Dr. Max Lesch

Researcher

Dr. Max Lesch is a Post­doctoral Researcher at the Research Depart­ment Inter­national Insti­tutions. His research interests include inter­national norm dynamics, the politics of inter­national law, and inter­national practice theories, with a focus on contestation, enforce­ment, and law­making in the fields of human rights and peace and security law. 

Max Lesch
 Press photo

CV

| since 2022
Postdoctoral Researcher at PRIF

| 2019–2022
Postdoctoral Researcher at Zeppelin University

| 2020
PhD (Dr. Phil.) in Political Science, Goethe University Frankfurt 

| 2018–2019
Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

| 2018
Guest Researcher, University of Copenhagen

| 2014–2018
Doctoral Researcher at PRIF

| 2014
Assistant to the Directors at the German Development Institute (since 2022 IDOS)

| 2012–2014
Research Assistant and Researcher at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen

| 2011
Master of Arts “International Studies/Peace and Conflict Research”, Goethe University Frankfurt and Technical University Darmstadt

| 2009
Bachelor of Arts “Politics and Society”, University of Bonn

Projects

Publications

  • Contestation from Within: Norm Dynamics and the Crisis of the Liberal International Order
    | 2024
    Lesch, Max; Zimmermann, Lisbeth; Deitelhoff, Nicole (2024): Contestation from Within: Norm Dynamics and the Crisis of the Liberal International Order, Global Studies Quarterly, 4: 2. DOI: 10.1093/isagsq/ksae022
  • Symposium: Norm Contestation in International Peace and Security Law
    | 2023
    Lesch, Max; Marxsen, Christian (2023): Symposium: Norm Contestation in International Peace and Security Law, Heidelberg Journal of International Law, 83: 1, Heidelberg. DOI: 10.17104/0044-2348-2023-1
  • Contested Facts: The Politics and Practice of International Fact-Finding Mission
    | 2023
    Lesch, Max (2023): Contested Facts: The Politics and Practice of International Fact-Finding Mission, International Studies Review, 25: 3, 1–27. DOI: 10.1093/isr/viad034
  • From Norm Violations to Norm Development: Deviance, International Institutions, and the Torture Prohibition.
    | 2023
    Lesch, Max (2023): From Norm Violations to Norm Development: Deviance, International Institutions, and the Torture Prohibition., International Studies Quarterly, 67: 3, 1–14. DOI: 10.1093/isq/sqad043
  • Norm Contestation in the Law Against War: Towards an Interdisciplinary Analytical Framework
    | 2023
    Lesch, Max; Marxsen, Christian (2023): Norm Contestation in the Law Against War: Towards an Interdisciplinary Analytical Framework, Heidelberg Journal of International Law, 83: 1: Nomos, 11–38. DOI: 10.17104/0044-2348-2023-1-11
  • Informal Human Rights Law-Making: How Treaty Bodies Use ‘General Comments’ to Develop International Law
    | 2023
    Lesch, Max; Reiners, Nina (2023): Informal Human Rights Law-Making: How Treaty Bodies Use ‘General Comments’ to Develop International Law, Global Constitutionalism, 12: 2, 378–401. DOI: 10.1017/S2045381723000023
  • Field Overlaps, Normativity, and the Contestation of Practices in China's Belt and Road Initiative
    | 2022
    Lesch, Max; Loh, Dylan (2022): Field Overlaps, Normativity, and the Contestation of Practices in China's Belt and Road Initiative, Global Studies Quarterly, 2: 4, 1-12. DOI: 10.1093/isagsq/ksac068
  • Devianz als Vermittlung zwischen Fakt und Norm
    | 2022
    Lesch, Max (2022): Devianz als Vermittlung zwischen Fakt und Norm. Epistemische Praktiken und fact-finding internationaler Organisationen, Zeitschrift diskurs, 2022: 8, 12–26.
    Publication
  • Multiplicity, Hybridity and Normativity: Disputes about the UN Convention against Corruption in Germany
    | 2021
    Lesch, Max (2021): Multiplicity, Hybridity and Normativity: Disputes about the UN Convention against Corruption in Germany, International Relations, 35: 4, 613-633. DOI: 10.1177/0047117820965662
  • China's Strategic Practices in the Belt and Road Initiative
    | 2021
    Lesch, Max; Loh, Dylan (2021): China's Strategic Practices in the Belt and Road Initiative, Global Cooperation Research: A Quarterly Magazine, 3: 1, 19-22.
    Publication
  • Unlocking the agency of the governed: contestation and norm dynamics
    | 2018
    Zimmermann, Lisbeth; Deitelhoff, Nicole; Lesch, Max (2018): Unlocking the agency of the governed: contestation and norm dynamics, Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, 1–18. DOI: 10.1080/23802014.2017.1396912
  • Praxistheorien und Normenforschung in den Internationalen Beziehungen – Zum Beitrag der pragmatischen Soziologie
    | 2017
    Lesch, Max (2017): Praxistheorien und Normenforschung in den Internationalen Beziehungen – Zum Beitrag der pragmatischen Soziologie, diskurs, 1–23.
    Publication

  • There Is Life in the Old Dog yet: Assessing the Strength of the International Torture Prohibition.
    | 2023
    Lesch, Max; Zimmermann, Lisbeth (2023): There Is Life in the Old Dog yet: Assessing the Strength of the International Torture Prohibition., in: Krieger Heike; Liese, Andrea (eds), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 100–117. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192855831.003.0006
    Publication

  • International Norm Disputes
    | 2023
    Zimmermann, Lisbeth; Deitelhoff, Nicole; Lesch, Max; Arcudi, Antonio; Peez, Anton (2023): International Norm Disputes. The Link Between Contestation and Norm Robustness, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    Publication

  • From Facts to Norm Violations and Accountability? The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine
    | 2023
    Dezfouli Asl, Farnaz; Lesch, Max (2023): From Facts to Norm Violations and Accountability? The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, PRIF Blog.
    Publication
  • Multilateralismus als Rahmenordnung: Zur Krise und Zukunft der multilateralen Weltordnung
    | 2023
    Christian, Ben; Coni-Zimmer, Melanie; Deitelhoff, Nicole; Dembinski, Matthias; Kroll, Stefan; Lesch, Max; Peters, Dirk (2023): Multilateralismus als Rahmenordnung: Zur Krise und Zukunft der multilateralen Weltordnung, PRIF Report, 2, Frankfurt/M. DOI: 10.48809/prifrep2302
    ISBN: 978-3-946459-86-6
  • Nur ein Feigenblatt?
    | 2014
    Lesch, Max (2014): Nur ein Feigenblatt?. Deutschlands langer Weg zur Ratifikation der UN-Konvention gegen Korruption, HSFK-Standpunkt, 7, Frankfurt/M.

  • Regionale Sicherheitskulturen im Wandel
    | 2012
    Lesch, Max (2012): Regionale Sicherheitskulturen im Wandel. Schutzverantwortung in Südostasien und Afrika, Working Paper 10/2012, Projekt "Sicherheitskultur im Wandel", Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main.
    Publication

Further Activities

| 2024
Co-Chair of the PRIF Research Council
| 2015
Co-Speaker of the PRIF PhD Program

| 09/2024–08/2025
Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence