Dr. Sebastian Schindler

Short Bio

Sebastian Schindler is a fixed-term Assistant Professor (Akademischer Rat auf Zeit) at the Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science at LMU Munich. He works in the fields of International Relations (IR) theory, international organizations and international political theory. His research explores the sources and the implications of the crisis of liberal world order and liberal democracy, focusing in particular on the rise of post-truth politics and the question of political agency.

Before joining LMU, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Goethe University Frankfurt and a researcher at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). He held visiting positions at the Universities of Sussex (England), Groningen (Netherlands), and Minnesota (USA), and at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). From 2017 to 2022, he was a member of the performance collective Büro Grandezza, contributing to three performances at the intersection of academic research and theater. He has two children and lives with his family in Frankfurt.

Research

Sebastian Schindler is a scholar of International Relations working in the interpretive tradition and at the intersection with Political Theory. In his research, he seeks to understand the deeper conditions and the implications of the rise of post-truth politics for International Relations. He examines the spread of dogmatic cynicism in response to the unleashing of neoliberal competition and anarchic tendencies in current ideologies. He interrogates the role of critical theories in times of post-truth and the possibility of a pragmatic critique of excessive distrust.

A second focus of his research lies in political agency. He explores the contestation of agency in the United Nations (Northedge Essay 2014), instability and change in NATO-Russia relations, and broader avenues for rethinking agency in International Relations. In his book on the philosopher of war Carl von Clausewitz, he recovers three qualities of fighting as a resource for political agency in times of crisis (available in German).

In addition to one monograph and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, he has published three edited volumes, among them most recently the Elgar Encyclopedia of International Relations (co-edited with Beate Jahn). He is a contributor to academic blogs such as E-International Relations, the Duck of Minerva and theorieblog, commenting on issues such as the motivations for the Russian invasion of Ukraine or conspiracy theories about COVID.

Selected Publications

Book

• Schindler, Sebastian (2020). Clausewitz zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• Schindler, Sebastian (2024). Post-Truth Politics and Neoliberal Competition: The Social Sources of Dogmatic Cynicism. International Theory, 16(1), 102-121. doi: 10.1017/S1752971923000040

• Schindler, Sebastian (2024). Anarchic Unfreedom: Critical International Theory Versus Neoliberalism and the New Right. Millennium – Journal of International Studies, 52(3), 566-589. https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298241286906

• Bargués, Pol, David Chandler, Sebastian Schindler, and Valerie Waldow (2023). Hope after ‘the End of the World’: Rethinking Critique in the Anthropocene. Contemporary Political Theory, 22(2), 1-18. doi: 10.1057/s41296-023-00649-x

• Schindler, Sebastian (2020). The Task of Critique in Times of Post-Truth Politics. Review of International Studies 46(3), 376-394.

• Schindler, Sebastian, and Tobias Wille (2019). How can we criticize international practices? International Studies Quarterly, 63(4), 1014–1024.

• Braun, Benjamin, Sebastian Schindler, and Tobias Wille (2019). Rethinking Agency in International Relations: Performativity, Performances, and Actor-Networks. Journal of International Relations and Development, 22, 787–807.

• Schindler, Sebastian, and Tobias Wille (2015). Change in and through Practice: Pierre Bourdieu, Vincent Pouliot, and the End of the Cold War. International Theory, 7(2), 330–59.

• Schindler, Sebastian (2014). Man versus State: Contested Agency in the United Nations. Millennium – Journal of International Studies, 43(1), 3–23 (F.S. Northedge Essay).

A full list of publications is available below.

Supervision of BA and MA theses

• Sebastian Schindler supervises BA and MA theses in the area of International Relations, especially those that work interpretively or lie at the intersection with Political Theory. Please join him in his office hours to discuss your ideas and interests.

• Relevant organizational information for the BA thesis procedure can be found here. Please follow these general guidelines when writing your exposé.