ZIB Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen

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...

International organizations (IOs) are currently facing multiple pressures. On the one hand, they are increasingly subjected to intense challenges from states and societal groups. On the other, IOs are more and more frequently confronted with...

International organizations (IOs) agree that those directly affected by global governance should be given a greater voice in international policy processes. When it comes to implementing this new participatory norm, it is mostly IO staff that steers...

In their main article, Diez and Hasenclever argue in favour of a heterologue between multiple theories of International Relations (IR) to comprehensively explain the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. In this forum article, I argue that a...

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has also challenged the field of International Relations (IR). Core IR concepts such as conflict maturity, escalation dominance, or balance of power have gained popularity. The war has also implications...

Since the Russian war in Ukraine and with the widespread presence of IR scholars in the media, complaints about the presumed „irrelevance“ of the discipline have been resolved. Yet the need for reflecting about IR‘s position as a scholarly...

How can peace and conflict research, security studies and social science research on Eastern Europe be better linked in order to satisfy the demands and complexity of the current global (in)security phenomena? How can these research areas be...

On the surface, the reference text deals with the critique of both strategic studies and so-called critical peace research. In its deeper structure, however, it is about a disciplinary reorientation favouring the peace and security research...

This article comments on the main article by Thomas Diez and Andreas Hasenclever in this special issue. I am making three arguments. First, in times of severe international crises – like Russia’s current war against Ukraine – theory debates in...

This article addresses the argument of the main article that science should explain and categorise, but not draw conclusions or take positions; and that researchers should place more emphasis on the justification of their research contributions in...