Special Issue: “A Crisis of the International Law-based Order?”

The editors of the Journal of International Peace and Organization (“Die Friedens-Warte”) are pleased to invite abstracts and contributions for articles in the journal’s forthcoming special issue.

I. Thematic focus special issue

II. General articles

III. Conference reports

IV. Book reviews

V. Guest editorships

Kindly send your contribution in German or English to editing-ifhv@ruhr-uni-bochum.de by 15 November 2026 for the blind review. Full articles should have a length of approximately 45,000–70,000 characters, including footnotes. Shorter submissions are also welcome, for instance in the form of policy notes. Please include an abstract and a short author biography of no more than 100 words, including institutional affiliation and contact details.

Submissions must be original and must not be under consideration elsewhere. Please see also the Guidelines for Authors. For any further information, please consult the journal’s website.

I. Thematic Focus of the Special Issue

A Crisis of the International Law-based Order?

The international law-based order is often said to be under enormous strain. Observers point to an increasing degree of inter-state and inner-state violence, modes of warfare that often disregard basic rules of humanity, selective enforcement of core crimes, retreating human-rights standards, increasingly restrictive refugee policies, and challenges to the law of international economic relations. Taken together, these developments seem to challenge core institutions and principles of international law.

This special issue invites original scholarship that diagnoses whether there is, in fact, a crisis of the international law-based order, explains its potential drivers, assesses institutional responses and proposes doctrinal, institutional and policy reforms. Rather than addressing the entire field of international law across the board, the special issue seeks to take a more nuanced approach by focusing on six thematic areas in particular: the prohibition of the use of force, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, human rights law, the law of forced migration, and international economic law.

Such an approach allows for more differentiated findings and for comparisons between different areas of international law. The assumption of a crisis may hold true for some fields, while appearing not convincing, or - 1 -taking different forms, in others. Contributions are therefore encouraged to examine not only signs of erosion, contestation and fragmentation, but also moments of resilience, adaptation and institutional renewal.

The special issue also invites submissions addressing how Germany’s foreign policy handles, and should handle, the current state of the international law-based order, as well as the role of courts and international organizations under the present circumstances.

Topics for submissions may include, but are not limited to:

• (re-)interpretations and contestations of the prohibition of the use of force, including self-defence, collective security, and humanitarian intervention;
• the erosion or resilience of international humanitarian law in contemporary armed conflicts, including modern warfare such as cyber operations and autonomous weapons systems, as well as the return of once-banned means and methods of warfare, such as cluster munitions or anti-personnel mines;
• selectivity, politicization and legitimacy challenges in the enforcement of core crimes, including before the International Criminal Court;
• retreating or expanding human rights protections, in particular for vulnerable groups such as women, children and LGBTIQ* persons;
• contemporary challenges of refugee law, including border closures, pushbacks, non-refoulement, the outsourcing of asylum procedures, and the delegitimization of refugee protection in public discourse;
• the challenges to the law of international economic relations (trade, investment);
• the challenges and opportunities of German foreign policy in the current environment of the international law-based order;
• the role of international courts, treaty bodies and international organizations in responding to contestation, non-compliance and institutional strain.

We are looking for contributions in English or German from law, political science, international relations, peace and conflict studies and related disciplines addressing the special issue topic.

The expected publication date is Spring 2027.

The editors also accept II. General Articles, III. Conference Reports and IV. Book Reviews on any aspect of peace and conflict studies lying outside this issue’s focus until the date stated above.

V. Guest editorships

The Journal of International Peace and Organization (“Die Friedens-Warte”) is open to publishing entire issues under guest editorship. Please contact one of the editors or the e-mail address editing-ifhv@ruhr-uni-bochum.de with a concept for your own thematic focus or conference issue, should you be interested in editing a special issue in the future.

About the Journal of International Peace and Organization

Founded in 1899 by Alfred H. Fried, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Journal of International Peace and Organization is the oldest journal in the German-speaking world for questions regarding peace and international organization. In addition to serving as a forum for discussion within and between the disciplines of peace studies, the journal seeks to make a traditional contribution by imparting specialist knowledge to political practice, necessary for a policy of active peacebuilding.

In line with the interdisciplinary character of peace studies, renowned national and international scholars from various disciplines express their views in the form of special contributions on current and fundamental topics of peace and conflict research in the Journal of International Peace and Organization. Since at least the end of the East-West conflict, peace is no longer defined by the mere absence of interstate violence, but as a complex and multilayered concept that includes the conditions of non-violent coexistence. Today’s peace studies consider the dynamics and consequences of domestic violent conflicts, economic impoverishment, climate catastrophes, the threat of international terrorism, and threats to the security of the individual. This broadening of the focus is accompanied by an expansion of the relevant disciplines: next to political science and law, economics and natural sciences as well as social-psychological, sociological and social-anthropological analyses offer significant contributions to debates in peace studies. Peace studies have an explicit interdisciplinary character.

The Journal of International Peace and Organization (“Die Friedens-Warte”) is a refereed journal. Submitted articles are subject to a blind, external peer review process that decides whether they are accepted into the journal.

The Editors

Special Editors of this Issue and General Editors

Prof. Dr. Pierre Thielbörger, Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV), Ruhr University Bochum

Prof. Dr. Andreas von Arnauld, Walther Schücking Institute for International Law, Christian Albrechts University Kiel

Other General Editors

Prof. Dr. Claus Kreß, Universität zu Köln, Institute for International Peace and Security Law

Prof. Dr. Michael Staack, Helmut Schmidt University/ University of the German Federal Armed Forces Hamburg

Prof. Dr. Johannes Varwick, MLU Halle-Wittenberg, Institut für Politikwissenschaft

 

English Call for Papers (PDF)

German Call for Papers (PDF)