Jochen Prantl works in the field of International Relations, with a focus on international security (institutions), theories of global governance, risk and conflict management, as well as conflict transformation.

Currently, Jochen is directing a major ESRC-funded three-year project entitled Whither Multilateralism? International Security Institutions and Informal Groups of States. The primary aim of the project is to open up and to develop a new research agenda that undertakes a cross-institutional and cross-regional comparison of the dynamic relationship between informal groups of states and international security institutions in the management of risk and the resolution of conflict. The project, which is associated with the Centre for International Studies at the University of Oxford, will develop and test the proposition that the effectiveness of multilateral institutions in addressing security threats and challenges can be enhanced by informal groupings.

In 2007, Jochen was awarded the Zvi Meitar/Vice-Chancellor Oxford University Research Prize in the Social Sciences. The Prize will facilitate the establishment of an international research team that examines the broader problems related to effective multilateralism and the design of international institutions. In Phase 1, the team will concentrate on East Asia as a test case. With the problem-solving capacities of East Asian regional forastill underdeveloped, the need to engage in a major discourse on how to enhance collective action is particularly strong in this part of the world. Especially China and Japan require special scholarly attention because both countries have key roles to play in providing regional stability. In this context, the impact of U.S. hegemony on East Asian regional dynamics has to come under scrutiny.

Jochen is co-editing (with Dr Amrita Narlikar, University of Cambridge) a recently launched book series with Martinus Nijhoff Publishers on Studies in International Institutional Dynamics.

Prior to his academic career, Jochen worked in financial services with Allianz SE.