Robert Falkner

Robert Falkner is Professor of International Relations and LSE’s Academic Director of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA, an alliance between LSE, NYU Stern School of Business and HEC Paris (ranked #1 in the 2022 QS rankings for joint executive MBA programmes).

Born in Germany, he read for a double-degree in politics (MA Politikwissenschaft) and economics (Diplom-Volkswirt) at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. After moving to the UK, he gained a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford (Nuffield College). He held academic positions at the universities of Oxford, Kent and Essex before joining LSE and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

His research focuses on global environmental politics, global political economy, and the role of business in international relations. He has published widely in these areas, including Great Powers, Climate Change and Global Environmental Responsibilities (co-edited with Barry Buzan) (Oxford University Press, 2022), Environmentalism and Global International Society (Cambridge University Press, 2021), The Handbook of Global Climate and Environment Policy (edited, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) and Business Power and Conflict in International Environmental Politics (Palgrave, 2008). He is currently working on a new book (with Barry Buzan) on The Market in Global International Society, which traces the fluctuating fortunes of the market norm in international relations.

His research has been supported by grants from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), European Commission, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Rockefeller Foundation and Stiftung Mercator, among others. He was the Academic Co-Director of the Dahrendorf Forum, a joint research and public engagement programme between LSE, Hertie School of Governance and Stiftung Mercator (2015-17), and the Research Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE (2017-22). He was an associate editor of the European Journal of International Relations (2004-08). He currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals Earth System Governance, Global Environmental Politics, Global Policy and Schmollers Jahrbuch: Journal of Contextual Economics.

Professor Falkner supervises doctoral studies in areas including: global environmental politics, international political economy, private governance, and business in international relations.