Today's world politics is characterized by two tendencies that have gained momentum in recent years: On the one hand, these are turbulent times. There are trade wars, rising concerns about climate change, a number of highly destructive internationalized civil wars, very high numbers of refugees and internally displaced people, increasing global arms expenditure, and the return of geopolitics. On the other hand, the ability of states and other actors to address these issues has declined drastically. Multilateralism is in a state of crisis.

This project, generously funded by the Austrian Research Association (Österreichische Forschungsgemeinschaft - ÖFG), examines this tension by addressing a key question of International Studies: What fosters or hinders peaceful change? Inquiring into this question, we focus on processes of world ordering. What different functional and regional orders are there? How do they relate to one another and how does agency shape their production and re-production? How does peaceful change feature in these production and re-production processes?

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Title of the Project: Contested EU Foreign Policy in an Era of Geopolitics (EUFOG)
Funding programme: Horizon Europe. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Doctoral Networks
Grant Number: 101169280
Duration: 1 December 2024 – 30 November 2028

Description
The doctoral network EUFOG will contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which the EU is reconsidering key tenets of its international role in the face of the geopolitical turn in international politics.

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Since March 2025, the Vienna School of International Studies is home to the research project "Development Finance in the Face of Climate Change" funded by the OeNB Jubiläumsfonds and led by Katja Kalkschmied, Postdoc in International Economics at the Department of International Economics. The project has its second home at the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change at the University of Graz, with Alexander Marbler and Stefan Borsky being the cooperation partners.

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The danger of nuclear war appears to have been increasingly overlooked in international studies, especially in Europe, despite undiminished risks. If anything, today’s security landscape – marked by multiplying conflicts, shifting alliances, eroded arms control agreements, and blurred lines between conventional and nuclear weapons – has heightened the possibility of catastrophic miscalculation.

This project examines the dynamics of crisis bargaining between nuclear powers and re-evaluates the psychological foundations of deterrence theory, to better understand what motivates nuclear threats and how to respond to them.

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Brownbag Research Seminars

Initiated in 2024, the Brownbag Research Seminars are a monthly series that brings together DA professors, postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, visiting professors and DA affiliates to discuss current projects and network in a semi-formal setting.

Recent topics have included:

  • The Geopolitics of European Port Infrastructure Investments (Katja Kalkschmied)
  • Entangled International Orders (Markus Kornprobst)
  • International Studies from a Cultural Studies Perspective (Giulia Pelillo)
  • "No worries, I'm flexible!": Navigating methodological challenges, ethics and inductive knowledge during fieldwork (Vanessa Gauthier-Vela)

Contact
PD Dr. Giulia Pelillo
E giulia.pelillo@da-vienna.ac.at

Publications by the DA's faculty members

Riedel Rafał

Differentiated Integration Beyond Brexit -
Revisiting Cleavage Perspective in Times of Multiple Crises

By Alexander Radunz, Rafał Riedel
Routledge, 2024
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Immer engere Union?
Differenzierte europäische Integration in der Post-Brexit-Ära – Deutsche und polnische Perspektiven

Von Alexander Radunz, Rafał Riedel
V&R unipress, 2023

Dieses Buch bietet neue Einblicke in den aktuellen Stand der differenzierten Integration in Europa aus der Perspektive Deutschlands, repräsentativ für den inneren Kern der Europäischen Union, und Polens, welches die Semiperipherie vertritt. Als theoretisches Vehikel nutzen die Autoren die innerstaatlichen und transnationalen Konfliktlinien (Cleavages), die durch die kumulativen Krisen der europäischen Integration hervortreten. Sie untersuchen, wie diese die differenzierten Einstellungen von Bürgern und Parteien gegenüber der europäischen Integration in Europa beeinflussen. Folglich liefert dieses Buch eine kohärente interdisziplinäre Studie, welche die klassischen politikwissenschaftlichen Theorien mit den großen Debatten der europäischen Integrationsliteratur verbindet.
This book offers new insights in recent developments in differentiated integration in Europe from the perspective of Germany, representing the inner core of the European Union, and Poland representing the semi-periphery. The authors use the intranational and transnational cleavages which came along with the cumulative crises of the European integration as a theoretical vehicle. They analyse how these crises influence the different positions of citizens and parties in the European Union towards the European integration. Thus, this book provides a coherent interdisciplinary study which connects the classic political theories with the great debates of the European integration literature.
Rafał Riedel ist Politikwissenschaftler und Professor an der Universität Opole, Polen, und Research Fellow an der Diplomatischen Akademie Wien – Vienna School of International Studies. Er habilitierte an der Universität Wrocław und war Gastwissenschaftler an der Universität Oslo, der ETH Zürich und Gastprofessor an der Universität Sankt Gallen.

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