Political Science Did Not Provide Us with the Insights We Needed. An Interview

Kathryn Sikkink (* 1955) is a political scientist who has contributed considerably to making human rights a field of research. Born into a liberal academic family, she started developing an interest in the world’s Spanishspeaking regions early on. Doing research in Latin America during the 1980s and 1990s, she gradually moved away from political economy and started questioning economic structures as driving forces. However, she became increasingly convinced that emphasis should be placed on ideas and beliefs. This led her to take a closer look at nonstate actors and their efforts to shape international politics. The interview took place on 26 June 2019, while Kathryn Sikkink was in Nuremberg for an international conference. Daniel Stahl met Sikkink at a Hotel lobby and talked with her for about three hours.