Welcome to the website of Professor Otto Keck
From 1999 until retirement in 2009 I held the professorship for international organisations and international public policy in the Faculty of Economics and Social Science. Presently I do research on nuclear deterrence and work on a theory of interdependent action that goes beyond standard game theory. The latter is part of my present book project, the English edition of my book Information, Macht und gesellschaftliche Rationalität. For this edition I revise the theoretical part of the book and update the empirical part, a comparative analysis of nuclear energy policy in the United States, France, Britain and Germany.
Recent Publication
Sicherheit und Entspannung: Nuklearstrategie in einer multipolaren Welt (Security and detente: Nuclear strategy in a multipolar world), in: Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, forthcoming (an English translation is in progress).
Short Biography
Studied protestant theology, philosophy, economics und mathematics at universities Tübingen, Heidelberg and Fernuniversität Hagen. Postgraduate work at the Science Policy Research Unit of the University of Sussex, completed 1977 with doctoral degree. Habilitation (in Germany a degree that confers eligibility to become full professor at a university) in political science 1990 at Freie Universität Berlin. Senior research fellow at Universität Ulm (1974-1980), Science Center Berlin (1984-1990), Freie Universität Berlin (1982-1984). Professor at Fachhochschule Darmstadt (University of Applied Sciences) (1995-1999). Visiting researcher at Harvard University (1980/81) and European University Institute Florence (1990/91). Visiting professor at University of California Los Angeles (1999) and University of Chicago (2006). Presentations at MIT, Yale University, Princeton University, Cornell University, Stanford University and other universities. Cofounded joint Master Program in International Relations of Universität Potsdam, Freie Universität and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2003). After retirement continued teaching jointly with ambassador Dr. Dr. h.c. Dieter Boden a seminar on topical questions of German foreign and security policy, in cooperation whit the German Foreign Office, until 2013.
Selected Publications
1981 Policymaking in a Nuclear Program: The Case of the West German Fast Breeder Reactor,
Lexington Books.
1981 Fast Breeder Reactors: Can We Learn From Experience? in: Nature.
1987 The Information Dilemma: Private Information as a Cause of Transaction Failure in Markets,
Regulation, Hierarchy, and Politics, in: Journal of Conflict Resolution.
1993 Information, Macht und gesellschaftliche Rationalität: Das Dilemma rationalen
kommunikativen Handelns, dargestellt am Beispiel eines internationalen Vergleichs der
Kernenergiepolitik (Information, power, and social rationality: A game-theory approach
with applications to nuclear power policy in the United States, France, United Kingdom and
Germany), Nomos.
1993 The National System for Technical Innovation in Germany, in: National Innovation Systems,
ed. Richard R. Nelson, Oxford University Press.
1995 Rationales kommunikatives Handeln in den internationalen Beziehungen (Rational
communicative action in international relations)", in: Zeitschrift für Internationale
Beziehungen.
1997 Kooperation jenseits von Hegemonie und Bedrohung. Sicherheitsinstitutionen in den
internationalen Beziehungen (Cooperation beyond hegemony and threats: Security
institutions in international relations), edited with Helga Haftendorn, Nomos.
2025 Sicherheit und Entspannung: Nuklearstrategie in einer multipolaren Welt (Security and
detente: Nuclear strategy in a multipolar world), in: Zeitschrift für Internationale
Beziehungen, forthcoming.