Call for Papers: Die Friedens-Warte (Journal of International Peace and Organization), Special Issue on 'A Crisis of the International Law-Based Order?' [Submit by Nov 15]

Die Friedens-Warte (Journal of International Peace and Organization) is the oldest journal in the German-speaking world devoted to questions of peace, security and international organization. It was founded in 1899 by Alfred H. Fried, who later received the Nobel Peace Prize. The journal is published by Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, an imprint of Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, and appears in two double issues per year of roughly 400 pages in total (ISSN 0340-0255 print, 2366-6714 online).

The editorial board consists of Prof. Dr. Andreas von Arnauld (University of Kiel), Prof. Dr. Claus Kress (University of Cologne), Prof. Dr. Michael Staack (Helmut Schmidt University), Prof. Dr. Pierre Thielborger (Ruhr University Bochum) and Prof. Dr. Johannes Varwick (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg). All submissions undergo anonymous external peer review, and editorial decisions are typically rendered within three months.

The special issue is titled 'Eine Krise der volkerrechtsbasierten Ordnung?' (A Crisis of the International Law-Based Order?). By widespread assessment, the international legal order is under enormous pressure. Observers point to increasing interstate and intrastate violence, methods of warfare that disregard humanitarian rules, selective enforcement of core crimes, declining human rights standards, restrictive migration policies and challenges to international economic law. Taken together, these developments seem to call core institutions and principles of international law into question. The special issue invites contributions that examine this claimed crisis across the main fields of public international law, including German foreign policy responses and the institutional role of international courts and organizations.

• Prohibition of force: (re-)interpretations of and challenges to the prohibition of the use of force, including self-defence, collective security and humanitarian intervention
• International humanitarian law: erosion or resilience of humanitarian law in contemporary armed conflicts, including modern warfare such as cyber operations and autonomous weapons systems, and the return of formerly prohibited means and methods of warfare
• International criminal law: selectivity, politicisation and legitimacy problems in the prosecution of core crimes, including before the International Criminal Court
• Human rights: declining or expanding standards of human rights protection, particularly for vulnerable groups such as women, children and LGBTIQ* persons
• Refugee law: current challenges to refugee law, including border closures, pushbacks, non-refoulement, the outsourcing of asylum procedures and the delegitimisation of refugee protection
• International economic law: challenges to international economic law, including trade and investment law

• Thematic articles addressing the special issue focus 'A Crisis of the International Law-Based Order?'
• Open contributions on other topics of peace and conflict research
• Conference and symposium reports
• Book reviews
• Proposals for guest-edited special issues

• Full articles should run to approximately 45,000 to 70,000 characters including footnotes; shorter submissions such as policy notes are also welcome
• Submissions are accepted in German or English
• Each submission must be accompanied by an abstract and a short author biography (maximum 100 words) stating institutional affiliation and contact details
• Submissions must be original work not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere
• Manuscripts should follow the journal's author guidelines available on the publisher's website

There are no submission or publication fees. The submission deadline for the special issue is 15 November 2026, and the issue is expected to be published in Spring 2027. All submissions undergo anonymous external peer review.

Send your manuscript, together with the abstract and 100-word author biography, by email to editing-ifhv@ruhr-uni-bochum.de (editorial office at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict, Ruhr University Bochum) by 15 November 2026.