Institut für Politikwissenschaft

Chair of International Relations

Welcome to the pages of the Chair of International Relations at the University of Goettingen.

A separate homepage for the Chair of International Relations - including detailed information about Prof Anja Jetschke and her team, as well as our research and teaching - is currently under construction. Below you will find a brief overview of the team and its two main focus areas: Comparative Regionalism Research and Comparative Transitional Justice Research.



    Employees at the Chair of International Relations

  • Prof. Dr. Anja Jetschke - Chair
  • Dr. Kristina Kurze- Research Associate
  • Patrick Theiner, PhD - Lecturer (Akademischer Rat)
  • Julia Egle, M.A. - Research Associate
  • Sören Münch, M.A. - Project CROP
  • Besmira Sinanaj - PhD
  • Elisabeth Luft - Administration
  • Jana-Annina Iken - Student Assistant


      • Research at the Chair of International Relations


    • Recent Publications

      • 2014 (forthcoming) Regionalisierung im Vergleich, in: Erdmann, Gero/Kneuer, Marianne/Laut, Hans-Joachim/Pickel, Gert (Hrsg.) Handbuch für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
      • 2014 (forthcoming) Export of Regional Governance: The Case of ASEAN, in: Börzel, Tanja/van Hüllen, Vera: Export of Regional Governance by Regional Organizations.
      • 2013 (forthcoming): Ende der Straflosigkeit? – Internationalisierte Tribunale und die Aufarbeitung von Vergangenheit, Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen.


    • Comparative Regionalism Research / Vergleichende Regionalismusforschung


    Comparative Regionalism Research is a new research focus within International Relations emphasizing the necessity to conduct a cross-regional, comparative analysis of regional organizations and other variations of regional integration. This Chair has taken a pioneering role in this field (Jetschke & Lenz 2011). It does not restrict itself to its work on a conceptual level, but is also engaged in various smaller projects of comparative research on regional cooperation and the formation of institutions.
    The Comparative Regional Organizations Project (CROP) analyses first and foremost the diffusion of norms between different regional organizations (Jetschke). Other projects concern the empirical measurement of the legitimacy of regional and international organizations (Schlipphak), the authority of regional organizations towards global governance (Jetschke & Schlipphak), as well as the impact of financial crises on regional integration in cross-regional comparison (Jetschke & Schlipphak). Further information on these projects and contact information can be found on the corresponding pages of Anja Jetschke and Patrick Theiner.

    The field of Comparative Regionalism Research is further represented by a thematic research group under the same name within the framework of the German Political Science Association (DVPW). Anja Jetschke acts as its spokeswomen, together with Tanja Börzel (Freie Universitaet, Berlin). The group’s homepage will also be available before long and hosted by this Chair’s web presence. The research group will moreover serve as a platform for those academics and media representatives interested in establishing contact with experts in the field of Comparative Regionalism Research.


    • Comparative Transitional Justice Research


    The research project “Might or Right – The Role of International and Internationalized Tribunals in Reconciliation“ takes a closer look at the effects of the domestic distribution of power between former civil war parties in the establishment of tribunals for the punishment of war crimes and human rights violations. It also analyses these effects on reconciliation processes and its role in creating and consolidating peace in (post)conflict societies.

    The project’s keys questions are: How does the domestic distribution of power between perpetrators and victims or rather between winners and losers of armed conflict influence the decision to choose a war crimes tribunal as a reconciliation instrument? We assume that the decision to establish a reconciliation instrument is influenced by calculations about the potential negative consequences on the balance of power among contending groups. Political actors try to cope with this concern by carefully selecting the instrument of transitional justice. “The more the distribution of power favors the formerly oppressed and the current rulers and the less those can be associated with human rights violations during that time, the more likelier the option of a criminal tribunal” (Jetschke 2011: 119).
    In the case that a connection between the domestic distribution of power favoring the former victims and the decision to call a criminal tribunal can be proven, a second key question arises: Which effects does the concern for the domestic distribution of power have on the work of the tribunal and consequently on its contribution to peace creation or rather consolidation in (post)conflict societies? Can criminal tribunals promote justice? Or do they represent a hidden way of retribution by victor’s justice which threatens to (possibly even) aggravate or rather revive domestic armed conflicts?