Dr Alena Drieschova

• Technology
• Material Culture
• Europe
• History
• Nationalism
• International Order
• Migration

• The epistemological challenge of truth-subversion to the Liberal International Order (with Emanuel Adler)

• Conceptualizing International Practices (with Christian Bueger and Ted Hopf) edited volume

• Representants and International Orders

• In consideration of evolving matters: A new materialist addition to Emanuel Adler’s cognitive evolution, chapter for edited volume

• A sociology of the vote in the EU's Council of Ministers

• The social media revolution and shifts in the climate change discourse, chapter for edited volume

• Dissemination technologies and truth regimes: A historical perspective, grant application

• Consultant, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland
• Consultant, Oregon State University, Department of Geography, Corvallis, USA

• International Studies Association
• European International Studies Association
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member of the Governing Board for New Perspectives
• Member of the Governing Board for Politologická revue

Dr Alena Drieschova joined the research group 'Global Cooperation and Polycentric Governance' in July 2020 and will be a Postdoc Research Fellow at the Centre until June 2021.

Representants and International Orders

My book manuscript introduces a new explanation of international order that focuses on representants. Representants are practices, artefacts and language that make the units of the international system present. They are crucial for international relations, given that international relations deal with a macro-realm that can never be fully present, but needs to be represented and made concrete in specific localities. Representants have four interrelated effects: 1) They define the units of the international system; 2) They legitimize them; 3) They provide them with differential degrees of power; 4) They serve as tools for governing. When existing representants are seriously challenged, orders are in crisis; when new representants emerge, a new order has taken hold. I develop a mechanism of change emerging from struggles over representants. Empirically the book focuses on international order change from the medieval period up to the present in Europe. The first three empirical chapters analyze the transition from the medieval order of universal monarchy to a balance of power. Specific representants, such as gothic cathedrals, the mass, and coronation rituals maintained the medieval hierarchical order with the pope/emperor at the apex. The Reformation provided the impetus for kings to challenge the medieval order and adapt existing representants, so that they would portray the independence of kings from the papacy/emperor, and simultaneously position kings above feudal lords. Gradually new representants developed that established a focus on equal power relations that need to be balanced against each other. The last empirical chapter highlights how similar dynamics of representation are shaping the European Union today.

• University of Toronto nomination for the Merze Tate Award from the American Political Science Association for the best dissertation in the field of international relations, law and politics
• Marie Curie Seale of Excellence, (Total score 91% in evaluation of the Marie Curie Individual Fellowship – 200.000 Euros for two years)
• Fred Hartmann Award for best graduate student paper presented at the International Studies Association Northeast
• Honorable mention International Studies Association International Political Sociology section Graduate Student Paper Award
• Honorable mention International Studies Association Theory section Pre-PhD Paper Award
• Award for Excellent Student Essays, University of Economics, Prague
• First place in bi-national students’ essay competition Vision 2020, Energy 2020, Penta Finance