Stefan Gänzle

• Gänzle, Stefan & Mirtl, Jörg (2026). Do EU Macro-regional Strategies Make “Regional Institutions”? The Benelux, Regional Groupings and the Dynamics of European Integration. Brill. ISSN 9789004761278. p. 139–158. doi: 10.1163/9789004761278-009. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This edited volume examines Europe’s (sub)regional groupings – Benelux, Nordic Council, Baltic Group, Visegrád Four, and EU Med – as nested institutions interacting with, complementing, or contesting EU integration. Framed by shelter theory and differentiated integration, the book assesses their historical origins, institutionalisation, functions (vanguard, functional cooperation, coordination, resistance), and effects on EU policymaking. Part I revisits Benelux as laboratory and model across internal market, JHA, defence, and police cooperation; Part II surveys other groupings and macro-regional strategies. Through comparative case studies, it tests expectations about the regularity of meetings, institutionalisation, and policy ambitions to understand when and how smaller states leverage regional coalitions to shape Europe today. A must-read for anyone interested in the underexplored engines of European integration – especially in an era of renewed geopolitical tension and shifting alliances.

• Leruth, Benjamin; Gänzle, Stefan & Trondal, Jarle (2026). “As hard as it gets”: the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union. In Trondal, Jarle (Eds.), Research Handbook on International Bureaucracies. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781035310241. p. 493–505. doi: 10.4337/9781035310258.00045. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The United Kingdom's departure from the European Union (EU) represents a watershed moment for the study and practice of international bureaucracy. This chapter sketches an international bureaucracy perspective to the growing body of literature that examines Brexit as a case of differentiated disintegration. It investigates how the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the EU necessitated extensive administrative reconfigurations, which we conceive of as administrative differentiation, in critical policy domains such as, for example, trade, immigration, and border control, areas previously governed within EU frameworks. The chapter highlights the pivotal role of international bureaucracy in managing these transitions amid domestic and geopolitical pressures, including challenges to continuity in security and defence cooperation during the protracted Brexit. The chapter posits that administrative differentiation has helped alleviate some of the Brexit-triggered disruptions by way of fostering adaptive strategies within UK-EU relations. It concludes with a discussion on the broader implications of Brexit for international collaboration, emphasizing the persistent complexities of managing interdependence in an era where international relations are increasingly defined by both differentiated integration and disintegration.

• Tieku, Thomas; Gänzle, Stefan & Trondal, Jarle (2026). Narrowing the gap: international bureaucracies in the ‘Global South’. In Trondal, Jarle (Eds.), Research Handbook on International Bureaucracies. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781035310241. p. 391–410. doi: 10.4337/9781035310258.00038. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Over the past decades, the rise of executive authority on the global stage has instigated scholarly interest in international bureaucracies (IBs). In particular, the scope and depth of IB autonomy have come to the forefront of attention. This literature has asked what role IBs may potentially assume in a world increasingly characterized by transnational challenges, risks and opportunities associated with the volatility in international trade, security or climate change. While theorizing IBs is still in statu nascendi, there is also an empirical gap. Whereas scholars have addressed this phenomenon extensively within organizations such as the European Union (EU) or the system of the United Nations (UN), studies outside the ‘Western world’ remain remarkably scant. This chapter seeks to address this problem by providing an organizational approach to understand the scope of autonomy that IBs may enjoy. Drawing on research by the authors, it suggests a multiple proxy analysis that maps the behavior of IB staff in non-Western IBs. Benefiting from two original surveys conducted with international civil servants of the Commissions of the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), this chapter suggests that IBs of the Global North and Global South are fairly similar.

• Pinheiro, Romulo Teixeira & Gänzle, Stefan (2025). Polycentric governance and hybridisation in higher education: the European Union's expanding role in an emergent policy field. In Vakkuri, Jarmo Jouko Kalervo (Eds.), Public Policies for Hybrid Governance. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781035311620. p. 230–251. Full text in Research Archive
• Pinheiro, Romulo; Gänzle, Stefan & Claussen, Christel (2025). Hybrid Decision Structures in Transnational Alliances of Higher Education. Higher Education Forum. ISSN 2432-9614. 22, p. 17–41. doi: 10.15027/0002040519. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Since 2019, the European Union has encouraged the establishment of ‘new’ university alliances, that is transnational strategic groupings involving more than three hundred higher education institutions in the European Union and associated partner countries. This paper treats the European Universities Initiative (EUI) as an instance of a meta-organization and investigates how decision-making processes have unfolded thus far reflecting four ‘classic’ decision-making models (i.e., the rational actor model, the collegial model, the political model and the garbage can model). More specifically, the study investigates two main stages in the alliances—the initiation stage and the consolidation stage—in more depth. The paper benefits from several (internal) documents and semi-structured interviews conducted with key staff from the selected alliances, the Circle U. and FORTHEM European alliances. The findings ultimately demonstrate the prevalence of key features associated with three of the four decision models, all except for garbage can, eventually resulting in hybrid decision dynamics. The data clearly show that most decisions are made by consensus, and that resource dependency, soft power, trust, and tensions underpin these decision-making processes. The paper provides insights on the mechanism underpinning alliance-level value frameworks, focusing on how different logics and values are blended, negotiated, and/or legitimized.

• Gänzle, Stefan & Pinheiro, Romulo (2025). From the “European university” to the Europeanisation of universities in Europe: E pluribus multum? In Frame, Alexander & Curylo, Barbara (Ed.), The European Universities Initiative and the ‘Euro-internationalisation’ of European Higher Education. Routledge. ISSN 9781003490654. p. 85–101. doi: 10.4324/9781003490654-7. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This chapter seeks to disclose and critically discuss the multifaceted origins of the French President Emmanuel Macron’s European Universities Initiative (EUI) launched in 2017. It argues that the initiative can be grasped in a threefold way, namely, as (i) a recombination of the “Bologna process,” focused on quality and convergence of structures in higher education, and the “Lisbon Strategy,” centred on research excellence and global competitiveness; (ii) a decade-old ambition to create - if not “a European university” - a set of leading comprehensive European Universities capable of competing on a global level with their counterparts from the US ivy league and the likes; and (iii) an extension of the need for further modernisation of the European university landscape, taking into account the need both to engage broadly with a multiplicity of stakeholder groups and to address pending complex societal problems and challenges, such as climate change. In terms of the system of governance put forth by the EUI, the chapter concludes that it can be best conceived of as an “evolutionary and experimental network of university networks” with significant potential for transforming the landscape of European Universities.

• Gänzle, Stefan; Wunderlich, Jens Uwe & Hofelich, Tobias Christian (2024). Differentiated disintegration in the Economic Community of West African States, the Eurasian Economic Community and the European Union: a comparative regionalism approach. Journal of European Integration. ISSN 0703-6337. doi: 10.1080/07036337.2024.2349620. Full text in Research Archive
• Gänzle, Stefan; Kern, Kristine & Tynkkynen, Nina (2023). Baltic Sea Cooperation after the Cold War: How Sub-Regional Organisations Deal with Critical Junctures. In Rosas, Allan & Ringbom, Henrik (Ed.), The EU and the Baltic Sea Area (Modern Studies in European Law). Hart Publishing Ltd. ISSN 9781509956241. p. 79–104. Full text in Research Archive
• Pinheiro, Romulo; Gänzle, Stefan; Klenk, Tanja & Trondal, Jarle (2023). Unpacking strategic alliances in European higher education. Tertiary Education and Management. ISSN 1358-3883. 29(3), p. 213–228. doi: 10.1007/s11233-024-09133-6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  As the world becomes more complex and interconnected, organizations embedded in dynamic, competitive, and highly institutionalized fields devise mechanisms to reduce uncertainty and enhance competitiveness by joining forces with other players, thereby increasing both their salience, legitimacy and resilience. One such mechanism pertains to strategic alliances (SAs), broadly defined as inter-organisational, long-term cooperative arrangements aimed at achieving a desired future state that is beneficial for all partners involved (Elmuti et al., 2005) and/or encompassing tactical activities for safeguarding gains that have already been realized (Newman & Chaharbaghi, 1996). The topic has, for some time, been widely covered in the strategic management literature, largely in the context of efforts to sustain competitive market advantages (Porter, 1989). SAs provide a multiplicity of benefits to organisations. These include but are not limited to; gaining access to new markets, exchange of knowledge and technologies, sharing the risk of financial investments, pool and combine resources, provide new venues for learning, support institutional legitimacy, and defending the interests of incumbent players (Angwin & Sammut-Bonnici, 2014; Mamédio et al., 2019). Despite these advantages, the literature suggests that SAs are less appealing to organisations possessing proprietary technologies, enjoying strategic cost advantages as well as those with a dominant field position in terms of market share (Angwin & Sammut-Bonnici, 2014). Hence, SAs “can serve as a type of strategic choice or alternative that can enable companies [and other types of organisations] to cope with unstable, global and competitive environments permeated by new threats and opportunities” (Mamédio et al., 2019, p. 83). This extended editorial first offers a review of the rise of SAs within management and organizational studies, followed by a review of literature of these alliances in the public sector and in higher education (HE). The final part of the paper outlines this special issue in brief by reviewing the contours of each contribution.

• Leruth, Benjamin; Gänzle, Stefan & Trondal, Jarle (2022). Conclusion. In Leruth, Benjamin; Gänzle, Stefan & Trondal, Jarle (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Differentiation in the European Union. Routledge. ISSN 9780367149659. Full text in Research Archive
• Gänzle, Stefan; Leruth, Benjamin & Trondal, Jarle (2022). Introduction to Part 3. In Leruth, Benjamin; Gänzle, Stefan & Trondal, Jarle (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Differentiation in the European Union. Routledge. ISSN 9780367149659. Full text in Research Archive
• Leruth, Benjamin; Gänzle, Stefan & Trondal, Jarle (2022). Introduction to Part 4. In Leruth, Benjamin; Gänzle, Stefan & Trondal, Jarle (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Differentiation in the European Union. Routledge. ISSN 9780367149659. Full text in Research Archive
• Gänzle, Stefan; Trondal, Jarle & Leruth, Benjamin (2022). Introduction to Part 5. In Leruth, Benjamin; Gänzle, Stefan & Trondal, Jarle (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Differentiation in the European Union. Routledge. ISSN 9780367149659. Full text in Research Archive
• Leruth, Benjamin; Gänzle, Stefan & Trondal, Jarle (2022). Introduction: differentiation in the European Union as a field of study. In Leruth, Benjamin; Gänzle, Stefan & Trondal, Jarle (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Differentiation in the European Union. Routledge. ISSN 9780367149659. Full text in Research Archive

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• Wunderlich, Jens-Uwe; Hofelich, Tobias Christian & Gänzle, Stefan (2026). Die EPG und die Zukunft der erweiterten Regionalordnung - Freiheit|Macht|Politik. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Die EPG ist Ausdruck eines neuen, flexiblen Ordnungsmodells, das Europa als System konzentrischer Kreise politischer Kooperation versteht.

• Wunderlich, Jens-Uwe; Gänzle, Stefan & Hofelich, Tobias Christian (2026). The European Political Community and the value of flexible cooperation. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The European Political Community is contributing to a more flexible institutional order that can facilitate dialogue and cooperation beyond EU membership.

• Gänzle, Stefan (2025). Regional Groupings and the Dynamics of Experimentalist Governance: Do EU Macro-regional Strategies make ‘Regional Institutions’? Full text in Research Archive
• Gänzle, Stefan (2025). Why Canada should join the European Political Community, not the EU. Full text in Research Archive
• Gänzle, Stefan (2024). Stefan Gänzle (2024). EU macro-regional strategies and the case of the Baltic Sea. A general perspective, some theoretical background, and several recommendations. In Szacawa, Damian (Eds.), The European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region: 15 years of cooperation. Instytut Europy Środkowej. ISSN 9788367678698. p. 17–32. Full text in Research Archive
• Gänzle, Stefan & Henökl, Thomas (2022). Overcoming Difficulties: Managing Differentiation in the EU and other Regional Organization, 10-12. Full text in Research Archive

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