Research activities by Otto Keck

Research on international Organisations has undergone in recent decades a reorientation that radically altered the field. Whereas previous research was mainly descriptive and focused mainly on elucidating  the structure and activities of specific international organisations, a body of theories was created that helps to explain how states cooperate in solving problems in various fields of international relations, from security policy to international trade and international monetary policy and international environmental policy. The designation of the professorship “for international organisation and international public policy” takes account of the fact that many policy problems increasingly have an international dimension and that international organisations nowadays are analysed primarily from a perspective that looks on how they contribute to defining, analysing and solving problems that transcend national borders. Present research activities focus on three areas: the relation between rationalism and constructivism in the theory of international relations, globalisation and the capacity of the nation state, and international environmental policy. 

1. Rationalism and Constructivism in International-Relations-Theory

The German debate between rationalists and constructivists has demonstrated that these two approaches are not contradictory. The gap between them can be bridged if more recent developments of the rational-choice approach are taken into account which conceptualise preferences as changing (depending on such factors as the information available to an actor) and include rationalist concepts of identity and moral norms. An important point in this discussion is such an extension of the rational-choice approach that relaxes the common-knowledge assumption. This research project is to take the approach to a rational-choice perspective without common knowledge as developed in the book Information, Macht und gesellschaftliche Rationalität (Information, Power, and Social Rationality) further. 

At present the project concentrates on revising this book for publication in English and on writing a journal article. This project was supported by grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German National Science Foundation) for a sabbatical at the University of California. Los Angeles in the winter quarter of 1999. Future research in this project will focus on the relationship between rational choice and critical theory and attempt to demonstrate that, if the common-knowledge assumption is relaxed, the rational-choice-approach is capable of integration some essential insight of critical theory and rendering them more precise. 

2. Globalisation and the Capability of the Nation State

In present debates on globalisation many authors hold the view that globalisation severely limits the capacity of the nation state to deal with policy problems. This research project is to show that empirical evidence is lacking for many of the negative consequences expected by the critics, that the capability of nation states to tackle problems by international cooperation is underestimated and that in many policy areas, particularly in Germany, domestic factors are the main barrier for tackling problems effectively. 

First results in this research project were presented in the inaugural lecture on 1 December 1999. This is to be revised and extended for publication. In addition, work is in progress on a paper on the scope for a national technology policy in a globalising world. 

3. International Environmental Policy

International environmental policy is one of the areas in which it has been shown that international institutions can make an important contribution to tackling global problems. Furthermore, this is a fertile field for applying, and developing further, rationalist theories of international institutions. Designing effective policies to cope with climate change is one of the greatest challenges for both, theory-oriented research and practical policymaking. This project is to continue Previous work on rationalist theories of institutions. The focus will be, on the theoretical level, on concepts for multi-level analysis and, on the empirical level, on the use of economic instruments for climate change policy.