ZIB Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen

Affects and emotions shape political discourses and practices not only by structuring collective identities and contributing to group and state decision-making but also as highly contested objects themselves. The fire at the Moria refugee camp in...

Research on contestation, grounded in a relational ontology, situates the inherent contentiousness of normative practices at the site of the social, offering a framework for analyzing the construction of social reality. Yet the connections between...

What role do the limits of international humanitarian law still play for military force? The wars in Ukraine and in Gaza have recently raised doubts as to whether international law is still relevant for international politics. This article shows...

This article examines the complex relationship between contestation and democracy using conspiracist ideologies as an example. While contestation is still a somewhat elusive concept in democratic theory, it is nevertheless a tangible and essential...

Contestation of international orders has increased noticeably in recent years. Driven by a diffuse sense of permanent crisis, international institutions are grappling to find strategies to deal with these challenges productively. While research on...

This paper is an interdependence theory-based analysis of burden-sharing in NATO. It demonstrates how the recent political focus on the two or five percent of GDP defense expenditure goals deviate from the historically grown more complex...

The essay pays tribute to Helga Haftendorn's contribution to the professionalization of the discipline of international relations and, in particular, security policy research through her consistently theory-conscious and theory-oriented research and...

This contribution introduces a memorial symposium for Helga Haftendorn, who passed away on November 6, 2023, at the age of 90. It honors her life and work as a pioneer of research in International Relations and security policy in Germany, as well as...

Given the premises of the civilian-power literature on German foreign policy, the observation is puzzling that Germany has tried to push through its unilateral preferences regarding salient foreign economic issues vis-à-vis Russia and China despite...

As a characteristic of increasing politicization, contestation is ubiquitous in today's era of political turmoil and multiple crises unfolding both at the national and international levels. While contestation is in itself a normal part of politics,...

Helga Haftendorn is one of the most influential figures in German postwar International Relations. Her contributions to foreign policy analysis in general and to German foreign and security policy in particular have had a significant impact on...

After Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons, intending to prevent other states from helping Ukraine to defend itself. U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent statements...

How has the authority of international organisations (IOs) developed over time and what influence do global crises have on this authority? Previous IO research has primarily focused on differences among IOs, adopting a cross-sectional perspective...

In the current debate on the potential demise of the contemporary international order, the failure of the League of Nations often serves as a daunting example for international organizations (IOs) confronted with contestation. Little is known,...

Transboundary crises are often seen either as an opportunity or as a threat to the governance capacity of international organizations (IOs). However, in many cases, the same crisis can have different effects on various IOs. In this article, we argue...

Transboundary crises put international organizations under pressure. The literature suggests that informal intergovernmental organizations (IIGOs) are particularly suited for crisis management and assumes a link between crises and informality. But...

International organizations (IOs) have gained in authority and potential effectiveness in recent decades. At the same time, they have never been so exposed to existential threats in the form of contestation. In the midst of this dialectical...