Politikwissenschaft als Universitätslaufbahn: Eine Kollektivbiographie politikwissenschaftlicher Hochschullehrer/-innen in Deutschland 1949–1999

Over the last fifty years, Political Science is firmly established in the German university system. The article presents the findings of a collective biography of the discipline’s professors for the period between 1949 and 1999. The empirical study puts particular emphasis on the gender distribution among tenured Political Scientists, the age at certain stages in their academic career, and aspects of regional distribution. In addition, the paper presents quantitative data for different periods between 1949 and 1999 about the regional distribution of universities at which doctoral degrees, the ‘Habilitation’, and the chairs for Political Science were achieved. The research indicates that the vast majority of active professors of Political Science in Germany in the year 1999 will have become pensioners in 2009. The paper concludes with some speculative thoughts about the situation of the German university system in general and the question, whether the discipline will survive the ongoing university reforms as a coherent academic discipline.     

The legitimacy of occupation authority: beyond just war theory

ABSTRACT

So far, most of the philosophical literature on occupations has tried to assess the legitimacy of military rule in the aftermath of armed conflicts by exclusively employing the theoretical resources of just war theory. In this paper, I argue that this approach is mistaken. Occupations occur during or in the aftermath of wars but they are fundamentally a specific type of rule over persons. Thus, theories of political legitimacy should be at least as relevant as just war theory for the moral evaluation of occupations. This paper, therefore, draws on both traditions and argues that just war theory plays a limited role in identifying the purposes and appropriate agents of occupation authority, but that theories of legitimacy are necessary for explaining why and under which conditions foreign actors have the right to rule in the aftermath of armed conflicts.     

Crisis (hostage) negotiators weigh in: the skills,behaviors, and qualities that characterize an expert crisis negotiator

This research identified what skills, behaviors, and qualities experienced crisis (hostage) negotiators believe enhance or harm their success during negotiation. 188 negotiators from various countries (primarily United States) voluntarily completed an online survey in which they listed the aforementioned characteristics and reported on various aspects of their own background and behaviors. Open-response questions were coded and quantitative methods revealed what qualities were listed most frequently by negotiators. Active listening, displays of empathy, effective communication, and remaining calm and collected appear at the top of their to-do lists. Conversely, being confrontational, arguing, yelling, and interrupting were reported as behaviors to be avoided. Most negotiators attend trainings multiple times a year and read on the topic of crisis negotiation. About half follow a model during negotiations, typically the FBI’s Behavioral Change Stairway Model. Findings are discussed with relevance to future research directions and improvement of negotiator trainings.     

Legitimacy beyond the state: institutional purposes and contextual constraints

ABSTRACT

The essays collected in this special issue explore what legitimacy means for actors and institutions that do not function like traditional states but nevertheless wield significant power in the global realm. They are connected by the idea that the specific purposes of non-state actors and the contexts in which they operate shape what it means for them to be legitimate and so shape the standards of justification that they have to meet. In this introduction, we develop this guiding methodology further and show how the special issue’s individual contributions apply it to their cases. In the first section, we provide a sketch of our purpose-dependent theory of legitimacy beyond the state. We then highlight two features of the institutional context beyond the state that set it apart from the domestic case: problems of feasibility and the structure of international law.     

Gideon Botsch: „Politische Wissenschaft” im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Die „Deutschen Auslandswissenschaften” im Einsatz 1940–1945

Ohne Zusammenfassung