Research AssociateDr. Carmen Wunderlich

Dr. Carmen Wunderlich is a Senior researcher and lecturer at the University of Duisburg-Essen at the Chair of International Relations and Development Policy and a research fellow at the Peace Research Center Prague (PRCP). Prior to that she was employed at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) as a doctoral student in the program area “International Security” and worked as postdoc in the transfer project “Society Extreme: Radicalization and De-Radicalization in Germany” (Gesellschaft Extrem: Radikalisierung und De-Radikalisierung in Deutschland). In the context of her dissertation on “rogue states” as norm entrepreneurs, she was a visiting scholar at the Berlin Social Science Center and the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP). She earned her doctorate at the Goethe University Frankfurt in 2016.

Contact
Research
Membership
Publications
Teaching

Fak. f. Ges. Wi./Inst. f. Pol. Wiss.

Address
Forsthausweg 2
47057 Duisburg
Room
LF 316
Office hours
dienstags von 16-17 Uhr (in Präsenz in Raum 206 oder virtuell via Zoom). Anmeldung über Reiter "Sprechzeiten"

Functions

  • Akademische/r Rätin/Rat, Institut für Politikwissenschaft

Office hour: tuesdays 4.00 - 5.00 p.m. (in LF 206 or via Zoom). Please take an appointment via this link.

Research

In her research, Carmen Wunderlich focuses on global norm dynamics, particularly regarding nuclear arms control and disarmament, the arms control policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as critique and contestation practices of state and non-state actors directed towards a Western-liberal shaped normative order. She is working on a project proposal, which is geared towards examining the construction and meaning of norm clusters as compared to individual norms. In another project she addresses the growing importance of non-state and sub-state actors in the context of nuclear arms control. Her research interest further lies on the more recent Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and how it relates to the existing nuclear non-proliferation regime, also addressing the question of how to overcome the current crisis of nuclear arms control. Further focus areas of her work are concepts and challenges of global governance as well as the social construction of enemy images such as the concept of “rogue states” as a means of stigmatization.

Research interests

► Global norm dynamics
► Nuclear arms control and disarmament; particularly the recently adopted  Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and civil society engagement for nuclear disarmament
► Arms control policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran
► Critique and contestation practices of (non-)state actors towards (Western-liberal) norms

 

Research Projects

“The Politics of Norm Cluster Making“

Norm clusters, that is “collections of aligned, but distinct, norms or principles that relate to a common, overarching issue area” (Lantis/Wunderlich 2018: 571) are a widespread feature of global governance. International Relations scholars on norms, international law and regimes – albeit to different extents and with different foci – acknowledge their existence and have put forward assumptions as to the impact of norm linkages on the functioning of global order.

“Civilizing the Nuclear Order“

The control of nuclear weapons has long been dominated by state-centric models and theories. Actually, the field of international security poses quite some challenges for civil-society actors lacking state power and sources of state legitimacy.  Yet today, non-state actors have emerged as influential actors in the realm of arms control. This is particularly evident in humanitarian and conventional arms control, where coalitions of civil society and like-minded states succeeded in changing the normative discourse surrounding the means of warfare. Examples include the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) or the Cluster Munitions Coalition.

with Michal Smetana, Charles University Prague/Peace Research Center Prague “Expanding the Study of the Nuclear ‘Taboo’: Cross-National and Multi-Dimensional Perspectives”

That nuclear weapons haven’t been used in a military conflict since 1945, is one of the most intriguing research puzzles in the field of International Relations. Despite notable scholarly attempts to explain the persistence of nuclear weapons non-use in world politics, the international team behind this proposal identified several gaps and neglected perspectives in the current state of the art that it will seek to address within the proposed research project.

„Protectionist norms and their discontents: Challenges to the global ban on child labor by working children and youth”

Protectionist norms are a widespread feature of global governance. The process of their diffusion is often cloaked in universalistic claims promising inherent emancipatory potential for those at the receiving end.  It took a while until norm researchers shifted their attention to local norm takers (aka governmental elites) and their practices of (re-)interpretation of global norms. 

Project Outcomes

2018
Resiliency Dynamics of Norm Clusters: Norm Contestation and International Cooperation” (mit Jeffrey S. Lantis), in: Review of International Studies, 44:3, 570-593.

2018
Not Lost in Contestation: How Norm Entrepreneurs Frame Norm Development in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime” (mit Harald Müller), in: Contemporary Security Policy, 39:3, 341-66.

Memberships

► since November 2020 - Member of British International Studies Association, Global Nuclear Order Working Group 

► since June 2019 - Member of the Institute for Research and Peace (INEF)

► since June 2019 - Member of the Center for Global Cooperation Research (CGCR)

► since December 2018 - Member of the working group Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (AFK)

► since July 2018 - Member of Women in International Security (WIIS)

► since November 2017 - Member of the Editorial Board of Contemporary Security Policy

► since April 2017 - Co-speaker of the  thematic group „IB-Normenforschung“ of the Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft (DVPW)

► since 2017 - Member of the European International Studies Association (EISA)

► since 2015 - Member of the Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft (DVPW), Member of the EU Non-Proliferation Consortium

Publications

Teaching

Winter Semester 2019/2020

will be updated shortly

Summer Semester 2019:

Seminar: „Einführung in die Internationalen Beziehungen“ [LSF] - (Introduction to International Relations)

Seminar: „Globalisierung und Transnationalisierung“ für Lehramt BA Politik [LSF] - (Globalization and Transnationalization)

Winter Semester 2018/2019:

Lecture: „Internationale Beziehungen und Global Governance“ für BA PoWi [LSF] - (International Relations and Global Governance)

Seminar: „Theorien und Problemfelder internationalen Regierens“ für MA IBEP [LSF] - (Theories and Challenges of Global Governance)