Lora Anne Viola is currently Assistant 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 Social Sciences Research Center Berlin (WZB) and a visiting scholar at Stanford and Oxford Universities. She is a native New Yorker and an adopted Berliner.

Viola’s research areas include international institutions and global order, US foreign policy and diplomacy, international relations theory, historical institutionalism, and inequality in the international system. Most recently she has published on the G20, shifting patterns of governance, international organizations and inequality, and US foreign policy. Among her publications, she has recently co-edited Historical Institutionalism and International Relations: Explaining Institutional Development in World Politics (Oxford University Press, 2016). Her article “Putting Path Dependence in Its Place” (Journal of Theoretical Politics, together with T. Rixen) was awarded APSA’s 2016 Alexander L. George Award. 

Professor Viola is a frequent guest contributor on various national and international news outlets.

Current research projects include: Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance (TATAS).

Summer 2017

Lecturer, Master Course: "American Hegemony in International Organizations." Political Science. John-F.-Kennedy Institute/Otto-Suhr-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

Lecturer, Bachelor Course: "American Foreign Policy and Contemporary Global Challenges." Political Science. John-F.-Kennedy Institute/Otto-Suhr-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

Lecturer, Colloquium: "Bachelor-Colloquium Politik." Political Science. John-F.-Kennedy Institute/Otto-Suhr-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

Winter 2016/17

Lecturer, Master Course: "Introduction to Theories and Methods in Political Science." Political Science. John-F.-Kennedy Institute/Otto-Suhr-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

Lecturer, Bachelor Course: "US Foreign Policy: System, State, and Public." Political Science. John-F.-Kennedy Institute/Otto-Suhr-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

Lecturer, Grad School Course: "Theories and Methods in Political and Social Science Research." Political Science. John-F.-Kennedy Institute/Otto-Suhr-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

Summer 2015

Lecturer, Master Course: "The US in the Middle East." [Co-taught with Jessica Gienow-Hecht]. Political Science. John-F.-Kennedy Institute/Otto-Suhr-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

Lecturer, Bachelor Course: "Rising Powers in World Politics." Political Science. John-F.-Kennedy Institute/Otto-Suhr-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

Winter 2014/15

Lecturer, Master Course: "Hegemony and Empire in the "American Century." Political Science. John-F.-Kennedy Institute/Otto-Suhr-Institute, Freie Universität Berlin

TATAS - Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance

In this DFG-funded research project the theoretical and empirical relationship between trust in government, government transparency, and security surveillance policies is studied by a comparative analysis of the US, Germany, and Poland. For more details on the research project visit the TATAS Blog.

Viola, Lora Anne. „Explaining the Expansion and Persistence of the American Security State: Fearful Publics, SLICC Bureaucrats, Private Contractors, and Path Dependence” (revise and re-submit).

Viola, Lora Anne. “The Paradox of Trust and Transparency During National Security Emergencies„ ISA Annual Conference 2019.

Viola, Lora Anne. 2017. "US-amerikanische Außenpolitik unter Trump und die Krisen der Globalisierung." Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik 10 (3): 329-338.

Viola, Lora Anne (with Tobias Lenz). 2017. "Legitimacy and institutional change in international organisations: a cognitive approach." Review of International Studies 1-23.

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

Viola, Lora Anne (with Thomas Rixen). 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 Thomas Rixen, Lora Anne Viola, and Michael Zürn. Oxford University Press.

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

---. 2015. “Orchestration by design: the G20 in international financial regulation.” In International Organizations as Orchestrators, edited by Kenneth W. Abbott et. al. Cambridge University Press.

---. 2015. “Putting path dependence in its place: toward a Taxonomy of institutional change.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 27 (2): 301-323.

Viola, Lora Anne (with 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 University Press.

Viola, Lora Anne. 2014. “The G-20 and global financial regulation.” In Handbook of Global Economic Governance: Players, power and paradigms, edited by Manuela Moschella and Catherine Weaver. Routledge.

---. 2014. “Die USA und internationale Organisationen.” In Handbuch Politik USA, edited by Christian Lammert, Markus Siewert and Boris Vormann. Springer VS.

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

---. 2013. “Institutioneller Wandel durch Wettbewerb: Wie die Zivilgesellschaft die Weltgesundheitsorganisation verändert hat.” In Die Politisierung der Weltpolitik, edited by Michael Zürn and Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt. Suhrkamp.

---. 2013. “Stratificatory differentiation as a constitutive principle of the international system.” In Bringing Sociology to International Relations: World Politics as Differentiation Theory, edited by Mathias Albert, Barry Buzan, and Michael Zürn. Cambridge University Press.

---. 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 Andreas Etges and Winfried Fluck. Campus.

Please click on the book covers below to open their webpage.