Research
My research engages with questions about the emergence and consequences of institutions, a term understood broadly, in the international realm. I am interested in understanding how, why and when actors create new or change existing institutions in order to address problems that cross international borders, and whether, how and when these institutions shape cooperative outcomes. Theoretically, I take a particular interest in sociological approaches that conceive of strategic action as historically and socially embedded, and in diffusion approaches that comprehend decisionmaking as interdependent across units of analysis. My substantive interest concerns international governmental organizations, especially of the regional type. I also take an interest in the foreign policy of the European Union. My work is mainly comparative in scope, and I employ both qualitative and quantitative methods.
In my current research, I analyze
- the dynamics of institutional change in international governmental organizations, with a focus on the role of community and institutional overlap;
- the link between legitimacy and institutional change in international organizations, including the dynamics of legitimation in regional organizations;
- the influence of the European Union as a model and active promoter of regional integration outside of Europe, and the European Union as an actor in world politics more broadly.
I am currently working on two large research projects.
1. Legitimation Strategies of Regional Organizations (LegRO)
The Leibniz Association is funding a five-year Junior Research Group on "Sources and Consequences of Legitimation Strategies of Regional Organizations" (LegRO) at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg.
The Research Group seeks to map and explain the sources and consequences of legitimation strategies in regional organizations over time. It studies (1) how state representatives and regional organization bureaucrats justify an organization’s right to rule to relevant internal and external audiences; (2) why such discursive legitimation strategies may change over time and vary across organizations; and (3) whether and how they are related to institutional legitimation strategies. The Group’s research agenda consists of a quantitative component that aims to map and explain basic patterns in the discursive and institutional legitimation strategies of 29 regional organizations worldwide in the period from 1980 to 2019 and several qualitative components that seek to identify the causal mechanisms and political dynamics of legitimation and delegitimation in regional organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Papers
- "Legitimation Communication of Regional Organizations: Conceptualization and Empirical Findings." Working paper (with Henning Schmidtke, Niklas Krösche and Swantje Schirmer).
- "The Normative Diversity of Discursive Self-Legitimation in International Organizations." Working paper (with Henning Schmidtke).
- "Sources of Discursive Legitimation in International Organizations." Working paper (with Henning Schmidtke).
2. The Authority of International Organizations and Institutional Overlap
This project examines the relationship between the institutional authority of international organizations (IOs) and the dynamics of institutional overlap by asking two questions: What are the implications of differences in IO authority for institutional overlap? And given conditions of institutional overlap, which IO characteristics lead to more or less authority?
In cooperation with Yoram Haftel (Hebrew University Jerusalem), these questions are approached through quantitative analyses and case studies of overlap among international/regional organizations in Africa.
This project is funded by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony's Research Cooperation Lower Saxony - Israel grant.
» The two PIs, March 2019, Hannover (JPG, 2.68 Mb)
Papers
- "Measuring Institutional Overlap in Global Governance." Review of International Organizations (with Yoram Haftel).
- "Organizational Complexity and Regional Authority: Africa and Latin America Compared." Working paper (with Yoram Haftel).
Current research projects
This Leibniz Junior Research Group seeks to map and explain the sources and consequences of legitimation strategies in regional organizations over time. It studies (1) how state representatives and regional organization bureaucrats justify an organization’s right to rule to relevant internal and external audiences; (2) why such discursive legitimation strategies may change over time and vary across organizations; and (3) whether and how they are related to institutional legitimation strategies.
» Logo (JPG, 77.03 Kb)
This project examines the relationship between the institutional authority of international organizations (IOs) and the dynamics of institutional overlap by asking two questions: What are the implications of differences in IO authority for institutional overlap? And given conditions of institutional overlap, which IO characteristics lead to more or less authority?