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.

Recent Invited Talks

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. 

Recent Media and Public Outreach

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

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.

Winter 2022/23

Summer 2021

Winter 2020/21

Summer 2020

Winter 2019/20

Doctoral Supervision (First Advisor)

In progress:

Defended:

Books

Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance, ed. with Pawel Laidler. 2021. Routledge Studies in Surveillance. London: Routledge. 

The Closure of the International System: How Institutions Create Political Equalities and Hierarchies. 2020. Cambridge Studies in International Relations Series. Cambridge University Press.  

Historical Institutionalism and International Relations: Explaining Institutional Development in World Politics (ed. with Thomas Rixen and Michael Zürn). 2016. Oxford University Press.

Articles and Chapters

“The Limits of Transparency as a Tool for Regulating Surveillance: A Comparison of the US, UK, and Germany.” 2021. In Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance, ed. by Lora Anne Viola and Pawel Laidler, Routledge Studies in Surveillance. 

“On the Relationship Between Trust, Transparency, and Surveillance.” 2021. In Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance, ed. by Lora Anne Viola and Pawel Laidler, Routledge Studies in Surveillance. 

“Die Strategische Rivalität mit China.“ 2021. In State of the Union: Langfristige Trends in der US-amerikanischen Innen- und Außenpolitik und ihre Konsequenzen für Europa, ed. by Marco Overhaus. SWP-Studie 2021/ S 06.

“Systemically Significant States”: Tracing the G20’s Membership Category as a New Logic of Stratification in the International System.” 2020. Global Society 34(3), 335-352.

“US Strategies of Institutional Adaptation in the Face of Hegemonic Decline." 2020. Global Policy 11(53), 28-39.

“Indirect Governance and Global Financial Regulation.” (with T. Rixen). 2020. In The Governor’s Dilemma: Indirect Governance Beyond Principals and Agents, ed. by Kenneth W. Abbott, Bernhard Zangl, Duncan Snidal, and Philipp Genschel. Oxford University Press, 203-222.

“The 2020 US Presidential Election and the Transatlantic Relationship Under Stress.” 2020. Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik 13, 237–246.

“Trump and the Transatlantic Relationship in Critical Perspective.” 2020. Perspectives on Politics 53(2), 355-356.

“Die USA und Internationale Organisationen: Eine Ambivalente Beziehung.” 2020. In Handbuch Politik USA, ed. by Christian Lammert, Markus Siewert, and Boris Vormann. Springer VS Verlag, 541-558.

“Legitimacy and the Cognitive Sources of International Institutional Change: The Case of Regional Parliamentarization” (with T. Lenz, and A. Burilkov). 2019. International Studies Quarterly 63(4), 1094-1107.

“The G20 Through the Lens of Historical Institutionalism.” 2019. In The G20 and International Relations Theory: Perspectives on Global Summitry, ed. by Steven Slaughter. Edward Elgar Publishing, 116-134. 

“Trump und das Ende des Multilateralismus—schon wieder?“ 2018. In Die USA—eine scheiternde Demokratie?, ed. by Patrick Horst, Philipp Adorf, and Frank Decker. Campus Verlag, 271-290.

“Legitimacy and Institutional Change in International Organizations: A Cognitive Approach.” (with Tobias Lenz). 2017. Review of International Studies 43(5), 939-961.

“US-amerikanische Außenpolitik unter Trump und die Krisen der Globalisierung.” 2017. Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik 10, 329-383.

“Historical Institutionalism and International Relations: Towards Explaining Change and Stability in International Institutions.” (with Thomas Rixen). 2016. In Historical Institutionalism and International Relations: Explaining Institutional Development in World Politics, ed. by Thomas Rixen, Lora Anne Viola, and Michael Zürn. Oxford University Press, 3-35.

“Putting Path Dependence in its Place: Toward a Taxonomy of Institutional Change.” (with Thomas Rixen). 2015. Journal of Theoretical Politics 26(3), 1-23. (Alexander George Award Winner, APSA).

“Orchestration by Design: The G-20 in International Financial Regulation.” 2015. In International Organizations as Orchestrators, ed. by Kenneth Abbott. Cambridge University Press, 88-113. 

“Die Rolle der USA in internationalen Organisationen: Primus inter Pares?” 2015. In Handbuch Politik USA, ed. by Christian Lammert, Markus Siewert, and Boris Vormann. Springer VS Verlag, 1-15.

“The Governance Shift: From Multilateral IGOs to Orchestrated Networks.” 2015. In Negotiated Reform: The Multilevel Governance of Financial Regulation, ed. by Renate Mayntz. Campus Verlag, 17-36.

“Sovereign (In)equality in the Evolution of the International System.” (with Duncan Snidal and Michael Zürn). 2015. In The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State, ed. by Stephan Leibfried. Oxford University Press, 221-236. 

“The G-20 and Global Financial Regulation.” 2014. In Handbook of Global Economic Governance: Players, Power and Paradigms, ed. by Manuela Moschella, and Catherine Weaver. Routledge Press, 115-128.

“Institutioneller Wandel durch Wettbewerb: Wie die Zivilgesellschaft die WHO verändert hat.“ 2013. In Die Politisierung der Weltpolitik: Umkämpfte internationale Institutionen, ed. by Michael Zürn, and Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt. Suhrkamp Verlag, 287-311.

“Stratificatory Differentiation as a Constitutive Principle of the International System.” 2013. In Bringing Sociology to International Relations, ed. by Mathias Albert, Barry Buzan, and Michael Zürn. Cambridge University Press, 112-131. 

“The Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Deception in American Foreign Policy.” 2013. In Revisiting the Sixties: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on America's Longest Decade, ed. by Laura Bieger, and Christian Lammert. Campus Verlag, 143-164.

“Das Ende des American Century? Der Niedergang der globalen Hegemonie der USA und seine Auswirkungen auf die internationale Politik.“ 2011. In American Dream? Die demokratische Gesellschaft in der Krise, ed. by Adreas Etges, and Winfried Fluck. Campus Verlag, 159-176.