Staff profile

Dennis R. Schmidt is an Assistant Professor in International Relations and Deputy Director of the Durham Global Policy Institute. His research focuses on normative questions surrounding law, violence, and order in world politics.

He is currently working on two projects. The first interrogates the relationship between racialised violence, colonialism, and the liberal international order, with a particular focus on the historical evolution of international criminal justice. The second develops the concept of Imaginal Worldmaking as an epistemological practice for conceiving postcolonial narratives of global ordering across academia and the arts. 

He has held fellowships and visiting positions at George Washington University, the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the University of Tübingen. His writings have appeared in journals such as Cambridge Review of International Affairs, International Studies Quarterly, International Theory, and Review of International Studies. Beyond academia, he has contributed to various blogs and media outlets, including BBC Radio, The Conversation, Just Security, Zeit Online, E-International Relations, and The Washington Post. 

• Politics and ethics of international law
• Global order
• International norms and institutions
• International Relations theory
• International criminal justice

• 2024/2025 Joachim Herz Fellow / Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study:
• 2020-2022 ISA Program Chair for the English School Section:
• 2018/2019 Visiting Fellow at the LSE Centre for International Studies:
• 2015 Visiting Scholar at George Washington University:
• 2015 ISA International Law Section Best Paper Award:

Book review

• International law and the politics of history
  
  Schmidt, D. R. (2021). International law and the politics of history. International Affairs, 98(3). https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiac081
• Mediations on the role and rule of law
  
  Schmidt, D. R. (2015). Mediations on the role and rule of law. JILIR : Journal of International Law & International Relations, 11(1).

Chapter in book

• Global Power Shifts and International Law
  
  Schmidt, D. R. (2022). Global Power Shifts and International Law. In T. B. Knudsen & C. Navari (Eds.), Power Transition in the Anarchical Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97711-5_8
• Institutionalising Morality: The UN Security Council and the Fundamental Norms of the International Legal Order
  
  Schmidt, D. R. (2018). Institutionalising Morality: The UN Security Council and the Fundamental Norms of the International Legal Order. In T. B. Knudsen & C. Navari (Eds.), International Organization in the Anarchical Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71622-0_5

Journal Article

• The Normativity of Global Ordering Practices
  
  Schmidt, D. R., & Williams, J. (2023). The Normativity of Global Ordering Practices. International Studies Quarterly, 67(2), Article sqad021. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqad021
• On the meaning(s) of norms: Ambiguity and global governance in a post-hegemonic world
  
  Linsenmaier, T., Schmidt, D. R., & Spandler, K. (2021). On the meaning(s) of norms: Ambiguity and global governance in a post-hegemonic world. Review of International Studies, 47(4). https://doi.org/10.1017/s0260210521000371
• Complexity in international society: theorising fragmentation and linkages in primary and secondary institutions
  
  Schmidt, D. R. (2021). Complexity in international society: theorising fragmentation and linkages in primary and secondary institutions. Complexity, Governance & Networks, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.20377/cgn-105
• Pluralism and international law in the English School
  
  Schmidt, D. R. (2020). Pluralism and international law in the English School. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 33(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2020.1785128
• Changes in the law of self-defence? Drones, imminence, and international norm dynamics
  
  Schmidt, D. R., & Trenta, L. (2018). Changes in the law of self-defence? Drones, imminence, and international norm dynamics. Journal on the Use of Force and International Law, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/20531702.2018.1496706
• Peremptory Law, global order, and the normative boundaries of a pluralistic world
  
  Schmidt, D. R. (2016). Peremptory Law, global order, and the normative boundaries of a pluralistic world. International Theory: A Journal of International Politics, Law and Philosophy, 8(2), 262-296. https://doi.org/10.1017/s175297191600004x