Are you interested in studying the past, present, and future of multilateralism in a city that is a hub for international negotiation and cooperation? Do you have a background in political science, international law, development studies, history or related social science and humanities disciplines and are you open to interdisciplinary research? We are looking for four PhD candidates to join the newly founded Research Platform “Multilateralism Revisited: The Past, Present, and Future of International Negotiation and Cooperation” at the University of Vienna (https://multilateralism-revisited.univie.ac.at/). “Multilateralism Revisited,” led by Arne Langlet, Eva-Maria Muschik, Elisabeth Röhrlich, Alice Vadrot, and Michael Waibel, is a joint project of the Faculties of Social Sciences, Historical and Cultural Studies, and Law.
Multilateralism has increasingly come under attack in recent years. At the same time, there is a growing understanding that contemporary issues—from climate change to artificial intelligence to pandemics—are global and require multilateral solutions. The research platform will study challenges to multilateralism in the past, present, and future from an interdisciplinary perspective. Collectively, we will investigate how issues such as global inequalities, institutional fragmentation, and science and technology contestation challenged and continue to challenge multilateralism. Four co-supervised PhD projects will explore how these challenges affect(ed) multilateral negotiations relating to:
1) the colonial past and its legacies (from a historical and development studies perspective);
2) the governance of dual-use technologies such as nuclear energy and artificial intelligence (from a historical perspective);
3) data sharing in the governance of environmental crimes (from a political science perspective); and
4) resource extraction in “the global commons” such as the high seas (from an international law perspective).
We are looking for candidates who are eager to develop a PhD research project in one of these four research areas. While each project will be anchored in a primary disciplinary orientation, all projects will be co-supervised by a team member with a different disciplinary background.
What makes our group special:
- We are building a new research platform to jointly investigate challenges to multilateralism in the past, present, and future from different disciplinary perspectives;
- We are part of extensive international research networks in our respective fields;
- We offer training in individual academic disciplines as well as in interdisciplinary research;
- We offer a dynamic and inspiring research environment;
- We offer supportive mentorship focused on your academic development.
