Publications

My publications on Google Scholar.

PDFs available upon request

Books

Contested World Orders

World orders are increasingly contested. As international institutions have taken on ever more ambitious tasks, they have been challenged by rising powers dissatisfied with existing institutional inequalities, by non-governmental organizations worried about the direction of global governance, and even by some established powers no longer content to lead the institutions they themselves created. For the first time, this volume examines these sources of contestation under a common and systematic institutionalist framework. While the authority of institutions has deepened, at the same time it has fuelled contestation and resistance.

Develops a novel institutionalist theoretical approach to the rise of new powers and NGOs in relation to international institutions.
Studies the demands of key actors in the contestation of international institutions using a variety of methodologies.
Bridges traditional theoretical divides and re-evaluates the role of rising powers in global governance

Journal Articles

Stephen, M. D. (2025). Beyond multilateralism: China’s international order building through transnational policy forums. The Pacific Review, 26 November.

Stephen, M. D. (2025). The Diffusion of Global Power and the Decline of Global Governance. Ethics & International Affairs, 39(2), 145-158.

Stephen, M. D. & Cai, Y. (2025). No Clean Slate: China’s Organizational Entangling and the Prospects for Global Order Transition. International Studies Review, 27(1), viaf002.

Part of the Forum "Introducing Organizational (Dis)Entanglements: How Scholarship on Regime Complexity and Power Dynamics Helps Make Sense of International Order-Making."

Stephen, M. D. (2024). China and the Limits of Hypothetical Hegemony. Security Studies, 33(1), 152–159.

Response piece to "China and the Logic of Illiberal Hegemony" by Darren J. Lim and G. John Ikenberry.

Stephen, M. D. (2021). China's New Multilateral Institutions: A Framework and Research Agenda. International Studies Review, 23(3), 807–834.

Parizek, M., & Stephen, M. D. (2021). The Increasing Representativeness of International Organizations’ Secretariats: Evidence from the United Nations System, 1997–2015, International Studies Quarterly, 65(1),197–209.

Parizek, M., & Stephen, M. D. (2021). The long march through the institutions: Emerging powers and the staffing of international organizations. Cooperation and Conflict, 56(2), 204-223.

Stephen, M. D., & Stephen, K. (2020). The Integration of Emerging Powers into Club Institutions: China and the Arctic Council. Global Policy, 11(S3), 51-60.

Part of the Special Issue "Global Power Shifts: How do International Institutions Adjust?" edited by Andreas Kruck and Bernhard Zangl.

Stephen, M. D., & Parízek, M. (2019). New Powers and the Distribution of Preferences in Global Trade Governance: From Deadlock and Drift to Fragmentation. New Political Economy, 24(6), 735–758.

Stephen, M. D., & Skidmore, D. (2019). The AIIB in the Liberal International Order. The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 12(1), 61–91.

Stephen, M. D. (2018). Legitimacy Deficits of International Organizations: design, drift, and decoupling at the UN Security Council. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 31(1), 96–121.

Stephen, M. D. (2017). Emerging Powers and Emerging Trends in Global Governance. Global Governance, 23(3), 483–502.

Stephen, M. D. (2015). ‘Can you pass the salt?’ The legitimacy of international institutions and indirect speech. European Journal of International Relations, 21(4), 768-792.

Stephen, M. D. (2014). Rising powers, global capitalism and liberal global governance: A historical materialist account of the BRICs challenge. European Journal of International Relations, 20(4), 912-938.

Stephen, M. D. (2014). States, Norms and Power: Emerging Powers and Global Order. Millennium, 42(3), 888-896.

Stephen, M. D. (2012). Rising Regional Powers and International Institutions: The Foreign Policy Orientations of India, Brazil and South Africa. Global Society, 26(3), 289–309.

Stephen, M. D. (2011). Globalisation and resistance: struggles over common sense in the global political economy. Review of International Studies, 37(1), 209–228.

Zürn, M., & Stephen, M. D. (2010). The View of Old and New Powers on the Legitimacy of International Institutions. Politics, 30(S1), 91-101.

Stephen, M. D. (2009). Alter-Globalism as Counter-Hegemony: Evaluating the ‘postmodern Prince.’ Globalizations, 6(4), 483–498.

Book Chapters

Stephen, M. D. (2021). Emerging Powers and Emerging Trends in Global Governance. In Understanding Global Cooperation: Twenty-Five Years of Research on Global Governance, edited by Kurt Mills and Kendall Stiles. Leiden: Brill, pp. 445-465.

Reprint of my article in Global Governance (2017).

Parízek, M., & Stephen, M. D. (2020) The Representation of BRICS in Global Economic Governance: Reform and Fragmentation of Multilateral Institutions. In BRICS and the Global Economy, edited by Soo Yeon Kim. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, pp. 361-390.

Stephen, M. D., & Zürn, M. (2019). Rising Powers, NGOs and Demands for New World Orders: An Introduction. In Contested World Orders: Rising Powers, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Politics of Authority Beyond the Nation-State, edited by Matthew D. Stephen and Michael Zürn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-36.

Stephen, M. D. (2019). Contestation Overshoot: Rising Powers, NGOs, and the Failure of the WTO Doha Round. In Contested World Orders: Rising Powers, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Politics of Authority Beyond the Nation-State, edited by Matthew D. Stephen and Michael Zürn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 39-81.

Zürn, M., Wolf, K.D., & Stephen, M. D. (2019). Conclusion: Contested World Orders—Continuity or Change? In Contested World Orders: Rising Powers, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Politics of Authority Beyond the Nation-State, edited by Matthew D. Stephen and Michael Zürn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 368-389.

Stephen, M. D. (2018) Rising Regional Powers and International Institutions: The Foreign Policy Orientations of India, Brazil and South Africa. In Regional Powers and Global Redistribution, edited by Philip Nel, Dirk Nabers and Melanie Hanif. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, Ch. 2.

Reprint of my article in Global Society (2012).

Other publications

Langendonk, S. and Stephen, M. D. (2025). What China Wants with Global Governance. The Diplomat, 12 September. https://thediplomat.com/2025/09/what-china-wants-with-global-governance/

Stephen, M. D. (2022). Clash of Powers: US-China Rivalry in Global Trade Governance. By Kristen Hopewell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 249p. $89.99 cloth, $29.99 paper. Perspectives on Politics, 20(1), 379–380.

Stephen, M. D. (2018). Will International Institutions Fail Again? International Power Shifts and the Future of Global Cooperation. Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Briefing Paper No. 249.

Stephen, M. D. (2016). India and the BRICS: global bandwagoning and regional balancing. Vestnik RUDN: international relations, 16(4), 595-602.

Stephen, M. D. (2015). India, Emerging Powers and Global Human Rights: Yes, But… In Shifting Power and Human Rights Diplomacy: India, edited by Doutje Lettinga and Lars van Troost, pp. 55-63. Amsterdam: Amnesty International Netherlands.

Stephen, M. D. (2013). The Concept and Role of Middle Powers during Global Rebalancing. Seton Hall Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, 14(2): 36-52.

Stephen, M. D. (2012). Imperialism. In The Encyclopedia of Global Studies, edited by Helmut Anheier, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Victor Faessel. Los Angeles: Sage, pp. 884-886.

Opinion

Stephen, M. D. (2021). Denkmuster wie im Kalten Krieg. Welt-Sichten, Ausgabe 12/2021. Online 06 December 2021.

Stephen, M. D. (2014). Die Zeit, einige Dinge zu tun: Was Chinas ökonomischer und politischer Aufstieg für den Rest der Welt bedeutet. WZB Mitteilungen, 144, pp. 6-9.

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