standards of Governance”

  2017-2019: Dean of the Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences

  Since 2010: Professor of Transnational Governance at the Institute of Political Science

  2008-2009: University Lecturer in Political Science, Jacobs University Bremen

  2006-2007: Visiting Professor, International University Bremen

  2003-2008: Research Assistant (C1), University of Bremen

  2002-2003: Research assistant, University of Bremen

  2002: Doctorate in Social and Political Sciences, European University Institute, Florence

  2001-2002: Research Associate, Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies, Florence

  1998: Magister Artium in Political Science, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

  Certified research assistant, Technical University of Munich

  1996-1998: Research Assistant, Foundation for Science and Politics, Ebenhausen

  1993-1998: Permanent freelancer, Süddeutsche Zeitung

  1991-1992: Civilian service, Bund Naturschutz in Bayern e.V.

  1991: Abitur, grammar school in Icking/Upper Bavaria

• Publikationen

  2022
  Steffek, Jens; Lasshof, Yannick (2022): Is There Still a German IR Discourse? Investigations in the Semi-periphery of an Academic Discipline, International Studies Perspectives, 23:2, 209-228.
  Steffek, Jens; Hellmann, Günther (2022): Praxis as a Perspective on International Politics, Bristol: Bristol University Press.
  Steffek, Jens (2022): Praxis, Humanism and the Quest for Wholeness, in: Hellmann,Gunther/Steffek, Jens (Hrsg.), Praxis as a Perspective on International Politics, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 255-272.
  Steffek, Jens; Lasshof, Yannick (2022): Steve Bannon on “Productive Capitalism”: Investigating the Economic Ideology of the American Populist Right, Journal of Political Ideologies.

  2021
  Steffek, Jens; Heupel, Monika; Koenig-Archibugi, Mathias; Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian; Patberg, Markus; Séville, Astrid; Steffek, Jens; White, Jonathan (2021): Emergency Politics after Globalization, International Studies Review, 23:4, 1959-1987.
  Steffek, Jens (2021): International Organization as Technocratic Utopia, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  Steffek, Jens; Lasshoff, Yannick (2021): Is There Still a German IR Discourse? Investigations in the Semi-periphery of an Academic Discipline, International Studies Perspectives, 23:2, 209-228.
  Steffek, Jens; Koinova, Maria; Deloffre, Maryam Zarnegar; Gadinger, Frank; Mencutek, Zeynep Sahin; Scholte, Jan Aart (2021): It’s Ordered Chaos: What Really Makes Polycentrism Work, International Studies Review, 23:4, 1988-2018.
  Steffek, Jens (2021): Les organisations internationales et la construction politique de la société civile: le cas des ‘ONG parrainées’, in: Lagrange, Delphine; Louis, Marieke; Nay, Olivier (Hrsg.), Le tournant social des organisations internationales. Les organisations internationales face aux sociétés civiles, Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 55-67.
  Steffek, Jens; Müller, Marcus; Behr, Hartmut (2021): Terminological Entrepreneurs and Discursive Shifts in IR Theory: how a Discipline Invented the “International Regime”, in: International Studies Review, 23:1, 30-58.
  Steffek, Jens; Wegmann, Philipp (2021): The Standardization of “Good Governance” in the Age of Reflexive Modernity, Global Studies Quarterly, 1:4.
  Steffek, Jens (2021): Vom Friedensprojekt zur Elitenverschwörung. Die Umdeutung internationalen Regierens in Zeiten des Populismus, in: Forst, Rainer/Günther, Klaus (Hrsg.), Normative Ordnungen, Berlin: Suhrkamp, 329-352.

  2020
  Steffek, Jens; Heinze, Tobias (2020): Germany’s Fight against Versailles and the Rise of American Realism: Edwin Borchard between New Haven and Berlin, in: Steffek, Jens/Leonie Holthaus (Hrsg.), Prussians, Nazis and Peaceniks: Changing Images of Germany in International Relations, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  Holthaus, Leonie; Steffek, Jens (2020): Ideologies of International Organization: Exploring the Trading Zones between Theory and Practice, in: Martill, Benjamin/Schindler, Sebastian (Hrsg.), Theory as Ideology: The Politics of Knowledge in International Relations, London: Routledge.
  Steffek, Jens; Holthaus, Leonie (2020): Introduction: Changing images of Germany, in: Steffek, Jens/Leonie Holthaus (Hrsg.), Prussians, Nazis and Peaceniks: Changing Images of Germany in International Relations, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  Steffek, Jens; Holthaus, Leonie (2020): Prussians, Nazis and Peaceniks: Changing Images of Germany in International Relations, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  Steffek, Jens; Müller, Marcus; Behr, Hartmut (2020): Terminological Entrepreneurs and Discursive Shifts in IR Theory: how a Discipline Invented the “International Regime”, in: International Studies Review (Preprint)
  Müller, Marcus ; Steffek, Jens ; Schenk, Ana (2020): The Darmstadt International Relations Corpus (DIReC), Darmstadt: TUprints.

  2019
  Müller, Marcus; Behr, Hartmut; Steffek, Jens (2019): The discursive formation of key terms in International Relations, in: Andersen, Øivin/Schubert, Klaus/Simonnæs, Ingrid (Hrsg.), New Challenges for Research on Language for Special Purposes, Berlin: Frank und Timme, 105–120.
  Steffek, Jens (2019): The Limits of Proceduralism: Critical Remarks on the Rise of ‘Throughput Legitimacy’, in: Public Administration, 97:4, 784–796.

  2018
  Steffek, Jens (2018): Deliberation and Global Governance, in: Brown, Chris/Eckersley, Robyn (Hrsg.), The Oxford Handbook of International Political Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 440–452.
  Steffek, Jens; Kortendiek, Nele (2018): Participatory Governance in International Organizations. In: Heinelt, Hubert (Hrsg.): Handbook on Participatory Governance. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
  Steffek, Jens Holthaus, Leonie (2018): The social-democratic roots of global governance: Welfare internationalism from the 19th century to the United Nations. European Journal of International Relations, 24:1, S. 106-129.

  2017
  Steffek, Jens (2017): International Organizations and Bureaucratic Modernity, in: Lebow, Richard (Hrsg.), Max Weber and International Relations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 119–142.

  2016
  Kütt, Moritz; Steffek, Jens (2016): Comprehensive Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – an Emerging International Norm?, in: The Nonproliferation Review, 23:1, 401–420.
  Steffek, Jens (2016): Functionalism in Uncommon Places: Electrifying the Hades with David Mitrany, in: Lebow, Richard/Schouten, Peer/Suganami, Hidemi (Hrsg.), The Return of the Theorists: Dialogues with Great Thinkers in International Relations, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 193–200.
  McGee, Jeffrey; Steffek, Jens (2016): The Copenhagen Turn in Global Climate Governance and the Contentious History of Differentiation in International Law, in: Journal of Environmental Law, 28:1: 37–63.

  2015
  Holthaus, Leonie; Steffek, Jens (2015): Experiments in international administration: The forgotten functionalism of James Arthur Salter. In: Review of International Studies, 42: 1, S. 114-135.
  Steffek, Jens (2015): Fascist Internationalism, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 44(1): 3-22.
  Steffek, Jens (2015): `Max Weber, Modernity and the Project of International Organization’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, FirstView.
  Steffek, Jens; Romeiro, Vivian (2015): Private Actors in Transnational Energy Governance, in: Michèle Knodt, Franziska Müller, Nadine Piefer (Hrsg.) Challenges of European External Energy Governance with Emerging Powers. Farnham: Ashgate, 269-288.
  Steffek, Jens (2015): The Output Legitimacy of International Organizations and the Global Public Interest, International Theory 7(2), 263-293.
  Steffek, Jens; Antonini, Francesca (2015): Towards Eurafrica! Fascism, Corporativism and Italy’s Colonial Expansion, in: Ian Hall (Hrsg.) Radicals and Reactionaries in Twentieth Century International Thought, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 145-170.

  2014
  Steffek, Jens; Holthaus, Leonie (2014): Einleitung: Der vergessene “Idealismus” in der Disziplin Internationale Beziehungen, in: Jens Steffek und Leonie Holthaus (Hrsg.), Jenseits der Anarchie. Weltordnungsentwürfe im frühen 20. Jahrhundert, Normative Orders Bd. 13, Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2014, S. 11-24.
  Steffek, Jens (2014): Internationales Recht, Moderne und das Projekt einer globalen öffentlichen Verwaltung, in: Klaus Günther/Stefan Kadelbach Kulturen des Rechts: Rechtstransfer und Pluralismus in globaler Perspektive, Frankfurt am Main: Campus.
  Steffek, Jens; Holthaus, Leonie (2014): Jenseits der Anarchie. Weltordnungsentwürfe im frühen 20. Jahrhundert, Normative Orders Bd. 13, Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2014, 310 S.
  Steffek, Jens (2014): ‘The Cosmopolitanism of David Mitrany: Equality, Devolution, and Functional Democracy beyond the State’ International Relations, 1-22.

  2013
  Steffek, Jens; Kotzian, Peter (2013): ‘Do Members Make a Difference? A Study of Transnational Civil Society Organizations’, European Political Science Review 5(1): 55-81.
  Steffek, Jens (2013): ‘Explaining Cooperation between IGOs and NGOs – Push Factors, Pull Factors, and the Policy Cycle’, Review of International Studies 39(4): 993-1013.
  Steffek, Jens (2013): Mandatskonflikte, Liberalismuskritik und die Politisierung von GATT und WTO’ in: Michael Zürn und Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt (Hg.) Die Politisierung der Weltpolitik – Umkämpfte internationale Institutionen, Berlin: Suhrkamp, 213-239.
  Steffek, Jens; Mau, Steffen (2013): ‘Transnationalismus und Transnationalisierung in der Soziologie und der IB’, in: Leviathan: Berliner Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft 41: Sonderheft 28, 204-225.

  2012
  Steffek, Jens (2012): Accountability und politische Öffentlichkeit im Zeitalter des globalen Regierens, in: Niesen, Peter (Hg.), Transnationale Gerechtigkeit und Demokratie, Normative Orders Bd. 6, Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2012, S. 279-310.
  Steffek, Jens (2012): ‚Awkward Partners: NGOs and Social Movements at the WTO’ in: Amrita Narlikar, Martin Daunton, und Robert M. Stern (Hg.) Oxford Handbook on the World Trade Organization, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 301-319.
  Steffek, Jens (2012): ‘Die Output-Legitimität internationaler Organisationen und die Idee des globalen Gemeinwohls’ Leviathan: Berliner Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft 40: Sonderheft 27, 83-99.

  2011
  Steffek, Jens; Kotzian, Peter (2011): ‘Legitimacy and Activities of Civil Society Organizations’, University of Bremen, TranState Working Paper No. 156/2011.
  Steffek, Jens (2011): Tales of Function and Form: The Discursive Legitimation of International Technocracy, Normative Orders Working Paper 02/2011.
  Gomes Pereira, Mariana; Steffek, Jens (2011): ‘Transnational Governance Networks and Democracy: What Are the Standards?’ in: Olaf Dilling, Martin Herberg and Gerd Winter (eds.) Transnational Administrative Rule-Making: Performance, Legal Effects and Legitimacy, Oxford: Hart, 281-304.

  2010
  Steffek, Jens; Bendrath, Ralf; Dalferth, Simon; Hahn, Kristina; Piewitt, Martina; Rodekamp, Meike (2010): ‘Assessing the Democratic Legitimacy of Transnational CSOs: Five Criteria’ in: Jens Steffek und Kristina Hahn (Hg.) Evaluating Transnational NGOs – Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation., Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 100-125.
  Steffek, Jens; Piewitt, Martina; Rodekamp, Meike (2010): ‘Civil Society in World Politics: How Accountable Are Transnational CSOs?’ Journal of Civil Society, 6(3), 237-258.
  Steffek, Jens; Hahn, Kristina (2010): ‘Evaluating NGOs: Prospects for Academic Analysis’ in: Jens Steffek and Kristina Hahn (Hg.) Evaluating Transnational NGOs – Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation., Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 258-264.
  Steffek, Jens; Hahn, Kristina (2010): Evaluating Transnational NGOs: Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  Steffek, Jens (2010): ‘Explaining Patterns of Transnational Participation: the Role of Policy Fields’ in: Christer Jönsson und Jonas Tallberg (Hg.) Transnational Actors in Global Governance, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 67-87.
  Steffek, Jens; Hahn, Kristina (2010): ‘Introduction: Transnational NGOs and Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation’ in: Jens Steffek und Kristina Hahn (Hg.) Evaluating Transnational NGOs – Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation., Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1-25.
  Steffek, Jens (2010): ‘Norms, Persuasion and the New German Idealism in IR’ in: Oliver Kessler et al. (Hg.) On Rules, Politics, and Knowledge: Friedrich Kratochwil, International Relations, and Domestic Affairs, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 191-201.
  Steffek, Jens (2010): ‘Public Accountability and the Public Sphere of International Governance’ Ethics & International Affairs, 24(1), 45-67.

  2009
  Steffek, Jens; Ferretti, Maria Paola (2009): Accountability or “Good Decisions”? The Competing Goals of Civil Society Participation in International Governance, in: Global Society, 23:1, 37–57.
  Steffek, Jens (2009): Die Legitimation internationalen Regierens: vom Staatenkonsens zum Bürgerkonsens, in: Deitelhoff, Nicole/Steffek, Jens (Hrsg.), Was bleibt vom Staat? Demokratie, Verfassung und Recht im globalen Zeitalter, Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 161–186.
  Steffek, Jens (2009): Discursive Legitimation in Environmental Governance, in: Forest Policy and Economics, 11:5–6, 313–318.
  Deitelhoff, Nicole; Steffek, Jens (2009): Einleitung: Staatlichkeit ohne Staat. Chancen und Aporien von Recht, Verfassung und Demokratie jenseits des Nationalstaats, in: N. Deitelhoff, J. Steffek (Hrsg.), Was bleibt vom Staat? Demokratie, Recht und Verfas-sung im globalen Zeitalter, Frankfurt: Campus, 7-34.
  Deitelhoff, Nicole; Steffek, Jens (2009): Grenzen der Verständigung. Zu den Voraussetzungen der Einhegung kultureller Fragmentierung im internationalen Regieren, in: N. Deitelhoff, J. Steffek (Hrsg.), Was bleibt vom Staat? Demokratie, Recht und Verfassung im globalen Zeitalter, Frankfurt: Campus, 187-220.
  Deitelhoff, Nicole; Steffek, Jens (2009): Was bleibt vom Staat? Demokratie, Recht und Verfassung im globalen Zeitalter, Frankfurt: Campus 2009.

  2008
  Steffek, Jens; Ehling, Ulrike (2008): Civil Society Participation at the Margins: the Case of WTO, in: Steffek, Jens/Kissling, Claudia/Nanz, Patrizia (Hrsg.), Civil Society Participation in European and Global Governance: A Cure for the Democratic Deficit?, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 95–115.
  Steffek, Jens; Kissling, Claudia; Nanz, Patrizia (2008): Civil Society Participation in European and Global Governance: A Cure for the Democratic Deficit?, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  Kissling, Claudia; Steffek, Jens (2008): CSOs and the Democratization of International Governance: Prospects and Problems’, in: Steffek, Jens/Kissling, Claudia/Nanz, Patrizia (Hrsg.), Civil Society Participation in European and Global Governance: A Cure for the Democratic Deficit?, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 208–218.
  Steffek, Jens; Nanz, Patrizia (2008): Emergent Patterns of Civil Society Participation in Global and European Governance, in: Steffek, Jens/Kissling, Claudia/Nanz, Patrizia (Hrsg.), Civil Society Participation in European and Global Governance: A Cure for the Democratic Deficit?, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1–29.
  Steffek, Jens (2008): Legitimität jenseits des Nationalstaats – vom exekutiven zum partizipativen Multilateralismus?, in: Hurrelmann, Achim/Leibfried, Stephan/Martens, Kerstin/Mayer, Peter (Hrsg.), Zerfasert der Nationalstaat? Die Internationalisierung politischer Verantwortung, Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 179–205.
  Steffek, Jens (2008): Zähmt zivilgesellschaftliche Partizipation die internationale Politik? Vom exekutiven zum partizipativen Multilateralismus, in: Leviathan: Berliner Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft, 36:1, 105–122.

  2007
  Steffek, Jens (2007): Breaking the Nation State Shell: Prospects for Democratic Legitimacy in the International Domain, in: Hurrelmann, Achim/Leibfried, Stephan/Martens, Kerstin/Mayer, Peter (Hrsg.) Transforming the Golden-Age Nation State, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 109–129.
  Hurrelmann, Achim; Schneider, Steffen; Steffek, Jens (2007): Conclusion: Legitimacy – Making Sense of an Essentially Contested Concept, in: Hurrelmann, Achim/Schneider, Steffen/Steffek, Jens (Hrsg.), Legitimacy in an Age of Global Politics, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 229–237.
  Nanz, Patrizia; Steffek, Jens (2007): Deliberation and Democracy in Global Governance: the Role of Civil Society, in: Thoyer, Sophie/Martimort-Asso, Bénoit (Hrsg.), Participation for Sustainability in Trade, Aldershot: Ashgate, 61–72.
  Hurrelmann, Achim; Steffek, Jens (2007): Introduction: Legitimacy in an Age of Global Politics’, in: Hurrelmann, Achim/Schneider, Steffen/Steffek, Jens (Hrsg.), Legitimacy in an Age of Global Politics, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1–16.
  Hurrelmann, Achim; Schneider, Steffen; Steffek, Jens (2007): Legitimacy in an Age of Global Politics, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  Steffek, Jens (2007): Legitimacy in International Relations: From State Compliance to Citizen Consensus, in: Hurrelmann, Achim/Schneider, Steffen/Steffek, Jens (Hrsg.), Legitimacy in an Age of Global Politics, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 175–192.
  Nanz, Patrizia; Steffek, Jens (2007): Zivilgesellschaftliche Partizipation und die Demokratisierung internationalen Regierens, in: Niesen, Peter/Herborth, Benjamin (Hrsg.), Anarchie der kommunikativen Freiheit: Jürgen Habermas und die Theorie der internationalen Politik, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 87–110.