Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn is a political scientist. His research particularly focuses on the emergence and functioning of international and supranational institutions and their effects on the global political order.   Prof. Zürn is Director of the Department of Global Governance at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) and Professor of International Relations at Freie Universität Berlin. He is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and of the Academia Europaea since 2014. 
 

Publications (Selection)

2019 | The Struggle Over Borders. Cosmopolitanism and Communitarianism, Co-Autor, Cambridge University Press
2019 | Contested World Orders. Rising Powers, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Politics of Authority Beyond the Nation-State, gemeinsam mit Matthew D. Steven, Oxford University Press
2018 | A Theory of Global Governance. Authority, Legitimacy, and Contestation, Oxford University Press


Awards (Selection)

2010 | First Honorary Fellow as Faculty Dean, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
2003 | Preis der Sparkasse Bremen für innovative Kooperationsprojekte der Bremer Universitäten
1999 | Fellow am Centre for Advanced Studies, Norwegian Academy of Social Sciences, Oslo

Project Description

During their stay at Thomas Mann House, Michael Zürn together with Christoph Möllers  and Rainer Forst aim to describe the profound conflicts that characterize current societies and international institutions — keywords are populism, nationalism and authoritarianism — to take the opportunity to fundamentally think about the legitimacy of normative orders in the state or supranational space. In the project, "The legitimacy of public powers: The connection of morality, law and politics," the three scholars want to combine their different fields of expertise to research which standards of justification are normatively appropriate and empirically practicable for which type of institutional order — and according to which standards this is measured.