Robert Falkner is Professor of International Relations and the Academic Dean of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA, a world leading executive MBA programme jointly run by NYU Stern School of Business, HEC Paris and LSE.
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. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University and Simone Veil Fellow at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and is currently 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, international political economy, and the role of business in international relations. He has published widely in these areas, including The Market in Global International Society: An English School Approach to International Political Economy (co-authored, Oxford University Press, 2025), Great Powers, Climate Change and Global Environmental Responsibilities (co-edited, Oxford University Press, 2022), Environmentalism and Global International Society (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and The Handbook of Global Climate and Environment Policy (edited, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). He is currently working on a new book project, on Green Political Economy, which is under contract with Polity Press.
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.
Professor Falkner is available for public speaking events, both public and private, via the Academic Speakers Bureau.
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