Global Orders and Foreign Policies

Research Team 1: International Institutions and Legitimacy

The International Institutions and Legitimacy Research Team examines the politics of international institutional development. We analyse how the rise of powers from the Global South, transnational activist groups, and other influential non-state actors shapes the formation of regionally varying sets of institutions and principles and how these regional transformations contribute to the growing complexity of the global multilateral order. This increasingly polycentric order provides, on the one hand, increased opportunities for interaction and more flexibility in terms of partner choice at the regional and international levels. On the other hand, the multiplication and overlapping of institutions engendered by the new order have caused fragmentation and disorder that call into question the normative foundations and empirical legitimacy of the multilateral order and its elemental institutions. Against this backdrop, we address the following questions:

• Do global power shift and rising multipolarity trigger the spread of equity norms? How does the rise of equity norms shape the legitimacy of international institutions?

• What are the effects of the widespread democratic backsliding and the emergence of China as a global power on democracy and human rights promotion through international organisations?

• How do regional organisations legitimise themselves in this transforming environment, what communicative and institutional legitimation strategies do regional organisations use, and what factors explain differences and similarities across world regions?

• How does the growing complexity of the international order shape the legitimacy of political institutions across levels of governance ?

Research Team 2: Ideas, Actors and Global Politics

Globalisation processes of the past decades have contributed to the internationalisation of domestic actors – from businesses to political parties or civil society groups. Meanwhile, a number of states in the Global South, from rising powers such as China and India to regional or middle powers such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have gained diplomatic visibility, economic influence, and political importance in an increasingly multipolar world. Thus, the specific political ideas, narratives, and ideologies endorsed by domestic actors involved in foreign policy-making in the Global South have become more important for understanding today’s international affairs. RT2 explores the variety of domestic and transnational actors involved in global and regional politics, their respective foreign policy interests, negotiation strategies, and worldviews. Taking into account domestic institutions and politics, team members also analyse the specific processes involved in the crafting of individual foreign policies as well as, more general, visions of international order across the Global South. Against this backdrop, we address the following questions:

• How do global power shifts affect foreign policy roles across the Global South – and what are the consequences thereof for international “order”?

• What are the origins and the specific content of normative ideas and political ideologies that affect the foreign policies of rising powers?

• How do smaller (“secondary”) states react to the new competition amongst and between rising and established powers?

• How do Diasporas and their politicisation affect international politics?

• What impact does the formation of populist governments have on foreign policy?