MUG Award for Dr. Tim Heinkelmann-Wild

Dr. Tim Heinkelmann-Wild is receiving the Doctoral Sponsorship Award of the Munich University Society for his dissertation "After Exit: Alternative Leadership and Institutional Resilience after Hegemonic Withdrawal".

What is the relationship between state power and international order? How can international institutions cope with the withdrawal of a hegemonic power that has created, supported, and shaped them over many years? Tim Heinkelmann-Wild addresses these highly relevant and timely questions in his dissertation and develops a Leadership Transition Theory that provides a compelling explanation for the varying resilience of international institutions. Empirically, the dissertation examines both a comprehensive database on U.S. withdrawals from international organizations and treaties since 1945, as well as case studies on the resilience of various institutions. The author shows that the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), for example, does not necessarily amount to a ‘death blow.’ Rather, international institutions can survive the retreat of hegemonic powers when alternative leadership actors—such as the EU—step in.