Publications

This completely revised and updated textbook explores the moral, economic, political, and cultural dimensions of the movement of people across international borders. In style and substance, this book is designed to spark thoughtful discussions and to challenge students to draw their own conclusions to questions such as: How should democracies balance the rights of immigrants with those of citizens? What exactly constitutes persecution and how should we define a refugee? How should democracies allocate citizenship? Can and should a distinction between voluntary and forced migration be made, and does one group of migrants deserve admission more than the other? What does a reasonable border policy look like? The rise of populism, the vote for Brexit, and the unprecedented flow of refugees around the world are all evidence that these questions remain highly salient, controversial, and unresolved.

International Migration and Citizenship Today. 2^nd edition Niklaus Steiner, (London: Routledge, 2023).

Migration and Insecurity: Citizenship and Social Inclusion in a Transnational Era. Niklaus Steiner, Robert Mason and Anna Hayes eds. (NY: Routledge, 2013).

International Migration and Citizenship Today. Niklaus Steiner, (London: Routledge, 2009).

A number of Western states and institutions have sought to come to terms with their relationships to non-Western states and peoples. Powerful actors and institutions are apologizing to the relatively powerless. What do these apologies mean? Are they an indication of a new international order, either politically or as they relate to international law? Or are these apologies fleeting and insignificant? In The Age of Apology twenty-two law, politics, and human rights scholars explore the legal, political, social, historical, moral, religious, and anthropological aspects of Western apologies in an attempt to answer these questions. Conversely, a nonapology might be as important to study, and several chapters discuss the absence or refusal of apology and how this might be interpreted.

The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past. Mark Gibney, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, Jean-Marc Coicaud and Niklaus Steiner, eds., (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). 

In an age of rapid globalization, regionalism might seem a notion better suited to the nineteenth century than the early twenty-first. Yet, regionalism has actually flourished in the last half-century. An increasing number of conflicts are based on territorial identities, while new regionally based political, economic, cultural, and religious groupings have emerged.

These two volumes examine regionalism in today’s rapidly shrinking world. The first volume, Concepts of Regionalism,showcases the wide range of theories and methods being applied to regionalism in the humanities and social sciences. Many common themes emerge, most importantly that regions are social and cultural constructs. 

Regionalism in the Age of Globalism, Volume 1: Concepts of Regionalism. Lothar Honnighausen, Mark Frey, James Peacock, and Niklaus Steiner, eds., (Madison Wisconsin: Wisconsin University Press, 2005).

In an age of rapid globalization, regionalism might seem a notion better suited to the nineteenth century than the early twenty-first. Yet, regionalism has actually flourished in the last half-century. An increasing number of conflicts are based on territorial identities, while new regionally based political, economic, cultural, and religious groupings have emerged.

These two volumes examine regionalism in today’s rapidly shrinking world. The second volume, Forms of Regionalism, presents case studies that explore regionalism in literature, governmental policy, architecture, and other fields in areas as diverse as the American South, Pacific Northwest, Eastern Europe, and the Canadian North. 

Regionalism in the Age of Globalism, Volume 2: Forms of Regionalism. Lothar Honnighausen, Anke Ortlepp James Peacock, and Niklaus Steiner, eds., (Madison Wisconsin: Wisconsin University Press, 2005).

Of all the humanitarian impulses in world politics today, one of the most widely recognized is the need to protect refugees. However, as The Problems of Protection explores, what on the surface appears to be a simple proposition can quickly become complex and controversial. This complexity results in troubling variation in how we respond to our obligation to protect refugees–while NATO launches a major military intervention on behalf of Albanians in Kosovo amidst worldwide media attention, the international community’s response to Sierra Leonean refugees is slow, inefficient and inadequate. Who qualifies as a refugee in need of protection? Should refugees be returned as soon as possible, or integrated into safer host countries? The contributors to this volume address the often lacking political will among powerful countries and donors, shifting attitudes among affected countries, and the difficulty of rebuilding societies in a world in which the number of refugees will almost certainly continue to increase.

Problems of Protection: UNHCR, Refugees, and Human Rights. Niklaus Steiner, Mark Gibney and Gil Loescher, eds., (New York, Routledge Press, 2003).

In addressing the asylum controversy in Europe today, much of the literature assumes that asylum policies result from the struggle between national interest arguing to tighten asylum and humanitarianism arguing to loosen it. This book challenges this simple tug-of-war image by examining asylum in Germany, Switzerland, and Britain from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s. The findings reveal the complex and often counter-intuitive roles national interest, international norms, and morality play in shaping asylum. It forces us to reconsider how we think about asylum and to explore alternatives to conventional assumptions.

Arguing about Asylum: The Complexity of Refugee Debates in Europe. Niklaus Steiner, (New York: St. Martin’s Press 2000).