Thomas Henökl

Transnational Collaborative Governance Platforms

Generation PFN - post festum nati

ST-100 (UiA)

ST-205

ST-400

ST-418

ST-502

SV-156

BMPA (NTNU)

EU Integration Summer School (UiA)

EU Diplomatic Training Path

Ethics in Public Service

EU Commission

European External Action Service

European Institute of Public Administration 

Having done research in the field of international relations, and more precisely on the development of regional integration in Asia and inter-regional forums of cooperation, Thomas has worked on European public administration, notably on large-scale comparative studies on the evolution of the civil service systems in the EU member states. At present, his work is bringing these two strands together in the study of Europe’s new foreign policy bureaucracy, assessing the transformative impact on the EU central and the national administrative systems.

Recently, the focus of his research has been whether and how the establishment of a relatively independent EU foreign policy administration, bridging different branches of the EU executive (European Council, Council of Ministers and Commission) makes a critical case for the transformation of the European political order; in that it, first, represents a transfer of capacity for action in an area of core-state competences to the EU level, and, second, because it profoundly affects how foreign policy makers at different levels and institutional actors embedded in the various EU and global governance layers are bound and coupled together, and how power and resources are distributed among and between them.

At the German Development Institute in Bonn, Germany (https://www.die-gdi.de/en/thomas-henoekl/) Thomas is working on the organizational dimension of EU foreign policy and international cooperation.

At the Institute for Political Science and Management Thomas is part of the study group on European public policy and multi-level administration (http://www.uia.no/en/research/samfunnsvitenskap/european-integration-and-governance). He also takes interest in Europe as a global actor, the EU’s role in international security and crisis management as well as transnational public administration and global governance.

Thomas' current research interests and questions include:

- The study of the emergence and development of cross-level and cross-sectorial policy networks, and their effects on existing (EU-level, national and regional) governance structures and processes;

- Identification of tendencies and patterns of change in these governance structures, i.e. to discuss not only whether governance models and structures change, but to pinpoint how and in which directions they might evolve;

- Examine tendencies of integration and centralization of core state powers in other crucial areas of sovereignty administration, notably in the field of security (defence, external border management, policing) or territorial governance but also in distributive policies, such as taxation and economic governance;

- Research the effects of MLA systems on states or territorial entities at the regional level as well as beyond the national level, and see how they are affected by cooptation of new politico-administrative arrangements via effects of executive centre formation and re-formation, evolving administrative spaces, cross-boundary governance and rule transfer;

- Compare new forms and examples of regional (dis-)integration, including (macro-)regional developments, particularly in areas of intersecting or conflicting territorial and transnational interests, such as the High North and the Arctic or the Eastern neighborhood;

- Contribute to the theoretical discussions, explaining alterations and transformation of political and socio-economic systems and administrative spaces in contemporary Europe.

Earlier, as a researcher at the European Institute of Public Administration (Maastricht, NL), he was involved in a series of quantitative research projects on EU and national public administration, notably a large scale comparative project ‘Regulating Conflicts of Interests for Holders of Public Office’ (with C. Demmke, M. Bovens and T. Moilanen, available at: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/policy_advisers/publications/docs/hpo_professional_ethics_en.pdf), as well as a number of other studies on the civil service systems in the EU member states. Dissemination of research and debate with students as well as professionals of public administration involved amongst others the European Public Administration Network (EUPAN), a forum bringing together the Director Generals responsible for the civil services of the EU member states. To present his findings and results, he was further invited to lecture at different international academic institutions in Europe and North America, such as the University of St. Gallen (CH), ENA (Strasbourg and Paris), University of Montreal (CA), George Washington University, Syracuse University, and the World Bank, Washington, DC.

Since 2012, Thomas is also Expert member of the Ethics Advisory Committee of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA, http://echa.europa.eu).

In July 2015 Thomas has been appointed Senior Researcher at the German Development Institute, Bonn (Deutsches Insititut für Entwicklungspolitik, DIE); see also: https://www.die-gdi.de/en/thomas-henoekl/

See Google Scholar

Politics

Organisation-Theory

Cognitive science

Epistemeology and syllogistics