If I had to describe my research interests with a single word it would probably be communication. It is in the very nature of human beings to communicate with one another in myriad ways, and this has profound political implications. Improving our grasp of some of these modes of communication and what they do in shaping politics helps us find more compelling answers to key questions about today’s international relations. In my research, these include the following: What kind of peace ought we to strive for and how ought we to get there? What do what facets of diplomacy do to international orders? How are these orders configured and how do they change?
These questions amount to themes of my research. My past projects, conceptually and empirically zooming in onto more specific research questions, dealt with border disputes between states, the making and re-making of national identities, restraint and compromise in international relations, usages of historical analogies by scholars and political decision-makers, political judgments and public justifications, international crisis co-management, framing and intervention, and agency and nuclear arms control.
In line with my own research agenda, I co-edit the Routledge New Diplomacy Series, serve on the board of the Hague Journal of Diplomacy, lead the Peaceful Change Working Group at the Austrian Research Association, and serve as the Regional Director Africa of the Global Research Network on Peaceful Change.
Currently, I am pursuing research projects on the nexus of diplomacy and peace, digital international relations (with Corneliu Bjola), deglobalization (with T.V. Paul), multiplex world ordering (with Martin Senn) and a handbook on Austrian foreign policy (with Martin Senn and Franz Eder).