Outputs (8)

The plural professional: How UN human rights experts construct their independence (2025)
Journal Article
Hoffmann, A. (online). The plural professional: How UN human rights experts construct their independence. Review of International Studies, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210525000117

Independent experts are routinely appointed by international organisations for specific short-term assignments. Existing scholarship has studied their career trajectories, accumulation of resources, and mobility across occupational settings to explai... Read More about The plural professional: How UN human rights experts construct their independence.

On the symbolic force of international law: the case of Gaza (2025)
Journal Article
Hoffmann, A., Schabas, W., & Pellet, A. (2025). On the symbolic force of international law: the case of Gaza. Political anthropological research on international social sciences, 5(2), 167-188. https://doi.org/10.1163/25903276-bja10065

This forum includes reflections from perspectives spanning international human rights law, international law and international political sociology to analyse the symbolic and ‘paradoxical’ power and limitations of international law. To what extent ca... Read More about On the symbolic force of international law: the case of Gaza.

Die »Kronjuwelen« des UN-Menschenrechtssystems (2025)
Journal Article
Hoffmann, A. (2025). Die »Kronjuwelen« des UN-Menschenrechtssystems. Vereinte Nationen, 73(1), 31-36. https://doi.org/10.35998/vn-2025-0005

UN Special Rapporteurs are independent human rights experts on global thematic or country-specific issues, who investigate human rights violations in states, develop international legal standards, and provide technical advice to states. This article... Read More about Die »Kronjuwelen« des UN-Menschenrechtssystems.

Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights at the UN Security Council: Blurring Boundaries in a Social Space (2024)
Journal Article
Hoffmann, A. (2024). Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights at the UN Security Council: Blurring Boundaries in a Social Space. Global Studies Quarterly, 4(3), Article ksae054. https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksae054

How do we study the UN Security Council, a bastion of sovereign nation-state politics, from the perspective of “outsiders” such as UN special rapporteurs? This article reimagines the relationship between security and human rights at the UN through a... Read More about Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights at the UN Security Council: Blurring Boundaries in a Social Space.

What makes a spokesperson? Delegation and symbolic power in Crimea (2024)
Journal Article
Hoffmann, A. (2024). What makes a spokesperson? Delegation and symbolic power in Crimea. European Journal of International Relations, 30(1), 27-51. https://doi.org/10.1177/13540661231151233

This article argues that spokespersons who claim to speak on behalf of a social group cannot escape the structural problem of delegation whereby speaking in someone’s name entails speaking instead of someone. This form of delegated and authorised sil... Read More about What makes a spokesperson? Delegation and symbolic power in Crimea.

The transnational and the international: from critique of statism to transversal lines (2022)
Journal Article
Hoffmann, A. (2022). The transnational and the international: from critique of statism to transversal lines. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 35(6), 796-810. https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2021.1893271

What can we learn about the ‘international’ through the ‘transnational’? This article investigates transnational spaces and practices in the context of international law and their transformative influence on our understanding of the international. I... Read More about The transnational and the international: from critique of statism to transversal lines.

Ritual and authority in world politics (2021)
Journal Article
Kustermans, J., Svensson, T., Costa López, J., Blasenheim, T., & Hoffmann, A. (2021). Ritual and authority in world politics. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 35(1), 2-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2021.1975647

The contributions to this Forum on Ritual and Authority in World Politics examine the role that ritual performances play in the constitution of positions of authority and the maintenance of relations of authority in historical and contemporary intern... Read More about Ritual and authority in world politics.

Collective Discussion: Toward Critical Approaches to Intelligence as a Social Phenomenon (2020)
Journal Article
Ben Jaffel, H., Hoffmann, A., Kearns, O., & Larsson, S. (2020). Collective Discussion: Toward Critical Approaches to Intelligence as a Social Phenomenon. International Political Sociology, 14(3), 323-344. https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olaa015

This collective discussion proposes a novel understanding of intelligence as a social phenomenon, taking place in a social space that increasingly involves actors and professional fields not immediately seen as part of intelligence. This discussion i... Read More about Collective Discussion: Toward Critical Approaches to Intelligence as a Social Phenomenon.