Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften

Patrick Nitzschner

Postdoctoral Fellow

Resident at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

October 2025 – September 2026

Research topic at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften:

»Reconstructing Transatlantic Democracy in Times of Crisis«

Project outline:

In the past two decades, conceptions of transatlantic democracy have changed considerably. After the Cold War, the transatlantic world figured as the self-evident democratic center in optimistic calls for promoting democracy abroad. Today, transatlantic democracy is widely held to be in crisis and in need of defense, understood as the safeguarding of ›basic‹ democratic values and institutions. This research project reconstructs how the semantic shift from ›democracy promotion‹ to ›democratic self-defense‹ has come about, and how it enables and constrains possible constructions of transatlantic democracy. To this end, the ideas of democracy promotion and democratic self-defense are situated in the history of transatlantic thought from the interwar period onward, during which the conceptual scope of democracy noticeably narrows. Departing from this observation, the project develops a political retheorization of transatlantic democracy in times of crisis. (Patrick Nitzschner)

Research partner:

Patrick Nitzschner is a fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften at the invitation of research focus »Democratic Vistas: Reflections on the Atlantic World«.

Scholarly profile of Patrick Nitzschner

Patrick Nitzschner studied political science at the University of Bremen (B.A.) and Modern History and International Relations (M.A.) at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. In 2024, he received his doctorate from Lund University in Sweden with a thesis titled »Defending what is yet to come. Towards a critical theory of democratic defence« on the defence of democracy. His research focuses on critical and democratic theories, the history of political ideas and historical international relations. At the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, he is developing a political theory of transatlantic democracy based on a historical reconstruction of the concepts of democracy promotion –democracy defence.

Selected publications:

Militant Democracy’s Institutional Conservatism«, in: Philosophy & Social Criticism 51,1 (2025), p. 29-49.
»Beyond ›Contemporary Relevance‹: Reading Critical Theory Today«, in: Contemporary Political Theory 21 (Suppl 2) (2022), p. 49-54.
(with B. Herborth), »Europe in Historical International Relations«, in: J.Costa López, B. de Carvalho und H. Leira (Hg.), Routledge Handbook of Historical International Relations, London: Routledge.

Patrick Nitzschner

Scholarly profile of Patrick Nitzschner

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