Chair of International Relations

The chair for International relations was founded as the first professorship for Political Sciences of the University of Zurich. It was held by Daniel Frei (History of the Department). The main focus of Frei’s research laid on Neutrality, “Kleinstaatlichkeit” and the position of Switzerland during the Cold War initially. Later research emphasized topics on Armament control, KSZE-process and questions of military conflicts. Dieter Ruloff continued in these traditional fields of research but in collaboration with his team he broadened the spectrum of topics considerably; namely in regard to questions of International Environment and Trade, the problems of Europeanization, questions of International Economical and Social Politics, regional problems in the Middle and Far East, the function of International Organizations and their democratic legitimation. International Relations involves a broad range of topics. Specialization, however, is essential in order to be internationally competitive. Being the only chair dealing with these topics it faces the challenge to connect specialized research with a broad topical offer of courses.

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