Prof. Dr. Christian Kreuder-Sonnen
Professor (Jun.-Prof.) of Political Science and International Organizations
Christian Kreuder-Sonnen, Juniorprof. Dr

Information
Office hours during the lecture-free period:
Prof. Kreuder-Sonnen's office hours are held as follows by prior appointment via email. Online appointments take place using the Zoom room: https://uni-jena-de.zoom.us/j/97085826834External link (code: 088633).
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Personal Details
Professional experience
- 09/2024-08/2025: Jean Monnet Fellow, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute (EUI), Florence
- Since 10/2019: Professor (Jun-Prof.) of Political Science and International Organizations (tenure-track), Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
- 09/2019-02/2020: Visiting Scholar, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- 04/2017-09/2019: Research Fellow, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Departement of Global Governance
- Scientific Coordinator, DFG research group “Overlapping Spheres of Authority and Interface Conflicts in the Global Order (OSAIC)”
- 04/2016-03/2017: Research and Teaching Fellow, Chair for International Relations, Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science, LMU München
- 10/2015-12/2015: Junior Visiting Scholar, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
- 10/2012-03/2016: Research Associate, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Departement of Global Governance
- 10/2011-09/2012: Research Fellow, Chair for Global Governance, Geschwister-Scholl-Department for Political Science, LMU München
University education
- 10/2016: PhD (summa cum laude), Freie Universität Berlin
- 09/2012-09/2015: Doctoral studies at the Berlin Graduate School for Transnational Studies (BTS)
- 10/2005-07/2011: Magister Artium (M.A.), Political Science, Law and History, LMU München
Stipends and awards
- 05/2020: Early Career Prize Honorable Mention, awarded by the journal International Affairs for the article “China vs. the WHO” (2019)
- 03/2020: Chadwick Alger Prize, awarded by International Studies Association for the best monograph in the field of international organizations and multilateralism in the last calendar year
- 03/2019: Harvard Merit Fellowship for a six-month research stay at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, University of Harvard
- 10/2018: Shortlist, PhD dissertation prize, Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Department of Humanities and Social Science
- 11/2017: Friends of the WZB Award for the article „Beyond Integration Theory“, published in the Journal of Common Market Studies (2016)
- 10/2015-12/2015: DAAD scholarship for a research stay at Nuffield College, University of Oxford
- 2014 & 2015: DAAD scholarships for the participation in international conferences
- 10/2012-10/2015: PhD scholarship awardedby Fritz Thyssen Foundation
- 2008-2011: Student scholarship awarded by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation
Reviewer activity
Journals:
- Contemporary Security Policy (CSP)
- European Journal of Political Research (EJPR)
- Global Health Governance (GHG)
- Global Policy
- International Affairs
- International Relations (ir)
- International Theory (IT)
- Journal of European Integration (JEI)
- Journal of European Public Policy (JEPP)
- Political Studies
- Security Dialogue (SD)
- Swiss Political Science Review (SPSR)
- West European Politics (WEP)
- Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen (zib)
Book publishers:
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
Membership in professional associations
- Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft (DVPW)
- European Consortium of Political Research (ECPR)
- International Studies Association (ISA)
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Research Focus
- Democracy and constitutionalism
- Global Governance
- International Institutions
- Crisis and emergency politics
- Legitimation problems of the liberal international order
- Regime complexity
- Public international law and legal theory
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Publications
Monographs
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2019): "Emergency Powers of International Organizations. Between Normalization and Containment," Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Recipient of the Chadwick Alger Prize awarded by the International Studies Association (ISA).
- Reviews by Felicity Vabulas in Review of International OrganizationsExternal link, David Bosco in Perspectives on PoliticsExternal link and Michael Murphy in the International JournalExternal link.
- Forum in International Studies Review ("Emergency Politics after Globalization").
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2012): "Der Globale Ausnahmezustand. Carl Schmitt und die Anti-Terror-Politik des UN Sicherheitsrates," Baden-Baden: Nomos (Inter-nationale Beziehungen 18).
Editorships
- Hirschmann, Gisela/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (eds.) (2025): Forum "Internationale Organisationen unter Druck." In: Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen (Vol. 32, Issue 1).
- Goddard, Stacie/Krebs, Ron/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Rittberger, Berthold (eds.) (2024): Special Issue “Contestation in a world of liberal orders,” in Global Studies Quarterly (Vol. 4, Issue 2).
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/White, Jonathan (eds.) (2022): Debate Section "Emergency politics beyond the state: Europe’s exceptional transformation" in Journal of European Public Policy (Vol. 29, Issue 6).
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Zürn, Michael (eds.) (2020): Special Issue "After Fragmentation. Norm Collisions, Interface Conflicts, and Conflict Management," in Global Constitutionalism (Vol. 9, Issue 2).
Articles in peer-reviewed journals
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Schmotz, Alexander/Zürn, Michael (2025): "The complex effects of regime complexity: a conflict mode." European Journal of International Relations. DOI: 10.1177/13540661251368630.
- Hirschmann, Gisela/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2025): "Internationale Organisationen unter Druck: Einleitung zum Forum." Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 32(1), 27-42.
- Hofmann, Stephanie C./Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2025): "Handlungsfähige gesucht: Krisen- und
Kontestationsmanagement internationaler Organisationen." Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 32(1). 99-117. - Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Zangl, Bernhard (2025): “The Politics of IO Authority Transfers: Explaining Informal Internationalisation and Unilateral Renationalisation.” Journal of European Public Policy, 32(4), 954–979.
- Goddard, Stacie/Krebs, Ron/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Rittberger, Berthold (2024): “Contestation in a world of liberal orders.” Global Studies Quarterly 4(2): https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksae026.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Rittberger, Berthold (2023): "The LIO’s Growing Democracy Gap: An Endogenous Source of Polity Contestation." Journal of International Relations and Development 26: 61-85.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2022): "Does Europe Need an Emergency Constitution?" Political Studies 71(1): 125-144.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/White, Jonathan (2021): "Europe and the Transnational Politics of Emergency." Journal of European Public Policy 29(6): 953-965.
- Heupel, Monika/Koenig-Archibugi, Mathias/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Patberg, Markus/Séville, Astrid/Steffek, Jens/White, Jonathan (2021): "Emergency Politics After Globalization." International Studies Review 23(4): 1959-1987.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Zürn, Michael (2020): "After Fragmentation. Norm Collisions, Interface Conflicts, and Conflict Management." Global Constitutionalism 9(2): 241-267.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Zangl, Bernhard (2020): "Zwischen Hoffen und Bangen: Zum Verhältnis von Autorität, Politisierung und Demokratisierung in internationalen Organisationen." Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 27(1): 5-36.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2019): "International authority and the emergency problematique. IO empowerment through crises." International Theory 11(2): 182-210.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2019): "China vs. WHO: A Behavioural Norm Conflict Over Sovereignty and Global Health Security in the SARS crisis." International Affairs 95(3): 535-552.
- Early Career Prize – Honorable Mention for best article by a non-tenured scholar in International Affairs in 2019.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2018): "Political Secrecy as Crisis Management and Crisis Exploitation. Active and Reactive Secrecy in European Crisis Politics," West European Politics 41(4): 958-980.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2018): "An Authoritarian Turn in Europe and European Studies?" Journal of European Public Policy 25(3), 452-464.
- Joerges, Christian/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2017): "European Studies and the European Crisis: Legal and Political Science Between Critique and Complacency," European Law Journal 23(1-2), 118-139.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Zangl, Bernhard (2016): "Varieties of contested multilateralism: positive and negative consequences for the constitutionalization of multilateral institutions," Global Constitutionalism 5(3), 327-343.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2016): "Beyond integration theory: the (anti-) constitutional dimension of European crisis governance," Journal of Common Market Studies 54(6), 1350-1366.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Zangl, Bernhard (2015): "Which Post-Westphalia? International organizations between constitutionalism and authoritarianism," European Journal of International Relations 21(3), 568-594.
- Hanrieder, Tine/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2014): "WHO decides on the exception? Securitization and emergency governance in global health," Security Dialogue 45(4), 331-348.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2011): "Der UN Sicherheitsrat als Diktator: Globale Terrorismusbekämpfung à la Carl Schmitt," Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik Special Issue: Terrorismusforschung in Deutschland, 231-258.
Contributions to edited volumes
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Tantow, Philip M. (2023): "Crisis and Change at IOM: Critical Juncture, Precedents, and Task Expansion." In Cathryn Costello/Megan Bradley/Angela Sherwood (eds.): IOM Unbound? Obligations and Accountability of the International Organization for Migration in an Era of Expansion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 187-212.
- Wisken, Lea/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2020): "Norm collisions in the regime complex for ocean governance: power or legitimacy?" In Seline Trevisanut (ed.): Regime Interaction in Ocean Governance. Leiden: Brill, 124-155.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2019): "Die Entgrenzung des Ausnahmezustands: Globale Krisen, internationale Organisationen und dauerhafte Ermächtigung." In Rüdiger Voigt (ed.): Ausnahmezustand. Carl Schmitts Lehre von der kommissarischen Diktatur. 2nd ed. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 163-184.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2014): "Global Exceptionalism and the Euro-Crisis: Schmittian Challenges to Conflicts-Law Constitutionalism." In Christian Joerges/Carola Glinski (eds.): The European Crisis and the Transformation of Transnational Governance: Authoritarian Managerialism versus Democratic Governance. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 71-82.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2013): "Die Entgrenzung des Ausnahmezustands: global und permanent?" In Rüdiger Voigt (ed.): Ausnahmezustand. Carl Schmitts Lehre von der kommissarischen Diktatur. Staatsverständnisse, Vol. 57. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 163-184.
- Hanrieder, Tine/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2013): "Souverän durch die Krise: Überforderte Staaten und die (Selbst-)Ermächtigung der WHO." In Christopher Daase/Stefan Engert/Julian Junk (eds.): Verunsicherte Gesellschaft - Überforderter Staat. Zum Wandel der Sicherheitskultur. Frankfurt/New York: Campus, 169-186.
Interviews and media presence
- Interview for the Thüringen Journal of MDR (German TV station) on 02.11.20: Vorlesungsbeginn: Hörsaal oder Homeoffice?External link
- Interview with Deutschlandfunk (German news radio) „Aus Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften“ on 17.09.2020: Antworten der Politik auf die Corona-KriseExternal link
- Interview for the Podcast „UNhörbar“ of the German United Nations Association, Episode 1 on 19.06.20: Die Corona-Pandemie und die Krise der multinationalen internationalen OrdnungExternal link
- Interview for the video podcast „Der Nachhaker“, Episode 41 on 02.06.20: Die USA, China, Corona und die WeltgesundheitsorganisationExternal link
- Interview for MDR.DE on 20.05.20: WHO: Wer gibt den Sündenbock in der Coronakrise?External link
- Contribution to PeaceLab Blog (together with Gisela Hirschmann) on 11.05.20: Mit UN-Sicherheitsrat und WHO ein integriertes Regime für globale Gesundheitssicherheit schaffenExternal link
- Op-ed for the Washington Post (Monkey Cage) on 04.05.20: How international organizations are stepping up to respond to the pandemicExternal link
- Interview mentioned in Berliner Zeitung on 15.04.20: Die WHO und China: Eine unheilige Allianz?External link
- Interview for the podcast PolitikWissen, Sonderreihe Corona 4: Hat die WHO versagt?External link vom 02.04.2020.
- Contribution to Verfassungsblog on 27.03.20: The WHO After Corona: Discretionary Powers for the Next Pandemic?External link
Discussion papers, Policy Papers, Blogposts (selection)
- Goddard, Stacie E./Krebs, Ronald R./Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Rittberger, Berthold (2025): "Liberalism Doomed the Liberal International Order." Foreign Affairs. Available online at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/liberalism-doomed-liberal-international-orderExternal link.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian: "The WHO After Corona: Discretionary Powers for the Next Pandemic?" Verfassungsblog Blogpost, 2020, URL: https://verfassungsblog.de/the-who-after-corona-discretionary-powers-for-the-next-pandemic/External link
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian: "Ausnahme oder dauerhafte Ermächtigung? Zur Notstandspolitik internationaler Organisationen," Orders Beyond Borders Blogpost, 2020, URL: https://ordersbeyondborders.blog.wzb.eu/2020/02/13/ausnahme-oder-dauerhafte-ermachtigung-zur-notstandspolitik-internationaler-organisationen/External link
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian: "International Organizations’ Emergency Powers: Ratchet or Rollback?" E-International Relations Blogpost, 2019, URL: https://www.e-ir.info/2019/12/17/international-organizations-emergency-powers-ratchet-or-rollback/External link
- Zürn, Michael/Faude, Benjamin/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian: "Overlapping Spheres of Authority and Interface Conflicts in the Global Order. Introducing a DFG Research Group." WZB Discussion Paper SP IV 2018-103, Berlin: WZB, 2018.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian: "Is Europe’s democracy problem spiraling out of control?" Orders Beyond Borders Blogpost, 2018, URL: https://ordersbeyondborders.blog.wzb.eu/2018/03/01/is-europes-democracy-problem-spiraling-out-of-control/External link
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian: "Europas doppeltes Demokratieproblem. Defizite von EU und Mitgliedstaaten verstärken sich gegenseitig." WZB-Mitteilungen 160, Berlin: WZB, 13-16, 2018.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian: "Der lange Schatten des Notstands," Vereinte Nationen 4/17, 159-163, 2017.
- Hanrieder, Tine/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian: "Institutional change through crisis. Will Ebola Spur Reform of the Global Health Architecture?" WZB-Report 2015, Berlin: WZB, 57-60, 2015.
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian/Zangl, Bernhard: "Traits of Authoritarianism in Global Governance," LawLog Blogpost, 2015, URL: https://lawlog.blog.wzb.eu/2015/10/09/traits-of-authoritarianism-in-global-governance/External link
- Hanrieder, Tine/Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian: "The WHO’s new emergency powers – from SARS to Ebola," Völkerrechtsblog Blogpost, 2014, URL: https://voelkerrechtsblog.org/the-whos-new-emergency-powers-from-sars-to-ebola/External link
- Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian (2019): "Emergency Powers of International Organizations. Between Normalization and Containment," Oxford: Oxford University Press.