Professorship of the Cluster of Excellence – International Relations and Theories of Global Order

Prof. Dr. Nicole Deitelhoff

The cluster professorship “International Relations and Theories of Global Orders” analyzes forms and practices of resistance within normative orders and examines how orders react to and are related to them. The research projects at the professorship focus on how domination is constituted and transformed in normative orders and what role resistance plays in this. Concrete project priorities are (1) forms of security privatization as a specific strategy of domination and at the same time a challenge for orders of domination, (2) conflicts over international norms and institutions and (3) radicalization processes in their connection with the exercise of domination.

(1) The privatization of security provision has steadily increased over the last few decades, with the result that there is now talk of a multifaceted security governance that is increasingly being co-produced by private and sovereign actors. This has given rise to fundamental problems of legitimacy and legitimacy, which the research projects at the professorship have addressed. A comparison of security privatization between Germany and the USA on the one hand, and weak and strong states on the other, has shown that strong states and their governments use security privatization primarily as a governance technique to gain more autonomy from parliaments and the public, while weak states often have few other options than to privatize. Accordingly, the consequences for both the legitimacy and effectiveness of security policy in weak states are far more negative than in strong states. This research focus has resulted in an expertise for the “Public Security” research forum of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as well as numerous publications.
(2) Conflicts over international norms and institutions have been the subject of controversial debate for years, with the question of when such conflicts or, more specifically, contestation can lead to a weakening of norms and when they can even strengthen them. In this research focus, empirical case studies on highly controversial norms (including the prohibition of torture, the ban on commercial whaling, the International Responsibility to Protect and privateer shipping) were used to test the hypothesis that the effect on the robustness of norms depends on the type of contestation. We were able to show that application contestation has hardly any negative effects on the robustness of norms, while justification contestation is highly likely to have weakening effects. An international special issue is currently under review by a leading IB journal. Further publications have already appeared. In addition, the research context has provided the impetus for the establishment of a thematic group “Norms Research” in the German Political Science Association (DVPW), which began its work in March 2017 with an initial workshop in the Cluster of Excellence.

(3) The professorship’s overarching focus is primarily on analyzing the interplay between resistance and rule. In recent years, a research group “International Dissidence” has been established in cooperation with the Cluster Professorship “International Organizations”, which brings together five externally funded projects researching this context, as well as a whole series of doctoral students and postdocs who share a similar research focus. The research group has established an ongoing lecture series (Protest – Resistance – Uprising. Dispute over political order), organized several national and international conferences and workshops, which have produced several publications and will continue to do so. New third-party funding initiatives have also emerged in this context.

The most important publications of this professorship of the Cluster of Excellence:

Deitelhoff, Nicole: “Cheap talk and empty chatter? What is actually left of the ZIB debate?” in: Journal of International Relations 24: 1, 2017, forthcoming

Deitelhoff, Nicole/ Priska Daphi/Dieter Rucht/ Simon Teune (eds.): “Protest und Bewegungen im Wandel?”, Special Issue: Leviathan, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2017, forthcoming.

*Deitelhoff, Nicole/Christopher Daase/Ben Kamis/ Jannik Pfister/Philip Wallmeier (eds.): Herrschaft in den Internationalen Beziehungen, Wiesbaden: Springer, 2017.

*Deitelhoff, Nicole & Christopher Daase: “Jenseits der Anarchie: Widerstand und Herrschaft im internationalen System”, in: Politische Vierteljahresschrift 56: 2,2015, 299-318.

*Deitelhoff, Nicole & Michael Zürn, “Internationalization and the State. Sovereignty as the External Side of Modern Statehood”, in: S. Leibfried/E. Huber/M. Lange/ J.D. Levy/J.D. Stephens (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Deitelhoff, Nicole & Christopher Daase: Privatization of security. A social science study, Schriftenreihe Sicherheit Nr. 11, Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin, 2013-09.

The most important events of this professorship of the Cluster of Excellence:

“Concept and Phenomenon of the Norm”: Workshop of the newly founded working group (Themengruppe) “IB-Normenforschung” of the German Political Science Association (GPSA) at the Cluster of Excellence, “The Formation of Normative Orders”, March 29-30, 2017.

International Conference: “International Dissidence. Rule and Resistance in a globalized world”, Goethe-University Frankfurt, March 2-4, 2017.

Lecture Series: “Protest – Resistance – Uprising. Dispute over political orders”, November 2015 – July 2017, (co-organized with Christopher Daase)

Three panels organized by the Research Group “Internationale Dissidenz” at the 4th Global International Studies Conference of the World International Studies Committee (WISC), August 6- 9, 2014, Frankfurt/M.

“IPA (International Public Authority) Meets Dissidenz”, interdisciplinary workshop with Armin von Bogdandy, Goethe University, Building “Normative Orders, April 4, 2014.