Lora Anne Viola is University Professor in the Politics Department of the John F. Kennedy Institute at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB). She received a PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago, a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Economics from Columbia University in New York City. Before joining the FUB she was a Senior Research Fellow at the Berlin Social Science Research Center (WZB) and a visiting scholar at Stanford and Oxford Universities. She has held research fellowships at the European University Institute, the Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich, and the University of Antwerp. She is a native New Yorker and an adopted Berliner. 

Lora Viola’s research focuses on the development and design of international institutions, international relations theory, and US foreign policy. Her monograph The Closure of the International System: How Institutions Create Political Equalities and Hierarchies (Cambridge University Press, 2020) has been honored with the 2021 ECPR Hedley Bull Prize, ISA’s 2021 Chadwick Alger Best Book Award for the study of international organizations, ISA’s 2021 Diplomatic Studies Best Book Award, and honorable mention from APSA’s 2021 Jervis-Schroeder Prize. 

Her publications appear in journals such as International Studies Quarterly, the Review of International Studies, the Journal of Theoretical Politics, Global Policy, and the Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik. Her article “Putting Path Dependence in Its Place” (with Thomas Rixen) was awarded APSA’s 2016 Alexander L. George Award. In 2018, at the FUB’s 70th Anniversary celebrations, she received the University’s Prize for Excellence in Doctoral Supervision. 

She serves on the Steering Committee of the Standing Group on International Relations at ECPR, she is a member of the SCRIPTS Executive Board and that of the BGTS, she serves as Vice Chair of the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, and she represents the FUB on the Academic Council of the Europaeum.

Lora Viola is a frequent commentator on US foreign policy and transatlantic relations.

          

                                 

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Recent Invited Talks and Commentaries 

Introduction to Roundtable Review on Rohan Mukherjee´s  "Ascending Order: Powers and the Politics of Status in International Institutions." September 2024.

Review: "Viola on Jervis and Goddard and Labrosse and Rovner and Fujii, 'Chaos Reconsidered: The Liberal Order and the Future of International Politics.'" March 2024. 

Freie Universität Berlin. "SCRIPTS Lecture Series - Contradictions in the Liberal Script: Illiberalism in American Liberal Internationalism." November 2023.

Freie Universität Berlin. "Europaeum Leadership Conference." September 2023.

Chatham House. "Panel Discussion: How international organizations fight for legitimacy." May 2023. 

Oxford University (Christ Church College). Roundtable on Social Closure and Stratification. March 2023.

Oxford University Department of Politics and International Relations. Lecture on Legitimacy-Effectiveness Trade-Offs in Global Governance. March 2023.

Institut Barcelona Estudis Internacionals (IBEI). Research Seminar Book Lecture. March 2022

European University Institute. SPS Departmental Seminar. February 2022. 

McGill University. Centre for International Peace and Security Studies Speaker Series. January 2022. 

University of Victoria. Book Lecture. January 2022. 

Saint Petersburg School of Social Science and Area Studies. St. Petersburg International Conference on Inequality and Diversity. 11-13 November 2021. 

Dublin City University School of Law and Government. Book Lecture. November 2021. 

ECPR Standing Group on International Relations. Keynote Lecture - Antwerp Summer School on International Relations in a Post-Hegemonic World. July 2021.

Amerikahaus München. Keynote Address. January 2021. 

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© Charlotte Kunstmann 

© wyborcza.pl

Recent Media and Public Outreach

Gazeta Wyborcza. Interview: Kiedy Trump straszy wyjściem z NATO, nie kierują nim głupota, niewiedza czy fascynacja Putinem. March 2024. 

Internationales literaturfestival berlin. "Sunday Matinée: Democracies in Danger?" September 2023. 

Tagesspiegel-Beilage. "Durch den Krieg hat sich die Rivalität zwischen den USA und China verschärft." February 2023. 

U.S. Embassy Berlin. "Online Panel Discussion: Die Klima- und Außenpolitik der Vereinigten Staaten in Zeiten geopolitischer Herausforderungen." January 2023. 

APPPS. "Transatlantic Talk: Global Crises and the Future of Multilateralism." December 2022.

Urania Berlin. "Panel Discussion: Die USA vor den Kongresswahlen. Richtungswahl mit innen- & außenpolitischen Konsequenzen." October 2022. 

The City Politics Podcast. "Episode 12 - Biden's first 100 days." April 2021. 

CITAS Regensburg. "Europa und Amerika 2021 – wohin?" February 2021. 

German-American Institute Saxony. "Panel Discussion: The Future of Transatlantic Relations." December 2020.  

Anne Will. "Machtwechsel im Weißen Haus." November 2020. 

Hessischer Rundfunk. "Hey Joe! Was die Welt von Biden erwarten darf." November 2020. 

Atlantikbrücke. "A Deep Dive into the U.S. Election Results." November 2020. 

ARD Podcast. "Der Tagesschau Zukunfts-Podcast - Mal angenommen Trump verliert die US-Wahl? Was dann? Ein Gedankenexperiment." October 2020.  

Aspen Institute. "Mit harten Bandagen: Die erste Präsidentschaftsdebatte 2020." October 2020. 

BHC. "Panel Transatlantic Security and Foreign Policy Under Stress." September 2020. 

Deutschlandfunk. "Scharfe Rhetorik, Gespaltenes Land: Die USA vor der Präsidentschaftswahl." August 2020.

Summer 2026

Winter 2025/26

Summer 2025

Summer 2024

Winter 2023/24

Summer 2023

Winter 2022/23

Summer 2021

Winter 2020/21

Summer 2020

Winter 2019/20

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Doctoral Supervision (First Advisor)

In progress:

Schrot, Jacob

On the Evolution and Cyclicity of Great Powers: Global Power Dispersal and High Frequency Transition

Defended:

Dreher, Vincent	In Pursuit of Systemic Stability: Explaining International Financial Regulatory Policy Change after the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-09
Frost, Ana Constantina	Conflict and Transnational Diaspora Mobilization: Explaining Central American Diaspora Activism in the United States
Kantor, Dorian	Politics as Law: Juridified Executive Unilateralism in the Global War on Terror
Koch, Mirijam	The Role of Interest Groups in US Sanctions Policy Towards Iran from 2007-2016
Knecht, Sebastian	The Politics of Tiered Membership in Intergovernmental Organizations
Knüpfer, Curd	Right-Wing Realities? News Media Fragmentation, Conservatism, and the Framing of U.S. Foreign Policy
Regilme Jr, Salvador Santino	A Theory of Interest Convergence: Explaining the Impact of US Strategic Support on Southeast Asia’s Human Rights Situation, 1992-2013
Sanjana, Feroza	International Political Economy Meets Social Psychology: UNCTAD, Developing Countries and the Spread of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs)
Venhaus, Marc	US Hegemony in Finance and China’s Ascent in Times of Global Financial Crisis: From Washington’s Dusk to Beijing’s Dawn?

MONOGRAPHS

2020. The Closure of the International System: How Institutions Create Political Equalities and Hierarchies, Cambridge University Press, in the series Cambridge Studies in International Relations. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108612562

- Featured in a H-Diplo roundtable, https://hdiplo.org/to/RT23-4

- Reviewed in Foreign Affairs and Perspectives on Politics

-Winner of the ECPR Hedely Bull Book Prize, ISA Chadwick Alger Best Book on International Organizations Prize, ISA Diplomatic Studis Best Book Prize, and APSA Robert Jervis Honorable Mention

In preparation. Multilateralism Reconsidered.

EDITED VOLUMES

2021. Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance, Routledge Studies in Surveillance (with Pawel Laidler). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003120827

2016. Historical Institutionalism and International Relations: Explaining Institutional Development in World Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press (with Thomas Rixen and Michael Zürn). https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198779629.001.0001

PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS

Viola, Lora Anne. 2026 (forthcoming). “Historical Institutionalism and the Dynamics of International Institutional Development.” In Oxford Handbook of International Institutions, edited by Michael Barnett and Duncan Snidal. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Viola, Lora Anne. 2025. “The Quest for Leadership in Multilateral Institutions: Great Power Rivalries and Middle Powers in the WTO,” Contemporary Security Policy, 46(1): 98-125. https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2024.2419175

Viola, Lora Anne. 2024. “Accounting for Illiberalism in American Liberal Internationalism.” In Polarization and Deep Contestations: The Liberal Script in the United States, edited by Tanja Börzel, Thomas Risse, Stephanie Anderson, Jean Garrison. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198916444.003.0001

Viola, Lora Anne. 2024. “Can Informal Governance Promote Procedural Justice?” In Informal Governance in World Politics, edited by Kenneth Abbott and Thomas Biersteker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009180528.016

Viola, Lora Anne. 2023. “Two-Sided Legitimation Strategies: Informal Groups at the WTO,” International Affairs, 99(3): 983-1002. https://doi.org/10.1093./ia/iiad113

Viola, Lora Anne. 2021. “The Limits of Transparency as a Tool for Regulating Surveillance: A Comparison of the US, UK, and Germany.” In Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance, edited by Lora Anne Viola and Pawel Laidler. Routledge: Studies in Surveillance Book Series. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003120827

Viola, Lora Anne and Pawel Laidler. 2021. “On the Relationship Between Trust, Transparency, and Surveillance.” In Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance, edited by Lora Anne Viola and Pawel Laidler. Routledge: Studies in Surveillance Book Series. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003120827

Viola, Lora Anne. 2020. “U.S. Strategies of Institutional Adaptation in the Face of Hegemonic Decline,” Global Policy, 11(3): 28-39. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12856

Viola, Lora Anne. 2020. “‘Systemically Significant States’: Tracing the G20’s Membership Category as a New Logic of Stratification in the International System,” Global Society, 34(3): 335-352. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600826.2020.1739630

Rixen, Thomas and Lora Anne Viola. 2020. “Indirect Governance and Global Financial Regulation.” In The Governor’s Dilemma: Indirect Governance Beyond Principals and Agents, edited by K. Abbott, P. Genschel, D. Snidal, and B. Zangl. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198855057.003.0010

Viola, Lora Anne. 2020. “The 2020 US Presidential Election and the Transatlantic Relationship Under Stress,” Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, 13:237-246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12399-020-00814-9

Lenz, Tobias, Alexander Burlikov, and Lora Anne Viola. 2019. “Legitimacy and the Cognitive Sources of International Institutional Change: The Case of Regional Parliamentarization,” International Studies Quarterly, 63(4): 1094-1107. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqz051

Viola, Lora Anne. 2019. “The G20 Through the Lens of Historical Institutionalism.” In The G20 and International Relations Theory: Perspectives on Global Summitry, edited by Steven Slaughter. Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786432650.00011

Lenz, Tobias and Lora Anne Viola. 2017. “Legitimacy and Institutional Change in International Organizations: A Cognitive Approach,” Review of International Studies, 43(5): 939-961. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210517000201

Viola, Lora Anne. 2017. “US-amerikanische Außenpolitik unter Trump und die Krisen der Globalisierung,”Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, 10:329-338. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12399-017-0657-6

Rixen, Thomas and Lora Anne Viola. 2016. “Historical Institutionalism and International Relations: Towards Explaining Change and Stability in International Institutions.” In Historical Institutionalism and International Relations: Explaining Institutional Development in World Politics, edited by T. Rixen, L. Viola, M. Zürn. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198779629.001.0001

Rixen, Thomas and Lora Anne Viola. 2015. “Putting Path Dependence in its Place: Toward a Taxonomy of Institutional Change,” Journal of Theoretical Politics, 27(2): 301-323. https://doi.org/10.1177/0951629814531667

Viola, Lora Anne. 2015. “Orchestration by Design: The G-20 in International Financial Regulation,” In International Organizations as Orchestrators, edited by K. Abott, P. Genschel, D. Snidal, and B. Zangl. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139979696.006

Viola, Lora Anne. 2015. “The Governance Shift: From Multilateral IGOs to Orchestrated Networks.” In Negotiated Reform: The Multilevel Governance of Financial Regulation, edited by Renate Mayntz Campus Verlag.

Viola, Lora Anne, Duncan Snidal, and Michael Zürn. 2015. “Sovereign (In)equality in the Evolution of the International System.” In The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State, edited by Stephan Leibfried et al. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199691586.013.11

Viola, Lora Anne. 2014. “The G-20 and Global Financial Regulation.” In Handbook of Global Economic Governance: Players, Power and Paradigms, edited. By M. Moschella and C. Weaver. Routledge Press.

Viola, Lora Anne. 2013. “Stratificatory Differentiation as a Constitutive Principle of the International System.” In Bringing Sociology to International Relations, edited by M. Albert, B. Buzan, and M. Zürn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139856041

Viola, Lora Anne. 2013. “Institutioneller Wandel durch Wettbewerb: Wie die Zivilgesellschaft die WHO verändert hat,” In Gesellschaftliche Politisierung internationale Institutionen, edited by M. Zürn and M. Ecker-Ehrhardt. Suhrkamp Verlag.

ESSAYS, REVIEWS, TEACHING PUBLICATIONS, AND PUBLISHED LECTURES

Viola, Lora Anne. 2024. “Viola on Jervis and Goddard and Labrosse and Rovner and Fujii, 'Chaos Reconsidered: The Liberal Order and the Future of International Politics'” https://www.hnet.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=59776

Viola, Lora Anne Viola. 2024. “Introduction,” H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable 16-3 on Rohan Mukherjee, _Ascending Order. https://issforum.org/to/jrt16-3

Viola, Lora Anne and Nele Marianne Ewers-Peters. 2023. “Die USA und internationale Organisationen.” In Handbuch Politik USA, edited by C. Lammert, M. Siewert, and B. Vormann. Springer VS Verlag. https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-658-04125-0_45-2

Viola, Lora Anne. 2022. “Response by Lora Anne Viola,” H-Diplo Roundtable XXIII-49 on Viola. The Closure of the International System. https://hdiplo.org/to/RT23-49

Groitl, Gerlinde and Lora Anne Viola. 2021. “Die Strategische Rivalität mit China.“ In State of the Union: Langfristige Trends in der US-amerikanischen Innen- und Außenpolitik und ihre Konsequenzen für Europa, edited by Marco Overhaus. SWP-Studie 2021/S 06. https://www.swpberlin.org/publications/products/studien/2021S06_Overhaus_State_of_Union.pdf

Viola, Lora Anne. 2020. “Trump and the Transatlantic Relationship in Critical Perspective,” PS: Political Science and Politics, 53(2): 355-356. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096519001951

Viola, Lora Anne. 2020. “Die USA und internationale Organisationen: Eine ambivalente Beziehung.” In Handbuch Politik USA, edited by C. Lammert, M. Siewert, B. Vormann. Springer VS Verlag. https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-658-04125-0_45-1

2018. “Trump und das Ende des Multilateralismus—schon wieder?“ In Die USA—eine scheiternde Demokratie? Edited by Patrick Horst, Philipp Adorf, and Frank Decker. Campus Verlag.

2015. “Die Rolle der USA in internationalen Organisationen: Primus inter Pares?” In Handbuch Politik USA, edited by C. Lammert, M. Siewert, B. Vormann. Springer VS Verlag. https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-658-04125-0_32-1

2013. “The Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Deception in American Foreign Policy.” In The 1960s: America’s Longest Decade, edited by L. Bieger and C. Lammert. Campus Verlag.

2011. “Das Ende des American Century? Der Niedergang der globalen Hegemonie der USA und seine Auswirkungen auf die internationale Politik.” In American Dream? Die demokratische Gesellschaft in der Krise, edited by A. Etges and W. Fluck. Campus Verlag.