MA King’s College, London, United Kingdom

Email: amtarrant@gmail.com 

Doctoral student since October 2011 

Good Foreigner, Bad Foreigner: Religion and the Construction of the "Muslim Other" at Home and Abroad before and after the Arab Spring
 
With the Arab Spring, publics in the West have been confronted by the reality of Muslims striving, fighting, and dying for the very democracy and freedom so many commentators (especially on the right) have long denied were a part of the "Muslim mindset". But where had the original Feindbild, or at least the less nuanced view, of Muslim communities come from? In my research, I argue that state experiences with Muslim minority communities, differing national approaches to the management of multiculturalism, differing national approaches to religion and secularity, and finally differing perceptions of the actions of Muslims as such in the international realm have led to multiple "Western" perceptions of the Muslim other. It is on this basis that the Arab Spring is interpreted and new views of Muslims at home and abroad are formed. Additionally, with the new rhetorical tool offered by the Arab Spring, Muslims in Western States are now able to challenge attempts to paint them broadly as illiberal and immutably "foreign" better than ever before. This project will therefore examine changing discourses of both majority and Muslim minority communities in the West, specifically Germany, the UK, and US, before and after the Arab Spring. It seeks to demonstrate these changes and the role of both domestic and international factors in crafting "discourses of othering" and conceptual frameworks in national politics and international relations. 

M.A., Universität Hamburg

Email: anna_jessel(at)web.de

Die umstrittene Nachhaltigkeit - die Fischereipolitik der EU im regionalen Vergleich

Die Überfischung der Weltmeere und insbesondere die der europäischen Gewässer hat weitreichende Folgen für die Umwelt und die menschliche Ernährung.  Europa importiert jährlich ca. 60 Prozent an Fisch um den Eigenbedarf zu decken, der von den eigenen Fischereien nicht mehr geleistet werden kann. Die Umstrittenheit der Gemeinsamen Fischereipolitik der EU (GFP) ist seit Jahrzehnten bekannt und problematisch. Allerdings lassen sich auch positive Entwicklungen konstatieren: Der Kabeljaubestand in der Ostsee, der dort Dorsch genannt wird, hat sich in den letzten zwei Jahren sehr gut erholt. Wie ist das möglich? Aber vor allem, warum ist diese Entwicklung nicht möglich für den Blauflossenthunfisch im Mittelmeer, der als hoffnungslos überfischt eingestuft wird. Die Arbeit vermutet, bezogen auf die Normenforschung in den internationalen Beziehungen, dass das Fehlen von organisierenden Prinzipien, die die standardisierte Verfahren, wie z.B. die Fangquotenregelung, legitimieren, eine nachhaltige Fischerei verhindern. Zweitens wird angenommen, dass Kommunikationslücken zwischen der wissenschaftlichen und der praktischen Ebene die Umsetzung der Fischereinormen besonders schwierig gestalten. Eine regional vergleichende Fallstudie untersucht das Scheitern der Thunfischpolitik im Mittelmeer.

MA. (International Law, Universität Complutense Madrid, Spanien) 
Email: Renny.Rueda.Castaneda(at)studium.uni-hamburg.de
Doktorand seit 2011

The Construction of Norms in Scenarios of Asymetry

Economist. He holds studies on Government, management and Public Affais (Joined program between Externado Colombia University, Columbia University of New York), Economic analysis (University of Berkeley. US), and MA. on International Law (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain). He has served as a consultant and lecturer on international economy and political science. His main areas of study are International Economy and International Law.
His research deals with the construction of norms on scenarios of political asymmetry. Particularly the cases of constitutionalization of principles and approaches to modern development at the Bretton Woods Institutions.  The work entails a study about the consequences of the Institutional approach to justice, over the process of construction of discourses,  policies and norms on  development at the executive/representative bodies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Dipl.-Pol. (Universität Hamburg)

Email: jorrik.fulda(at)jura.uni-hamburg.de

Doktorand seit 2011

Die Globale Konstitutionalisierung in einer asymmetrischen Weltordnung / The Global Constitutionalization in an asymmetric World Order

There can be seen two big phenomena in international relations today: the big influence of the last sole superpower, the United States, and the process of Constitutionalization in international and transnational law. The inequalities of Realpolitik distort the main function of the rule of law – the equality of every individual under law. Right now there is no comprehensive research in political science belonging to the interplay between US-Power and Constitutionalization reaching for an integrative theory of norms/idealism and power/realism (Zürn 2007:S.3). In a first step there has to be an analysis of the most important elements of constitutionalization in secondary literature (Peters, Dunoff/Trachtmann, Dobner/Loughlin, etc.). In a second step follows the analysis of documents (UN, WTO, IWF, US-State Department, literature,…) to measure the  influence of the US-Government (or other big players) on this process. The outcome shall on the one hand explain the simultaneity of both phenomena (theory of anglobal koineeirene) or on the other hand the emergence of a normative hegemony or institutionalized inequality (Zürn). The results shall bring a solution to this dilemma in favor of an universal universalism (Wallerstein) to help a just Global Constitutionalism emerge.

Dipl.-Pol. (Universität Hamburg)
Email: koss(at)giga-hamburg.de 

Doktorandin seit 2010

Islamistische Organisationen und normativer Wandel – Eine Analyse von Identität und Verhalten bei Hizbullah und Hamas

In der jüngeren Vergangenheit haben islamistische Organisationen als politische Akteure in vielen Ländern des Nahen und Mittleren Ostens stark an Bedeutung gewonnen. Sie sind sehr gut organisiert, verfügen über ein hohes gesellschaftliches Mobilisierungspotential und präsentieren sich verstärkt als politische Alternative innerhalb der bestehenden politischen Systeme oder auch im Rahmen von Transformationsprozessen. Angesichts dieser Entwicklung beschäftigt sich das Promotionsprojekt näher mit dem Zusammenspiel von politischen Normen, normativem Bedeutungswandel sowie Identität und Verhalten islamistischer Organisationen.

Die libanesische Hizubllah und die palästinensische Hamas bilden dabei die Fallbeispiele für diese Untersuchung.

Homepage:
http://www.giga-hamburg.de/english/index.php?folder=staff/koss&file=koss_en.html

MA Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC
Email: Julia.frohneberg(at)wiso.uni-hamburg.de

Doctoral student since October 2010

From Rio to Rio: Sustainable Development between international law and international relations

My research interest lies on the interdisciplinary field between international relations and international law. Sustainable development as a concept entered the international stage with the Report of the Brundtland Commission “Our common future” in 1987. While the equality of its three inherent dimensions (social, environmental and economical) has been reiterated manifold at the UN level and in international law, one can observe a strong inequality in the use and application of the concept regarding its three dimensions. This is so despite the widely acknowledged centrality of the “principle of integration” inherent in sustainable development. I am therefore interested in analyzing the discourses in the relevant fields as well as gaining background knowledge through interviews with individuals involved in shaping the concept at the international level. This shall shed light on the understanding and application of the concept in the international arena which has been researched inadequately with regard the observed puzzle. 

M.A Coventry University UK und Universität Osnabrück

Email: sassan.gholiagha(at)wiso.uni-hamburg.de

Doktorand seit April 2010

The Individual in the International Realm

The major claim of this work is that the individual is ubiquitous in the international realm while it remains under-theorized in International Relations and International Law. Hence the primary aim of this work consists of contributing towards a holistic understanding of the individual in the international realm by providing a “grounded” theory of the individual. To this end two case studies are conducted, both concerning recent developments in the international realm and both being at the nexus of international relations and international law. The first case study is concerned with the development, application and effect of the “Responsibility to Protect”, the second case study focuses on the development of International Criminal Law. In both cases individuals play a paramount role. The work sets out from the working hypothesis that the developments to be described in the case studies indicate a paramount role for the individual in processes of  constitutionalisation, but that at present International Relations (as a discipline) lacks a coherent theoretical approach to adequately understand the role and position of the individual in the international realm.

MA in International Relations and European Integration, IEHEI, Nice-Rome-Berlin
Email: dpaciorek(at)hotmail.com

doctoral student since September 2009

The Polonisation of EU and NATO

Poland’s regain of sovereignty at the beginning of the 1990s and its membership in Western organizations, especially EU and NATO, put Poland back on the international actors’ scene. But Poland’s middle range power status and its double nature as a ‘returnee to Europe’ and an ‘instinctive Atlantist’ make its input on both organizations ambiguous. In spite of confusions from Western States and hopes of Eastern States the real input Poland can have on both organizations is not clear. In order to understand the Polish impact on both organizations the study asks: How is Polonisation of EU and NATO possible?

Polonisation is understood as the input of Poland on changes of norms and identity of the given organisations. In this perspective the work examines the socialisation process after Poland’s accession to EU and NATO. But the focus of this work is not on socialisation from above (from the organizations) but on bottom-up and horizontal directions of change and thus on the Polish input on norms and identity at the organizational level. In this manner I challenge the prevailing top-down perspective of socialisation. Looking through dense constructivist lenses this perspective respects the mutual constituting relationship of actor and structure and accounts for the dual quality of socialisation.

MA, Goldsmiths, University of London; LLB, University of Hamburg

Email: chris.schilling(at)hotmail.com

doctoral student since 2009

Emotional State Theory - A case study of Israeli foreign policy

It is firmly grounded in constructivist literature. Based on the Israeli case study, my dissertation surveys theories from both political science as well as psychology. It understands the State of Israel as an important actor in the international arena, and seeks to 'bring the state back in' at a time when many scholars of International Relations focus their research on non-state actors. My PhD dissertation introduces the theory of an 'emotional state' as a new concept of the state in International Relations theory.

MA, University of Bath & Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Email: maren.hofius(at)wiso.uni-hamburg.de
Doktorandin seit 2009

Community formation in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood – investigating diplomatic ‘practice’ as a community-creating device

The enquiry into how much ‘community’ is possible beyond the nation state has been widely discussed in the International Relations (IR), or International Political Theory literature more broadly. Particularly the communitarian-cosmopolitan debate has provided valuable insights into the key limits that are associated with the Kantian belief in universal moral law as undergirding a liberal community of states. Yet, it has overlooked the very constructed and hence contingent nature which ‘community’ as both a concept and empirical reality inheres in itself. The result has been essentialising communities as cultural entities whose existence and boundaries of membership are regarded as given. What thus remains unexplored is what constitutes community in the first place? The present dissertation project seeks to investigate the processes of how a community comes into being and is sustained over time. It explores the conditions of its emergence as well as the sources of its coherence. 
The project is informed by the most recent ‘practice turn’ in IR. It adapts Etienne Wenger’s (1999) concept of “communities of practice” (cf. Adler and Pouliot’s (2011) use of the concept for IR purposes) in order to shed light on processes of community formation in the European Union’s (EU) neighbourhood. As a community-creating device, practice among diplomats working at the EU delegation to Ukraine is examined as to learn whether they, together with the local elites, come to constitute the nucleus of a practice community. With the empirical focus placed on the European neighbourhood and the conceptual focus on practices, the study moves beyond research whose focal point has been socialisation processes in densely institutionalised settings such as the EU. Instead, situated at the very borders of a purportedly existing ‘community of values’, the study promises to provide valuable insights into how community comes to be constituted – without the agents necessarily having recourse to a sufficiently advanced degree of cultural unity among its members.

MA (Sociology of Contemporary Culture, University of York, 2004)

Email: hannes.hansen-magnusson(at)wiso.uni-hamburg.de

Doktorand seit 2008

Practice vs. Performance – Hermeneutics in International Relations Research

My research project argues for the inclusion of hermeneutic concepts in International Relations research which seem to have been overlooked in what has become known as the ‘practice turn’ over the last decade. By contrasting ‘practice’ vs. ‘performance’ the project draws on concepts in the hermeneutic philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer to focus on the role of individuals in international politics, processes of interaction and the creation of meaning. Illustrative case studies addresses the European Commission’s communication strategy and the creation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Dr. phil. (Goethe Universität Frankfurt, 2009)

Email: philip.liste(at)wiso.uni-hamburg.de

Habilprojekt: Intertextualities as Technique of Global Governance: The Constitution of Normativity in Organizational Context

The ever-always-the-same phrases in documents of International Organizations (IOs) are not “just” phrases. This project builds on the assumption that repetitive phraseology is a major aspect in institutional practice and a forceful technique in the global organization of normativity—understood as a continuously negotiated accumulation of normative claims or patterns of meaning. Located on the intersection of the academic fields of International Relations, Organizational Sociology and Law, the project aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the daily operations of IOs and their role in the regulation of world society as well as phenomena of constitutionalization and fragmentation of international law. The project proposes to analyze this daily practice as textual practice. By the same token, social science discourse analysis will be applied in order to elaborate the hegemonic reproduction of normativity in a global scale in which IOs are assumed to play an essential role. Guided by a theoretical interest in questions of the constitutionalization and fragmentation of international law the project aims to show paths for conducting empirical research on the nexus of IOs and the contested constitution of normative order—i.e. global normativity.