Classical approaches to international relations often focus on the problem of order, which is defined as a problem of under-supply. From Immanuel Kant to Hedley Bull to Anne-Marie Slaughter, the classical tradition focuses on understanding why there isn’t enough order in world politics and how to make more of it. The first project of international relations, it is said, is to create a foundation of order upon which other projects can be built.
In this tradition, ‘world order’ is understood to be an objective condition that is universally desirable. A closer look at the concept, however, makes it clear that it is politically contested, and every ordering project involves tradeoffs among interests and produces both losers and winners. This is equally true of the American ‘rules-based order’ after 1945 as it is of realist spheres of influence, and of British imperial ordering in the 19th century.
In his public talk Ian Hurd reframes the debate on world order for IR around a concept of order that acknowledges its political content. It considers various definitions of order in International Relations and shows how these deploy distinct relations with historical facts, scientific models, and policy goals. A political understanding of the idea of world order leads IR scholarship away from causal models and objectivist ontology, and as a result makes it easier to understand the long history of contestation around how world order should be made and who gets to make it.
Ian Hurd is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Weinberg College Center for International and Area Studies at Northwestern University (Evanston, USA).
This event is a joint event with the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences at Universität Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Empirical Political Science Seminar Series - HPS³. Please find further information on the event and the seminar program on the HPS³ Website.
This is a public event and no registration is required.
What security threats will Germany face in the future? Will the country become a military power in view of the proclaimed turnaround in security policy and should it perhaps even possess its own nuclear weapons? What about disarmament and arms control?
All these questions are addressed in the volume "Germany and the Politics of Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century: Atomic Zeitenwende?", edited by Dr Ulrich Kühn. It is the result of a one-year international publication project funded by the Stanton Foundation. The book and its central statements, results and theses are now being officially presented at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.
The panel is:
- George Perkovich (Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
- Ulrich Kühn (Head of the Research Area Arms Control and Emerging Technologies at the IFSH)
- Liana Fix (Fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relation)
- Amy J. Nelson (Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at Brookings)
Registration
Interested parties can register for the event via the homepage of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The event will take place hybrid.
From 25 to 27 June 2025, IFSH is organising an international workshop on the promises and challenges of participatory research in an age of multiple, complex, and interconnected crises in the conctext of its “Doing Peace!” program, a multi-annual research program in which IFSH researchers experimented with participatory and practice-oriented methods in peace and security research.
Faced with multiple crises and increasing social and political complexity, proposals to rethink and redesign the relationship between science and society are gaining ground. Participatory and transdisciplinary research, action research, citizen science, and real-world labs emphasize new forms of collaboration between researchers and citizens or practitioners. Practicing engagement “all the way down,” companionship, and “co-laboration” with societal and political stakeholders, these approaches aim to do research with people rather than about them. This new paradigm has been met with enthusiasm for its innovative way of interacting with society. But it also raises questions about research ethics, access to and exploitation of local knowledge as well as power and inequalities in co-creative processes of knowledge production. This holds all the truer for the study of crisis responses in fields such as security policy, peacebuilding, climate adaptation, and humanitarian governance that are marked by high power imbalances between involved actors and stakeholders.
The workshop will focus on three broadly defined thematic areas
Uncertain futures and temporalities of the polycrisis
Spatialities of peace and conflict
Technologies and practices of security
The workshop aims to provide an environment for creative and thought-provoking interdisciplinary debates on the benefits and challenges of participatory research.
Participation / Call for Paper
If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please find a full Call for Papers here. Travel and accommodation will be covered for workshop participants.
Please submit an abstract of 250 words by Friday, 21 February 2025, to doingpeace2025@ifsh.de.
Workshop organisers
Holger Niemann (niemann@ifsh.de)
Delf Rothe (rothe@ifsh.de)
Ursula Schröder (schroeder@ifsh.de)
On 8 May 2025, exactly 80 years after the end of World War II in Europe, IFSH will be part of an international conference on the future of peace. The conference, hosted by the Flemish Peace Institute, will bring together peace researchers from across Europe as well as others interested in peace research to identify key challenges to the future of peace and conflict.
Engaging with policymakers, scholars, and civil society, the event will share new insights and highlight solution-driven findings to foster fresh research, informed policy, and impactful practice in 5 domains:
- feminist peace
- peace & climate
- local peace
- peace & emerging technologies
- Europe, peace and security.
The conference is the inaugural event of PEACE (Peace Research Community Europe), a trans-European network that expands and strengthens a network of peace and conflict research centres and researchers from across Europe. It is supported by the COST Association – European Cooperation in Science and Technology, funded by the European Union. The main aim for this network is to improve the understanding of the current challenges to peace and security on the European continent and beyond.
IFSH is one of the founding members of this network. Ursula Schröder and Holger Niemann are the leads of the working group on Europe, peace, and security.
Programme and registration
The conference will be held in the Flemish Parliament in Brussels. More information about the programme and how to register can be found here.
If you are interested in learning more and participating in PEACE Action, please check out this webpage.
The monstrous effects of the climate crisis are difficult for people to comprehend. Images give access to uncertain climate futures and allow us to imagine the unthinkable. The exhibition “Climate no Future” at the Pop-Up Art Space Grindelallee 129 in Hamburg explores the visual language of the climate movement and its struggle for the future through the eyes of the protesters themselves.
The exhibition showcases 34 photographs taken by members of three pivotal climate movements of our time: Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future, and the Last Generation. The photographs and accompanying quotes from the activists document the fears, hopes and demands of the ‘Anthropocene generation’ – a generation that is growing up on an increasingly dynamic and turbulent planet. Focusing on the social environment and future visions of climate activists, the exhibition breaks with the established aesthetics of the climate crisis. We hope the images can function as a visual dialogue, which inspires reflection on our collective actions, responsibilities, and the possibilities for change.
The exhibition is part of the research project Security Imaginaries of Climate Movements (SECIMA), which is jointly funded by the University of Groningen and the University of Hamburg and led by Dr. Delf Rothe (IFSH) and Dr. David Shim (University of Groningen). SECIMA explored new methodological approaches by involving climate activists as ‘citizen scientists’ in the collection and analysis of visual data. This resulted in new perspectives on the climate movement and the images of the future that motivate it.
Opening hours
The exhibition is open daily from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. from October 4 to October 14. It will be closed on Monday, October 7.
Free entry!
What can we learn from the Pacific about addressing the intertwined challenges of climate change and security? This public roundtable brings together experts from the Pacific region and Northern Europe to discuss how climate change is affecting peace and security across different regions. From rising sea levels threatening Pacific Island nations to the environmental violence experienced by Arctic communities, the event will highlight the importance of local perspectives and indigenous knowledge in shaping responses to the security impacts of climate change.
Too often, regional insecurities are overshadowed by broader discourses that center on Western ideas and interests. For example, while Western perspectives may focus on the geopolitical impacts of climate change, Pacific communities are deeply concerned about the loss of cultural heritage as land disappears under rising seas. Similarly, in the Arctic, traditional ways of life are being disrupted by environmental change, raising new security concerns for local populations.
However, Pacific Islanders and other indigenous communities in severely affected areas are anything but mere victims of the climate crisis. They are pioneers, leading the way with climate mitigation initiatives and innovations in climate change adaptation – as exemplified by the Rising Nations Initiative and the push for a Digital Tuvalu. The panel discussion sheds light on these recent initiatives and fosters mutual learning and exchange.
Moderation:
Prof. Dr. Ursula Schröder
Director Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg
Panelists:
Philippe Maupai
Deputy Head of the "Geopolitics of Climate Change, Climate and Security“ division of the Federal Foreign Office
Upolu Luma Vaai
Principal and Professor of Theology and Ethics at Pacific Theological College, Fiji
Janani Vivekananda
Head of Programme Climate Diplomacy and Security at adelphi
Cedric H. de Coning
Research Professor in the Research group on peace, conflict and development at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)
Anna Naupa
ni-Vanuatu PhD candidate at the Australian National University’s School of Culture, History and Language
Registration
You can register online via feedback.ifsh.de/vf/_NEWPQcA5 . After registration we will send you a Zoom link closer to the date.
This policy dialogue is a joint event organised by Toda Peace Institute (Japan), Universität Hamburg and Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy.