Kilian Spandler is an Associate Professor in International Relations substituting Prof. Dr. Diana Panke this summer semester. Prior to his work at the Otto-Suhr-Institute, Dr. Spandler worked as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Gothenburg. His research explores patterns of conflict and cooperation in different world regions. Global politics are changing, and many different political actors want a seat at the table: established and emerging, powerful and poor, local, regional and global. His work asks whether they can come together to address transboundary problems. What different ideas and approaches do they bring to the table? How do they navigate their differences? He explores these questions with a focus on Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia.

Kilian Spandler's main field of research is International Relations, with a special focus on the role of regions in world politics. His expertise covers regional governance in Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia across different subjects:

• The transformation of national sovereignty and its impact on transboundary cooperation in the Global South (TRANSFORM research project);
• The role of populism in international cooperation;
• Humanitarian action and disaster relief, especially on a regional level;
• International norms and the ethics of global governance.

Dr. Spandler is a co-author of Contestations of the Liberal International Order (Cambridge University Press, 2021), which analyzes the regional cooperation strategies of populist leaders around the world. In his first book, Regional Organizations in International Society (Palgrave Macmilla, 2018), he investigated the historical evolution of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU).

Monographies

• Fredrik Söderbaum, Kilian Spandler and Agnese Pacciardi (2021): Contestations of the Liberal International Order: A Populist Script of Regional Cooperation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Elements in International Relations).
• Kilian Spandler (2018): Regional Organizations in International Society: ASEAN, the EU and the Politics of Normative Arguing. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (Palgrave Studies in International Relations).

Peer-reviewed Articles

• Kilian Spandler (forthcoming): Rethinking Democracy in Global Network Governance: Norm Polysemy, Pluralism and Agonistic Engagement. International Theory.
• Agnese Pacciardi, Kilian Spandler and Fredrik Söderbaum (2024): Beyond exit: How populist governments disengage from international institutions. International Affairs 100:5, P. 2025-2045.
• Kilian Spandler, Julia Hartelius, Alva Monti and Fredrik Söderbaum (2023): Sovereignty Scripts and Regional Governance: ASEAN’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The Pacific Review 37:3, p. 604-633.
• Kilian Spandler and Fredrik Söderbaum (2023): Populist (De)Legitimation of International Organizations. International Affairs 99:3, p. 1023–1041.
• Brooke Coe and Kilian Spandler (2022): Beyond Effectiveness: The Political Functions of ASEAN’s Disaster Governance. Global Governance 28:3, p. 355–381.
• Kilian Spandler, Kristina Roepstorff and Sulagna Maitra (2022): Editorial: Localization and the Politics of Humanitarian Action. Frontiers in Political Science.
• Kilian Spandler (2022): Saving People or Saving Face? Four Narratives of Regional Humanitarian Order in Southeast Asia. The Pacific Review 35:1, p. 172–201.
• Thomas Linsenmaier, Dennis R. Schmidt and Kilian Spandler (2021): On the Meaning(s) of Norms: Ambiguity and Global Governance in a Post-Hegemonic World. Review of International Studies 47:4, p. 508–527.
• Charlotta Friedner Parrat, Kilian Spandler and Yoanne Yao (2021): The English School as a Theory and a Scholarly Community. Cambridge Review of International Affairs 33:4, p. 483–486.
• Kilian Spandler (2020): Regionale Integration durch normative Diskurse: Die Legitimierung von Verrechtlichungsprozessen in der ASEAN and der EU. Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen 27:2, p. 5–33.
• Kilian Spandler (2020): UNAMID and the Legitimation of Global-Regional Peacekeeping Cooperation: Partnership and Friction in UN-AU Relations. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 14:2, p. 187–203.
• Kilian Spandler (2018): Regional Standards of Membership and Enlargement in the EU and ASEAN. Asia Europe Journal 16:2, p. 183–198.
• Steffen Murau and Kilian Spandler (2016): EU, US and ASEAN Actorness in G20 Financial Policy-Making: Bridging the EU Studies–New Regionalism Divide. Journal of Common Market Studies 54:4, p. 928–943.
• Kilian Spandler (2015): The Political International Society: Change in Primary and Secondary Institutions. Review of International Studies 41:3, p. 601–622.

Contributions

• Kilian Spandler and Fredrik Söderbaum (2025): Populism and International Organizations: Beyond Backlash. In David Cadier, Angelos Chryssogelos and Sandra Destradi (Ed.): Routledge Handbook of Populism and Foreign Policy, London: Routledge, p. 308-326.
• Charlotta Friedner Parrat and Kilian Spandler (2021): Using the English School to Anderstand Current Issues in World Politics. In: Cornelia Navari (Ed.): International Society: The English School, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (Trends in European IR Theory), p. 145–160.
• Kilian Spandler (2020): Regional Organizations in Southeast Asia. In: The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Kilian Spandler (2018): Primary Institutional Dynamics and the Emergence of Regional Governance in Southeast Asia: Constructing Post-Colonial International Societies. In: Tonny Brems Knudsen and Cornelia Navari (Ed.): International Organization in the Anarchical Society: The Institutional Structure of World Order, London: Palgrave Macmillan (Palgrave Studies in International Relations), p. 321–355.
• Steffen Murau and Kilian Spandler (2016): IMF Reform Negotiations in the G20: Comparing Actorness and Power in the Foreign Financial Policies of the EU, the US and ASEAN. In: Ingo Peters (Ed.): The European Union’s Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective: Beyond the ‘Actorness and Power’ Debate, London: Routledge (UACES Contemporary EU Studies Series), p. 41–60.

Edited Volumes

• Kilian Spandler, Sulagna Maitra and Kristina Roepstorff (Ed.) (2021): Localization and the Politics of Humanitarian Action. Frontiers in Political Science Research Topic.