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Ben Christian

@benchristian.bsky.social
840 followers 462 following 42 posts

Postdoctoral Researcher @goetheuni.bsky.social // International Organizations: learning & change, internal criticism, self-legitimation, cynicism, trust ben-christian.com

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Dominik Herold @dominikherold.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
OUT NOW. Mein Buch »Radikale Demokratie und die Macht des Affektiven« gibt es ab heute druckfrisch in der Buchhandlung eures Vertrauens oder als Open-Access-Variante kostenlos per Download unter: short-url.org/1pADO
Zu sehen ist ein glücklicher Post-Doc, der das Buch zu seiner Dissertation »Radikale Demokratie und die Macht des Affektiven« in Händen hält.
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Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 03/11/2025
#OpenAccess from @risjnl.bsky.social - From the bottom up? Frontline crisis management and informal policy change in international organisations - cup.org/4qKq5nw - @nkortendiek.bsky.social #FirstView
Promotional image for "Review of International Studies" featuring a partial view of the Earth on the right side and the text "#OpenAccess" on a dark background.
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Tobias Wille @tobiaswille.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
I’m very excited that years of work with Dorry Noyes (@mershoncenter.bsky.social) and a fantastic group of friends and colleagues finally resulted in this, I think, rather beautiful object. The Global Politics of Exemplarity! @normativeorders.bsky.social @prif.org @brisunipress.bsky.social 1/4
A photo of the book The Global Politics of Exemplarity.
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Dominik Herold @dominikherold.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Die Fahnen sind da! Im Februar erscheint mein Buch »Radikale Demokratie und die Macht des Affektiven« als fünfter Band der Philosophie & Kritik Reihe im Campus Verlag.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
UN funding is under pressure. In a new article @the-peio.bsky.social, my colleagues Alex Tokhi and Lisbeth Zimmermann (@goetheuni.bsky.social) show that the participation of far-right parties in government has significant negative effects on the funding of IOs. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
The far right and international organizations: How the far right in government affects foreign aid funding - The Review of International Organizations
The far right is on the rise, winning elections, entering governments globally, and politicizing international cooperation. Existing research finds only very limited effects of far-right governments on international organizations (IOs), however.. We argue that the far right in government undermines IOs by systematically reducing their earmarked funding, as it cannot fully align its anti-migration agenda with the liberal mandates and purposes of most IOs. Using new data on earmarked funding to IOs from 37 OECD donor states between 1990 and 2020, we examine how far-right participation in government affects IO funding. Expanding the data on far-right parties beyond Western Europe, we employ three-way fixed effects and dynamic balancing weights to address both static and dynamic confounding with marginal structural models. Our results show that governments with far-right parties reduce earmarked funding contributions to IOs by almost 30%, without affecting bilateral aid commitments. This suggests that the far right not only politicizes IOs but also attempts to directly undermine their operation when IOs cannot be aligned with their anti-migration agenda.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Tokhi & Zimmermann argue that the far right in government does so because it cannot fully align its anti-migration agenda with the liberal mandates and purposes of most IOs. Have a look at this very cool paper, it's open access! #UN80 #Trump #EarmarkedFunding #FarRight
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Tokhi & Zimmermann demonstrate that governments with far-right parties reduce earmarked funding contributions to IOs by almost 30%, yet they do not alter bilateral aid commitments.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
UN funding is under pressure. In a new article @the-peio.bsky.social, my colleagues Alex Tokhi and Lisbeth Zimmermann (@goetheuni.bsky.social) show that the participation of far-right parties in government has significant negative effects on the funding of IOs. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
The far right and international organizations: How the far right in government affects foreign aid funding - The Review of International Organizations
The far right is on the rise, winning elections, entering governments globally, and politicizing international cooperation. Existing research finds only very limited effects of far-right governments on international organizations (IOs), however.. We argue that the far right in government undermines IOs by systematically reducing their earmarked funding, as it cannot fully align its anti-migration agenda with the liberal mandates and purposes of most IOs. Using new data on earmarked funding to IOs from 37 OECD donor states between 1990 and 2020, we examine how far-right participation in government affects IO funding. Expanding the data on far-right parties beyond Western Europe, we employ three-way fixed effects and dynamic balancing weights to address both static and dynamic confounding with marginal structural models. Our results show that governments with far-right parties reduce earmarked funding contributions to IOs by almost 30%, without affecting bilateral aid commitments. This suggests that the far right not only politicizes IOs but also attempts to directly undermine their operation when IOs cannot be aligned with their anti-migration agenda.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Interested in International Political Sociology? Join us today at 2 pm! :)
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
@holgerniemann.bsky.social @luisaue.bsky.social @katharinakrause.bsky.social
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Book Launch: Oxford Handbook of International Political Sociology Interested in all things IPS? Join us for our online book launch featuring Co-Editor Ole Jacob Sending and Discussant Ingvild Bode on June 16 at 2 pm (CEST). Details for the @dvpw.bsky.social event: www.dvpw.de/gliederung/a...
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Matthias Kranke @mattkranke.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
📢 Job announcement – 1 PhD researcher in my "Global Sustainability Governance" research group Please share this opportunity within your networks and encourage suitable candidates to apply (or consider applying yourself)! Happy to answer questions! Deadline: 4 June 👇 www.uni-due.de/karriere/ste...
uni-due.de
Stellenausschreibung
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Great to see @reformworks.bsky.social featuring findings from my ISQ article on internal criticism and organizational learning in IOs. In light of the recent developments, Katja asks: Will the UN Ever Learn to Reform? #UN80
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Katja @ReformWorks @reformworks.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Despite a professionalized learning architecture, the #UN struggles to learn. What is the missing piece? A culture of criticism. With member states stressing that #UN80 be informed by lessons from past reforms, we explore new research that shows how learning can really happen. 👉 bit.ly/UNlearns
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JEPP Journal @jeppjournal.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
▶️ @benchristian.bsky.social and Dirk Peters examine how trust and distrust define the post-Brexit relationship between the EU and the UK.
tandfonline.com
Establishing trust and distrust when states leave international organisations: the case of Brexit
Although EU and UK participants in Brexit negotiations emphasise the role that trust and distrust played for them, existing Brexit research has largely disregarded this factor. From a trust perspec...
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
How can trust be rebuilt when states leave international organizations? #Brexit Happy to see that Dirk Peters @prif.org and my article on this question has been assigned to the new issue @jeppjournal.bsky.social. Thread below, open access article here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Abstract of the article
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
This not only sheds light on an under-researched dimension of the Brexit process. It also contributes to trust research, which has yet to fully acknowledge both the significance of signals of trustworthiness & leadership transitions in creating windows of opportunity for changes in trust dynamics.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Rishi Sunak’s government countered the signals sent by its predecessor. By demonstrating its integrity and benevolence, it succeeded in rebuilding trust and facilitated the conclusion of the ‘Windsor Framework’.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Our analysis shows that during Boris Johnson’s premiership, the EU lost trust in the UK government’s benevolence and integrity, mainly because the UK repeatedly failed to honour previous commitments.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Building on insights from trust research in International Relations, we argue that the former partners gauge whether the other side can be trusted based on two types of signals: signals of benevolence and of integrity.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
In a nutshell, we argue that from a trust perspective, withdrawals from IOs are highly significant events. When states leave a common institution and their relationship with each other is deprived of previous institutional certainties, trust becomes both necessary & precarious.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Using the case of #Brexit, we examine how trust was lost and later rebuilt during the exit negotiations between the #UK and the #EU
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
How can trust be rebuilt when states leave international organizations? #Brexit Happy to see that Dirk Peters @prif.org and my article on this question has been assigned to the new issue @jeppjournal.bsky.social. Thread below, open access article here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Abstract of the article
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Reposted by Ben Christian
Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Wichtiges Symposium in Frankfurt, Anmeldungen sind weiterhin möglich. @dominikherold.bsky.social und ich organisieren einen Workshop zur Wissenschaftsfreiheit, kommt vorbei! :)
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Wichtiges Symposium in Frankfurt, Anmeldungen sind weiterhin möglich. @dominikherold.bsky.social und ich organisieren einen Workshop zur Wissenschaftsfreiheit, kommt vorbei! :)
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Other contributions come from great colleagues like @tobiaswille.bsky.social @bendassler.bsky.social @simonkoschut.bsky.social @ksailormoon.bsky.social @audreyalejandro.bsky.social @maxlesch.bsky.social @marielreiss.bsky.social @felixanderl.bsky.social Jonas Wolff @prif.org and many more...
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
I contributed a brief chapter on 𝗖𝘆𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗺, which was a lot of fun to write. You can find my chapter here (let me know if you don’t have access…): www.elgaronline.com/display/book...
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Beate Jahn & Sebastian Schindler have compiled a fantastic “Elgar Encyclopedia of International Relations." What makes it special is that it not only covers well-known IR concepts but also many less-established ones—such as art, failure, friendship, or post-truth. A great resource! 🙏 lmy.de/mjCbh
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Nele Kortendiek @nkortendiek.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
🏆 I feel deeply honored to receive the Chadwick Alger Prize for the best book on multilateral cooperation and international organization for "Global Governance on the Ground". Have a look at the book here academic.oup.com/book/59022 and let me know if you can't access it.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Why do many IOs struggle to learn despite a plethora of formal learning processes and tools? In my new ISQ article, I argue that the criticism culture—the way IOs deal with criticism from their employees—is an overlooked but crucial variable to explain (the lack of) learning in IOs. 🧵 lmy.de/DsCjm
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Thank you, Deepak!! :)
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Marine Gauthier @marinegauthier.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
🚨Why do IOs struggle to learn? Interesting new article showing how the « criticism culture ». This is insightful for understanding #safeguards and #accountability struggles—when critical voices are silenced and reports are polished, unintended harms may go unchecked. #InternationalOrganizations
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Thank you very much, Eugene!! :)
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Eugene Chen @casquebleu.org · 05/03/2025
This article dives into the organizational culture of the #UN peace and security pillar and is a must-read for anyone working on peace operations.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Thank you, Kseniya!! :)
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
🙏🙏🙏 Many thanks to @ndeitelhoff.bsky.social @prif.org @mirkoheinzel.bsky.social @nkortendiek.bsky.social @mattkranke.bsky.social @antonpeez.bsky.social @tobiaswille.bsky.social and Alex Tokhi, Lisbeth Zimmermann, Mathias Koenig-Archibugi, Ulrich Sedelmeier & Theresa Squatrito @lseir.bsky.social !!
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
As a consequence, the UN Secretariat lacks a necessary stimulus for learning, which results in performance problems: “Certain mistakes are made over and over again.”
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Second, I demonstrate that this criticism culture leads to a double blockade that prevents the organization’s formal learning infrastructure from performing as intended: UN staff do not dare to voice criticism in official formats, and “learning products” are glossed over as they move up the ranks.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
To illustrate this argument, I draw on an in-depth case study of the UN Secretariat and more than 50 interviews with UN staff members. First, I show that the internal criticism culture in the UN Secretariat’s Peace and Security Pillar is repressive and self-restrained.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
When staff members do not dare to express criticism and critical information is diluted as it moves up the ranks, the formal learning infrastructure suffers from distorted input and output, depriving the IO of a necessary stimulus to question and change dysfunctional practices.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
While permissive-encouraging criticism cultures can facilitate organizational learning, repressive-discouraging criticism cultures inhibit learning.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
In a nutshell, I argue that formal structures are not enough for organizational learning to occur. Even the most sophisticated learning infrastructure will be ineffective without an underlying criticism culture that allows internal dissent to be voiced and fed into official channels.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
The open-access article is published in the latest issue of International Studies Quarterly (Volume 69, Issue 1). You can download it here; a brief thread follows. academic.oup.com/isq/article/...
academic.oup.com
Validate User
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Why do many IOs struggle to learn despite a plethora of formal learning processes and tools? In my new ISQ article, I argue that the criticism culture—the way IOs deal with criticism from their employees—is an overlooked but crucial variable to explain (the lack of) learning in IOs. 🧵 lmy.de/DsCjm
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Congrats, Fanny — fantastic news! :)
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Fanny Badache @fannybadache.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Very happy to announce that I have been granted a #MCSA postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research on diversity among peacekeeping staff @ceri-sciencespo.bsky.social
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Sabrina B. Arias @sabrinabarias.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Surely this will never happen to me again, but I had TWO papers come out yesterday! In @jpeaceresearch.bsky.social, I introduce a new corpus of all 17,324 UNGA & UNSC resolutions from 1946-2018. Users will have searchable resolution texts, but also key metadata: citations, topics & reuse. 1/5
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Dominik Herold @dominikherold.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Weltweit sind autoritäre Ideologien, nationale Egoismen und die Verweigerung sozial-ökologischer Transformation scheinbar unaufhaltsam auf dem Vormarsch. Die Ideen der universellen Menschenrechte, der demokratischen Selbstbestimmung und der globalen Solidarität sind ins Hintertreffen geraten.
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Ben Christian @benchristian.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Today, 2pm CET… :)
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