Research Focuses of Prof. Dr. Reinhard Wolf

Research Focus "Respect"

Respect and Disrespect in International Relations

The analysis of respect could be relevant for foreign policy analysis and for the examination of processes of interactions: for foreign policy analysis, because it completes the actor’s tableau of goals and could deliver better explanations and for interaction process analysis, because it shows the transformation and escalation of conflicts in another perspective. In other words, it is expected that if respect is received the willingness for cooperation rises, while disrespect generates antagonism.

In this field of research interdisciplinary work is essential. Especially philosophy, sociology and social-psychology are important components, e.g. the inclusion of practical philosophy helps explaining just and unjust, because the experience of disrespect goes along with the feeling of injustice. Actors believe that they have always a moral claim for respect. Sociology and social-psychology help explaining the benefit for the analysis of aspects of status and the emotional dimension, which is for the experience of disrespect very important.

A monograph is currently in preparation.

Project-relevant links

Between Deference and Defiance: Hierarchical Status Roles and International Conflict, in: International Studies Quarterly (online first) (2021)

Taking interaction seriously: Asymmetrical roles and the behavioral foundations of status, in: European Journal of International Relations 25:4 (2019)

Eingebildete Missachtung, Narzissmus und patronalistisches Denken. Die Wurzeln von Donald Trumps Aversion gegen die liberale Weltordnung, in: Christopher Daase und Stefan Kroll (Hrsg.): Angriff auf die liberale Weltordnung - Die amerikanische Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik unter Donald Trump, Wiesbaden, 2019

Debt, dignity, and defiance: why Greece went to the brink, in: Review of International Political Economy 25.6 (2018)

Respecting foreign peoples: the limits of moral obligations, in: Journal of International Relations and Development 19:1 (2016)

Respect and Disrespect in International Politics, in: International Theory 3(1) 2011

Respekt, Solidarität und Kooperation in den internationalen Beziehungen, in Maull et al. 2009

Respekt. Ein unterschätzter Faktor in den Internationalen Beziehungen, ZIB 1/2008

Reasearch Focus "Status Emotions in International Relations"

Status Emotions in International Relations

These works can be understood as part of the "emotional turn" that the sub-discipline of International Relations has taken for several years. The focus is on the question of what consequences emotionalized perceptions of status have for foreign policy discourses and decisions, in particular how anger over disregard affects governments’ and publics’ willingness to engage in conflict and how experiences of humiliation generate national resentment.

Project-relevant links

Between Deference and Defiance: Hierarchical Status Roles and International Conflict, in: International Studies Quarterly (online first) (2021)

“On Monday, Our National Humiliation Will Be Over. We Will Finish with Orders from Abroad": Status, Emotions, and the SYRIZA Government’s Rhetoric in the Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis, in: Simon Koschut (ed.): The Power of Emotions in World Politics, Abingdon 2020.

Debt, Dignity and Defiance: Why Greece Went to the Brink, in: Review of International Political Economy 25:6 (2018), 829-53.

Political Emotions as Public Processes. Analyzing Transnational Ressentiments in Discourses, in: Maéva Clement und Eric Sangar (Hrsg.): Researching Emotions in International Relations: Methodological Perspectives on the Emotional Turn, Cham 2018.

Identifying Emotional Reactions to Status Deprivations in Discourse, in: International Studies Review 19:3 (September 2017), 491-96.

Der ‚emotional turn‘ in den IB: Plädoyer für eine theoretische Überwindung metho­discher Engführung, in: Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, 5: 4 (November 2012)

Reasearch Focus "Europe between China and America"